Originally aired April 26, 1996
Written by Steve Brown
Directed by Oscar L. Costo
Arturo injures himself and loses the timer on a parallel world where San Francisco is a nature preserve for endangered dinosaurs. While Quinn heads out alone to retrieve the timer, the rest of the Sliders seek refuge in a cave from a hungry Allosaurus, and also have to contend with an obsessed poacher.
Tropes present in the episode:
- Alternate History: In this one, non-avian dinosaurs never went extinct.
- Big Damn Heroes: When the Allosaurus closes in on Wade and the Poacher, Quinn reappears and starts throwing rocks at it.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: The Sliders, due to mandated truth collars. Every time they lie, they get a shock. They're unable to remove them before departing this world, so they to struggle with them for most of the episode.Quinn: I never realized how many lies a person can tell in the course of a day.
- Chekhov's Gag: This was the intent of Arturo receiving more shocks than his friends. This episode was supposed to air after the next one, which strongly implied Arturo's double had taken his place, so this gag was meant to be a clue to viewers. This effect is, of course, completely lost if you're watching in the network airing order.
- Continuity Nod: Wade recalls the group's stay on a world without clothes.Arturo: None of us exactly covered ourselves in glory, did we? Or anything else, for that matter.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Wade expresses frustration over how the others worry after her as if she were a child.
- "Eureka!" Moment: While looking over the available equipment, Quinn comes across flares, a rope, and a grappling hook. Arturo immediately gets an idea on how they can use that as part of a plan to distract the Allosaurus and get to the timer.
- Everyone Has Standards: Searching for items they can use, Rembrandt admits to feeling uncomfortable looking through and taking a dead man's belongings.
- Extinct Animal Park: San Francisco is the San Francisco National Dinosaur Preserve and Spotted Owl Sanctuary, the last place where non-avian dinosaurs can be found on the episode's world. It's a magnet for poachers, provided they don't get eaten. Rangers are only allowed to enter the park via holo-projections, so as not to disturb the dinosaurs.
- Hidden Depths: Wade was on the varsity gymnast team in high school.
- Hologram: The Ranger. She's a real person, just in a facility away from man-eating dinosaurs.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: With less than two minutes to slide, Rembrandt helps Arturo along, but then the Professor's leg injury flares up. Arturo advises Rembrandt to just keep moving, but Rembrandt yells at him to shut up and drags him along, anyway.
- Impending Doom P.O.V.: The perspective of the Allosaurus is seen just before she eats the poacher.
- In Spite of a Nail: Perhaps the biggest of the series:
- Firstly, although non-avian dinosaurs survived, none of the featured or mentioned species seemingly evolved in the slightest in the last 65 million years and more since their original time periods — Allosaurus, for instance, seems to be exactly the same thing as it was in its real-life heyday 150 million years ago.
- Secondly, despite the dinosaurs' continued presence, humans and by extension all their ancestors evolved in seemingly the same manner as in our world. Discounting the existence of living dinosaurs being a fact of life on this world and San Francisco being a dinosaur reserve, American society also seems to be largely similar to that of Earth Prime. The poacher is even concerned about being profiled on America's Most Wanted after the ranger discovers him in the dinosaur reserve. When Wade asks the ranger whether she has ever seen anything like the truth collar that she's wearing, the ranger replies "Yeah, in a Frederick's of Hollywood catalogue".
- Irony: Lampshaded.Arturo: I could be far more stoical, if I didn't have this damn truth collar on. It's ironic, isn't it? At the time of our greatest danger to be deprived of the comforts of platitude and self-deception.
- It's All My Fault: Wade is left shaken by the death of the Poacher, feeling responsible for it since he went out into the open looking for her.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Quinn interrupts Wade and Arturo's back-and-forth with "No bickering. This is how we got into trouble last week."
- Mood Whiplash:
- Arturo makes a few attempts to sound heroic or stoic, only to be undermined by his truth collar.
- Wade and Arturo reflecting on the silliness of being on a world full of nudists leads into them talking about how much they care about Quinn.
- No Name Given: The Poacher's true name is never revealed, and neither is the Ranger's.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Rembrandt refuses to leave Arturo behind to try to save himself.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When they first hear the Allosaurus roar.Rembrandt: Hey, guys, what the hell is that?
Wade: Whatever it is, it knows we broke its eggs. - Quinn when he sees the timer readout is two minutes, not an hour.
- When they first hear the Allosaurus roar.
- Race Against the Clock: As ever, but with the added complication of Arturo dropping the timer while fleeing the Allosaurus. Quinn spends half the episode separated from the others trying to find it. By the time he hooks back up with the others, the Ranger says she's found it and that they have about 90 minutes to figure out a way to get past the Allosaurus. Quinn later finds she misread the readout because she couldn't actually pick it up and that the rest of the group only has two minutes to get out of the cave.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Quinn being absent for half the episode was the result of Jerry O'Connell filming scenes for Jerry Maguire.
- Shock Collar: To the frustration of the Sliders, the world in The Teaser requires everyone by law to wear these, and they'll get shocked for any lying. According to Arturo, removing it is considered a felony, so the group had to just ride it out. Ahead of the slide, Wade says she was unable to procure wire cutters, forcing them to keep them on for much of the episode.
- So Proud of You: Arturo recalls his first meeting with Quinn during a technical lecture.Arturo: Suddenly, this... this tall, gangling first-year student gets up and asks an impertinent question. I was annoyed at him. About a week later, it suddenly occurred to me that quite possibly he was right. And then I was exceedingly annoyed at him! You have no idea, Miss Welles, the joy of being a teacher when at last you come across that rare and unique thing — that first-class mind. That boy is well! I'm sure he is! I can feel it in my bones.
- Species Loyalty: In the aftermath of the Poacher's death, Arturo notes how the guy had no love for the Sliders but still gave his life for a fellow human.
- Super-Persistent Predator: The Ranger says the Allosaurus is patient enough to wait days to get four human-sized snacks.
- This Is Gonna Suck: After the slide, Quinn is immediately concerned over what the size of the eggs portends.
- Villainous Rescue: Out in the open, Rembrandt finds himself up close and personal with the Allosaurus. He is saved by sudden gunshots from the Poacher.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Thinking the Sliders are poachers, the Ranger warns them not to try to escape because she can follow them anywhere.Arturo: Madam, I promise you that, as a hologram, you cannot possibly go where we go.
