Ha, I told you it was an unpopular opinion.
Moving on:
Wink of an Eye **
For a show about people moving really fast, this one feels really slow. This is a gimmick episode, nothing more. Someone said "hey wouldn't it be cool if...?" and then wrote an episode based on Kirk walking around a ship full of frozen crewmembers. What would have made a solid 4th season Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea makes for slipshod Star Trek. I could almost feel Bob Justman penning the first draft of his resignation.
No thought was put into how time works between Kirk's crew and Deela's people. Kirk fires his phaser in accelerated time and nobody on the bridge notices. Nobody sees latent images when one of them is standing still or sitting and working. Friction doesn't kill Scalosians. The doors are conveniently left open (from a missing scene I understand). Kirk leaves the bridge...somehow. The turbolift isn't going SUPERFAST.
They don't say that time is moving at a different rate, but it seems like it. Kirk does a LOT in the time it takes for Scotty to take a step.
Our people are kinda stupid too. Here:
KIRK: Lieutenant Uhura, does the location of the distress call correspond with this area exactly?
UHURA: Yes, sir. I am still receiving visual contact. I can see them, but I can't see you.
KIRK: Check co-ordinates. Is it the same area?
UHURA: Co-ordinates correspond, Captain.
KIRK: Well, apart from the landing party, there's no one here. There are no Scalosians.
UHURA: The distress call is very strong, Captain. They are pleading for immediate assistance.
KIRK: Check circuits for malfunctions. Kirk out.
Malfunctions? How about something simpler? No you have to wait for Spock to think of it after they beamed back:
SPOCK: It is logical to assume that this distress call was pre-recorded. What we received was evidently a delayed taped message.
UHURA: That would explain our continuing to receive it while our sensors only picked up the landing party, sir.
Ya think?! Wouldn't that be your first guess? Sure, the sensors registered "something" that Scotty couldn't figure out but they didn't peg it as life signs. And that repurposed shor from The Empath is poorly chosen. Why not just do a log voiceover while se see clips of the Enterprise in orbit instead of Scotty's hair being different and him saying something under the log?
The phrasing is weird in some spots. McCoy sees Compton accelerate. Now if that happened, I'd simply say "Compton disappeared!" Or "he vanished!" Instead we get
McCOY: "I was looking at him. I was looking right at him, and he. And he just wasn't there!"
and
KIRK: The fact remains, when we beamed down there we couldn't find these people. They were there, now they're not.
It all feels like a first draft script sent before the cameras.
Deela is doofy. Kathie Browne does what she can, she's a great casting choice, but she buys into Kirk's absurdly obvious sudden change of heart, which - ta daaaaa - is a ruse.
Rael is the only one taking their situation seriously. He knew Kirk was trouble and he should have just scratched Kirk and forced Deela to take her pick of the remaining 300 men on the ship.
This is one of the few times Kirk sleeps with a woman simply to sleep with her. Usually, it's to get out of a jam or the upper hand, but his plan would have worked with necking, heavy petting and talking about the stars.
And McCoy and Spock come up with an antidote, but don't tell Deela. They send her on her way and then Kirk drinks it! Spock is like "fuck it, fix it yourself." The Enterprise happily warps out of orbit, leaving them behind and probably telling Starfleet at that moment to quarantine the area.
I dunno, I get Plato's Stepchilden is overindulgent in the torture and humiliation, but it holds up as a story, even if one doesn't like it. This one is a mess. Interesting camera shots don't help this one. This gets ** for Shatner's spirited performance, some fun flirty bits and that really nice look Kirk gives Spock when he sees him in accelerated time. I should mark off a * for Spock's pun at the end, but I'll give the guy a break.
