"Blink of an Eye" is the twelfth episode from the sixth season of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, 132nd episode overall. The show is set in the 24th century of the Star Trek universe, aboard the USS Voyager spaceship on a decades long journey back to Earth.
The episode follows the crew's interaction with a world where time passes rapidly, allowing them to witness most of its inhabitants' history. For the inhabitants, Voyager is fixed in the night sky, inspiring them as the eons pass. The science-driven aspect of this concept is time dilation, which is a real-world physical effect that must even be accounted for regarding the time of communications signals from satellites in Earth orbit.
This television episode debuted on United Paramount Network (UPN) on January 19, 2000.[2]
Plot
The starship Voyager approaches an alien world which is enveloped in a tachyon field, giving it an odd temporal nature. To learn more about the planet, Captain Kathryn Janeway orders the ship to move closer, but Voyager becomes trapped in orbit by the planet's magnetic field. While the crew concocts an escape plan, Seven of Nine surveys the planet and discovers that Voyager's presence is causing occasional quakes. Further scans reveal that time passes at a much more rapid rate on the planet and it is inhabited by primitive humanoids.
The crew determines the planet experiences 58 sunrises per minute of shipboard time. As hours on Voyager pass, centuries pass on the planet and its humanoid inhabitants reach a level of technology similar to 20th-century Earth. As the crew discusses the unusually rapid technological progress of the species, a radio message is broadcast at Voyager. Tom Paris wants to reply but Tuvok points out that the species has not developed warp technology; a reply would be a violation of the Prime Directive. Janeway suggests a covert one-person mission to the planet. As he would not be affected by the change in the passage of time because he is a hologram, the Doctor volunteers for the mission, which, due to the time differential, lasts three years from the Doctor's perspective, even though he is only gone from the ship for minutes. Upon returning, he reports that Voyager, simply by its presence, has encouraged the society to advance as the humanoids attempt to contact the "sky-ship". While some strive to establish peaceful contact, others are developing increasingly powerful weaponry to shoot down Voyager and stop the earthquakes.
The humanoids develop technology sophisticated enough to send astronauts on a crewed mission to make contact with the sky-ship. A capsule is launched and succeeds in docking with Voyager. Its two astronauts, a male and female, begin to explore the ship, which appears frozen in time, but fall unconscious from the stress of adjusting to the different space-time. The bodies are found on the bridge and are taken to sickbay. The female dies from the shock of adjustment but the male, Gotana-Retz, is successfully treated whilst Voyager is hit by a bombardment of antimatterartillery.
Janeway urges Gotana-Retz to return to the planet and convince them to cease the attack. Gotana-Retz does so just after Voyager'sshields collapse. Suddenly, two spaceships appear alongside Voyager and use tractor beams to tow the vessel out of the planet's field. A visibly older Gotana-Retz briefly transports to Voyager to explain what has happened and Janeway thanks him and his people. On the surface, an elderly Gotana-Retz, long returned from his experience in space, gazes wistfully into the sky as his people's sky-ship vanishes from the heavens.
Producer Brannon Braga said it was a challenging episode to put together: "It was a very ambitious episode. We did our best to depict the evolution of a civilization over the course of thousands of years. I thought it was fun to go from seeing primitive people to seeing space travel. It had a very large cast and lots of sets, special effects, a very high-concept show."[3]
This episode is noted for the performance of Daniel Dae Kim as Gotana-Retz, who was already known to sci-fi fans for Crusade. He would later appear in Star Trek: Enterprise and became widely known for his role in the hit 2000s TV show Lost[5] and a starring role on the re-imagined Hawaii Five-0.
Olaf Pooley, who played the Cleric, was married to director Gabrielle Beaumont.[1]
In 2016, Blink of an Eye was ranked 5th out of 15 of the top episodes of Voyager by The Hollywood Reporter.[5]Den of Geek ranked "Blink of an Eye" among the top 50 Star Trek episodes.[7] The episode was also ranked as one of the top 10 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager in 2018 by ThoughtCo.[8]Gizmodo ranked "Blink of an Eye" as the 46th out of 100 of the best of all Star Trek television episodes as of 2014.[9] SyFy ranked "Blink of an Eye" among the top ten Star Trek: Voyager episodes.[10] In 2017, it was ranked by Medium, as the 11th best time travel plot in Star Trek.[11]
In 2016, the episode was highlighted for being a Star Trek episode that did not have a villain in the traditional sense; rather, it explored the impact of technological influence between two cultures.[12]
In 2011, Tor.com included this as one of six episodes of Star Trek: Voyager that are worth re-watching.[15]
In 2013, The Guardian recommended this episode as one of six Star Trek episodes, out of all episodes of the franchise up to that time.[16]
In 2015, Den of Geek suggested "Blink of an Eye" for a binge-watching guide that focused on Star Trek: Voyager episodes featuring time travel.[17]
In 2016, Vox rated this one of the top 25 essential episodes of all Star Trek.[18]
In 2018, CBR ranked this one of the top-twenty time travel themed episodes of all Star Trek series.[19]
In 2020, SyFy Wire ranked this episode the 10th best episode of Star Trek: Voyager, a ranking it shared with the episode "Relativity" in their review. They praise "Blink of an Eye" for being a "surprisingly poignant episode" with an emotional and nuanced story.[20]
In 2020, The Digital Fix said this was by far the best episode in season 6, with innovative story telling of bold science fiction concept, and concluded it was one of the greatest episodes in the whole series.[21]
In 2020, ScreenRant said this was the number one best episode of Star Trek: Voyager, based on an IMDB rating of 9.1 out of 10.[14]
In 2021, ScreenRant said that "Blink of an Eye" was the third best time travel story of the entire Star Trek television franchise.[22]
Expanded universe
The 2005 Star Trek novel Star Trek: Voyager: Distant Shores Anthology includes a short story 'Eighteen Minutes' that is set during Blink of an Eye.[23] Star Trek novels are based on Star Trek universe canon but are themselves not considered a part of canon.[24]
Releases
This episode was released as part of a season 6 DVD boxset on December 7, 2004.[25]
Related Research Articles
"Caretaker" is the series premiere of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. It was first broadcast as a double-length episode on January 16, 1995, as the first telecast of the fledgling UPN network. It was later split into two parts for syndication, but released in its original one-episode format on DVD and streaming services. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet and Maquis crew of the starship USS Voyager after they are stranded in the Delta Quadrant far from the rest of the Federation.
"Timeless" is the sixth episode of the fifth season of Star Trek: Voyager, was also the series' 100th episode.
"Message in a Bottle" is the 14th episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the 82nd episode overall. It aired on January 21, 1998 on the UPN network.
"Deadlock" is the 37th episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 21st episode of the second season. In this television show, part of the Star Trek franchise, a Federation ship is stranded on the opposite side of the Galaxy as Earth in the late 2300s. On its way home the starship encounters many species of aliens and outer space phenomenon. In this episode their ship is split into two versions of itself sharing the same power source, while being attacked by a species of organ harvesting aliens known as the Vidiian.
"Counterpoint" is the 104th and tenth episode of the fifth season of Star Trek: Voyager. In this space science fiction television show, a spacecraft, the Federation's USS Voyager is stranded on the wrong side of the galaxy as it must slowly makes its way home to Earth. In this episode, Voyager and its crew encounter the Devore aliens, posing particularly difficult choices for the ship's captain, Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway.
"Course: Oblivion" is the 112th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the 18th episode of the fifth season. It is a sequel to the fourth-season episode "Demon".
"Relativity" is the 118th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager airing on the UPN network. It is the 24th episode of the fifth season.
"Threshold" is the 31st episode of American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager and the 15th episode in its second season. It first aired on UPN on January 29, 1996.
"Time and Again" is the fourth episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. The episode first aired on January 30, 1995, on the UPN television network.
"Eye of the Needle" is the seventh episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. The screenplay was written by Bill Dial and Jeri Taylor based on a story by Hilary Bader, and it was directed by Winrich Kolbe. It premiered on UPN on February 20, 1995.
"Future's End" is a two-part episode from the third season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the eighth and ninth of the season and the 50th and 51st overall. "Future's End" made its debut on American television in November 1996 on the UPN network in two separate broadcasts, on November 6 and 13, 1996.
"Shattered" is the 157th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, aired on the UPN network. It is the 10th episode of the seventh season.
"Workforce" is a two-part episode from the seventh and final season of the TV series Star Trek: Voyager. Part one was directed by Allan Kroeker, and part two by Roxann Dawson. The crew of the USS Voyager finds themselves working on a planet, but troubling memories are resurfacing.
"Year of Hell" is a two-part episode from the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager which aired on UPN in November 1997. It aired in two parts, on November 5 and November 11, 1997. Part I was directed by Allan Kroeker and Part II by Mike Vejar; it was written by Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky. This includes a number of guest stars, including Kurtwood Smith.
"Q2" is the 19th episode of the seventh season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. It initially aired on the UPN network as the 165th episode of the series, and was directed by Star Trek: The Next Generation castmember LeVar Burton.
"Friendship One" is the 167th episode of the science fiction television series, Star Trek: Voyager, the 21st episode of the seventh season. A 24th century spacecraft and its crew encounter a planet enduring a nuclear winter. The episode was written by Michael Taylor and Bryan Fuller and directed by Mike Vejar.
"The Killing Game" is a two-part episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the 18th and 19th episodes of the fourth season. In the episode, a Hirogen hunting party has taken over Voyager and put its crew to work as living holodeck characters. Their minds are controlled by neural interfaces which make them believe they are their characters, and the Hirogen hunt them in two holodeck programs. These are the third and fourth episodes of the Hirogen story arc.
"Coda" is the 57th episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 15th episode of the third season. This science fiction television show episode focuses on the characters Janeway and Chakotay of the Federation spacecraft USS Voyager. In the 24th century, a spaceship Captain and first officer are traveling by shuttlecraft back to USS Voyager when they have an incident.
"Spirit Folk" is the 137th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager airing on the UPN network. It is the 17th episode of the sixth season. Set in the science fiction universe of Star Trek, the titular USS Voyager spacecraft is stranded on the other side of the Galaxy as Earth and the United Federation of Planets. In this installment, the crew go on an adventure in the holodeck, but things go wrong.
"Scorpion" is a two-part episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager that served as the last episode of its third season and the first episode of its fourth season. "Scorpion" introduced the Borg drone Seven of Nine and Species 8472 to the series.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
