Wink of an Eye

This Star Trek story has the Enterprise answering a distress call from the planet Scalos where one can see a lovely futuristic city, but no people at all. But as William Shatner remarks there's a lot of insect life because he hears this buzzing like bees in his ears. The disappearance of an Enterprise crewman sends the landing party back to the ship.

Whereupon Captain Kirk disappears like the crewman. He finds himself living at an accelerated speed. When he was at normal speed the Scalosians whom he now sees and interacts with sounded like buzzing insects. There are only five Scalosians left, Jason Evers, Kathie Browne and three others. And there is crewman Geoffrey Binney as well, but he dies from a little too much accelerated living.

The Scalosians are quite frank as to their intentions as they don't think that Shatner can do anything. But he's not a knowledgeable Star Trek captain for nothing. Human and Vulcan ingenuity do triumph.

A nice Star Trek episode without an earth cultural reference for a change.

This is a case of clashing cultures caught in conflicting time accelerations. After a visit to a barren planet, people begin to disappear on board the enterprise. Kirk and one of the unfortunate red shirted crewman have been moved to a ship where time is passing at an alarming rate. This is with coffee that's not on Starbuck's menu. A small group of aliens wearing shiny Mylar suits (well, I take that back. The women wear almost nothing) are on the brink of extinction and must bring people from a different time designation to mate with. Kirk, of course, gets the queen of the whole bunch. She likes him because he is a "pretty" one. She is quite sexy and doe eyed. Because they don't fear Kirk, he is allowed access to the ship. This is a mistake because he is nothing but trouble. There is also jealousy at work on the ship. Kirk's mission is to get a message to the crew who are moving at an indecipherably slow speed. This is a good concept. It comes up short but is engaging enough to keep one's attention.

I am currently watching this episode. The clever plot has always intrigued me but now I notice that Kathie Browne as Deela really steals the show. Her costume is extremely well done, being half-on and half-off at the same time. Her performance is just as well done.

There have been other lovely women on Star Trek but she really sweeps Kirk off his feet in this episode. His wistful look at the end looks genuine - because I feel the same way myself. She has a calm and serene attitude that is pleasant to see and hear.

Many of the female guest stars are merely eye candy, but Kathie Browne brings elegance to her role. Even Kirk is subdued in his desire to get his ship back, rather than his usual bluster. It's a nice change of pace.

Star Trek always had what I called the "Macy's Parade" approach to working within a budget--especially in season three. Matte paintings, props,sets, visual effects shots, all were fair game for the producers to utilize, repaint and reconfigure to save money. They must have thought viewers had short memories. Not "Trek" fans. With that said, this episode did a great job of pulling off a lot with the barest of essentials. The Enterprise's landing party transports down to the planet's surface to find a deserted city. This is odd because they were recently sent a distress signal by the inhabitants of this world. A crew member, planet-side, stupidly, takes a drink from a cascading water fountain and disappears. Kirk and the others hear (but don't see) buzzing insects. They are, needless to say, a little perplexed by this turn of events. They scurry back to the ship. On the bridge, Kirk drinks a cup of coffee and he too disappears. The Scalosians, you see, have been able to accelerate themselves into a state of hyper-space. Their motives are not good--it's a trap. I wonder if one of the ideas for this wacky story, may have sprung from a movie titled "The Time Travelers," and it's low-budget remake, "Journey to the Center of Time." Something to keep in mind when you watch this episode, one of the best from Star Trek's final season. Space trivia alert: Kathie Browne, Kirk's love interest in this story and female leader of the Scalosians, was married to the "Night Stalker" himself, Darren McGavin. Sadly, Ms.Browne and her husband passed away in the last few years. But their cult status as icons of 60's television remains intact.

I would have rated this episode higher, except those alien costumes were so trick-or-treat tacky. Those costume designers were HORRIBLE!!! But the ideas presented were different and more imaginative than usual.