Talk:The Trouble With Tribbles

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The old photo caption "The Enterprise is invaded by cute fur balls, in Trouble with Tribbles" was misleading since the picture is of Kirk on K7. The name of the ep was wrong too. I've gone ahead and changed it, but I'm sure someone could come up with something that sounds better. Cerv.

Contents

[edit] Bjo Trimble & Tribbles Naming

Regarding Wikipediatrix's edit, I recall from Gerrold's book (cited in the references section) that he'd originally intended to call them "Fuzzies" ("Furries"?) but that the name was somehow changed during script development. I seem to recall that he said the direction came from people on the show rather than Gerrold, but I can't remember if he said why the change was made (e.g. it might have just been "Tribbles just sounds better").

It'd take me a bit to dig up my old copy (damn Grad School and day job!), so if someone else just happens to have a copy and can definitively see if Gerrold indicates why the change was made, it'd be appreciated. Otherwise, I should get around to it some time during the next ice age. --KNHaw 18:42, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I remember the book quite vividly even though I haven't picked it up in years... their legal agency vetoed "Fuzzies" for some copyright reason so Gene L.Coon told Gerrold to come up with a new name. He mentions coming up with "Tribbles" during a brainstorming session but made no mention of Bjo Trimble, who was unknown at that time since it was well before her national campaign to save the show after its cancellation. wikipediatrix 20:32, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Per David Gerrold, "Fuzzies" was vetoed because it was the name of cute little teddy bear-like aliens in a series of novels by H. Beam Piper. Gerrold then sat at his typewriter and extemporaneously began typing names. In his making of "Tribbles" book, he reproduces a couple dozen of the names. "Tribbles" was one of the names on the list. He then began to cross off the ones he knew were not good enough/ones he didn't like, until finally he settled on "tribbles." Nowhere, NOWHERE does he say they were named for Bjo Trimble. Sir Rhosis 20:43, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Chekov's Russian First remarks

Can someone explain a little (maybe in the trivia section), why Chekov kept on making Russian first remarks but was consistently proven wrong? Is this simply because of the Cold War and the general American perception of the Soviet Union, or was there something else to it? Thanks! --68.239.64.64 05:49, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

  • IMO, the writers had him constantly making the "Russian first" remarks, then being proven wrong again and again, simply for comedic effect, nothing more sinister than that.
The basis of Chekov's running joke is that during the Cold War, Russia constantly claimed to have invented commonplace things - such as television and baseball - before the U.S. or Europe. Read this. (Occasionally they really were first, though, such as in the case of Sputnik). wikipediatrix 17:33, 9 September 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Sisko and Dax?

I'm not sure I understand this, from the trivia section: "Shatner was being purposefully hit on the head by the prop man - and/or Ben Sisko and Jadzia Dax - with tribbles during production of the "buried in tribbles" scene. It took an incredible number of takes to get the avalanche of tribbles to fall just right."

What have Sisko and Dax got to do with this? Is this some kind of in-joke? (Bearing in mind that I've never seen DS9 nor do I particularly want to). --Bluejay Young 12:06, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Season 5 Episode 6 of DS9 was "Trials and Tribble-ations" and had DS9 cast go back in time to join TOS Tribbles episode. StarTrek.com has more details. I'll add a reference.  ◉ ghoti 21:33, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Couldn't believe his ears"

Trivia section says that Spock's line "He could not believe his ears" was not in the script. Maybe. But it's in the published version that David Gerrold included in his book about the show.

[edit] Futurama ref

Maybe add something near the bottom about the Futurama episode 'My Problem with Popplers'? Veinor 05:44, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite

Per article cleanup and the manual of style, "trivia" has been rewritten into prose rather than bullet points; at the same time, facts which appeared non-notable have been deleted. If you've included a fact that has been deleted, please note in your edit summary (or here on the talk page) why you believe it is notable.

I've done similar work to Where No Man Has Gone Before (TOS episode); I hope to encourage those of you who work on Star Trek articles to help bring them to established standards by removing "trivia" and other bullet points (where possible) in favor of prose. Thanks to everyone for your help! :) RadioKirk (u|t|c) 21:18, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Another revisit

Very popular currently... [1] -- Pichote 16:36, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Um... Not Quite

re: "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."

WRONG. Scotty and Chekhov also converse in "Bread and Circuses", when Scotty instructs Checkhov to "calculate [the Roman planet's] power sources and how much the ship's beams will have to pull to overload them". Checkhov responds that it will take some time, and Scotty responds, "Let it take time, Lad..."

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

I seem to remember that Jones didn't sell the first tribble, but gave it to someone, as a promotional. Was it Uhura, or someone else? SlowJog (talk) 03:41, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, he gave one to her, hoping that it would create a demand for his stock. Also, he didn't "sneak" them onto the station; he brought them in as trade goods. I've changed the text to reflect this. 75.36.177.100 (talk) 11:37, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Lunar Jim

The Canadian kids' stop-motion TV series "Lunar Jim" has an episode entitled "Too Many Fluffies" Fluffies are fluffy balls with eyes that basically multiply at an amazing rate. Tribbles by any other name surely... worth a link in the Popular Culture section?? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079135 Roxana Q (talk) 11:21, 2 January 2008 (UTC)