What The Heck?....That Makes No Sense.

[Commishsleer]

I'd say the greatest what the heck moment in TOS has always been the opening of The Naked Time. When your job requires you to examine an abandoned ship in a *hazmat* suit, that's really not the time to take off your glove and start testing the random space powder with your finger. I really hope that guy was drummed out of Starfleet.

In terms of moments involving the main characters, I would definitely mention 'Wink of an Eye'. First the technical issue of contact. The only thing different between the accelerated people and the normal people is how fast they move. Which means that if Kirk really wants his people to know he's still alive, he could've easily accomplished that by just staying in the Captain's chair until they noticed him. And his last ditch effort of recording a tape with the computer could have easily been accomplished right away, on the bridge, and it would've been much easier for them to find, too. In fact, if he can interact with the computer in the first place, then he could've immediately left Spock a message by other means that couldn't even be confused or missed at all.

Far worse than any of that, though, is the ending. An entire people are trapped in this terrible condition, McCoy instantly finds a miracle cure and the Enterprise just... warps away. I thought this was Star Trek I was watching? Where's the compassionate attempt to provide them with the cure as well? It would've made so much more sense, not even just because of the Trek factor, but because it would've lead to a much better ending all around. Whether you try to bring them the cure and then realize that their time ran out while you were synthesizing it, or whether you successfully bring them the cure and leave Deela to live with the fact that she killed people on the strength of this idea that their condition was 'incurable' only for 1 Federation doctor to succesfully cure it in a matter of hours - this ending could've been incredibly memorable and poignant instead of 'huh?'.

Actually how much are these guys accelerated?

Assuming the maximum. Kirk was accelerated for say 50 hours and Kirk was missing for 1 hour. So 1:50 at the most.
At the end Kirk was assuming that Deela was already dead wasn't he?
However each week in Kirk's time would be only a year in Deela's time. The Federation might have time to develop a "cure" that would work on Deela's people if they were interested

Maybe they wouldn't be interested. Deela's people may have killed hundreds of people by accelerating them and what did they do with the unneeded women? And the men who were rebellious like Kirk and not docile like Compton? Also if they were generation after generation more the species they'd kidnapped rather than their original race aren't they mostly "human?

Well, "I could have come up with better rescue ideas than Kirk!" is pretty much the point of the entire episode. Whatever Kirk does here, it's always too little, too late...

What is really weird is the way Spock concentrates exclusively on protecting Kirk's reputation, instead of tackling the problem down below. Then again, he's but the Second Officer here; apparently First Officer Scott is doing his best pursuing the solution closest to his heart, fixing the transporters.

Timo Saloniemi

More evidence that Spock is the 2nd in command of the Enterprise. He's acting like someone who has the responsibility of command when his captain is indisposed. He's got to stop Kirk attacking his crew and keeping the command structure intact while the transporters are being repaired..
He is taking and delegating the work to the chief engineer. He's still keeping his hand in being a sounding board for Scott.

 

[Phaser Two]

I'd say the greatest what the heck moment in TOS has always been the opening of The Naked Time. When your job requires you to examine an abandoned ship in a *hazmat* suit, that's really not the time to take off your glove and start testing the random space powder with your finger. I really hope that guy was drummed out of Starfleet.

In terms of moments involving the main characters, I would definitely mention 'Wink of an Eye'. First the technical issue of contact. The only thing different between the accelerated people and the normal people is how fast they move. Which means that if Kirk really wants his people to know he's still alive, he could've easily accomplished that by just staying in the Captain's chair until they noticed him. And his last ditch effort of recording a tape with the computer could have easily been accomplished right away, on the bridge, and it would've been much easier for them to find, too. In fact, if he can interact with the computer in the first place, then he could've immediately left Spock a message by other means that couldn't even be confused or missed at all.

Far worse than any of that, though, is the ending. An entire people are trapped in this terrible condition, McCoy instantly finds a miracle cure and the Enterprise just... warps away. I thought this was Star Trek I was watching? Where's the compassionate attempt to provide them with the cure as well? It would've made so much more sense, not even just because of the Trek factor, but because it would've lead to a much better ending all around. Whether you try to bring them the cure and then realize that their time ran out while you were synthesizing it, or whether you successfully bring them the cure and leave Deela to live with the fact that she killed people on the strength of this idea that their condition was 'incurable' only for 1 Federation doctor to succesfully cure it in a matter of hours - this ending could've been incredibly memorable and poignant instead of 'huh?'.

Wink of an Eye is one my top three favorite episodes. The invasion of the ship is realistic rather than relying on plot contrivance or silliness by our heroes and the dialogue and guest stars are outstanding.

I actually like the ending because it's unexpectedly dark. You can still headcanon your way to the supposition that Starfleet sent a task force back to assist the Scalosians, or you can just accept that Starfleet can't and won't assist every single group of hostile aliens. I wouldn't want the whole series to take that approach, but here it was novel and intriguing.

 

[Commishsleer]

There are two good theories for that. One is that they cannot travel at warp with the cloaking device on, and that they can partially tracked. The other theory, less popular but my preferred interpretation, is that the Enterprise can use its Warp Drive alongside Impulse to make Impulse work more effectively, kind of like in TNG, but the Romulans cannot, hence they have "simple" impulse power, rather than a more complex version.

Was watching The Undiscovered Country tonight and Sulu said he was travelling back from the Beta Quadrant on Impulse power.
See you in a thousand years Sulu!

 

[Tenacity]

We'd often see Voyager traveling at sublight for no appaent reason. Maybe the ships simply need to travel at impulse every once in a while.

Do some periodic maintenance that can't be perform at warp perhaps.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

We'd often see Voyager traveling at sublight for no apparent reason. Maybe the ships simply need to travel at impulse every once in a while.

Do some periodic maintenance that can't be perform at warp perhaps.

Good idea. Voyager is in a unique situation, because they're on a practically endless journey back to the Alpha Quadrant. This would tend to expose a need for periodic maintenance that we never notice on other series.

 

[Timo]

And perhaps they can only get their bearings if they shut down the warp engines and let the long range sensors run at maximum sensitivity every now and then?

Was watching The Undiscovered Country tonight and Sulu said he was travelling back from the Beta Quadrant on Impulse power.
See you in a thousand years Sulu!

To be accurate, Sulu isn't traveling. He's planning on traveling. It's only during that scene that Valtane hands him the report that confirms they can stop charting those gaseous anomalies and start heading home. And every journey starts with the first step - often enough, a step at impulse.

Kirk left orbit at warp 1 after many an adventure, too. We shouldn't be fooled into thinking he didn't floor it after clearing the local subspace shallows, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Marsden]

I'd say the greatest what the heck moment in TOS has always been the opening of The Naked Time. When your job requires you to examine an abandoned ship in a *hazmat* suit, that's really not the time to take off your glove and start testing the random space powder with your finger. I really hope that guy was drummed out of Starfleet.

He was drummed out, by death.

In terms of moments involving the main characters, I would definitely mention 'Wink of an Eye'. First the technical issue of contact. The only thing different between the accelerated people and the normal people is how fast they move. Which means that if Kirk really wants his people to know he's still alive, he could've easily accomplished that by just staying in the Captain's chair until they noticed him. And his last ditch effort of recording a tape with the computer could have easily been accomplished right away, on the bridge, and it would've been much easier for them to find, too. In fact, if he can interact with the computer in the first place, then he could've immediately left Spock a message by other means that couldn't even be confused or missed at all.

Far worse than any of that, though, is the ending. An entire people are trapped in this terrible condition, McCoy instantly finds a miracle cure and the Enterprise just... warps away. I thought this was Star Trek I was watching? Where's the compassionate attempt to provide them with the cure as well? It would've made so much more sense, not even just because of the Trek factor, but because it would've lead to a much better ending all around. Whether you try to bring them the cure and then realize that their time ran out while you were synthesizing it, or whether you successfully bring them the cure and leave Deela to live with the fact that she killed people on the strength of this idea that their condition was 'incurable' only for 1 Federation doctor to succesfully cure it in a matter of hours - this ending could've been incredibly memorable and poignant instead of 'huh?'.

How could they have beamed up 6 extra people at the same time without knowing? Because no matter how "fast" something is when it's moving, when it's still it's still. So they would have seen six extra people materialize at normal speed since the transporter wasn't sped up, only those people. And if Kirk sits still in his chair, is he still invisible? What about that phaser "floating in air" when he took a shot at Deela? No one would have seen that, right?

Wink of an Eye is one my top three favorite episodes. The invasion of the ship is realistic rather than relying on plot contrivance or silliness by our heroes and the dialogue and guest stars are outstanding.

I actually like the ending because it's unexpectedly dark. You can still headcanon your way to the supposition that Starfleet sent a task force back to assist the Scalosians, or you can just accept that Starfleet can't and won't assist every single group of hostile aliens. I wouldn't want the whole series to take that approach, but here it was novel and intriguing.

I know I have some oddball ideas about things and here's one. Dr. McCoy already developed a cure for this and it works on both Humans and Vulcans. Why not keep it available and anytime something is needed in a hurry, give some to Spock and let him fix the whole ship in 6 seconds and then bring him back. Why not have a special corp of StarFleet security officers that can be beamed to an enemy ship and totally disable all of the systems before anyone can stop them?

The whole episode makes no sense because anything that moved that fast would burn up from friction with the atmosphere, not to mention sonic booms all over whenever they moved. Every time a sped up person walks by there should be gale force winds all they mention is a little buzzing.

 

[Forbin]

We'd often see Voyager traveling at sublight for no apparent reason.

Almost every act 1 fade in. After a while I started screaming at the screen "Don't you people WANT to get home???"

 

[Timo]

How could they have beamed up 6 extra people at the same time without knowing? Because no matter how "fast" something is when it's moving, when it's still it's still.

But people "within the beam" are not still. They move around, so that they arrive in a different pose than the one they held when they left; sometimes they have a chat in there, too, as in ST2:TWoK.

I guess the Scalosians could sort of hop from behind the back of one hero to the lap of another, so that there would only ever be six columns of sparkles there.

And if Kirk sits still in his chair, is he still invisible?

Depends on the speed ratio. If he does so for what amounts to one second of "real time", he will be visible. But blink and you miss it - and everybody looks away from the captain on the bridge of a Constitution class starship!

What about that phaser "floating in air" when he took a shot at Deela? No one would have seen that, right?

If they did, they'd probably just do a double take and decide to sleep a bit more before the next shift...

I know I have some oddball ideas about things and here's one. Dr. McCoy already developed a cure for this and it works on both Humans and Vulcans. Why not keep it available and anytime something is needed in a hurry, give some to Spock and let him fix the whole ship in 6 seconds and then bring him back.

Because people infected with this die from love pats?

Whether Kirk ever fully recovered is a bit unclear. But the poor Scalosians had been drinking nothing but the contaminated water for the past few hours/decades. I'm not convinced McCoy's cure would have done them any good even in the best of cases.

The whole episode makes no sense because anything that moved that fast would burn up from friction with the atmosphere, not to mention sonic booms all over whenever they moved. Every time a sped up person walks by there should be gale force winds all they mention is a little buzzing.

Well, there's that. But it's reassuring to learn that the buttons of Starfleet equipment can be pushed at supersonic speeds, and at five hundred keystrokes per second or whatever.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Phaser Two]

He was drummed out, by death.

How could they have beamed up 6 extra people at the same time without knowing? Because no matter how "fast" something is when it's moving, when it's still it's still. So they would have seen six extra people materialize at normal speed since the transporter wasn't sped up, only those people. And if Kirk sits still in his chair, is he still invisible? What about that phaser "floating in air" when he took a shot at Deela? No one would have seen that, right?



I know I have some oddball ideas about things and here's one. Dr. McCoy already developed a cure for this and it works on both Humans and Vulcans. Why not keep it available and anytime something is needed in a hurry, give some to Spock and let him fix the whole ship in 6 seconds and then bring him back. Why not have a special corp of StarFleet security officers that can be beamed to an enemy ship and totally disable all of the systems before anyone can stop them?

The whole episode makes no sense because anything that moved that fast would burn up from friction with the atmosphere, not to mention sonic booms all over whenever they moved. Every time a sped up person walks by there should be gale force winds all they mention is a little buzzing.

1. On the transporter, I have always believed that Compton beamed the Scalosians up later, or perhaps one of the two male engineers (or his GF) went up with him; I doubt the Scalosians would risk Deela or Rael until the transporter was proven. How he got back on board is a bit of a mystery, but I don't have a problem assuming that the transporter doesn't automatically make hyperaccelerated people visible.

2. On the phaser, it's the stun blast that's the issue. The bridge crew should have seen a stun beam fire out of nowhere. I wish they had worked that into dialogue. Also interesting is that at the end, Spock obviously hasn't considered that his phaser won't function.

3. Many, many ST episodes have the issue you mentioned about not using the solution of the week in a future episode. I have always found such point-outs a little tedious but that's just me - I know a lot of people really enjoy discussing them. However, just as the end of Plato (i.e., why Kirk and Spock don't remain psionic) can be explained as the kironide boost only working on the planet, I figure that the Scalosian water was not something to fool around with more than once if you weren't native to Scalos. An additional line of dialogue could have taken care of this.

4. The "hey, friction would have burned everything up" argument has never really resonated with me either. It's science fiction, so maybe the hyperacceleration phenomenon carried with it additional abilities that defied known physical laws just as the hyperacceleration did. Not a big stretch for me, just as it doesn't bother me when the phasers firing in space make a sound.



None of the above stops me from enjoying a really well-crafted episode with an interesting premise, great dialogue, genuine danger, and good guest stars.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I suppose this has already been mentioned: "Because Science: Why You Don't Want Super Speed"

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

His video on why you don't want a weapon that vaporizes people is even better:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Maurice]

I'd say the greatest what the heck moment in TOS has always been the opening of The Naked Time. When your job requires you to examine an abandoned ship in a *hazmat* suit, that's really not the time to take off your glove and start testing the random space powder with your finger. I really hope that guy was drummed out of Starfleet.

It wasn't a hazmat suit.

After all these years and the scripts being sold you'd think what those suits were would be well-established. As per the final draft script...

SCENE 2
...They wear cold weather gear... take in the condition of the room, move with precision...​

Ergo not intended to be biohazard suits. Fans decided they were biohazard gear, not the show's makers.

 

[Timo]

....My only lament there is that the orange protective wear was not reused when the heroes beamed down to Sigma Draconis VI. Having our heroes further disadvantaged in the brawl by the clumsy suits, and having Chekov casually remove his and heat up the pile of rocks instead, would have been nice moments in themselves.

On the phaser, it's the stun blast that's the issue. The bridge crew should have seen a stun beam fire out of nowhere. I wish they had worked that into dialogue.

Then again, what does a stun blast look or sound like, when it hits nothing? These never create scorch marks or anything, and the sound would be part of the general whine generated by the dialogue between Kirk and Deela.

Key here, again, is that nobody looks at Kirk or the command chair under normal circumstances. The bridge is built to preclude that from happening, really. And here the supporting cast is somewhat artificially arranged so that they all do look away from Kirk and Deela.

It's just that Scotty is looking exactly where the beam would strike, a bit above Uhura's head... Did he report what he saw, and this was equated with, and dismissed along with, everybody hearing things? Or did he blink and miss it?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[gottacook]

The phaser beam moving slowly enough for a person to get out of its way - that's the key to how ridiculous "Wink of an Eye" is (not that I don't enjoy it). Light speed is 300 million meters per second. Assume that the beam in that scene is moving at 3 meters per second. That means a factor of 100 million between the Scalosian acceleration and normal time. Therefore, each minute Kirk spends in accelerated time would be equivalent to about 190.25 years of ship time. By the time he was pulling his boots on, everyone on the Enterprise would have been dead for millennia.

(Edited to fix a math error)

 

[Delta Vega]

Almost every act 1 fade in. After a while I started screaming at the screen "Don't you people WANT to get home???"

My biggest bugbear with Voyager
Just get moving ffs, get fucking home
Why do they investigate every anomaly, every distress call, every nova in the sky ?
GET YOURSELVES HOME FFS

 

[Mytran]

My biggest bugbear with Voyager
Just get moving ffs, get fucking home
Why do they investigate every anomaly, every distress call, every nova in the sky ?
GET YOURSELVES HOME FFS

A while ago Christopher charted the various shortcuts that Voyager used over the years:

They got pushed 10,000 light years by Kes's supercharged psi powers, then traveled 300 extra light years using Arturis's quantum slipstream drive, then jumped 2500 light years through the Malon vortex, then traveled another 10,000 light years using their own experimental quantum slipstream drive that almost destroyed them (well, did destroy them until the timeline was changed), then covered another 20,000 light years using a stolen Borg transwarp coil, then jumped another 200 ly through the Vaadwaur subspace corridor and another 600 ly thanks to the graviton catapult. Out of an estimated 46,000 light years (according to Star Trek Star Charts), they only covered 2400 ly -- a mere 5.2 percent! -- under their own warp power.

Add on Voyager's use of the Graviton Catapult (s6e09 - The Voyager Conspiricy) and that means their average speed is 378 light years a year. Of course, they did go back 2 months for Janeway & Chuckles, so maybe knock 4 months off the total.

That means 400 LY a year! That's a 187.5 year journey!

Yep, way too much exploring...

 

[UssGlenn]

The phaser beam moving slowly enough for a person to get out of its way - that's the key to how ridiculous "Wink of an Eye" is (not that I don't enjoy it). Light speed is 300 million meters per second. Assume that the beam in that scene is moving at 3 meters per second. That means a factor of 100 million between the Scalosian acceleration and normal time. Therefore, each minute Kirk spends in accelerated time would be equivalent to about 190.25 years of ship time. By the time he was pulling his boots on, everyone on the Enterprise would have been dead for millennia.

(Edited to fix a math error)

Do we know phasers actually shoot at light-speed? I know it's logical that they would, but does anyone actually say so in dialogue?

 

[Kemaiku]

They don't, given that we can even see the beam moving between the unit and the target normally. If it were FTL we'd see a tiny flash if anything and the person would crumple as soon as the button is pressed.

Using the time dilation delay in Enterprise when the phase pistol is slowed down, you could probably figure out the true speed normally.

But it's sublight enough we get a beam moving at all to our eyes.

 

[gottacook]

They don't, given that we can even see the beam moving between the unit and the target normally.

Ideally, the special-effects people who created each phaser effect would have shown the entire beam length simultaneously. Perhaps doing so simply didn't look as good on film as using a few frames to show the beam traveling from the pistol to the target - just as stars constantly whipping by the Enterprise on all sides (even if grossly unrealistic) turned out to provide a better suggestion of ship movement than relatively stationary stars would have done.

To travel noticeably slower than in vacuum, light has to pass through a liquid or a transparent/translucent solid medium with particular characteristics that hinder its passage. For example, light travels through water at about 75% of its speed in vacuum. Bob Shaw's famous 1966 story "Light of Other Days" concerns the characteristics of "slow glass" through which light can take weeks or months to traverse, depending on its thickness. But I don't think a convincing argument can be made that ordinary phaser beam speed through air is slower than a flashlight would be.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The phaser beam moving slowly enough for a person to get out of its way - that's the key to how ridiculous "Wink of an Eye" is (not that I don't enjoy it). Light speed is 300 million meters per second. Assume that the beam in that scene is moving at 3 meters per second. That means a factor of 100 million between the Scalosian acceleration and normal time. Therefore, each minute Kirk spends in accelerated time would be equivalent to about 190.25 years of ship time. By the time he was pulling his boots on, everyone on the Enterprise would have been dead for millennia.

This is a great post, but you inadvertently reversed the time effect. You mean each minute of ship time would be 190 years for accelerated Kirk.

Also, I'm in the camp that says phaser beams do not go at the speed of light. If the fx are any indication, they're a lot slower than real world pistol bullets. This interpretation greatly eases the math problem you're exploring.