Mark Watches ‘Star Trek’: S03E11 – Wink of an Eye

In the eleventh episode of the third season of Star Trek, WHAT. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek. 

Trigger Warning: For nonconsensual drugging

The Setup 

Truthfully, this episode has one of the best premises of the whole show, so I wanted to talk about why this episode works – up to a point. From inventive camera angles to the haunting mystery, “Wink of an Eye” is an experience. Until Kirk finds out what’s actually happening, we’re just in the dark as he is. We’re led to think that some sort of minuscule insect, like a mosquito, is responsible for… chaos? Sabotage? Of course, it’s an absurd idea, but it’s the only thing we have to go on until it’s all explained to us. We heard the buzzing down on Scalos, and we hear it onboard the Enterprise.

That mystery fuels a lot of frustration, and lord, it’s entertaining. It was fun to try and figure out what was going on here, particularly since the writers kept practically everything a secret until the big reveal. And even when Deela finally appeared, I didn’t feel like this episode lost its steam; if anything, I was even more thrilled by what I was seeing. The idea is just so good. Here’s a race of people who can’t be seen because they move too fast to be observed in real-time. Even more haunting is the fact that they weren’t originally like this; it was exposure to radiation that created this circumstance. So this is a case of survivors desperate to stay alive, despite that most of their people have already died. There are only five Scolosians left. FIVE. Out of over nine hundred thousand. So I understood that they felt like they had to do something drastic to guarantee that they wouldn’t die out.

But oh lord.

The Fallout

It’s my fault that I forgot that Deela explained within the episode that all their men were now sterile. But even if I do factor this in to their behavior… no. This doesn’t make any sense. How are two different species supposed to mate??? Like, this is categorically bad science, so bad that it’s actually distracting. And I am not a science nitpicker when it comes to sci-fi, I swear. I’ll buy pretty much anything because it’s fiction. But this? It’s just nonsensical. None of this plan makes sense!

Let’s put aside the bad science. Why are you freezing the Enterprise? What are you going to do with all the people who can’t impregnate you? Why do you need to freeze them when YOU LITERALLY EXPERIENCE TIME DIFFERENT THAN THEM? Like, this is so glaring to me because we constantly see how slow time moves relative to the Scalosians, so freezing them is just absurdly pointless. In the span it will take Deela pregnant and give birth, maybe five minutes will have passed in the real world? Okay, I’m exaggerating, but you understand the point I’m trying to make, right? It just seems ridiculous!

Again, though, I’m willing to put aside all of the bad science and theorizing because the worst part of this is that Deela is convinced that every person she asks to impregnate her will do it. Like… WHAT????? OKAY, to be fair, both Compton and Kirk appear to have at least temporarily fall under her spell, but without any way to compel them to do this, what is she hoping for? That every crew member she asks for sex will just eventually cave in because they don’t have any other options? HOW IS THIS A GOOD PLAN WORTH EXPENDING ENERGY OVER?

It’s just a bad execution of a wonderful premise. It had so much hope! But “Wink of an Eye” ends with the Scolosians abandoned on their planet with no hope of any help at all, destined to die off, and Spock’s just delighted to make puns. (It was a good pun, I’ll admit that.) Is no one concerned about this entire species dying off? Do they deserve it for being awful? WHY AREN’T THESE QUESTIONS BEING ANSWERED?

Oh, “Wink of an Eye.” You showed so much promise!

The video for “Wink of an Eye” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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