This Week's Episode: "Blink of an Eye"
Mission Image Archive for 'Blink of an Eye'
Summary: When Voyager becomes trapped in orbit of a bizarre planet, the residents of the planet begin to experience rapid evolution as they attempt to discover the object in the sky. Matters become more difficult when Voyager discovers that the planet exists at a time differential with the Universe, in which 1 second on Voyager and in the Universe equals one day on the planet. In order to escape from the planet, Janeway sends the Doctor to the planet to investigate.
Rating: 10
Best Scene: Seeing everyone frozen in time when the Astronaut and the Pilot arrive on Voyager.
Worst Scene: If they were going to leave the part in about the Doc having a son, they should have explained it a little more (adoption, etc??). If not, it should have made the cutting room floor.
Best acting award goes to: Pretty standard stuff from the ensemble Voyager cast. Everyone deserves a medal this week!
Best Line: "She was my .... room-mate" -- The Doc explaining to Janeway about his activities during his three years on the alien world.
Impressions: This is going to be short. Due to the inclement weather outdoors (we've had near blizzard conditions for the past two days), I'm never sure if the power is going to go off or not (something common in my neck of the woods when the wind picks up a little).
So, I rewarded another 10 out of 10 this season. For those who are counting, that is my third (the others being "One Small Step" and "Pathfinder"...oh, but you haven't gotten my review of "Pathfinder" yet....it had to have been good if it inspired me to re-open the page!) ten this season so far. And what a season it has been too. Overall, I've been very pleased with this season's progress. We've seen some really high quality stuff, and some pretty bad stuff too. 'Blink of an Eye" is the perfect example of high quality stuff. If there is one thing with Voyager that I think everyone can agree on is that when they (the writers and producers) find a good story line with a good plot, they can really make it work. Take for example such winners as "One Small Step", "Living Witness", "Scorpion I", and this weeks "Blink of an Eye": they are all examples of the high quality work that Voyager is capable of. It's just too bad that the show can't always be like this. Heck, I'd love to award every show a ten out of ten, but it just doesn't work that way. For some reason, Voyager, and often Star Trek in general, is a very un-even series; one week, it really shines ('One Small Step'), and the next week, it can really stink ('Voyager Conspiracy'). Although I do love Voyager, I will admit that the show lacks some of the overall writing quality that a show needs to be successful. Here and there they do suceed, but they need to make that success stick through every episode in the season. I think this is the Star Trek curse. I personally would be more than happy to see Star Trek end for a while, with no more movies for a couple more years. If the current regime are going to continue to make movies for the franchise, they need to be away from television for a while before they do (primarily because the TNG movies, all three of them, have felt just like a big episode with no commercials: they really need to get the gradiose and epic feeling that the TOS movies were able to accomplish. I'm afraid the only way they will be able to do so, is to stop writing for television for a while. Then, maybe they can make a Star Trek movie that feels like a movie. So, I guess I'm against them making a new series.)
Back to "Blink of an Eye". This show is Star Trek creativity at it's finest. Yes, we've seen the idea of time differentiation before (DS9's "The Sound of her Voice", which was never a favourite of mine...at least in 'Blink...", they use the concept of time differentiation to an overall more effective plot device.) One of the more interesting aspects about this episode is that it is written by a free-lancer; why is it that the freelance writers have a better grasp on the Star Trek universe than the current regime?! Just wondering.
The only thing which hurts this episode is the fact that it is only an hour show. This episode could have easily been a two parter, and I found that the last act of the show is really rushed and abrupt. I really enjoyed seeing the away from ship scenes on the planet: in fact, they were the more interesting scenes of the episode, and I would have liked to have seen more. The other aspect about the away from ship scenes is that the casting department got together a fairly good roundup of guest stars: they were all convincing, and I found they truly enriched the story and the episode as a whole. The other aspect I didn't enjoy was the Doc's 'oh, and I have a son on the planet...could you check up on what happened to him?? If they were going to use this, I really think they should have taken the time to explain it (but then again, the episode had to really speed in the last act when the Doc makes this revelation).
I'm not going to get into the technical aspect of the story, like whether the time differentiation thing lined up (if 1 day is 1 second, how can civilizations rise and fall so quickly?). I find that I can still enjoy the episode without dwelling on such trivial matters. I'm not a nitpick (even though it sounds that way from the Bloopers page), as I like to just sit back and enjoy the show on my first sitting...I use my second and following viewings to nitpick ;)
Perhaps the best part of "Blink of an Eye" is the slight twists the show is able to use. I myself was shocked when I saw the Voyager crew frozen, as I wasn't expecting it. I really enjoyed these scenes, particularly as I wouldn't let myself read any of the spoiler reviews before the episode. I find not knowing much about the episode before you go into it makes it all the more fun to watch.
A lot of people have been hyping this episode. I went in with not expectations, and I'm glad I did. It made it all the more enjoyable to watch. It's kinda like the movie "Galaxy Quest" (if you haven't seen it yet, it's worth the money to shell out to see it)...I went in expecting bad humour, but it was probably one of the best movies of 1999 in my opinion.
So overall, "Blink of an Eye" was an enjoyable hour of Voyager. Good overall acting by the Voyager cast, as well as the guest cast. The direction was pretty standard, and the sets and matte paintings on the planet were nicely executed. The pacing was pretty good throughout the show, except for the last act when the writing department decided to hit the fast forward button to have a rather abrupt ending. But, the show still worked, and it impressed me enough to give it a ten out of ten. If only Voyager could maintain this high quality, it would probably be one of the best Star Trek series. But perhaps our standards are too high now, since I watched an old repeat of TNG the other day, and I cringed throughout it. But then again, maybe not. See you next week! Time to go shoveling in the cold.....
