Wink of an Eye

DVD, Star Trek S3 (Wink of an Eye)

High concept, some great ideas, but some strange creative decisions and a few flaws. For a start, why would a crewmember who is doing tests on the water wash his hands in said water and even wipe it on his face or taste it? That's what causes Redshirt Compton to 'disappear'. And why didn't Kirk take the weapon off Deela earlier. I know he was wary of her scratch-death potential, but he's dealt with enough enemies to handle her effectively. I suppose he was trying to find out about the plan and the people.

The biggest question hangs over the ending. If Kirk and Spock had given the Scalosians the formula to return to normal speed, they wouldn't have needed to cause any more trouble, and their race wouldn't have to die off. The final shot on the viewscreen of Deela looking morose, was a bit confusing. Was it a mistake (Uhura's hand slipped apparently!), or was it a message somehow, and why if they couldn't see them the rest of the episode could they see them now?

The ending before that as Spock takes the time to carry out repairs all over the Enterprise, was more of the kind of thing I was expecting from the episode, using the concept to the full and logical extent. I was also expecting him to comment how easy it was to work without people getting in the way all the time, but instead he came out with a poor joke, saying the experience was 'accelerating'. That's a good parallel with the episode - you go in, find a clever idea, but then it doesn't use it to full potential. There were some flashes of brilliance - the phaser blast looked amazing and made me long for someone to fire again at some point, but although Spock had a phaser when he made the jump to acceleration he never used it. I expect it was an expensive and difficult effect to achieve, and generally the effects of the episode were to a high standard.

The slow motion scenes were effective, though I wished for more, and seeing a scene from both normal and accelerated time. Indeed, the attempt by Kirk to pass on knowledge of events by making a recording and then sticking it in a computer under Spock's nose, would have been a perfect moment to do such a thing. I thought they would have Spock hear a buzzing (Kirk), and then the disc would appear in the slot. Often things seemed to work out to lessen the impact of the story.

Where's Chekov? The other crewmembers aren't greatly used, although it was fun to see Scotty walking into the transporter room for half the episode! Things like that should have been higher up on the agenda, but instead the focus is on a faux-romance as Kirk tries to convince Deela he's accepted the situation. You can't expect too much from 60's effects, but they were so well done you just wanted more. The scenes with crew 'suspended' were pretty good, although Dr. McCoy must be in a faster time frame to everyone else because he tended to blink or move a little! And right at the beginning I noticed a redshirt who struck me immediately as one who wouldn't get killed! Why? Grey hair, that's why. He'd obviously survived a long time, and didn't plan on being caught out any time soon! Then again he looked a little worried so maybe he'd managed to avoid landing party duty in his long career until that day. He wasn't the one to die though!

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