The Terratin Incident

While observing a burnt-out supernova, the Federation starship Enterprise picks up a strange message transmitted in a two-hundred-year-old Earth code. The signal is traced to a nearby planet. When the Enterprise enters orbit, it is hit by an energy beam of "spiroid radiation" that damages its dilithium crystals and makes the crew begin to shrink (along with all other organic material aboard the ship, including the crew's uniforms). Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy determines that the crew will continue to shrink beyond their ability to control the ship unless a cure is found.

Captain Kirk beams down to the surface and finds that the transporter can revert crew members to their original size. He also observes what appears to be a miniature city. Kirk returns to the ship, but the crew are now too small for him to see easily, and too small to operate the ship's controls. Meanwhile, the Terratins have beamed the bridge crew down to their city, where the crew learns the Terratins' fate. Terratin is a lost Earth colony, originally called "Terra Ten"; its inhabitants have mutated because of the supernova's radiation, and are now all approximately one-sixteenth of an inch in height. The beam which caused the crew to shrink was not intended as an attack, but was the only way the Terratins had to draw attention to themselves. The crew are beamed back to the ship and return to normal size. However, the Terratins have been small for generations and cannot be restored to normal size. Their planet is in peril from massive volcanic activity, so the whole Terratin city is beamed aboard the Enterprise, and moved to another planet.

This episode was noted as a case where the fictional Star Trek transporter technology changes the size of the entity being transported, along with "The Counter Clock Incident" from the same TV series.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfPOhDAzA4UC&q=The+Terratin+Incident|title=The Best of Trek|last=Irwin|first=Walter|date=1991-03-01|publisher=Penguin Group USA|isbn=978-0-451-45047-0|language=en}}

The episode is noted for harnessing the flexibility of the animated format, by having the bridge crew of the Enterprise shrink.{{Cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/star-trek-star-trek-the-animated-series-1798164626|title=Star Trek: Star Trek: The Animated Series|website=TV Club|date=March 26, 2010 |language=en-us|access-date=2020-02-06}}

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{{Portal|Animation|Speculative fiction|Television}}

• "The Lorelei Signal" - an earlier animated episode where the idea of using the transporter to restore physical patterns is introduced
• "One Little Ship" - an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where a Starfleet runabout and its crew are miniaturized

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• {{IMDb episode|0832429}}
• {{Memoryalpha|The Terratin Incident|"The Terratin Incident"}}
• {{StarTrek.com episode|terratin-incident|"The Terratin Incident"}}
• [http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/Te.html "The Terratin Incident"] at [http://www.danhausertrek.com/AnimatedSeries/Main.html Curt Danhauser's Guide to the Animated Star Trek]
• [https://intl.startrek.com/watch_episode/eaUMrAWXfmjQ62BeAnapwRRlbJSzNvP4 "The Terratin Incident"]{{Dead link|date=January 2023}} Full episode for viewing at StarTrek.com

{{Star Trek: The Animated Series}}

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Category:1973 American television episodes

Category:Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes

Category:Fiction about size change

Category:Television episodes directed by Hal Sutherland

Category:Television episodes written by Paul Schneider (writer)