STAR TREK
"Wink of an Eye"

From Wikipedia:

"Wink of an Eye" is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, and was first broadcast on November 29, 1968. It was repeated on June 24, 1969. It is episode #66, production #68, and was written by Arthur Heinemann, based on a story by Lee Cronin, and directed by Jud Taylor.

Overview: Invisible "time-accelerated" aliens take over the Enterprise and attempt to abduct the crew for use as "genetic stock".

More here.

Watch it here, another one of those digitally remastered versions.

Notes and pics:

* Scotty in command!



* Quick teasers are always appreciated. I mean, let's just get to it, why don't we?

* You hear the lyric-less singing in the theme song much more prominently with these digitally remastered jobs.

* Good sick bay visit.



* Discovering the force field is a nice moment. Phaser fire is cool, too.





* Kind of plodding so far, but engaging.

* The coffee shots are very Hitchcock.



* Very trippy going into fast-time.

* Nice canted screen. Gives a very off-kilter feeling.





* Kirk smooches a babe.



* I love her psyche-sexua-delic costume.



* Red Shirt Compton: "I'm sorry, sir, entry is forbidden." What a smarmy, obviously gay, butthole surfer boy. He may very well be the best and most fleshed-out red shirt of all time. Of course, he has to die.

* Compton's speech is sublimely bad. But pretty great.



* His death is totally meaningless and anti-climactic. A bit boring, even. The perfect red shirt death.



* Spock: "Mr. Sulu, did you drink your coffee?"

Sulu: "Yes."

Spock: "Did anyone else?"

Scotty: "I had some."

This plot just keeps slowing down, but it's all working as a sort of exercise in frustration.



* This guy is a real Charlton Heston type. I mean, not so grandiose, but in the same family. Love his metallic suit.



* Hmmm. Sex aliens. We're moving into Logan's Run territory here.



* Really long discussion on the morality of kidnapping spacemen to have sex with them for species survival. And the frozen figures of Chapel, McCoy, and Spock give this scene a real Verfremdungseffekt.



* Kirk's ruse in the transporter room is really fucking funny. He's doing that lying thing seen back in "Mirror Mirror," but he's over the top with it.



* I'm starting to think this is Star Trek's Brechtian episode.

* Okay, Spock watching a scene from earlier in the episode is f'ing weird.



* Kirk pulling on his boots. Did they just smash?



* Kirk's using his will of Landru face here. The same music's playing, too.



* Spock drinking the Scalosian water. This is like feeling the acid slowly kick in.



* Nice moment when Spock repairs the ship at super speed.

* Spock: "I found it an accelerating experience." WTF?

* Okay, I really enjoyed this a whole lot more than I was expecting to. It lingers in my memory as being below average, and there's probably a reason for that. It's got some goofy stuff, and moves more slowly than pretty much any other 60s Trek episode, but, in the end, all these seeming disadvantages work in favor of "Wink of an Eye." This is more like weird cabaret avant-garde theater than anything else. If you embrace the slowness of it all, decide to love the still disengagement of the Enterprise crew as seen from accelerated time, dig the hints of what will historically turn out to be a creepy 70s sexual vibe, this one's a lot of fun. Imagine it all done with the actors using German accents, and you'll get the idea.

Four stars.

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