The Terratin Incident

The idea of some of the crew being miniaturized by a form of scientific phenomenon was used again in One Little Ship (1998).

A normal-sized human has about the same density as water, which is why normal-sized humans are neutrally buoyant in water (more or less). When shrunken Nurse Chapel falls into the aquarium, she sinks like a stone. This is correct because her size is smaller but her mass has not changed. This would mean she is now much more dense than she had been. She would not have been able to swim back to the surface of the water to call for help. She would have drowned before anyone could have helped her. The water would not have changed density because water is not organic, and the thread rescuing her (inorganic as it doesn't shrink) - as well as the side of the aquarium - would have to withstand her full weight.

Featured in Drawn to the Final Frontier (2006)