"Star Trek" Wink of an Eye (1968)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Jud Taylor

Writers:

Arthur Heinemann (teleplay)
Gene L. Coon (story)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

29 November 1968 (Season 3, Episode 11)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the planet Scalos but when Kirk and a landing party beam down to the planet...

Plot Keywords:

Federation | Space | Starship | Computer | Vulcan

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Kathie Browne	...	Deela
Jason Evers	...	Rael
James Doohan	...	Scott
George Takei	...	Sulu
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Majel Barrett	...	Nurse Chapel
Erik Holland	...	Ekor
Geoffrey Binney	...	Compton

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Television

Goofs:

Factual errors: Much of the general equipment on the ship operates at normal rate for Kirk (whilst accelerated), examples are the doors opening, the flashing lights on the transporter desk. It is also unlikely that the voice recorder would operate at a high enough frequency to be able to record the messages from the earlier crew.

Quotes:

Deela: Oh Rael, don't be like that. Am I jealous of what you do?
Rael: I do my duty.
Deela: So do I. And sometimes I allow myself to enjoy it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Bring Back... Star Trek (2009) (TV)

The Accelerated Invasion of the Enterprise

We're back to space invaders in this one, similar to "By Any Other Name" in the previous season. These aliens hail from a planet where volcanic upheavals and radiation have accelerated them - make that 'hyper-accelerated' - to the point where they move too quickly for normal humans to see them. It's almost like they're stuck in another dimension (another level) and the concept is similar to the "Flash" comic book character, who moves so quickly at times that everything else appears to be frozen still. There are obvious discrepancies in the way the concept is presented here: though all Scalosians supposedly move at a pace of 100 times that of normal, they go through the same amount of experience in this episode as the normal-moving crew; the crew get just as much done as the invaders during the course of the episode. For example, the Scalosians should have completed their invasion plan in the time it took for Spock to head down to McCoy's medical lab in mid-episode. Right after Kirk is accelerated on the bridge, he heads for the turbolift, but that mode of transport would now take him an eternity; though it isn't mentioned, he must have used the stairs, er, ladders. This seems to be some careless scriptwriting. However, maybe the Scalosians were using the turbolifts in ignorance and this slowed them down enough for the discrepancies to make sense.

Despite a surprisingly slow pace in spots even though this is such an, uh, accelerated episode (we see video tapes of the Scalosians over & over), this comes off as fairly entertaining due to Kirk's odd conflicting attraction with the leader of the invaders, princess Deela, played by actress Kathie Browne like some naughty valley girl from outer space. It's amusing to see Kirk allow himself a very brief lecherous smirk when he first sees her, even as he knows he's in the middle of a hostile invasion. Here's where Kirk's rep as the super-stud of Trek space may have gained the most traction, ahem. There's even a scene of him putting his boots back on after he and the foxy invader have obviously done the nasty deed (since this is the sixties, all other TV episodes on this show never went beyond subtle suggestion, say, a veiled wink or two; by contrast, this scene was very direct). He and Deela obviously felt a genuine sexual heat, much more apparent and honest than the usual family-oriented titillation. In fact, the entire plot of the episode revolves around the theme of survival based on necessary procreation - mating for the sake of a species, but also seeking as much enjoyment as possible in the act. This is almost an episode for grown-ups only. Almost. But, the outfits on the male Scalosians were a bit too kinky for my tastes.