The Alfa Effect was the term used to describe a unique transporter accident that occurred in the year 2266 when the Federation starship USS Enterprise visited the planet Alfa 177. Rare elements on the planet caused Captain James T. Kirk to be divided into two different people when he was transported up from the planet, with one Kirk representing all of his positive qualities and the other all of his negative ones. A later attempt to transport a native animal up from the surface resulted in a similar split, with one version being timid and the other savage. When it was determined that neither Kirk could exist as individual entities for long, the crew attempted to test a recombination process on the two animals, which apparently died from shock. However, Doctor Leonard McCoy deduced that the