Episode guide > The broken crystal

Previous episode | Season 1, Episode 8

Slade saves Holly from the deep freeze

The Season Finale. A professor is found dead in his bath, and then another is killed in a hit-and-run while trying to tell Turner something. Both worked for Webb Biotech, a company whose Technical Director just happens to be Steve Marlowe, Turner's first boyfriend. Turner and Slade try to time travel back to find out what the hit-and-run victim wanted to tell her. Alas the machine only takes them back three minutes and so any chance is lost. They cannot travel back again as you can't be in three time zones at once (another rule of time). To add to their problems as they return to the present the machine breaks yet again. However this time it is a crystal at the heart of the machine which will cost around £20,000 to replace...

Marlowe used to work with Turner's father and was a regular visitor to Turner's flat five years ago. A fact which Slade doesn't seem to like at all. His attitude towards Marlowe is hostile to say the least! After interrupting a dinner between Turner and Marlowe, he returns to his flat. He then receives a phone call from a man who claims he knows who killed the professor. But when Slade arrives at the designated meeting spot, the man tries to shoot him. However Slade was prepared and manages to shoot him in the shoulder first. The man then quickly leaves, before Slade can catch him.

Slade is convinced it was Marlowe he shot, and persuades Grisham to bring him in for questioning. However Marlowe has an airtight alibi for both the murders, and for where he was last night. He even has a surprisingly shot free shoulder. Slade is still convinced that Marlowe is responsible, but as he has no real proof, Grisham sets him free. Turner is not at all happy with the way Slade is treating Marlowe, and tension builds between them. Marlowe threatens to sue the department over his shabby treatment, and it seems like the final straw for Turner, who runs after Marlowe leaving Slade to face Grisham.

Meanwhile Slade is typing up his report when Morris leaves to get his car checked out. It would appear whilst he was tailing Marlowe, all the electrics in his car started to go wrong. Slade recognises the symptoms as the side effects of a time machine, and finally manages to put two and two together. He tries to find Turner, but is informed she left with Marlowe to show him something in her flat.

Having shared her time machine with Marlowe he is amazed. He offers her the replacement crystal she needs, and asks her to come and work with him. She agrees, and they leave to go to a research facility for the replacement crystal.

Alas Slade arrives at Turner's flat an hour after she and Marlowe left. Guessing that they have gone to Webb Biotech, Slade goes there and discovers another time machine which is better than Turner's in that you can specify the how far you want to go back. Meanwhile Marlowe has pulled a gun on Turner, and has made her drive to a storage facility on the outskirts of town, and has tied her up in a flash freeze chamber in which she will die within a few minutes.

Slade uses Marlow's time machine

Slade using the time machine at Webb Biotech, travels back two hours and waits outside Turner's flat. As she and Marlowe leave he follows them. Alas a van backs out in to the road, and he loses them. He drives around and eventually sees Marlowe driving out of car park. He rushes in and manages to save Turner before she freezes to death. It appears the professor and the man that was run over built the time machine, and Marlowe killed them in order to get all the glory. Travelling back in time later to give himself the perfect alibi. He did try to kill Slade, and Slade did shoot him, but he was time travelling at the time, and once back at the machine the wound disappeared.

Alas now Slade has only 12 minutes to get back to the time machine and when they arrive Marlowe is waiting for them, gun in hand and Slade is down to just over a minute to go. Strangely Turner then accepts Marlowe's offer to join him, even though he tried to kill her, and the chances are he still will later. Slade is devastated, but relieved when Turner then proceeds to knee Marlowe in his privates! Slade makes a grab for the gun which then goes off and hits the time machine. Laying out Marlowe, Slade steps into a burning time machine and avoids a loop of infinity!

As they take Marlowe off to be arrested, he escapes and tries to go back in time again. However as this would mean he would be creating a third time zone. Thus all Slade sees after he's gone after him is a ghost of Marlowe which appears to be repeating the same small bit of time, and then promptly vanishes. And before he can prevent it the time machine then promptly blows up!

Slade gives Holly the crystal

Back at Turner's flat, Slade and Turner are commiserating over a beer, when Slade says what a good team they were. Turner agrees (much to Slade's relief as you get the impression he was testing the water...), and then Slade produces the crystal Turner needs. It would appear before Marlowe's machine blew up, Slade, borrowed, the crystal. However when Turner goes to take it off him, he holds it back saying "No". He then holds out his hand, and says, "Now what were you saying...about you and me..?".

Thus Endeth the series!

Guest cast

Steve Marlow
Steve Marlow
Mrs Beavis
Mrs Beavis
Webb
Webb
Frank
Frank
Chapman
Chapman
Accountant
Accountant
Secretary
Secretary