Star Trek Epsiode 68, Season 3:
Wink of an Eye
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Episode #: | << 68 >> |
|---|---|
| Air #: | << 66 >> |
| Season: | 3 |
| Air Date: | 1968-11-29 |
| Stardate: | 5710.5 |
| Writer: | Gene L. Coon |
| Story: | |
| Director: | Jud Taylor |
| Guests: | Kathie Brown (Deela), Jason Evers, Eric Holland, Geoffrey Binney |
While exploring an outer quadrant of the Galaxy, the Enterprise receives a distress call from the planet Scalos. A group of five Scalosians claims to be the last survivors of a civilization of 900,000. However, a landing party consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Compton is unable to locate the source of the transmission. Kirk thinks he detects the buzzing of insects, but the tricorder does not register them. Queer goings-on follow when Compton mysteriously disappears right in front of McCoy.
When Kirk and the landing party return to the Enterprise, a number of malfunctions occur aboard the ship which cannot be explained. As Kirk is being examined for ill effects, he again notices the buzzing sound he had heard on the surface, and correctly concludes that aliens have been beamed aboard.
Spock detects an alien machine being installed into the environmental control, but two security guards are not permitted to enter the chamber. Kirk and Spock are allowed to proceed, but when Spock attempts to disconnect the machine, he is prevented by a force field. When Kirk and Spock attempt to phaser the device, their phasers instantaneously disappear.
Back on the bridge, Kirk's coffee is drugged, and his metabolism is accelerated as a result. In accelerated phase, Kirk meets the Scalosians who have been beamed aboard, including the Scalosian queen Deela, who greets Kirk by embracing and kissing him. Kirk tries to stun Deela, but she steps aside before the normal-speed phaser beam can get close. Kirk rushes to the life support room, but is blocked from entering by Compton. Kirk forces his way past, but is then stunned by the Scalosians. However, Compton is injured by the Scalosian head scientist, suffers cell damage, and Kirk witnesses the rapid aging which results in Compton's immediate death.
Because the Scalosian men are sterile, the crew members of the Enterprise are to be frozen by a machine hooked in the life-support system and used as mating stock for generations to come. The Scalosians have been forced to use this technique of propagation ever since their water was polluted by radiation released by volcanic eruptions, resulting in sterility of the males. Kirk himself is to be the husband of Deela, much to the chagrin of her chief scientist Real.
Kirk makes a tape for Spock in which he explains all this and places it in a tape slot for McCoy to find. He then sabotages the transporter so that he cannot be beamed down in order to gain more time, and also pretends to be smitten with Deela in order to steal her weapon.
McCoy discovers the tape, and Spock is able to read it by greatly slowing it down. Meanwhile, Real is jealous of Kirk's romancing of Deela and attacks him before Deela makes him stop at phaser-point. Bones discovers a way to decelerate Kirk, and Spock accelerates himself to the Scalosian level by drinking Scalosian water (before McCoy can stop him) in order to deliver the remedy. Real activates the device in life support, but Kirk then steals Deela's weapon. He meets up with Spock, and the two of them stun Real. They also destroy the Scalosian machine.
The Scalosians are returned to their planet to live out the rest of their lives, recognizing that the Federation will not permit any more Starships to enter the area. Kirk successfully tries McCoy's concoction and returns to normal speed in front of a surprised Scotty. Meanwhile, Spock repairs damage to the Enterprise in record speed while still hyperaccelerated.