When the crew of the Enterprise respond to a distress call from the planet Scalos they find no sign of anybody despite beaming down in what appears to be a modern city; the only sign of life is the annoying buzz of a fly. As they investigate a red-shirt suddenly vanishes! With no idea what happened the rest of the team return to the Enterprise and soon after systems start failing then a strange device suddenly appears on the life support system; what is more that fly appears to have beamed back with them. Kirk drinks a cup of coffee then something strange starts to happen; those around him appear to be slowing down then suddenly a scantily clad blonde, Deela, appears in front of him and kisses him! It turns out she is one of the last Scalosians left; they are a species that lives at a much faster pace than other species but they are dying out and can only breed by luring suitable humanoids to their planet and 'accelerating' selected ones (in Kirk's case by spiking his coffee). They plan to take Kirk back to the planet and freeze the rest of the crew for later use. Meanwhile back in 'normal time' Spock figures out what has happened and replicates the Scalosian accelerating agent as well as a theoretical cure; he just has to hope he can use it before it is too late.
This is an enjoyable episode with some great ideas; it also requires the viewer to not think about things too deeply or plot holes appear. Moving as fast as they do the Scalosians should be able to compete their plans almost as soon as the crew notice the captain has gone but the crew not only notice but manage to do rather a lot while the Scalosians are making their modifications and there is no suggestion that a lot more time has passed for Kirk and the Scalosians than the rest of the crew. If you can ignore these details there is a lot of fun to be had; yet again Kirk ends up in the arms of a beautiful human-looking alien and there is a sense of danger we see that the slightest injury to an accelerated person leads to rapid ageing and death Deela may be interesting in Kirk but fellow Scalosian Rael is violently jealous. Overall another decent episode despite a few flaws.
This is an enjoyable episode with some great ideas; it also requires the viewer to not think about things too deeply or plot holes appear. Moving as fast as they do the Scalosians should be able to compete their plans almost as soon as the crew notice the captain has gone but the crew not only notice but manage to do rather a lot while the Scalosians are making their modifications and there is no suggestion that a lot more time has passed for Kirk and the Scalosians than the rest of the crew. If you can ignore these details there is a lot of fun to be had; yet again Kirk ends up in the arms of a beautiful human-looking alien and there is a sense of danger we see that the slightest injury to an accelerated person leads to rapid ageing and death Deela may be interesting in Kirk but fellow Scalosian Rael is violently jealous. Overall another decent episode despite a few flaws.