Episode of the Week : Wink of an Eye
- Thread starter Botany Bay
- Start date
Lots of holes in the execution, but an interesting premise. At the speed the Scalosians needed to be going relative to normal time, 40-odd years later, Spock would still be making his way around the ship in the slow normal time.
Kathie Browne as Deela was quite attractive, and is a plus in this episode. Kirk thought so too.
Harry
Kathie Browne as Deela was quite attractive, and is a plus in this episode. Kirk thought so too.
Harry
One of the creepier TOS episodes, I gave it a seven. It is amazing that the network censors didn't cut the scene with Kirk sitting on his bed, putting his boots back on while Deela brushes her hair (I believe the picture above is from that scene). Hmm, I wonder what that was all about..?
This is my "guilty pleasure" episode of Star Trek. But first let's do the review.
I gave it a six. It's downright silly on the surface--accelerated aliens take over the good ship Enterprise and intend to turn it into a meat locker (no pun intended)... creating a ready supply of 428 ready for post-thawing hook-ups (remember, you have to subtract Kirk and Compton from the ships company) in an effort to repopulate the planet. Not sure how successful that plan will be--won't the Enterprise women be child bearers? And aren't they sort of vulnerable to even the tiniest of scratches or cuts? Or is it just the men who get to have "fun" before they age 90 years in two minutes when they accidentally bump into something? And by the way, if the Scalosians move so much faster than us, wouldn't the effects of friction with the surrounding air tend to ruin their day (or at least their hair)? And wouldn't they be visible if they had to stand still for a long time while being transported? And wouldn't the transporter alert the crew that additional persons besides the landing party were beaming aboard?
In any case, I won't try to figure those things out because they're obviously not figure-outable. This is simply a Gene Coon sex romp episode, complete with the afterglow of a Kirk-Deela hook-up in his cabin, followed by an attack by her actual boy toy, who doesn't think much of the good captain's sense of decorum.
And because, I can appreciate the two happy, horny and delightfully beautiful Scalosian women, and not let my head be addled by the abundant foolish plot points, I can actually enjoy this episode. After all, it's a great improvement from the previous episode--Nimoy doesn't sing, Kirk doesn't pretend like he's a horse (though he is taken out to stud here), neither of them dance, and everyone goes away happy at the end, except the Scalosians , who are seemingly left to die out before they turn another crew into popsickles....
KIRK: If I sent you (back) to Scalos, you'd undoubtedly play the same trick on the next spaceship that passed by.
DEELA: There won't be any others. You'll warn them. Your federation will quarantine the entire area.
KIRK: Yes, I suppose it would.
DEELA: And we will die and solve your problem that way. And ours.
KIRK: (Says nothing... maybe thinking, "Damn right. Too bad, you're quite a looker.")
SPOCK: (stands there wondering why Kirk is not saying anything)
Anyhow, Deela explains my fondness for this episode best: "You don't have to worry about CrazyMatt, he's made the adjustment."
NOTE: The unaltered script lines are courtesy of chakoteya.net
I gave it a six. It's downright silly on the surface--accelerated aliens take over the good ship Enterprise and intend to turn it into a meat locker (no pun intended)... creating a ready supply of 428 ready for post-thawing hook-ups (remember, you have to subtract Kirk and Compton from the ships company) in an effort to repopulate the planet. Not sure how successful that plan will be--won't the Enterprise women be child bearers? And aren't they sort of vulnerable to even the tiniest of scratches or cuts? Or is it just the men who get to have "fun" before they age 90 years in two minutes when they accidentally bump into something? And by the way, if the Scalosians move so much faster than us, wouldn't the effects of friction with the surrounding air tend to ruin their day (or at least their hair)? And wouldn't they be visible if they had to stand still for a long time while being transported? And wouldn't the transporter alert the crew that additional persons besides the landing party were beaming aboard?
In any case, I won't try to figure those things out because they're obviously not figure-outable. This is simply a Gene Coon sex romp episode, complete with the afterglow of a Kirk-Deela hook-up in his cabin, followed by an attack by her actual boy toy, who doesn't think much of the good captain's sense of decorum.
And because, I can appreciate the two happy, horny and delightfully beautiful Scalosian women, and not let my head be addled by the abundant foolish plot points, I can actually enjoy this episode. After all, it's a great improvement from the previous episode--Nimoy doesn't sing, Kirk doesn't pretend like he's a horse (though he is taken out to stud here), neither of them dance, and everyone goes away happy at the end, except the Scalosians , who are seemingly left to die out before they turn another crew into popsickles....
KIRK: If I sent you (back) to Scalos, you'd undoubtedly play the same trick on the next spaceship that passed by.
DEELA: There won't be any others. You'll warn them. Your federation will quarantine the entire area.
KIRK: Yes, I suppose it would.
DEELA: And we will die and solve your problem that way. And ours.
KIRK: (Says nothing... maybe thinking, "Damn right. Too bad, you're quite a looker.")
SPOCK: (stands there wondering why Kirk is not saying anything)
Anyhow, Deela explains my fondness for this episode best: "You don't have to worry about CrazyMatt, he's made the adjustment."
NOTE: The unaltered script lines are courtesy of chakoteya.net
When I was younger, I thought that this exemplified third season dreck. At some point, though, I reevaluated it, and now I think it isn't that bad.
I love the tilt-a-cam, and the interaction between Deela and Kirk. The Scalosians are interesting tragic figures.
As said, plenty of holes in the premise, but it has its moments, including the famous boot scene.
Six.
I love the tilt-a-cam, and the interaction between Deela and Kirk. The Scalosians are interesting tragic figures.
As said, plenty of holes in the premise, but it has its moments, including the famous boot scene.
Six.
The physical side of this is easily handwaved away, an action that is 50% of the fun in this episode and the reason for the five I give (the rest really doesn't amount to much).
Considering the interaction we see, and the attitudes of the Scalosians themselves, I'd guess that has to be the way it's going to go. Although I can't see how the "accidentally bumping" part could be separate from the "fun" part, no matter how careful they're going to be. It's a one-shot deal for the humans no matter what.
There must be a zone of accelerated time around them anyway, extending beyond their bodies to at least their clothing. The transition zone ought to take care of some of the interaction; the sonic booms of the movement just become the insect noise (because the actual voices of the Scalosians oughtn't do that).
They probably only need to step in at the last second - their second.
It failed to do that in "Man Trap" already...
While we may argue that "Man Trap" was a case of the Salt Vampire hypnotizing the crew stupid, we also know that the transporter operator is not supposed to care. The typical command is for X number of people to beam up, without any information on which people those might be; the operator clearly makes lots of assumptions. One of those might be "He said three, so surely he meant five, just like my gauges tell me".
Timo Saloniemi
Considering the interaction we see, and the attitudes of the Scalosians themselves, I'd guess that has to be the way it's going to go. Although I can't see how the "accidentally bumping" part could be separate from the "fun" part, no matter how careful they're going to be. It's a one-shot deal for the humans no matter what.
There must be a zone of accelerated time around them anyway, extending beyond their bodies to at least their clothing. The transition zone ought to take care of some of the interaction; the sonic booms of the movement just become the insect noise (because the actual voices of the Scalosians oughtn't do that).
They probably only need to step in at the last second - their second.
It failed to do that in "Man Trap" already...
While we may argue that "Man Trap" was a case of the Salt Vampire hypnotizing the crew stupid, we also know that the transporter operator is not supposed to care. The typical command is for X number of people to beam up, without any information on which people those might be; the operator clearly makes lots of assumptions. One of those might be "He said three, so surely he meant five, just like my gauges tell me".
Timo Saloniemi
9 out of 10. I just watched it last weekend possibly in full for the first time as I could remember liking the concept of one group of people moving so fast they sounded like mosquitos as a little kid, but the stuff about 'The Bids and the Bees ' or 'Scalosians and the Humans' was beyond my understanding at that age.
So nowadays with my knowledge I enjoyed the sexual chemistry of the script and the scenes involving change in speeds of the characters or dodging phasers. Kirk's attempt to contact Spock a la 'What are Little. Girls Made Of ' also appealed. so much so I find the huge holes in the plot forgivable.
So nowadays with my knowledge I enjoyed the sexual chemistry of the script and the scenes involving change in speeds of the characters or dodging phasers. Kirk's attempt to contact Spock a la 'What are Little. Girls Made Of ' also appealed. so much so I find the huge holes in the plot forgivable.
It is so silly but I loved it so much as a kid I gave it a 6.
You know what bothers me in this one? Kirk's phaser blast. He fires it on the bridge and it doesn't damage anything.
Neil
And he didn't set off the phaser alarm ;-P
Other than Kirk and Deela's hanky-panky, a so-so episode; 6.
It was very, very slow going, though. A simple half-second blast by that very beam supposedly wouldn't have made any sort of a mark!
Make no mistake, kill beams do sometimes get fired aboard the Enterprise in TOS, although very rarely. In "The Changeling", they fail to penetrate the shields of NOMAD - but one does wonder what would happen if they simply missed and hit the wall instead.
It's pretty consistent, though. Stun beams would be preferred by our heroes and villains, the latter choosing them because they know about the alarm. Yet when kill beams get used, it's always by fully authorized users, either the main heroes or their security troops; the alarm really shouldn't go off in such cases.
Timo Saloniemi
Make no mistake, kill beams do sometimes get fired aboard the Enterprise in TOS, although very rarely. In "The Changeling", they fail to penetrate the shields of NOMAD - but one does wonder what would happen if they simply missed and hit the wall instead.
It's pretty consistent, though. Stun beams would be preferred by our heroes and villains, the latter choosing them because they know about the alarm. Yet when kill beams get used, it's always by fully authorized users, either the main heroes or their security troops; the alarm really shouldn't go off in such cases.
Timo Saloniemi
Kind of silly, but they all manage to hold it together reasonably well. Jason Evers and Kathie Browne worked all the time in TV, and they are good here. IIRC The Wild Wild West with the same premise was a stronger episode overall, but I haven't seen it in a long time. Slightly above average, a 6.
The Enterprise's human women are useless to the Scalosians, who want Scalosian babies. Since their men are sterile, the only way to make ethnically half-Scalosian babies is to breed with the Enterprise men.
Edit: with what we know today, women from the Enterprise could be used as surrogate mothers for the half-Scalosian babies, if that's what you mean.
I gave it a seven only because we finally got reasonable evidence that Kirk got some.
The bit about Kirk leaving a taped message should have included a written note. Kirk could have moved an item on the table in front of them and placed the note under it. Spock and McCoy would have seen the item move and the note magically appear. Or more directly, stand in front of them and remain absolutely still.
I hate it when common sense can ruin or unravel an episode.
The bit about Kirk leaving a taped message should have included a written note. Kirk could have moved an item on the table in front of them and placed the note under it. Spock and McCoy would have seen the item move and the note magically appear. Or more directly, stand in front of them and remain absolutely still.
I hate it when common sense can ruin or unravel an episode.
True! It had been canonically established that crewman have the ability to leave written messages aboard ship.
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x04/thenakedtime333.jpg
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