Because archive footage (including footage from The Empath (1968), which was filmed before this episode) is used for most of the first minute of the episode, several continuity errors are caused. Scotty, when making the opening log entry, has the brushed-back hairstyle James Doohan was forced to use for the first few episodes of the third season; in the rest of the episode, he has his normal hairstyle. A woman other than Uhura is at the communications station in the opening scene, but Uhura is there when Kirk returns to the bridge. Perhaps most amusingly, Mr. Hadley is at the navigation station when Scotty makes the opening log entry, but when the shot changes to archive footage of the viewscreen, he is at the helm.
When Kirk makes a tape to inform the crew in sick bay, he places the tape in the upper slot of the two slots next to McCoy and Spock. When we go back to real time the yellow tape cassette is now in the lower slot. When McCoy sees the mysterious tape later in the control panel he grabs it from the lower slot.
After Kirk is accelerated, he converses with Deela for a time, then attempts to stun her with his phaser, which she easily evades because the phaser itself is not accelerated. She then uses her own weapon to remove the phaser from his hand. And yet, in "real time," nobody on the bridge notes the sudden firing of a phaser, or the appearance of the weapon itself.
Only in the presence of the hyper accelerated Scalosians and Kirk do real time events appear to stop. This is why Scotty is "frozen" at the transporter room doors while Rael and Ekon work at the console. However, even after they leave Scotty is seen in the exact same spot several minutes later. Real time should have resumed allowing Scotty to finish walking to the transporter console.
A phaser beam is light. The speed of light would appear nearly instantaneous at the Scalosian's accelerated level. The phaser that Kirk fires at Deela would still work just as well as it would in real time. The beam would traverse 3 m in about 10 nanoseconds (0.000 000 01 s). If they were accelerated 1000-fold, this would still seem, subjectively, like 10 microseconds (0.000 01 s)
When Kirk tries to stun Deela, his "accelerated" finger would not be on the phaser's trigger long enough to actually fire it.
When Kirk fires his phaser at Deela, the beam fades in mid air after she side steps it. It should have continued and hit the wall directly behind her.
When Deela sidesteps the phaser beam on the bridge, she apparently wasn't quite standing on her mark for when the animation was to be inserted. She wasn't even in the path of the beam to need to step aside, it actually was about to go over her shoulder.
When Spock and Kirk beam the last of the Scalosians down to the surface, they are beamed down at normal speed in relation to the transporter. Earlier, Deela said that it was ridiculously long process.
When Bones finds the tape with the buzzing sound, Spock asks that Bones bring it to the bridge. However, given the advancement in technology, they should have been able to share files easily without having to physically bring the files to Spock.
When Kirk enters the bridge after the opening credits, Scotty gets out of the captain's chair and Kirk seats himself. In the upper left hand corner, the shadow of a studio light/ stand can be seen on the set.
When the accelerated Kirk tries to enter the Environmental Controls room, he is greeted by the accelerated Compton who tried to block Kirk's entry. As they struggle, Compton is thrown toward the camera. He clearly makes contact with the camera as the scene shakes for a moment.
Captain Kirk could quite have easily communicated with his crew using basic paper and pen.
No ratio is given for the accelerated speed but, judging by how quickly Spock repairs things at the end, it seems reasonable to assume something in the region of 1000x normal speed or greater.
If it takes the lift doors 1 second to open and close in real time, accelerated, that would take about 16 minutes. A 30-second ride in the turbo-lift would take 8.3 hours. It would be quite frustrating to get anywhere that involves doors or lifts.
If it takes the lift doors 1 second to open and close in real time, accelerated, that would take about 16 minutes. A 30-second ride in the turbo-lift would take 8.3 hours. It would be quite frustrating to get anywhere that involves doors or lifts.
Much of the general equipment on the ship operates at normal rate for Kirk (whilst accelerated) - examples are the doors opening and the flashing lights on the transporter desk. The phaser he fires at Deela, however, is still "slow". It is also unlikely that the voice recorder would operate at a high enough frequency to be able to record the messages from the earlier crew.
The alien's metabolism as well as some Enterprise crew members' are accelerated to such a point that the rest of the crew cannot see them. This would have resulted in a vastly greater use of oxygen. This usage would have been so great that the life support systems could not handle the added load. Such a load should first show up on the ships instruments, then become a threat to the people on board.
Just after Kirk is accelerated, in Life Support, we learn that any accelerated person that incurs cell damage causes the damaged person to age rapidly and die. When Kirk attempts to break the Scalosian machine with his hands, the extreme cold generated by the machine almost freezes his hands, which would have caused cell damage to his hands. This should have caused him to age and die.
With a successful antidote to the Scalosian water the Enterprise should have kept a supply of the Scalosian water to accelerate themselves when it would have been helpful in emergencies, as when Spock fixed the Enterprise in seconds of real time. However, this may have been deemed unwise because of the risk of injuries, premature ageing and other possible complications.
When Kirk reappears in the transporter room, Mr. Scott is shocked to see him come out of nowhere. He then says "And Mr. Spock? Is he coming too?" However, Mr. Scott was not present in the medical lab when Spock drank the Scalosian water and vanished.