Blink of an Eye
Rating
Favorite Quotes
"We've lost him." --- Janeway
"You'll be the best looking blob on the planet!" --- Janeway
"The Weird Planet Displaced in Time." --- Seven's title for Naomi's Report
"That's one planet that never showed up on the multiple choice exam." --- Tom Paris
Synopsis
Voyager runs across an interesting planet. The crew decides to investigate, but they end up getting stuck in orbit. On the planet's surface, the ground shakes, and a brilliant star appears in the night sky. The star is Voyager, and it's responsible for the tremors.
In Astrometrics, Seven discovers that for every second that passes on Voyager, an entire day goes by on the planet. As the centuries pass by on the surface, the people who live there constantly try to contact the mysterious light, which is still causing tremors. Eventually, they discover that the light is actually a ship. They focus all of their efforts on trying to reach the ship in the sky.
Meanwhile, the Doctor goes to the surface to spy on the aliens. Something goes wrong, and B'Elanna can't bring him back to the ship. It takes several minutes, but she finally retrieves him. He seems shocked to see his fellow crewmen when he materializes in the transporter room. He shouts in delight, saying that he always knew they would rescue him. It turns out that the Doc was on the surface for several years, since he entered the planet's timeframe. While he was on the surface, he had a wife. He even had a son!
Finally, the aliens succeed. A manned spacecraft leaves the surface and heads for the mysterious vessel. However, the two astronauts onboard fail to realize that time passes incredibly quickly on their planet. Although they've only been in orbit for several minutes, years have gone by on the surface. They manage to dock with the ship. They open the hatch and enter a small room, which has access tubes going in every direction. They pull apart a nearby door. To their amazement, they find frozen people.
They soon realize that the poeple aren't frozen, they're just moving a lot slower than they are. The two aliens head for the bridge. They can't wait to return to their poeple with news about their discovery. When they reach the bridge, they begin to phase into the ship's timeframe. One of the astronauts, a woman, doesn't survive the transition. The other one, a young man, mananges to pull through the ordeal and survive, thanks to the Doctor's extensive knowledge of the alien's physiology.
The alien man is overwhelmed by the whole experience. All of his life he's seen the sky ship and dreamed of visiting it. He even had sky ship toys when he was a kid. He's living his dream, but he becomes sad when he realizes that everyone he knew and loved on his world died centuries ago. When his poeple begin to launch weapons at Voyager, he agrees to return to the surface. At first, they refuse to let him land, telling him that he's been dead for centuries. He lands anyway, and he tells his people everything about the sky ship.
A couple of years later, the aliens develop tractor beams. They send up two more vessels. The vessels have shields which keep them in the planet's timeframe. They pull Voyager out of orbit, stopping the tremors. As the poeple on the surface watch, the bright light slowly fades away and continues its journey home.
My Thoughts
I wasn't really expecting to like "Blink of an Eye", but I did. Actually, I loved it. It was a wonderful and thoughtful episode, which featured some great acting by the guest stars and the regular cast. I truly felt sorry for the alien astronaut who finally achieved his dream only to realize that everyone he had ever loved was gone. I was worried that he would never be able to return to his home. Luckily, he was able to do so at the episode's end. The actor who portrayed him did a superb job, as did all of the other actors who portrayed aliens in "Blink of an Eye". As I mentioned earlier, the regular cast also turned in some notable performances. Robert Picardo was one of them. The Doctor spent many years on the planet's surface waiting for Captain Janeway to rescue him. It was interesting to see how attached he had become to the planet and its people. He was a huge fan of the planet's sports teams, and he even got married and had a son! Besides the acting, one of the best things about "Blink of an Eye" was the musical score. It was composed by Paul Baillargeon, and it's easily my favorite score of the season. It was magnificent. Oh, the special effects team did a pretty good job this week. I was impressed by the alien rocket ship, as well as the various shots of the alien planet's landscape. Well, "Blink of an Eye" was an unexpected surprise, and it's one of my favorite episodes yet. If you hadn't guessed already, it's another enthusiastic 10.00 out of 10.00! NEXT WEEK : An alien abducts Seven of Nine and forces her to fight in a deadly game.
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