History Recap / StarTrekVoyagerS6E12BlinkOfAnEye

* TitleDrop: By Janeway.

* FirstContactMath: The astronomer and his assistant send a list of prime numbers and mathematical constants to ''Voyager'' in a radio transmission.

* GoingNative: The Doctor expresses patriotic outrage that a neighbouring country attacked his own. He later reveals he has a son down on the planet and talks sports with Gotana-Retz.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Though a tongue-in-cheek one. When they realize they'll get to watch the complete history of civilizations, B'Elanna quips that they'll watch them come up with new ways to bash each other over the head. Chakotay says that she shouldn't expect them to conduct their affairs like Klingons, and gets the response "as opposed to humans?"

* NoodleIncident: The Doctor had a son down on the planet, but we're not told how this came about.
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Played straight where ''Voyager'' is trapped in orbit over a planet where time moves rapidly, becoming worshiped as a deity by the inhabitants called "the Ground Shaker" after their attempt to leave causes violent earthquakes. As we see time on the planet progress, the people invent telescopes and come to dub Voyager as "The Sky Ship", which by the time they've entered the Space Age, is no longer believed to be the home of their Gods, but merely an advanced spacecraft that houses alien beings.

* AgentScully: Played with, with two scientists trying to discover if there's anyone on board ''Voyager'', which has been in their sky for their civilisation's entire history due to YearInsideHourOutside. Tureena doubts there's anyone on board, but when Gotana-Retz asks why he's on the mission in the first place, he adds that he doubts everything - including his own doubts.

* KillTheGod: After centuries of quakes and their explorers disappearing without explanation, the natives concluded the Skyship was hostile and made a serious attempt to shoot it down. It's only Gotana-Retz' return that stops them.

As time goes on, the inhabits advance to the point they can travel at sublight speed to Voyager, where the two astronauts both try adjust to the new time frame, only one survives. He finds out that time moves much more slowly on the ship, and when the ship comes under attack by the suddenly-more-advanced civilization, he acts as an ambassador until he is returned to the civilization, albeit 50 or more of his years have passed.

* AgentScully: Played with, with two scientists trying to discover if there's anyone on board Voyager, which has been in their sky for their civilisation's entire history due to YearInsideHourOutside. The Scully doubts there's anyone on board, but when the Mulder asks why he's on the mission in the first place, he adds that he doubts everything - including his own doubts.
* CallBack: In "Message in a Bottle", the Doc brags to the new EMH that he added an additional subroutine to his program, allowing him to have sex. Guess it wasn't a brag at all given this episode's events.
* CrossReferencedTitles: "[[TheXOfY Blink of an Eye]]" was originally titled "Wink of an Eye", until someone realized there'd been an unrelated (but unfortunately not dissimilar) [[Recap/StarTrekS3E11WinkOfAnEye TOS episode]] with that title.
* DistantFinale: The last scene is an elderly Gotana-Retz sitting on a hilltop, gazing at a night sky without Voyager in it... but it is only distant from his perspective.

* InscrutableAliens: In this episode, they played this role to a species living on a planet with a YearInsideHourOutside effect. From their point of view, Voyager had been in their sky for centuries, and was a complete mystery to them.

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Played straight where Voyager is trapped in orbit over a planet where time moves rapidly, becoming worshiped as a deity by the inhabitants called "the Groundshaker" after their attempt to leave causes violent earthquakes. As we see time on the planet progress, the people invent telescopes and come to dub Voyager as "The Skyship", which by the time they've entered the Space Age, is no longer believed to be the home of their Gods, but merely an advanced spacecraft that houses alien beings
* SaveYourDeity: Eventually the inhabitants use their technology (now more advanced than Voyager's) to help them escape.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The race from this episode is never mentioned again, even though you'd expect them to be a HigherTechSpecies within a day given their situation.
** Given the tendency of beings in Star Trek to evolve into energy beings, this might have happened within the week, explaining why they're never seen again... they went to a higher plane of existence.
* YearInsideHourOutside: the planet they are orbiting follows at an approximate rate of a day inside to a second outside.

* CrossReferencedTitles: "[[TheXOfY Blink of an Eye]]" was originally titled "Wink of an Eye", until someone realized there'd been an unrelated (but unfortunately not dissimilar) TOS episode with that title.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: During a staff meeting, Janeway and the Doctor talk about how shifting from one time rate to another could prove fatal. The alien astronauts learn that the hard way.

* GoingNative: The Doctor expresses patriotic outrage that a neighbouring country attacked his own. He later reveals he has a son down on the planet.

* CallBack: In "Message in a Bottle", the Doc brags to the new EMH that he added an additional subroutine to his program, allowing him to have sex. Guess it wasn't a brag at all given this episode 's events.

* YearInsideHourOutside: the planet they are orbiting follows at an approximate rate of a day inside to a minute out.

* SaveYourDeity

* SaveYourDiety

* TimeStandsStill: Because of the time differential between ''Voyager'' and the planet's residents, the two astronauts who visit the ship see everything on ''Voyager'' moving so slow that they are virtually standing still. That is, until the astronauts suddenly find themselves moving at the same speed of time as the ship.

* ShoutOut: This episode shares a basic premise with the [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS]] episode "Wink of an Eye".

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Played straight where Voyager is trapped in orbit over a planet where time moves rapidly, becoming worshiped as a deity by the inhabitants called "the Groundshaker" after their attempt to leave causes violent earthquakes. As we see time on the planet progress, the people invent telescopes and come to dub Voyager as "The Skyship", which by the time they've entered the Space Age, is no longer believed to be the home of their Gods, but merely an advanced spacecraft that houses alien beings.

Tropes:

* AgentScully: Played with in "Blink of an Eye", with two scientists trying to discover if there's anyone on board Voyager, which has been in their sky for their civilisation's entire history due to YearInsideHourOutside. The Scully doubts there's anyone on board, but when the Mulder asks why he's on the mission in the first place, he adds that he doubts everything - including his own doubts.

* InscrutableAliens: One episode had them rescue an alien that was so bizarre they had to start from scratch on trying to understand it. Its biology was such that the medical computers, including the Doctor, couldn't make sense of it, and its language was beyond the universal translators capacity to decode. In another, they played this role to a species living on a planet with a YearInsideHourOutside effect. From their point of view, Voyager had been in their sky for centuries, and was a complete mystery to them.