Technical question on the old timer

Date: 11/22/2000
From: Recall317

This is a question for those of you who are interested in the physics of Sliders. I was wondering, is it ever explained over the course of the show just how Quinn's original timer returned him to his home dimension before it got fried on IceWorld? It's glossed over in the Pilot and I'm not sure it was ever revisited (possibly in Double Cross?)

If this has been answered before, I'm sorry, but I'm new to the forum. Thanks.

Reply

Date: 11/22/2000
From: Consecutive

First of all, welcome to the board! ;-)

It's been my experience that the older generation doesn't like to be called old timers. It's a matter of respect between younger people and older people. Its okay for them to call each other old timers in jest, but most prefer to be called seniors, or senior citizens. Rush Limbaugh coined a phrase "seasoned citizens" which I think is a fitting term, and more complimentary than senior citizens or old timers.

T H E
C O N S E C U T I V E
http://pages.scifi.com/consecutive

a REAL reply

Date: 11/22/2000
From: TimerReplica

Was that last reply a joke? I think it would be funnier if you stated it.

Anyway...the old (ORIGINAL) timer stays ancored to the same dimension by way of magnetics. It keeps in contact of the home world then when the time is up, it re-opens the wormhole to the home world because the timer "knows" where it is.

I'm sure that Tf would be able to explain it a lot better.

It's true, Timer!

Date: 11/22/2000
From: Consecutive

No joke, just ask your grandparents iif they like to be called old timers. I know they wouldn't appreciate it. That's all I was saying.

T H E
C O N S E C U T I V E

Answers

Date: 11/23/2000
From: Sabre_Edge

The combination of a decent power source and stored home coordinates.

The power source was still in optimal shape before Quinn jumped the gun to save them from ice world.

The timer had the home coordinates stored in it. Quinn had the coordinates (purposely or inadvertently) by way of all the math on chalkboard. The coordinates probably relate to Quinn's basement's placement in the multiverse... it should be a very long sequence of letters and numbers :p.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

Date: 11/24/2000
From: Recall317

Thanks to those who replied, even the Consecutive, who was amusing if not helpful.

From my understanding...

Date: 11/24/2000
From: TemporalFlux

The timer had an umbilical cord type relationship with the equipment in Quinn's basement (that dimmed the lights when he used it at high power levels). Once the timer was advanced and thrown off the pre-set program, this umbilical cord was severed. The timer was then acting on its own power source only...and this was an incredible strain unless regulated. It's much like human biology...a baby alone is not as strong as the mother who carried it...but the baby can function by itself once it has come to term. This is analogous to the timer/equipment relationship...the difference being that the "3rd trimester" timer could never grow to be more powerful on its own.

That's why the Helix Spiral equations were implemented...to find a time in each dimension where the timer could open a portal without using enormous amounts of power. By doing this, the timer was regulated and didn't burn itself out. Baby was given a walker, as it were.

But you ask yourself...why didn't Quinn just find more equipment to hook the timer up to and get them home that way? This was actually attempted...though it's subtle and many viewers missed it.

In "Last Days", Quinn had the first opporunity to try this...but the generator burned out. Then "Eggheads" arrives and Quinn is again looking for the sliding equipment because he believes it can reset the system and get them home. He didn't get his chance to try there though. This resetting of the system would have given the timer the power to find its way back home...it always knew the way, just didn't have the power.

From that point forward, it seems that Quinn gave up on the proposition for no reason...but that's not the case. Just a few episodes later, Quinn would test his sliding equipment theory out in "Into the Mystic". When the Sorcerer says he can send Quinn home, he did just what Quinn theorized in "Eggheads"...he reset the system by using his own sliding equipment. The irony is that this theory worked...but Quinn and the other Sliders were left believing they never made it home due to the enormous changes since they left (co-creator Tracy Torme' has confirmed they were really home at the end of "Into the Mystic"). Believing the sliding equipment theory was a failure and that way home was lost...Quinn no longer tried it and had no options left except to hope for a random slide home.

Once the Sliders switched timers in season three, this chance was completely gone. To our knowledge, the Egyptian timer held no components of the original timer...but Logan St. Clair's timer still retains the original timer's geo-spectrum stablizer which she stole. That one piece could potentially (not potentially...not certainly) be used to relocate Earth Prime if the sliding equipment theory was implemented again...which would place more value on finding Logan St. Clair.

Tf
temporalflux@hotmail.com
http://www.dimensionofcontinuity.com

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Nominated by Blinker