Synopsis: The Enterprise is sent on a mission to map a burned-out super nova and is exposed to radiation that shrinks the crew.
This episode has much in common with the episode “Wink of an Eye” from the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series. In my earlier blog on that episode, I compared the alien beings in it, the Scalosians, to the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome. However in “The Terratin Incident” the life forms found on the planet were actually shrunken humans. Perhaps this explains the difference in how they interacted with Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise and how the Scalosians behaved in “Wink of an Eye.”
While in both episodes, the inhabitants of a planet needed to adapt members of the crew in order to see them; the Terratins upon being seen by the crew asked for help to be rescued from their dire situation as opposed to the Scalosians who wanted to steal the Enterprise to leave the planet they were on.
This can be seen as the difference between the ego being made aware of a psychic wound through a complex and welcoming and dealing with it, or what happens when the unconscious content is ignored and becomes more demanding. Likely the first time the Scalosians encountered a space vessel they also asked nicely for help, but after not being acknowledged and having their needs not met over and over again, they became aggressive. This is unlike the Terratins, who even though they had to shrink the crew of the Enterprise to get their attention, once they were recognized they worked with the crew to rejuvenate the ship’s engines and worked out a satisfactory result for all involved.
Original post created 16 April 2021
mydailysoultrek 