“Blink of an Eye” is episode twelve of season six of Star Trek: Voyager.
Voyager is approaching a really strange planet. Tuvok states it has similarities to a collapsed dwarf star and a quasar, and is rotating approximately 58 times per minute. The ship heads into high orbit, but warp drive goes offline and impulse engines don’t respond. They are being pulled towards the planet. On the planet itself, someone is putting out an offering when the ground shakes and a star appears in the sky.
The locals are talking the next day about the new star which is brighter than the other gods in the sky. They must learn the nature of this new god and understand the reason for his arrival. The offering was being made to Tahal and one decides that the new god, Ground Shaker, must be built his own alter, as big as Tahal’s, and that flamefruit must he offered to him alone.
Voyager is now in synchronous orbit. Not thanks to Tom, he says; the thrusters are offline. They are caught in something. Tuvok detects a strong tachyon fields and Seven contacts them from astrometrics. There’s something they need to see.
The planet has a tachyon core emitting a subspace particle field. Which Voyager‘s arrival disrupted. Voyager is now functioning as a third pole; the imbalance is now affecting the outer crust and they may be causing seismic activity. The images of the planet show seasons changing in seconds. One second on Voyager is nearly a day on the planet. Seven can’t isolate individual lifesigns; it will take time to correct. Captain Janeway says if their orbit fails, they will be drawn further into the time differential and live their entire lives in the blink of an eye.
Chakotay heads to engineering. The warp core is functioning, but the drive is offline. They need to leave orbit to reactivate it. And to leave orbit, they need warp drive. Chakotay tells B’Elanna to prepare a probe. He’s interested in more than just the planet; this is a chance to see an entire civilisation change over time. B’Elanna thinks they will discover new and better ways of beating each other over the head. Chakotay says they may not follow the Klingon model. Which B’Elanna points out is similar to the human one.
On the planet, on the place where the altar was, a man who looks like a monk heads to see someone called the Lord Protector. The Protector is sending Ground Shaker a letter on a hot air balloon. Their ancestors believed the stars where deities; the monk taught him that was foolish. But it’s possible the name Ground Shaker is not arbitrary. The Protector thinks the lights are not gods, but cities full of people. Ground Shaker rules one, and perhaps he will listen.
Voyager has now detected that the civilisation has advanced to using internal combustion. They are also using ten times as much iron in their structures as would be expected. The probe has now been functioning for nearly 200 years, and is self-destructed.
On the planet, the same spot is now an observatory. And through the telescope, they can see Voyager. And are trying to send Voyager a radio message. By the sounds of it, Voyager, the ‘Skyship,’ still has stories told about it. One of the scientists thinks the ground shaking is unintentional; anyone capable of building the Skyship could have destroyed them long ago.
In astrometrics, Seven reports to Chakotay that they have received a message from the surface. They realise it has been sped up and slow it down, discovering the message sent by the scientists in the observatory, which includes a spoken message played to the senior staff. Tom wants to let them know. Tuvok states they are not a warp capable civilisation. Well, today they aren’t. In a few days they might be. Chakotay says they have already insinuated themselves into the locals’ culture. However, the Doctor confirms what the captain thought, that beaming down could be fatal. But not for him.
Voyager has had a huge impact already on the local culture, thanks to the time differential. Being able to see Voyager has driven technology and innovation. There are a lot of similarities between this episode and the novel Dragon’s Egg, by Robert L. Forward. In that one, the locals advanced from the beginning of life to technology far in advance of anything human in a brief span of time. Which makes it likely that the locals will advance enough to help Voyager escape before Voyager can manage it themselves.