Product: Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 34, Episodes 67 & 68: Plato's Stepchildren/ Wink Of An Eye (1966)
Rating: 4.0
Two of the Better Episodes of Season 3!
Which doesn't really say very much given the "quality" of the majority of the episodes of this season. Still, in the first episode which closely resembles the "Squire of Gothos" from Season 1, we get "superior" beings who become intoxicated with their powerful telekinetic powers and become living proof of George Orwell's famous pronouncement in "Animal Farm": "Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely." It what can be described a painful episode in more ways than one to watch, we get to see Spock and Kirk made to look extremely foolish and humiliated almost beyond bearing but then managed to turn the tables around and to have the self-restraint to not take revenge when the opportunity arises. All in all, this is an above average episode and is certainly one of the better ones of season 3.In the second episode, we get another example of a powerful race rationalising that superior power makes it alright to impose your designs on the less superior. Here, in order to perpetuate the species at all costs, the Scalosians decide that it's okay to kidnap, use and discard the unsuspecting for their greater "good". Like the first episode in this volume, while not great this episode still ranks among the better ones of the season.Overall we get two episodes which highlight how power can easily corrupt and can even be "rationalised" as a perfectly good reason to abuse, exploit and manipulate the less powerful.Two of the more interesting episodes make this volume come under the "nice to have but not essential" category if you picking which volumes to collect and keep.