This week the Sliders find themselves face to face with a vicious Allosaurus on an Earth where some dinosaurs survived and are now an endangered species.
Kicking off the episode, the Sliders are wrapping up some time spent on an Earth where everyone must wear collars that shocks them if they attempt to lie. Quinn and Arturo wait for Remy and Wade in Golden Gate Park and Remy arrives with his latest girlfriend and Wade arrives with a news crew in tow, having been unable to lie to the reporter at an art exhibit. The gang slides out, still with the collars, and arrive in the middle of a dense forest, with Wade landing in a nest full of giant eggs. Arturo notes that there seems to be no urban noise or evidence of a city anywhere.
The group is quickly on the run from the angry momma of the nest that Wade disturbed and the group is shocked to see that it’s a dinosaur. The Professor falls and twists his ankle during their escape, and also unknowingly, drops the timer. Quinn and Rembrandt carry the Professor to relative safety near a stream. Quinn volunteers to try and find the timer while the rest of the group takes shelter in a nearby cave. Wade explores the cave and discovers evidence that there are actually humans on this world. Definitive evidence is revealed when the group is confronted by a forest ranger, who tells them they are under arrest for poaching in San Fransisco National Dinosaur and Spotted Owl Preserve. The trio tries to convince the ranger they aren’t poachers, with Wade even using the truth collar, but to no avail. They also learn that the ranger is actually a hologram, she’s physically in San Jose but an arrest team is on the way to the park.
Rembrandt decides to head out and try and find Quinn but is stopped once again by the Allosaurus. Fortunately for Remy, the poacher who had been hiding out in the cave fires some shots at the dino to scare it off and joins the Sliders in the cave. The Sliders are then presented with a choice, the poacher offers the Sliders a way out of the park if they help him carry out his illegal wares and the ranger tells them if they stay where they are and cooperate, it will make it easier on them at trial. The poacher takes the ranger out of the equation by using a jamming device to deactivate her hologram. The trio talks it over and decides to stay and find Quinn and the timer. Unfortunately, the poacher doesn’t take no for an answer and tells them they owe him for saving Remy and that he has a gun, so they have no choice. Waiting for him to sleep, Wade sneaks over to him and deactivates the jamming device but the ranger doesn’t show up so Wade decides to take her chances out in the woods. As expected, Wade also runs afoul of the Allosaurus but the poacher arrives, along with Quinn. Quinn and Wade escape while the poacher tries to take down the Allosaurus but is eaten.
Quinn and Wade return to the cave and the gang finally get their truth collars removed and then try to formulate a plan to dodge the Allosaurus and recover the timer. The ranger tells them she found their timer and that they have an hour to slide. The gang also finds some repellant and attractants, a flare gun and a grappling hook. They work out a plan that will have Wade climb out on the top of the cave and distract the Allosaurus with the flare gun while Quinn goes to recover the timer. The plan works fairly well but the group only has 2 minutes to slide. The group barely manages to slide before the Allosaurus arrives and they arrive on the next world in the middle of a fossil dig, where Quinn manages to destroy a valuable leg bone.
After two fantastic episode in a row for the last couple weeks, this one was kind of a step down but it’s still pretty fun. The episode is kind of hindered by horrible 90’s CG and the inexplicable disappearance of Quinn for most of the episode but the truth collar idea is a fun addition to the episode. Only two episodes to go for season two and next week the gang arrives on a world where Prohibition is still in effect, with special guest Mel Torme!