Wink of an Eye (S03E13)
Airdate: November 29th 1968
Written by: Lee Cronin
Directed by: Jud Taylor
Running Time: 50 minutes
One of the most enduring frustrations for science fiction enthusiasts is encountering a concept brimming with intellectual promise, only to watch it squandered in a narrative that fails to grasp its full implications. This is precisely the tragedy of Wink of an Eye, the eleventh episode of Star Trek: The Original Series’ third season. While the episode’s central premise—humanoids experiencing time at drastically accelerated rates—could have served as a springboard for profound philosophical inquiry or existential drama, the execution under scriptwriter Gene L. Coon (credited under the pseudonym “Lee Cronin”) feels hurried, underexplored, and ultimately unsatisfying. For a series that prided itself on being “thinking man’s science fiction,” Wink of an Eye exemplifies the gap between ambition and the constraints of 1960s television production.
The episode opens with the USS Enterprise responding to a distress signal from Scalos, a planet once known for its advanced civilization. Upon beaming down, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his landing party discover no signs of life but faint, insect-like hum. The tension escalates when Compton (Geoffrey Binney), a redshirt whose brief screen time typifies his expendability, vanishes without explanation. A spooked Kirk orders an immediate return to the ship, but the Enterprise itself begins to malfunction. The crew soon realises they are under siege by an invisible force, as Kirk alone perceives his crew moving at a grotesquely slowed pace. The mystery unravels with the arrival of Deela (Kathie Browne), the leader of the Scalosians. She reveals her people’s plight: radiation poisoning has rendered them sterile and accelerated their metabolism to a speed imperceptible to “normal” humans. Their solution? Repopulate their species by exploiting the Enterprise crew as unwilling genetic donors. While Kirk feigns compliance to manipulate Deela, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) methodically decodes the mystery through logical analysis of sensor data.
This dual narrative—Kirk’s seductive cat-and-mouse game on the ship and Spock’s cerebral deduction in “real” time—should form the backbone of a tense, intellectually stimulating story. Instead, the resolution feels abrupt, providing a perfunctory defeat of the antagonists. The rushed conclusion highlights the episode’s structural flaws: a plot too ambitious for its 50-minute runtime, yet unwilling to commit to the complexity its premise demands.
The idea of disparate time experiences is hardly novel—earlier works like H.G. Wells’ The New Accelerator (1910) and the Twilight Zone episode The Little People (1962) had explored similar themes—but Wink of an Eye squanders its potential to engage with the concept’s ethical, biological, or psychological ramifications. How does accelerated time affect perception, memory, or emotion? What societal structures emerge when procreation is the sole purpose of existence? These questions are left unexamined. Coon’s script, plagued by the pacing issues that marred much of Season 3, prioritises action over introspection, reducing a high-concept sci-fi dilemma to a melodramatic hostage situation.
The Scalosians’ motivations further strain credibility. Their decision to abduct Kirk and his crew for forced breeding is both narratively expedient and ethically murky. While their desperation is understandable, the script fails to humanise them beyond their plot function. Rael (Jason Evers), Deela’s ex-partner, is reduced to a clichéd jealous lover, his overwrought outbursts undercutting the episode’s potential gravitas. Conversely, Compton’s abrupt, chilling transformation into a Scalosian agent—culminating in his death by rapid aging—stands as one of the franchise’s most inventive redshirt demises. His fate, while gruesome, at least acknowledges the horror inherent in the Scalosians’ methods, a nuance largely absent elsewhere.
Despite its narrative shortcomings, Wink of an Eye excels technically, particularly within the constraints of a third-season budget. Director Jud Taylor employs Dutch angles and slowed-down footage to depict the Enterprise crew’s frozen state, a visual trick that effectively conveys the disorientation of time acceleration. The Scalosians’ invisibility is cleverly implied through shimmering light effects and eerie, insectoid audio cues, while the ship-bound setting allows the episode to function as a “bottle episode” without sacrificing tension.
Costume designer Andrea Weaver, working under the guidance of legendary designer William Ware Theiss, deserves particular praise for Deela’s iconic outfit that epitomises Theiss’s signature blend of sensuality and futurism. Deela’s revealing attire—paired with Kathie Browne’s magnetic performance—positions her as one of Trek’s most memorable space sirens. Browne imbues the character with a mix of vulnerability and ruthlessness, creating a dynamic tension with Shatner’s Kirk. Their scenes crackle with chemistry, particularly in a risqué moment where the pair, post-coitus, are shown dressing together—a daring challenges to 1960s censorship that cemented Kirk’s reputation as a ladies’ man decades before Star Trek IV or Voyager softened the franchise’s romantic edges.
Time has not been kind to Wink of an Eye. Its reputation has dimmed further in light of Star Trek: Voyager’s superior two-parter Blink of an Eye, which reimagined the accelerated-time concept with greater depth, emotional resonance, and narrative ingenuity. Where Wink of an Eye treats time dilation as a gimmick, Blink of an Eye explores its impact on generations of a planetary civilization, weaving a poignant meditation on progress, legacy, and human connection. The contrast underscores the original episode’s wasted potential, serving as a reminder of how often Star Trek’s third season struggled to balance ambition with practicality.
Wink of an Eye is a curious artifact of Star Trek’s uneven final season. It is an episode that tantalises with its premise yet falters in execution, hindered by a rushed script, melodramatic subplots, and the limitations of 1960s television. Yet it is not without merit: its technical ingenuity, memorable performances, and provocative visuals ensure its place in the franchise’s annals.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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