Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Blink of an Eye ($$$$)

This is topic Blink of an Eye ($$$$) in forum General Trek at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://flare.solareclipse.net/ultimatebb.php/topic/3/942.html

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

I've tried to find the trailer for this one, and can't find it ...

Anyone REALLY know what this one is about?? Continuum doesn't offer much of a discription these days ... and usually they offer the trailer.. but no joy this time 'round..

This is all I've found really:

"1/19/2000 - Blink of an Eye
While Voyager orbits a planet on which time passes so quickly that civilizations rise and fall in a matter of moments, generations of scientists try to figure out what the unusual object in the sky orbiting their world is and try to make contact with it."

Is anyone finding this concept a little beyond science?? Time is constant isn't it??

I mean the life span of a being can be really fast, and as such, their rate of development equally quick, causing fast civilization development, but isn't time a constant - Unless the planet is in some sort of natural warp bubble!!??

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!!

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax;

[This message has been edited by Alshrim Dax (edited January 17, 2000).]

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

And is there such a thing as a Natural Warp Bubble in Star Trek??

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!! :)

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax;

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

*screams* What does it matter how scientifically plausible a concept is if it's a good story?

Pardon me. I'm just a little tired of people nitpicking and condemning episodes before they've been aired.

The trailer makes it look really good, actually (a feat for UPN! ): http://www.trektoday.com/downloads/voyager_blink_of_an_eye.shtml

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

Agreed Elim...

------------------
"All the lonely people, where do they all come from" - Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles.

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

Here, here!! Wait for the bloody thing to come out then I'll be right aboard in nitpicking the hell out of any continuity problems.

However, I also agree that in the Trek universe, as long as an explanation is offered, I don't mind if that explanation bends science a touch. As long as it's a good story and there's a reason for doing so. "Threashhold" does not fit into this catagory!!

------------------
"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx

Aban's Illustration www.thespeakeasy.com/alanfore

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

I'm not trying to nitpik .. nor am I condemning it.. I'm asking if anyone's got any news on this ep.

And I don't judge the eps by how real they are.. I enjoy a the fantasy as much as the next ... But I like it to be consistant .. That's all.

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!! :)

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax;

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

There was a race in TOS whose time ran at a different rate than everyone else's, wasn't there?

And, of course, if the trailer makes it look good, and we know that recent Voyager eps have nothing to do w/ their trailers, doesn't that mean the episode will probably be bad? ;-)

------------------
"If you attempt to return the device to the store, and you are missing one single peanut, the store personnel will laugh in the chilling manner exhibited by Joseph Stalin just after he enslaved Eastern Europe."

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

Yes, in the episode "Wink of an Eye." Wait a minute...

------------------
Frank's Home Page
"I can't remember stuff." - John Linnell

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

In fact, "Wink" only featured people who had really fast metabolisms. They didn't live in a "time bubble" or anything - they just lived and moved very fast. Their planet rotated at a normal rate, their water flowed slowly enough...

"Wink" and "Blink" will probably be endlessy cross-compared, but it may turn out they have very little in common beyond the "Ink of an Eye" part.

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by warbird5 on :

ST:VOY stole the idea of a civilization growing at an incredible pace from the Simpsons. Lisa had her own civilization, remember?

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Er...that was a reference to a Twilight Zone episode, you realize.

------------------
"20th Century, go to sleep."
--
R.E.M.

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

"Oops. Finger slipped." -Bart Simpson, wiping out hundreds of tiny people with one hand

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

Just saw it...I think that this episode rivaled "Genesis" in terms of sheer disregard for science, but it wasn't bad, compared to last week's episode.

------------------
Frank's Home Page
"I can't remember stuff." - John Linnell

Posted by grb on :

Well, actually, time isn't constant. it all depends on your point of view. If someone was looking at the clock on my wall from the andromeda galaxy, they would see that my clock was running slower than theirs. Actually, i would also see their clock running slow compared to mine....There is a reason why, its just a little too complicated to say it here.

------------------
Obviously you refuse to cooperate with me. Obviously you have no discipline to kepp the mouth shut. Obviously you don't. Let's try it that way, then you might get the hint. How many more minutes are we going to waste asking you not to talk? How many more!?!

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

Well..

I LOVED IT

It was entertaining.. a lot went on.. and they didn't leave you hanging..

For sheer entertainment value.. I thought it was great... And remembering that it is Science Fiction... I almost found the explaination about the planet believable..

Two thumbs up !!

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!! :)

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax;

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

"I almost found the explaination about the planet believable.."

I can appreciate the entertainment value of the episode, but, uh, not this this statement.

------------------
Frank's Home Page
"I can't remember stuff." - John Linnell

Posted by Obese Penguin (Member # 271) on :

I loved this Episode also , it was very entertaining , it went back to the principales of Trek , and it brought back the Prime Directive and the conflict that the officers have with it , Its going to be fun to see what Starfleet Command thinks about this little run in

Please let the writers of Voyager pick up on that , i really want to see an ep or 2 with Janeway and the crew explaining there actions to the Fed Council.

------------------
"Marge .. Do you have other men in this House ? .. Radioactive men?"
~Homer "The Simpsons"

Jupiter Station , Starfleet Research & Development

[This message has been edited by Dhunter (edited January 19, 2000).]

Posted by bear (Member # 124) on :

That is kind of harsh Frank.

------------------
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/9268/index.html

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

Well, simply put, the "explanation" for the planet was nonsense. I mean, a collapsed star? Tachyon core? Do they just pick random technobabble out of nowhere these days?

------------------
Frank's Home Page
"I can't remember stuff." - John Linnell

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

*refers Frank to his own status line* You really need to ask that?

Posted by Gepta001 (Member # 231) on :

So that one astronaut is from that Crusade tv show right? What entrance to the bridge was it that they used? It wasn't the turbolift!! Have we seen that door used before? Does anyone have a good pic, or archetechtual drawing of the bridge?

------------------
"Hey you...you talkin to me?"
"Show me your steel"
"I will show you my iron claw technique!"

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

All I'm saying, Frank, is that the explaination about the planet was good enough for me not to care about how real it is..

It just wasnt' a planet with a different time differential !!

And .. Earth has a Magnetic Core ...

Who's to say a Tachyon core isn't plausible.. As I said .. it took a good imagination to think that up... I liked the idea. I'm gald they didn't use "a different layer of subspace" again !! That's what I'm happy about. I'm getting sick to death 'subspace layer' theory.

And what is Tachyon.. ?? ISn't that a made-up technobabble word in itself?? OR is it a real word of science ...?? I'm really not sure.. can anyone, scientifcally inclined clarify that for me. Isn't it just a theory.. cuz we certainly don't have any here on our planet .. or surrounding area as far as I know.

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!! :)

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax;

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

"All I'm saying, Frank, is that the explaination about the planet was good enough for me not to care about how real it is.."

What if they said that it had a jelly-filled core?

"Who's to say a Tachyon core isn't plausible.."

Because tachyons probably don't exist. And, even if they did, they always move faster than the speed of light, so I don't see how they would stay in the core of a planet, or how they got there in the first place.

------------------
Frank's Home Page
"I can't remember stuff." - John Linnell

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

Well then, if they don't exsist, how can you argue that a tachyon core isn't plausible?? It's the product of someone's imagination... the whole premise of Space travel outside our own planet is unphathomable right now.. Cripes, we can't even get to Mars !!!

And you still argue that Tachyon's are always on the move and that they can't be the core of a planet like it's scientific fact, when it's not.. How can you say one things not scientifically possible based on something that doesn't even exist?! SO if the planet's not possible, are tachyons possible??

Where do YOU draw the line between fact and fiction?

You will say that the law's of science have been completely thrown out the window, but yet you'll accept the 'Tachyon' theory as if it can be a scientic probability...

Do you see what I'm saying... I accept the fact that alot of the stuff in ST is fictitious .. the Cochrane for instance is a made up variable to make Warp Drive possible in the ST world .. In the Sixties, the whole idea was craziness. That's one of the reasons it didn't make it.

So now, in the Ninties/2000's, someone comes up with a totally unique idea; it's never been done before, and it gets slammed !!

I applaud the writer's creativity !!

Elim, help me here !! I fighting your good fight !!

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!!

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax;

[This message has been edited by Alshrim Dax (edited January 20, 2000).]

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

"Well then, if they don't exsist, how can you argue that a tachyon core isn't plausible??"

Tachyons are theoretical particles with associated properties. If they do exist, they wouldn't be in a planet's core.

"the whole premise of Space travel outside our own planet is unphathomable right now"

Er, there has been travel to the moon.

"I applaud the writer's creativity !!"

I'll remember this when we get a jelly-filled planet on the show. I mean, anyone can spout nonsense, but that doesn't make it "creative."

------------------
Frank's Home Page
"I can't remember stuff." - John Linnell

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

I can answer the question regarding tachyon particles with my handy Star Trek Science Logs book. Here's what it says (oh, and tachyons do not exist):

"Tachyon are hypothetical particles, conceived by theoretical physicists, that can only travel faster than light. Tachyons have never been observed in nature, but they do not violate the special theory of relativity, as long as they never travel at or slower than the speed of light. In some ways tachyons "mirror" the properties of ordinary matter. For example, when a tachyon loses energy it actually speeds up. If a tachyon were accelerated to infinite velocity, its energy would drop to zero. Tachyons also have the curious property that they travel backward, not forward, in time. To the mind of a theoretical physicist, this bizarre conjecture isn't necessarily that hard to swallow. Richard Feynman once noted that from the point of view of the laws of physics, antimatter particles could be thought of as ordinary matter moving backwards in time; i.e., a positron can be treated as an electron traveling backward in time."

So there you go. If a planet had a tachyon core it would have an accelerated, almost instantious evolution. Unfortuantly for me, UPN airs college basketball in place of Voyager so I have to wait till Saturday.

------------------
Calvin: "I'm killing time while I wait for life to shower me with meaning and happiness"
Hobbes: "I hope you're comfy."
Federation Starship Datalink - Starship site of the new millennium.

[This message has been edited by Hobbes (edited January 20, 2000).]

Posted by Epoch (Member # 136) on :

Frank you really know how to suck the life right out of everything. Is it just that you hate Voyager so much that even when there is a good episode you have to find something wrong with it. It was a good show that I found entertaining and worth while.

------------------
Death before Dishonor!
However Dishonor has
quite a disputed defintion.

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

"Is it just that you hate Voyager so much that even when there is a good episode you have to find something wrong with it."

Look, the properties they gave the planet constitues a serious scientific flaw. It's like saying the planet was made out of foam rubber.

When they did this same thing in "Timescape" (TNG) they didn't explain the cause of the wacky time problems. Since none of this has any real basis, the writers didn't need to damage this episode by demonstrating their ignorance about the terms they're using.

------------------
Frank's Home Page
"I can't remember stuff." - John Linnell

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

You heard it here first, everyone: Nitpicks and scientific plausibility over story!

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

I wouldn't go that far, but if they're going to violate the laws of physics, they don't need to give us a nonsensical explanation along with it. They could even have had Tuvok say that the planet violates the laws of physics.

------------------
Frank's Home Page
"I can't remember stuff." - John Linnell

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

I like the Jelly-Filling Idea too..

Good for the next series..

USS Jelly Donut goes to Boston Cream filled Planet for shore leave, only to be attacked by the evil Tim Bits !!

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!!

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax:
Live Long and Prosper

[This message has been edited by Alshrim Dax (edited January 20, 2000).]

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Strawberry or raspberry jelly? Because I'd spend a few days on the raspberry jelly world, but I don't think the strawberry one would be worth the extra time, really. Not that I don't like strawberries, or strawberry jelly, but a whole planet?

------------------
"20th Century, go to sleep."
--
R.E.M.

Posted by Xentrick (Member # 64) on :

hilarious science aside, I liked this episode.

Of course, I liked it the first time I saw it: in the book "Dragon's Egg," by Forward.

Pity the poor tribal priest or medieval Protector or astronomer, waiting their entire lives for answers to scientific questions that will never come.

Just like us

Posted by Gepta001 (Member # 231) on :

as long as it is not cranberry Jelly, I like the idea.

------------------
"Hey you...you talkin to me?"
"Show me your steel"
"I will show you my iron claw technique!"

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

Cranberry Jelly is unworthy of the name Cranberry.

Alshrim... That's probably the first time I've ever seen someone use the words "Tim Bits" so creatively on the Net!

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

I appreciate the complement Elim.

I'd like to think that I have an "over"-active imagination sometimes !!!

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!! :)

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax:
<a href="http://pub5.ezboard.com/bstar48987">Live Long and Prosper</a>

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

Although I doubt most people know what Tim Bits are...

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

Has been. Isn't now.

------------------
Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

What are "Tim Bits"? This isn't some sort of plot to disassociate various pieces of my body, is it? :-)

------------------
"Voyager is not true. If it were true, the ship would not look spick-and-span every week, after all these battles it goes through. How many times has the bridge been destroyed? How many shuttlecrafts have vanished, and another one just comes out of the oven? That kind of bullshitting the audience I think takes its toll."
-Ronald D. Moore

Posted by Alshrim Dax (Member # 258) on :

Nay, friend..

Tim Bits are donut holes from Tim Horton's !!

Canadian thing !!

------------------
I feel more like I do now, then when I first got here!! :)

- Alshrim Dax
The Other Dax:
<a href="http://pub5.ezboard.com/bstar48987">Live Long and Prosper</a>

Posted by Marko Latin on :

TSN. About your signature...did you ever think that they REPAIR the voyager every once in a while...and about the scorch marks on the hull...well...maybe they make Harry go out in a space suit and clean that off...

------------------
Dream on...in the end...dreams are everything...

Posted by Individual 5748 on :

In retrospect, I rarely remember the Defiant, supposedly one of the most active vessels in the Dominion war, with extensive damage done to itself.

Nine times out of ten, VGR doesn't show as much damage as it might because of the reuse of existing space-shots of Voyager already filmed. Ron shouldn't be pointing the finger to VGR on that one, considering the USS Sao Paulo beared the Defiant's registry in "What You Leave Behind."

------------------
"Questions, comments, bring them to me. Problems, take them to Kinis."

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Well, the Defiant had a space station to repair at after each battle. Voyager hasn't got that.

------------------
Col. Maybourne: "Teal'c... It's good to see you well."
Teal'c: "In my culture, I would be well within my rights to dismember you."
-Stargate SG-1: "Touchstone"

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

After finally getting to see "Blink of an Eye" I thought it was a great episode and I liked the story. I only wish I had recorded it.

I tried explaining the tachyon part of it, but what I didn't get was why did it appear to have tunnels at it's poles.

Posted by Individual 5748 on :

Yes, that is true. However, I doubt that Voyager would look damaged all the time either. Just because we don't see something on TV doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Like in "The Voyager Conspiracy," (small $$)Seven describes that away team mission where Neelix gets the amber spice. We didn't see this, but it did occur. Now I'm not saying this happens all the time, but it is possible that VGR gets help with repairs from aliens every once and a while.

------------------
"Questions, comments, bring them to me. Problems, take them to Kinis."