wrongtime

The Professor and Logan arrive at U-Cal and meet Dr. Steven Jensen and Dr. Mike Mallory, physicists working in a lab on campus. Immediately after being introduced, Dr. Mallory knows that the two of them are sliders because this world�s Logan is his daughter. Before the two Sliders can even begin asking questions of the physicists, Dr. Mallory rushes them to his car and takes them to his home so he can introduce them�especially Logan�to his family as proof to them that his theories aren�t crazy.

They�re ushered inside and introduced to District Attorney Linda Mallory (this world�s Mrs. Mallory), Logan Mallory (Logan�s double here), Quinn Mallory (a Quinn double who�s Logan�s twin brother on this world), Colin Mallory (Colin�s double (see the note at the bottom of this page)), and fourteen-year-old Trevor Mallory (a double of the boy from �Murder Most Foul,� who we find out is a Mallory). With the introductions out of the way, the Professor finally takes the chance to question Dr. Mallory about his murdered associate. Mallory professes grief over Bennish�s death, but cannot think of any reason anyone would want to kill him, unless it was a drug deal gone bad. Dr. Mallory then invites the Professor and Logan to stay the night. The Professor accepts, hoping to take the opportunity to snoop around a bit; he has a feeling Mike knows more about Bennish�s death than he�s letting on.

Once everyone else has gone to bed, he and Logan begin searching the house for clues. Logan finds a partially-burned, unwound video tape in the fireplace. She pockets the tape (what�s left of it, anyway), and they stay until morning, and then leave after breakfast, saying that they have to visit Colin in the hospital.

They do go to the hospital and check with Remmy and Wade to see how Colin is doing, but while there, they also do what they can to put the tape back together. The Professor then sticks it in the VCR in Colin�s room.

The Sliders see video camera footage taken by Bennish, whose documentary, it turns out, was about the University�s �Bridge Project� (to develop sliding). There are many rough spots in the tape because parts were badly burned and had to be removed, but one part that remains is about an hour into the remaining tape and shows Dr. Mallory and Dr. Jensen arguing about the experimental methods they�re using. Apparently, they�ve been sending volunteer test subjects through the unstable wormholes they�re creating without warning the volunteers of the potential dangers. Jensen is trying to convince Dr. Mallory to stop doing it, but Mallory�s winning the argument. They then notice Bennish standing at the door, rush him...and the tape stops.

The basic theory that all the Sliders form is that Bennish had accidentally stumbled upon the conversation, the docs had spotted him, and he�d threaten to go to the press with the footage revealing their unethical research methods unless they paid him or something. So the docs ended up following Bennish downtown the next day, where Jensen then lured him into the alley and Dr. Mallory shot and killed Bennish (hoping that it would look like a drug deal gone wrong), then shot Colin when he witnessed what was happening. The whole thing must have happened too quickly for Dr. Mallory to recognize Colin as a double of his son.

The Sliders call Detectives Fox and Diggs, show them the tape, and tell them their theory. Also, Rembrandt says that now that he sees Dr. Mallory�s face again (which he didn�t recognize from past slides because this one has a full beard and dyes his much-longer hair dark brown), he�s sure that that�s the guy that shot Colin. The detectives say it�s not enough to arrest them, but it is enough to bring them in for questioning.

At the police station, Dr. Mallory refuses to say anything, but it takes almost no time for the guilt-ridden Jensen to admit to the whole thing. Dr. Mallory then grabs Diggs�s weapon, runs out into the hall and seizes Logan, threatening to kill her if they don�t let him go. One of the detectives makes what the doc perceives to be a threatening move, and he shoots Logan in the back at point-blank range. Then Dr. Mallory sees his three sons there and realizes that his family had come to support him and that it was not our Logan he had shot, but his own daughter. He throws up his arms and is arrested. The paramedics are called; they try to save the shot Logan, but she�s dead.

The Professor casually puts his hands in his pocket at that moment and finds a hole. He realizes that he too was grazed by the bullet that had killed Logan, but the timer in his pocket caused the bullet to ricochet off him. Good news for the professor�s health; bad news for the timer�it�s damaged. The time continues to run down and the memory is fine, but the vortex-activator is damaged. The Professor says that he doesn�t mean to be insensitive, but their timer has to be brought to the lab at U-Cal and be repaired immediately; they�re due to slide in three hours. Alt-Colin, Quinn, and Trevor say they can help, and they bring the Professor and Logan to the lab to repair the timer. Rembrandt and Wade head back to the hospital to stay with Colin.

At the lab, the five geniuses work diligently to repair the timer, replacing damaged parts and whatnot. With about fifteen minutes to go before the next window arrives, they complete their work. They�re about to rush back to the hospital to get Remmy, Wade, and (hopefully) Colin, but then all three of them instead rush into the lab. They explain that Colin regained consciousness about half an hour ago and was able to confirm that Dr. Mallory and Dr. Jensen were the assailants; they�ve of course both been arrested. The detectives took Colin�s testimony to be used at the trial, and the three of them rushed to the lab to meet the others.

With all five Sliders accounted for, they thank the Mallorys for their help, say they�re terribly sorry about the loss of their sister (who�s dead) and father (who�s going to prison). The Mallorys say their �you�re welcomes� and apologize to Colin for their father�s actions. He says they�re not to blame. They slide out.

THE END

NOTE: I feel I should comment on the presence of a Colin double. It was stated several times in the fifth season that when a person becomes unstuck, all of their doubles are killed. Well, I don�t buy that idea. I�ll accept that all of Geiger�s doubles were killed, but I believe that it was just the exact circumstances of his becoming unstuck that wiped out all of his doubles. Colin became unstuck under a different set of circumstances and his doubles, therefore, were not killed.