Star Trek: 10 Most Mind-Bending Spatial Anomalies

4. Subspace Compression Anomaly

Star Trek Deep Space Nine One Little Ship
CBS Media Ventures

Or the 'Honey, I Shrunk the Runabout' Anomaly

We're in the middle of an intergalactic war with an enemy hell-bent on conquest, but let's stop off and investigate a weird anomaly. What could go wrong! It is important research, after all — enough for a Klingon poem in commemoration. This is the story of a little ship, that took a little trip…

As anomalies go, and without Rick Moranis on hand, little is more mind-bending than being miniaturised via subspace compression. I bet the shrinking of the space within your "subatomic structure" actually tickles a little, although Chief O'Brien claimed not to feel a thing as he was being condensed to half the size of a combadge. "This bloody tall, actually."

The trippiest part of this literal reductio ad absurdum is seeing the Runabout Rubicon and its Lilliputian trio whiz through the corridors and conduits of the now supremely oversized Defiant, itself the "tough little ship" of Star Trek: First Contact. Firing on the Jem'Hadar with an itsy-bitsy photon torpedo was a nice touch, before the plot takes a dive down the rabbit hole into the marvels of Star Trek Wonderland as one centimetre-tall O'Brien and Doctor Bashir beam inside a circuitry compartment to assist their commandeered crewmates.

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Jack has been a content creator for TrekCulture since 2022, and a Star Trek fan for as long as he can remember. He has authored over 170 articles, including one of TrekCulture's longest, and has appeared several times on the TrekCulture podcast. He holds a first-class honours degree in French from the University of Sussex, a master's with distinction in Language, Culture and History: French and Francophone Studies and a PhD in French from University College London (UCL). He has previously worked in the field of translation. His interests extend to science-fiction television and film more widely. His favourite series is Star Trek: Voyager, followed closely by Stargate SG-1.