Written by Arthur Heinemann, based on a story by Gene L. Coon (under the pen name Lee Cronin), and directed by Jud Taylor, it was first broadcast on November 29, 1968.
Suddenly, a beautiful woman in a colorful gown appears on the bridge and greets Kirk warmly before introducing herself: "Deela, the enemy," in response to the computer's designation of her people for their actions on the ship.
Kirk attempts to parley with Deela to stay with her on Scalos in return for having her people repair the Enterprise and release it with its crew, but she refuses his offer.
Kirk returns to Life Support and discovers that Compton is still alive, having also been accelerated, and is willingly working with the Scalosians, having taught the intruding aliens how to operate the Enterprise's systems.
Their plan, she explains, is to use the Enterprise crew to help propagate their species, whose men have been rendered sterile by the same natural disaster that caused their accelerated state.
Star Trek novelist Dayton Ward judged that "the setup for 'Wink of an Eye' is interesting enough at first blush — a race of beings who move through time at a rate so fast that they're all but undetectable.
Ward did admire the set design: "Clever use of tilted camera angles and lighting help to sell the illusion of the characters moving about the ship at their hyper-accelerated rate.
"[2] David Alan Mack, also a Star Trek novelist, wrote, "It's not a bad idea for an episode, but the execution on this one felt sorely lacking."
Club was unimpressed by the episode, assigning it a B− and noting some plot holes: "They manage to beam aboard the Enterprise somehow, which doesn't make a lot of sense, science-wise.
[5]StarTrekReviews.com found some praise: "There's no character interaction between our heroes, save for the wonderful moment when Kirk meets Spock in the corridor and simply smiles".
[6] This episode was released in Japan on December 21, 1993 as part of the complete season 3 LaserDisc set, Star Trek: Original Series log.3.