ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Captain Kirk is famous of for meeting “fast” women — but never as fast as the gal in this episode!

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Wink of an Eye — "the "mystery lady"!

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____________TOS 3x11 'Wink of An Eye' Trailer


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This episode is more of the 'space invaders' action plotline, similar to By Any Other Name of the previous season.

The invaders of this episode hail from a planet where volcanic upheavals affected the water and spread radiation which, over time, affected the inhabitants in an unusual manner.

Kirk and some of his crew beam down to this planet, Scalos, responding to a distress call, but find an empty city. One of the landing party sips the native water and disappears (he must have been really thirsty. Had the water been tested yet? I doubt it).

The Trek scripting throws the usual unexpected curve at us — the crew member was not simply transported away as it seems. It turns out, the inhabitants of this planet have all been accelerated — or even 'hyper-accelerated' — to the point that they move too quickly for normal humans to see them. One sip of the native water and we're all just like them.



Since these invaders are so ultra-swift and basically invisible, it's a simple matter for them to beam aboard the Enterprise secretly and set up a new freezer unit — the intent is to store the crew for future breeding stock. One way of looking at it is that these aliens are stuck in another dimension or on another level.

The concept is similar to the Flash comic book character, who moves so fast at times that everything else appears to be frozen still. This concept has also been on display for the past few years on the TV series Smallville. When Clark Kent switches to his full speed, outracing bullets and so forth, everything else, including people, becomes frozen in time, suspended.



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. Sure, that must be it.



Despite a surprisingly slow pace in spots even though this is such an, uh, accelerated episode (we see video tapes of the Scalosians asking for aid over & over), this comes off as fairly entertaining due to Kirk's odd conflicting attraction to the leader of the invaders, princess Deela, played by actress Kathie Browne like some naughty valley girl from outer space.

She's an invader, yes, but she tries to be nice about the whole thing.

It's amusing to see Kirk allow himself a very brief lecherous smirk when he first sees her, even as he knows, at that same moment, that he's in the middle of a hostile invasion. It's this episode and a few others which promulgated the Star Trek mystique of space babes throwing themselves at Capt. Kirk — only Kirk would get invaded by the hottest babe in the galaxy. What is it with that guy, anyway?





Here, also, is where Kirk's reputation as the super-stud of all Star Trek time & space may have gained the most traction. 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 was the sixties, all other TV episodes on this show never went beyond subtle suggestion — say, a veiled wink or two, except perhaps Elaan of Troyius. By contrast, this scene with Kirk & Deela was very direct. The two obviously felt a genuine sexual heat, much more apparent and honest than the usual family-oriented titillation.



ABOVE: Jason Evers (left) plays Deela's jealous 2nd-in-command; he has issues with Kirk later...

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 theme reflected Roddenberry's attitude towards adult 'free love' most directly. This is almost an episode for grown-ups only. Almost.

Just one thing — the outfits on the male Scalosians. Not to my taste — they looked a bit too kinky, sorry. I got the impression these guys were former upper class brats forced to act tough.



Extra Trek Trivia: For all scenes involving acceleration, take note that the camera was tipped at a slight angle, suggesting that things were slightly off-kilter.

Deela keeps a weapon strapped to her left wrist; she knocks Kirk's phaser out of his hand with it. She and other Scalosians also wear chokers around their necks which function as communicators. Kinky, eh?

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10




BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)