“Wink of an Eye” is a marginally entertaining episode – if you can put your brain into hibernation for an hour or so, that is. It’s not often that Star Trek makes an episode that is completely mindless and hollow, but this is one example. Even the supposed “science fiction” of the episode is so badly mangled that unless you completely ignore it, the entire production comes crashing into ruin. For the most part, the episode is a mystery, opening with a bit of a supernatural feel. But once the science comes into play, it is, simply, pedestrian.

The Enterprise crew beams down to a technological planet that appears to be entirely deserted. But then strange things begin happening. A crew member disappears. And upon returning to the ship, there are strange glitches in the operating systems, strange noises to be heard, and the sudden appearance of alien-looking technology on the ship. As all of this unfolds, the otherworldly mood is to the credit of the episode, creating a sufficient (if not outstanding) level of suspense.

This would seem to continue when Kirk takes a drink of his coffee and the world around him appears to slow down and freeze. But it’s the scientific explanation for it all that strips the narrative of any sense of wonderment and suspense. As it turns out, Kirk’s metabolism has been suddenly sped up to that of, say, a hummingbird on speed. Doing so is certainly intriguing. But it ruins any possibility, logically speaking of course, of having the two worlds interact. Realistically, everything in the sped up world should conclude before those in the regular world have any notion of what’s going on.

But of course, that doesn’t make for a very dramatic episode, so we just throw all plausibility out the window. This doesn’t have be a complete mess (see: TNG’s “The Next Phase”) but the rest of the story has to be just about pitch perfect to compensate. And that doesn’t happen here. Instead we get a trite love-triangle between Kirk, the Queen, and the man who pines for her. The whole scenario is brought about by the infertility of the planet’s inhabitants. Essentially, the Enterprise crew will soon become breeding stock for the hyper-aliens.

It’s obscure and awkward and just not very good.

As is the rest of the episode.

“Wink of an Eye” just fails to register any semblance of entertainment. Worse still is its utterly implausible sci-fi premise.

Filed under: Original Series