Note: As reader Donald G. pointed out last
week, I managed somehow to never post my review for “The Terratin Incident.” So I’ll double up with it today...
STARDATE: 5573.3
The
U.S.S. Enterprise approaches a burned-out supernova while mapping a distant gas
cloud. From that region of space, it
intercepts a transmission that consists of one word: “Terratin.”
Under
Captain Kirk’s (William Shatner) orders, the Enterprise diverts to the source
of the mysterious transmission: a class-M planet with a crystalline
nature. Soon, however, proximity to the
unusual planet begins to smash the connections in every one of the starship’s dilithium
crystals. Worse, the “ship’s personnel have contracted…and may be
continuing to shrink.”
As
the Enterprise crew grows smaller every hour, Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy)
theorizes that soon the crew will no longer be able to control the ship. Kirk beams down to the planet -- aware he may
never be able to return -- and discovers a lost Earth colony on the surface, one
originally known as “Terra Ten,” now
referred to as Terratin…
“The
Terratin Incident” exposes again a particular strain of the storytelling style in
Star
Trek: The Animated Series (1973- 1974).
Although the series often features brilliant and complex continuity with
the original live action Star Trek (1966 – 1969) as
well as good science-fiction ideas, it also often belies its status as a Saturday morning TV program by featuring
what can only be described as very juvenile concepts.
In
this case, the crew of the Enterprise contracts, or shrinks.
Already
on the series we’ve seen giant creatures or beings in “The Infinite Vulcan” and
“More Tribbles, More Troubles,” and love potions in “Mudd’s Passion.” Coming up, we get reverse aging in “The
Counter-Clock Incident.”
On
one hand, these are all dynamic visual concepts well-suited to animation, ones
that would have been impossible (or at least expensive…) to dramatize on the
original series.
Yet
by the same token, these ideas seem very childish in comparison with the most
complex, adult stories, like “The Survivor,” “The Jihad” and “The Magicks of
Megas-Tu.” The giants in both the
tribbles sequel and “The Infinite Vulcan” don’t seem really necessary to the
tale…instead they are merely high-concept notions appealing to the kiddies.
In
the case of “The Terratin Incident,” the story is about a lost colony that has
changed its form unwittingly over the centuries, and so the idea of shrinking
is actually intrinsic to the tale, at least, and not just a throwaway. Additionally, the episode features some great
images of a tiny Enterprise crew -- Lilliputian-sized
-- attempting to control the ship as they grow ever smaller. This means that Nurse Chapel falls into a
fish aquarium in sick bay and almost drowns, and that Scotty and his engineers
must essentially mountain-climb to reach the transporter panel. These moments are fun, but also a little difficult
to believe.
It’s
also a little disappointing that this episode resolves around the notion that
Kirk must threaten the Terratin people and their city with total destruction to
get them to help the Enterprise crew to repair their depleted dilithium
crystals. This is gunboat diplomacy at
its worst, and unfortunately, the idea occasionally recurs on Star
Trek. Star Trek, at its best,
and in episodes such as “Mirror, Mirror” often notes that the forces of
Starfleet will never use phaser banks to force a planet to bend to its
will. Yet in “The Terratin Incident,”
that’s precisely what occurs.
The
other plot resolution point in “The Terratin Incident” is also a cliché in
terms of the Trek universe: the transporter device proves a deus ex machina, undoes the shrinking
process, and restores everyone to normal.
Presto Magic!
The
same thing happens in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987
– 1994) on occasion, in episodes such as “Lonely Among Us” and “Unnatural
Selection,” and such stories lead to the notion that the transporter is really
a miracle or magical device, one that can undo physiological disorders of any
kind. If the transporter were really so
valuable in curing diseases, then all of Starfleet (and Federation) medicine
would be based entirely on its application.
But of course, that's not the case.
John honest review of an episode that I suspect might have been made because Filmation also produced the animated series Fantastic Voyage five years earlier. It has the feel of "Honey, I shrunk the Enterprise crew" :) . I must admit watching this as a young boy in '73 it was entertaining to me.
ReplyDeleteSGB