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Crime Traveller Time Machine
- On the short-lived but exciting sci-fi series
CRIME TRAVELLER/BBC/1997 police science officer
Holly Turner (Chloe Annett) and maverick police
detective Jeff Slade (Michael French) traveled back in time to solve crimes.
They take their excursions via a time machine
created by Holly's father, Frederick Turner, an
eccentric quantum physics professor.
Unfortunately, he disappeared in a loop of
infinity and Holly took up her father's research
in hope of retrieving him from his temporal
purgatory.
Holly kept her father's invention a
secret until one day she revealed its existence
to fellow police officer Jeff Slade. Holly had
traveled back in time to prove Slade innocent of
false charges that were about to destroy his
career.
Grateful and curious as to how Holly got
the evidence that exonerated him, Slade pushed
Holly to explain how she could be at two places
at once. Reluctantly, Holly agreed to show Jeff
the Time Machine.
Holly's time machine was nothing grand in the
sci-fi tradition but rather a jumble of wires,
circuitry, crystals and DIY technology that
cluttered Holly's apartment.
The secret to the invention was a watch that
synchronized with the machine's temporal fields
and a set of time rules that could not be
broken. Holly's machine generates a tachyon
bombardment that creates a wormhole and thus
allowed travelers to enter the past.
The following dialogue from the first episode
"Jeff Slade & The Loop of Infinity" summarizes
the machines capabilities.
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Slade:
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How far will
it send me back? |
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Turner:
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No way of
saying, could be a few hours, could be a
week |
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Slade:
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A week! how
will I get back again? |
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Turner:
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You wait seven
days, simple as that. You just live the
same seven days twice. |
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Slade:
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Will I get to
meet myself? |
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Turner: |
Not unless you
want to cause a temporal schism
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Slade:
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Oh dear,
wouldn't want that....What else do I need
to know? |
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Turner:
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We have to be
back at the machine at the same moment,
and I mean the same half second that we
left. |
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Slade:
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Go on.
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Turner:
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If we're late
getting back, we'll be trapped in a loop
of infinity. Always living the same days,
traveling back in time and doing it all
again. |
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Slade:
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What's this?
(picks up the timer) |
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Turner:
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It's crucial
to the whole
 thing...Just
get this into your head. This watch is
synchronized with the machine. It'll beep
once when we have an hour left, then
continuously for the last three minutes.
We have to be back in this room by then.
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[...later Holly puts the timer back on the
time machine. A ring of light fills the
room] |
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Slade:
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Are we back? |
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Turner:
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We're back |
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Slade:
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Phew!
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Turner:
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You're not
injured anymore. Your head! |
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Slade: |
[touches his
head, and looks at reflection in a glass
panel] It's gone! How come? |
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Turner:
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Parallel
dimensions. You weren't injured when you
left. So your not injured now.
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Slade:
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You know, you
really are a genius |
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Turner:
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And you are
completely irresponsible. We could have
been killed |
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Slade:
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It's
fantastic. You traveled in time. I
traveled in time! We did it. |
 |
 |
 |
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Crime
Travellers & their Time Machine |
Although Holly and Slade could
access the past, they needed to be aware of
certain laws of physics that could not be
violated. Holly's father was the victim of such
an oversight.
The basic rules of time as
mentioned on the series include the following
mandates:
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1. |
You can't
change the past, whatever happened will
happen. |
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2. |
You must be
back at the machine the same moment you
left it. If not you will be stuck in a
repeating loop of infinity, doomed to live
the same time again and again. (This is
what happened to Holly's father]
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3. |
You cannot
exist in more than two time zones at any
given time. Thus if you travel back only
three minutes, but you want to travel back
further you can't. As you already exist in
those three minutes twice. |
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4. |
In order to
get back to the time you left, you must
re-live the past. |
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5. |
You can never
meet yourself in the past. This would have
terrible consequences which will seriously
effect your health...and everyone else's!
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6. |
And finally,
You can't cheat! - Time won't let you. So
you couldn't go back in time to get the
winning horse or lottery number. |
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