The Trouble With Tribbles (TOS episode)
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| Star Trek: TOS episode | |
| "The Trouble With Tribbles" | |
 Captain Kirk up to his shirt in troublesome tribbles; The Trouble With Tribbles. |
|
| Episode no. | 44 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 042 |
| Remastered no. | 9 |
| Airdate | December 29, 1967 |
| Writer(s) | David Gerrold |
| Director | Joseph Pevney |
| Guest star(s) | William Schallert William Campbell Stanley Adams Whit Bissell Michael Pataki Ed Reimers Charlie Brill Paul Baxley David L. Ross Guy Raymond Eddie Paskey William Blackburn |
| Year | 2268 |
| Stardate | 4523.3 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "Wolf in the Fold" |
| Next | "The Gamesters of Triskelion" |
"The Trouble With Tribbles" is an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast on December 29, 1967 and repeated June 21, 1968. It is episode #44, production #42, and was written by David Gerrold, and directed by Joseph Pevney. It has become one of the most popular Star Trek episodes, and one of the most famous among non-fans, simply for the plot's bizarre and humorous nature.
Overview: Cuddly, but extremely prolific, little creatures invade a starbase and the Enterprise and inadvertently foil an enemy's plans.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
On stardate 4523.3, Captain James T. Kirk and his crew are called to Deep Space Station K7 by a priority-one distress call. The station is near Sherman's Planet, a world in a sector of space disputed between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty (imposed after the first season episode "Errand of Mercy"), Sherman's Planet would be awarded to whichever side demonstrates that it can manage it most efficiently.
Kirk is furious when he later realizes the distress call was unwarranted, and the undersecretary in charge of agriculture in the sector, Nilz Baris, simply wants someone to guard the shipments of quadro-triticale grain bound for Sherman's Planet. To Baris's annoyance, Kirk assigns a token two guards to the task after learning that Starfleet Command endorses Baris's concerns. A Klingon ship soon arrives at the space station and requests that its crew be granted shore leave. Kirk tells the Klingon leader Koloth that he may only bring members of his crew down 12 at a time, and that he will provide one security guard for each Klingon who beams down.
Meanwhile, an independent trader, Cyrano Jones, sneaks some little furry animals called tribbles onto the station, and starting with a sale to Uhura, they quickly find their way onto the Enterprise as adorable pets. The animals purr a relaxing trill that the crew find soothing. Klingons, however, find tribbles very annoying, and the feeling is mutual - tribbles emit an ear-piercing shriek of aggression whenever they are around Klingons.
The "trouble" with the tribbles is that they reproduce far too quickly; in the words of Dr. McCoy, "they are born pregnant" and threaten to consume all the onboard supplies. The problem is aggravated when it is discovered that the creatures are physically entering essential ship systems, interfering with their functions and consuming any edible contents present. Kirk realizes that if the tribbles are getting into the Enterprise's stores, then they are a direct threat to the grain stores aboard the station. However, upon examining the holds, Kirk learns the that it is already too late; the tribbles have indeed eaten the grain. It appears the mission has ended in a fiasco. On top of that, Koloth wants Kirk to formally apologize since some of the Enterprise crew members have started, though not without provocation, a fistfight with the Klingon crew.
Spock and McCoy, however, soon discover that around half the tribbles in the hold are dead and many of the rest were dying, alerting the Federation that the grain was poisoned. Furthermore, the tribbles also give away the identity of a Klingon agent who did the poisoning. The saboteur was the only "human" the tribbles didn't like: Arne Darvin, Baris's own assistant. Upon a medical scan by Dr. McCoy, it is revealed that Darvin was indeed a Klingon in disguise. Thus the tribbles redeem themselves and enable the Federation to score a diplomatic victory against the Klingons. As for Cyrano Jones, who introduced the species to the station, he is ordered to remove the tribbles from the station (a clean-up task that Spock estimates will take 17.9 years) or be imprisoned for 20 years for transporting a dangerous life-form off its native planet.
Just before departing, all tribbles that were on the Enterprise are beamed onto the Klingon ship by Scotty as a retaliation for the troubles the Klingons have caused, where, in his words, they will be "no tribble at all".
[edit] 40th anniversary remastering
"The Trouble With Tribbles" was remastered in 2006 and aired on November 4, 2006 as part of the remastered original series. Video and audio have been digitally restored, and the episode features the all-CGI USS Enterprise that is standard among the revisions. Other changes to this episode include:
- Space station K7 is rendered as a CGI effect with more surface detail added.
- Klingons' ship has been added in orbit around the station (it was never seen in the original episode).
The Trouble With Tribbles side-by-side comparisons
[edit] Background
David Gerrold was a college student just learning to write for television when he submitted five story outlines to Producer Gene L. Coon. Of those five, "The Fuzzies" was the only one that sold, and Gerrold was commissioned to write the script while still an amateur.
Gerrold wrote the character of Ensign Freeman with the intention of playing the part himself; however, Coon nixed the idea, saying that Gerrold was too skinny. Paul Baxley, William Shatner's frequent stuntman, was cast in the role (Gerrold later appeared as an Enterprise crew member watching the destruction of the space station in Star Trek: The Motion Picture).
"Tribbles" was originally intended to be a serious take on the introduction of alien species to predator-free environments, as had happened with rabbits in Australia. Gerrold said he wanted to show how something that looked cute, fuzzy and adorable could be quite dangerous. Another version of the same theme appears in his script treatment "Bandi", in which a crew member has a sort of living teddy-bear for a pet. When the creature feels threatened, it telepathically induces other species to fight or kill on its behalf. D.C. Fontana later used the idea in Star Trek: The Next Generation; the Bandi are people on Deneb IV who appear to be harmless and peaceful, but are found to enslave other entities to materialize their desires. Possible literary antecedants include Pigs is Pigs and the flatcats from the Heinlein novel The Rolling Stones. [1]
The use of quadro-triticale was supposed to reestablish Mr. Sulu as an amateur botanist; since George Takei was away filming The Green Berets, all his lines were given instead to Ensign Chekov, marking the only time Scotty and Chekov have a conversation during the original series.[1]
James Doohan did most of his own stunts in this episode, including some of the punches in the bar fight scene, exposing his missing middle finger (lost as a result of a war injury) for the first time (the other being "Catspaw").
"Sherman's Planet" was a reference to Holly Sherman, David Gerrold's girlfriend at the time.[1]
[edit] Tribbles revisited
The James Blish adaption of the episode was included in the Star Trek 3 collection published in April 1969. It is based on a version of the script which incorporated Sulu rather than Chekov. The episode was the basis of the third Star Trek fotonovel.
A sequel episode appeared in Star Trek: The Animated Series titled "More Tribbles, More Troubles", for which Gerrold also wrote the script. He is writing another sequel for the Star Trek: New Voyages fan film series.
Tribbles are handled by Starfleet personnel in the bar scene in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock while Dr. McCoy seeks illegal passage to the Genesis Planet. This has led to speculation among fans that the popularity of tribbles has led to the breeding of "sterile" animals that do not reproduce out of control, and are sold as pets.[citation needed]
The original episode was later edited and spliced into the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". In this retelling, the crew of Deep Space Nine witness the original events via time travel in an effort to stop Darvin from returning to change the course of history. This time, Gerrold made a cameo as a gray-haired, red-shirted ensign in a corridor of the Enterprise. During the episode, Worf reveals that Klingons considered tribbles to be an ecological menace, and their homeworld was destroyed.
The original episode is featured on the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Klingon DVD set as the fourth of 13 episodes featured on the four-disc set. It was released on August 1, 2006, in the United States and Canada.
[edit] In popular culture
The fansub group Dattebayo used "The Trouble With Tribbles" as a small humorous subtitle of the 185th episode of the Naruto anime series. This is a reference to the Onbu and Onbaa creatures in the episode, who bear similarities to tribbles. The title has been parodied on The Simpsons (The Trouble with Trillions) and Futurama (The Problem with Popplers). The Animaniacs episode "Star Truck" featured Yakko, Wakko, and Dot meeting a parody of the Star Trek crew; Yakko sits down in the captain's chair and pulls out a tribble.
The Cartoon Network show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends included an episode titled "The Trouble With Scribbles". The story involves an avalanche of scribbles falling on one of the main characters.
The album Alien Worlds by the Swedish synthpop band S.P.O.C.K featured a track titled "Trouble With Tribbles".
[edit] References
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c Gerrold, David. The Trouble With Tribbles: the birth, sale and final production of one episode. benbellabooks.com. Retrieved on 27 November 2006.
[edit] External links
- The Trouble With Tribbles at StarTrek.com
- The Trouble with Tribbles article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
| Last produced: "I, Mudd" |
Star Trek: TOS episodes Season 2 |
Next produced: "Bread and Circuses" |
| Last transmitted: "Wolf in the Fold" |
Next transmitted: "The Gamesters of Triskelion" |
