HONEY, I SHRUNK THE CREW!

 

Episode Title:  The Terratin Incident

Air Date: 11/17/1973

Written by Paul Schneider

Directed by Hal Sutherland

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock        DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”, Lieutenant Arex, Gabler, and Mendant of the Terratins                           George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                     Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and Alice              Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel, Lieutenant M’Ress and The Queen of Hearts           

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Terratin

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is on scientific endeavor to monitor a gas cloud that formed from an old collapsed star.   This clearly would be a very boring episode so of course something has to happen.  They get a distress call from a nearby planetoid in the Cepheus system that came in an old outdated Earth code.  It was sent to them twice and included the unknown word “Terratin.”  This is a lot more interesting than a cloud of gas so they decide to check it out.

These tools don't seem to be the same size or is it us?

The ship arrives at the Cepheus system and they head to the small planetoid.  Then the ship receives an energy blast during which their shields were ineffective and the bodies of every crewmember glow white. However, when it is over it seems that no harm has been done to anyone.  At least that was what they thought but there was some clear harm to their dilithium crystals.  This is causing the whole ship to lose power and they are now running on the ship’s battery like this was an early episode of season 1 involving either Gary Mitchell or Harry Mudd. 

We are not as toll as we use to be!

As they are trying to fix that problem, they encounter a new problem.  At first Kirk thinks that Mr. Spock is slouching and Spock thinks the same of Kirk.  Then some of Scotty’s engineers complain that their tools have been missized. It appears either the ship and the nonorganic matter inside of it is getting bigger or the crew and the other biological matter inside the ship is getting smaller.  Scans confirm it is the later, the distance between their cells is shrinking so they are getting smaller but retain their original weight.  This also where the fans find out that their uniforms have some biological element to them that is why no one is going to end up naked.

They try their best to keep operating the ship but they are getting smaller every minute!  At first, they have to stretch for things, then use stools, and finally they have to build pullies and leavers.  Sulu loses his cool and tries to shoot the planet with the ship’s phasers but falls climbing the helmsman’s chair and breaks his leg.  The Captain tries to get him to sickbay but the doors won’t open because it can no longer “see” them.  Kirk grabs a pin, now half the size of his body, to get the scanner to read him and open the door.

When you find yourself short you are going to have to adapt!

They get down to sickbay but both the Doctor and Mr. Sulu are two small to use the normal medical device that they use to knit broken bones.  Chapel remembers a smaller device that they use for the inner ear. Chapel climbs the office furniture to grab it.  She almost succeeds but she falls into sickbay’s water tank for aquatic lifeforms and starts to drown before the Captain saves her using a needle and thread. She does hang to the medical device and with that Sulu is on the mend. 

The crew can’t stop getting smaller so Kirk decides that beam down to the planet and make contact with the people there to see if they can stop this.  Spock designs him a new communicator to fit his height and Scotty has a team of engineers who have built a contraption that will allow them to operate the transporter.  Given that they can’t be sure that this will work and hour from now they program the transporter to automatically bring Kirk back at a prearranged time.  

Trying to figure out how much time!

Turns out the transporter is the cure.  When Kirk beamed the down to the planet he was restored to normal size.  The bad news was his communicator was now difficult to work.  Kirk also sees the tabletop sized settlement.  When Kirk returns, he starts sending some his crew down to get the cure and come right back.  There is some difficulty as Kirk has to continually watch his step to avoid crushing any of his crew.  He orders the entire crew to report to the transporter room to be re-sized. 

Table Top City 

Contact is established with the Terratins who explain that they were responsible for shrinking the crew as a way of trying to communicate.  Kirk is still annoyed with the Terratins but agrees to help them as they are desperate and in a time of need.  Their colony was once an Earth colony called “Terra Ten” who shrank because of their time on the planet, and now their colony is threatened with volcanic activity.  Also, it turns out their planet is packed with dilithium crystals that they can use to power the ship.  With the crew restored and the ship repaired the Enterprise finds the Terratins a new place to live.   

"We need your help, so we made you small!"

Additional thoughts: This was a fun little episode, yes pun intended.  The crew has had to deal with all sorts of threats before however the starship getting too big for them was never one.  Watching the crew of the Enterprise try to keep operating their starship after being transformed into tiny people was by far the best part.

Am I the only one who thought it was odd that Chapel couldn’t swim?  Wouldn’t that be a requirement in Starfleet?  I assume they have pool at the Academy.  If not, I think Captain Kirk should order some mandatory swimming lessons for the crew.  There are enough threats in space we don’t need to have anyone drown while visiting a local planet.  

"I can't swim!"

I did think it was interesting that the transporter was the magical cure again.  Very similar to “The Lorelei Signal,” the transporter is the quick cure for the aliment of the week.  Not only is it the TV budget friendly way to send people to the surface, it is the half-hour run time friendly way of curing problems.  Considering all the times it split someone in two or sent them to the mirror universe, I guess it’s a good thing it can also unexpectedly cure people.  Since their clothes also shank did they have to beam down all their clothing supplies as well to get them back up to proper size?

Lastly why did they go all the way to another planet to find the Terratins a new place to live?  I think they should have just kept their little colony onboard the ship.  It would be like having an ant farm only a million times more fun. 

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5