As they pass through the outer checkpoint, night mysteriously turns into day; they find everyone and everything, both on the studio lots and inside SHADO HQ, frozen in time.
However, Turner ambushes the pair, knocking Lake unconscious and stealing a key required to operate the missile.
To counter this, Straker - reasoning that Turner must still be nearby - shoots in a wide arc, hoping that at least one bullet will find its mark.
It comments that although Turner is "just a ranting maniac", his lack of characterisation "scarcely matters ... the plot is what drives this one", also praising the "drama" of the suspended-time premise and the episode's use of flashback.
[6] According to John Kenneth Muir, the episode is one of the series' best because it "operates on three levels of artistry": its "brilliant high concept" of SHADO being frozen in time; the platform given to for Bishop's "iron-willed character"; and the "self-reflexive" decision to set most of the action on a film studio backlot, which reminds viewers of the "essential artificiality and sleight-of-hand regularly deployed by films and television.
Muir also praises Colonel Lake's characterisation and notes that the episode's depiction of stimulant use prompted some ITV franchises to omit Timelash from their first runs of UFO.