“Electric Twister Acid Test” is episode four (originally shown as episode three) of season three of Sliders.
The Sliders arrive in a new world, a desert, on a bobsleigh. On checking the timer, Quinn reports that it’s gone crazy. Rembrandt sees a boy with a sled under his arm then using it to rid some sort of dust devil, though Quinn says it’s a twister. The professor says that it’s generated some sort of electrical field. The boy ends up in trouble, but Quinn manages to rescue him. The boy runs off and vanishes.
Th professor suggests that the entire planet may be electrically charged. They finally spot a pool of water, but Quinn notices that it’s surrounded by dead animals. Because the water is electrified. The professor wonders if the entire planet is electrified. That would mean if they can’t stabilise the timer, they won’t be able to open the gate.
The Wade spots a green area with a settlement. They head towards it and Quinn says the timer is stabilising. The rocks around the settlement must be lodestones and forming a barrier to the electrical charge. They slider in 23 hours and 8 minutes. On the outside of the settlement is a dead man in stocks, with a warning that outcasts caught raiding will be executed. Rembrandt, rather sensibly, thinks this is not a place to visit. They do so anyway.
Inside the settlement in a house people are talking about raiders using tunnels to get in. One, Jacob, suggests talking to them. The leader, Franklin, rejects this idea. But believes someone is warning them. Jacob says no man in this room would betray Franklin. One of the people is a young woman, though, and she leaves. She spots the professor getting water and entering a barn.
She follows and asks if they’re from Reed’s camp. They can’t stay; it’s too dangerous. A tornado appears outside the settlement and the professor says an electrically charged tornado cannot enter. Except it does. Apparently, this has never happened before according to the woman, Jenny. They head to a storm shelter but the tornado heads for the barn and stays there. It seems the timer has attracted it. Jenny says they mustn’t let her father see the timer, after the tornado dissipates, but before they can hide it, Franklin and the others open the shelter. Franklin accuses them of stealing food and trying to destroy his town.
Franklin has dismantled the timer whilst Quinn is being questioned outside. Franklin says he wants the truth; more accurately, he doesn’t want the truth he’s being given. Jacob is questioning Quinn as another man hits hi. They stop as the others are led outside. They’re going to be thrown out. Jenny suggests Wade remain, as she’s of childbearing age. Her father eventually agrees, and Quinn tells Wade she needs to stay to get the timer back.
As the other three are being driven away in a wagon, the professor says that Franklin isn’t the ignorant farmer he made himself out to be; he knew what he was doing when he dismantled the timer and had the instruments to do it. The community is being deliberately kept in the dark by Franklin. They are abandoned in the desert.
Wade is tending crops with Jenny when Jacob comes over. Jacob says Franklin saved them; he figured out the lodestone would protect them. Wade gives a sarcastic response. Jenny has never seen a woman act like that. Like an equal.
It seems there was some sort of accident that spawned the electric tornadoes that have since destroyed civilisation. Quinn, Professor Arturo and Rembrandt need to survive in the desert, whilst Wade needs to get the timer back.