THE PLOT
The Enterprise receives a distress call from an apparently uninhabited world. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a random redshirt beam down to investigate the distress call. They find no signs of life, save for a whine much like the buzz of an insect. No sooner have they arrived than random redshirt vanishes into thin air.
After beaming back to the ship, strange occurrences follow them. Apparent malfunctions plague vital functions, only to mysteriously fix themselves. When an alien device appears in life support, it is obvious that the ship has been invaded. Then Kirk drinks a cup of coffee... and finds himself face-to-face with the invaders, with the crew of the Enterprise apparently frozen in place.
The invaders are accelerated, living at a speed so far ahead of our own that we cannot see them or hear them as anything other than the sound of insects. And they have made Kirk like them, in order for him to be their queen's new mate...
CHARACTERS
Capt. Ham: William Shatner gets one hilariously hammy scene. When he is recording the data tape for Spock, there's a long stretch in which he pauses. After. Literally. Every. Word. Did director Jud Taylor advise him that the episode was underrunning, and could he please milk an extra 45 seconds or so out of that particular scene? That aside, Shatner does very well in an episode that showcases Kirk's strengths as a tactician. Kirk is always thinking. Near the episode's start, as he ascertains that the ship has been invaded, he decides that they must wait for the aliens to make their next move. Once he has been accelerated, and once he realizes his vulnerability to any "cell damage" (i. e., a single scratch), he falls back on his wits.
Spock: There's a moment near the end of this episode that sums up so much of the relationship between Kirk and Spock. Kirk, having obtained a Scalosian weapon from Deela, is striding toward life support to save the day. He is not expecting help. After all, the entire crew exists in "slow time" and cannot even see him. Then he turns a corner, and there is Spock. Kirk takes in his presence with just a look and a nod, and Spock falls in at his side, striding to save the day with him. Kirk doesn't ask where he came from, doesn't ask how he got here or for any other explanation. He knows and trusts Spock and his capabilities, and simply accepts that Spock is now there and in a position to help. A terrific little moment.
But Spock also gets one very bad scene. I can only assume that Nimoy was having a bad day when the teaser was recorded. He's as good as ever in the bulk of the episode. In the teaser, however, he gives a dreadful, stilted performance, every line seeming flat and lifeless. I wonder what the story was behind that, because it seems as if there must have been one.
Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Kathie Browne is Deela, the Scalosian queen who takes a liking to Kirk. Browne fulfills the eye candy requirements of the part nicely, showing a generous amount of skin while clad in a shower curtain surrounded by a flower garland at her waist. Fortunately, she also gives a good performance. There's something childlike in Deela as she pouts and manipulates the man who adores her, deliberately tormenting him with her crush on Kirk and seeming to get pleasure out of doing so. She enjoys Kirk's stubbornness, his refusal to simply give into her. When Kirk feigns having accepted his new situation, she is actively disappointed at his new passivity.
ZAP THE REDSHIRT!
Redshirt Count: One. When the landing party is made up of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Compton, it's not so much a question of "if," but of "how." Compton gets a double-whammy, vanishing into thin air to lead us into credits, then aging to death to lead us into commercial. His last words are about how Kirk was his captain. Kirk mourns by kissing the pretty woman in the shower curtain while antagonizing the guy in the ridiculous looking bondage collar. Ah, well. Such is the lot of the redshirt.
THOUGHTS
Another highly entertaining episode from the so-called "turd season." Wink of an Eye has a script with a clever core concept and dynamic direction by television veteran Jud Taylor, who milks this cheap "bottle" episode for every ounce of energy it's worth. It's hokum, make no mistake. But it's fun hokum.
One issue that occurred to me in watching the show had to do with the nature of the abductions. If the Scalosians are abducting humans as mates, and if these accelerated humans die within seconds when their skin is scratched... Well, all I can say is, they must be planning to have some extremely cautious and un-adventurous sex! The occasional nip and scratch would surely be inevitable, and doesn't entirely jibe with Deela's desire to "keep (Kirk) for a while." A point which is driven home when Deela teases Kirk with the potentially lethal effects of her fingernails in one scene.
It's tremendously well-structured, though. The first Act, before Kirk is accelerated, gradually brings the characters to awareness that the ship has been invaded. It ends with them apparently helpless to do anything except, as Kirk says, wait for the invaders to make the next move. Once Kirk is accelerated, we quickly are presented with the direct danger to Kirk. One scratch or cut, and he's a dead man - a problem, when Bondage Collar Guy attacks Kirk with his big stick (uh, no. Not like that). Kirk is left to dodge and run and deflect would-be blows with a chair. He can't really fight back, because to do so would be suicide. All he can do is avoid the blows.
The episode works best if you don't dwell on certain aspects. How could McCoy possibly come up with a cure when he's in "slow" time? To remotely fit with the timeline of Kirk's actions throughout the episode, he'd have to have brewed up an anti-speed drug in about 2 minutes flat! Did he just happen to have some lying around? For that matter, why doesn't Kirk at least offer the cure to the Scalosians, who would no longer be a danger to anyone if their condition was cured?
But I can let all that slide, along with the heavy recycling of plot elements from By Any Other Name. Wink of an Eye isn't a great episode, but it's well-made and fun to watch, and one of this season's more energetically-paced offerings.
Rating: 7/10.
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Kirk knows that he's speeded up, so he slows down on purpose when making the tape for Spock, to try to make what he's saying understandable. Of course, he vastly underestimates how much he needs to slow down, but I'm assuming that's why his dialogue is so slow when he records the tape; he's trying to compensate for his acceleration.
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