Simon and Eugene discuss whether the Uk government has a time machine, we talk about referencing the TARDIS and the Doctor Who theme, and we discuss the technical implications of “…if they’d had mobile phones in this show to time travel with.”

Episode Synopsis

A dangerous gang known as the Apostles is meticulously planning a bank heist, unbeknownst to them, Slade and Turner are watching them from above.  They return to the present in time for Grissom, Slade, and the team to thwart the crime like clockwork – mostly.

Back in the office, Grissom ponders Slade’s incredible police record lately.  So much so that she details Morris to spy on Slade to find out how he’s doing it.

Meanwhile, it looks like Slade won’t be doing it anytime soon.  Another piece of the time machine has broken, and Turner puts her foot down.  This machine wasn’t built for doing something productive like maintaining law and order, this machine was built for secret, dusty academic pursuits so that she could someday prove that her father was right about time travel being possible.

Slade agrees to solve the next crime using good old-fashioned detective work.

That next crime comes very soon when retired minister Sir Iain Hawkins is murdered in his home.  The case has all those weird hallmarks of a time Tavel intervention, too, like extra blood spots, strange calls to emergency services about a madman on the premises, and a mysterious, unidentified person running away.

Even though retired, Hawkins was a Big Deal, and Grissom wants this solved posthaste.  Slade, under the watchful, if incompetent, eye of Morris, follows his leads.  First, he questions Kirby, Hawkins former driver, who has recently gone into business with Hawkins selling telephone boxes as art.  They reportedly had a fight the morning of the murder.  Kirby denies being the killer.

While visiting Kirby’s Phone Box emporium, he spies a battered old Police Box amongst the collection, and he gets an idea.  He goes to Turner and tries to get her to let him use The Machine, but she steadfastly refuses, and when he tries to schmooze her with dinner, she turns him down because she’s attending a lecture this evening.  Slade also catches Morris acting suspiciously, perhaps listening in, outside Turner’s door.

Slade uses Turner’s lecture appointment to break into her flat and use the machine himself.  He cannot possibly expect that to end well, can he?  Outside, Morris is distracted from observing Turner’s flat.

Back in time, before the murder, Slade visits Hawkins, pretending to be the window cleaner who had mysteriously turned up 30 minutes early to the job that day.  Listening in, he overhears what Kirby and Hawkins argued about – it was just basically incompetence in business matters, and Kirby leaves, with Hawkins very much alive.

Slade finally gets the chance to try something he’s really wanting to do.  He confronts Hawkins and tells him the truth: that he has traveled back in time via a Turner Time Machine to warn him that he is about to be killed.  Hawkins knows about Turner’s work with Einstein-Rosen Bridges from his days at the Ministry, and he seems to take Slade seriously until he clubs him unconscious and calls emergency services to report a madman, just as someone else shoots him dead.

Slade awakens, gets the license number of a window cleaning truck leaving the premises, and as the police arrive, he hightails it on foot, chased by the police.  Unbeknownst to him, he loses the critical watch component of the time machine as he leaps over the wall.

Slade heads to the station to run the license plate, where he bumps into Turner moments after she turned him down.  He uses the opportunity to warn her that Morris is spying on them.  He gets the name and address of Robert Mather owner of the truck and goes to investigate him.  As he’s leaving the station, Morris is witness to multiple instances of Slade being in the building at once.

Nicky comes to Turner with a strange item he found in the grounds at the scene of the crime, and wants her opinion on what it might be.  It is the watch component of the time machine, and Turner knows exactly what that means.  She has to find Slade now before his time runs out.

Slade meets Robert Mather, who basically confesses to killing Hawkins, his illegitimate father, for failing to save his mother’s life.  Slade tries to talk him into turning himself in, but when Slade finally notices the watch component of the time machine is missing, he gets too urgently insistent and Mather shoots him in the leg and ties him up.

Turner and Nicky use good, old-fashion, TV-detective-style police work to chase and force Kirby to reveal that he was blackmailing Hawkins with knowledge of the affair Hawkins had, and his illegitimate adult son, who also happened to be the window cleaner.  Turner dumps Nicky and goes to find Mather.

Mather is planning a huge gas explosion to kill Slade, but Turner rescues him, returning the the time machine with moments to spare – Turner distracting Morris so that Slade can enter undetected.

Alls well that ends well, right?  But Turner doesn’t think so and is furious, kicking Slade out and swearing he will never use the time machine again.  Honestly, Slade, what did you think was going to happen when Turner found out?

Back at the station, Morris gives his report to Grissom.  He has concluded that Slade and Turner are hooked up with a secret cabal of informers called The Machine, which is out of town, so that when Slade goes to get information from them, he uses a stand-in double at the station to conceal his absence.