When Cyrano Jones in brought in for interrogation in Mr. Lurry's office, Cyrano Jones pronounces the race "Klingon" wrong...he says, "KlingIN".

Geez folks,is saying "KlingON" REALLY that difficult?

I don't think saying "nuclear" is all that difficult, but a lot of important people seem to have problems with it.

If Kirk could see Adm. Fitzpatrick, it seems reasonable that the admiral could see him. So wouldn't Kirk get in trouble for giving an exasperated look to Spock when Fitzpatrick told him how important the Sherman's Planet project was, etc.?

Is Cyrano Jones going to stuff all the tribbles in his clothing? He might be able to get a dozen or two in there, but then he would have to go somewhere to deposit them. By the time he got back, several of the tribbles would have given birth again. He needs some sort of container to throw them in. Of course, from the station's point of view, I don't see why they would like to wait for Jones to pick them all up (17.9 years). Just use the transporter to get them out of the way. And where did Kirk intend for the tribbles to ultimately end up, anyway?

Of course, from the station's point of view, I don't see why they would like to wait for Jones to pick them all up (17.9 years). Just use the transporter to get them out of the way. And where did Kirk intend for the tribbles to ultimately end up, anyway?

Ezackly.
Even on first viewing - aways back before my nitpicker's instincts kicked in - I thought Kirk's telling the hapless trader to 'pick up' each tribble was really odd phrasing. The mental image it conjures up is of Jones carefully raising each fuzzball a few inches off the floor and putting it back down again.
Then again, maybe that's what Kirk meant, as a sort of Sisyphean Tribble Torture?

It frequently surprises me when someone here at Nitcentral discovers something in an episode that I never noticed, or when I'm watching an episode and something pops out at me that I should have seen long ago.
This time I noticed the tribble sitting inside Uhura's collar when Kirk tells her to get the tribbles off the bridge. You'd think I'd notice a WHITE tribble poking out of a RED and BLACK collar against her BROWN skin, but I never, ever saw it before.
Sometimes I thinks there are actually little Star Trek gremlins that alter videotapes after the third or fourth viewing, just to confuse viewers.
And for the record, I've probably seen this episode over 20 times in my lifetime.
Anybody else experience this sort of dementia?

I know it's been out of print for decades, but if you ever come across a copy of David Gerrold's book (published in the mid-seventies) of his experiences in selling and writing this episode, don't pass it up. It's a great read and one of the greatest Trek non-fiction books ever. It's full of keen behind-the-scenes stories which give insights into the characters of the people behind classic Trek, written in an enjoyable style. It's also fascinating to see the different stages the early story treatments and scripts passed through to eventually produce the final episode. It's also an important document of how an amateur can break into the field of television writing and get a script sold which is still pretty relevant today.

It's hard to believe the same man also later wrote The World of Star Trek, one of the WORST Star Trek books ever, a self-righteous and half-baked critique of the show full of factual innacuracies which doesn't sound like it was written by an insider at all.

Not just later, Todd. The original edition of The World of Star Trek was published in 1973, as a companion piece to the book on the making of "Tribbles." The last time it was updated, that I'm aware of, is in 1984. At that point, he covered the movies, up until Star Trek III. I remember Mr. Gerrold (with bad '70's-type long hair) appearing at a 1973 convention, and plugging the books. Also, in "Making Of Tribbles," there was not a hint that Shatner didn't get along with many of the cast members. In fact, he mentioned that Michael Landon was a frequent visitor to the Trek set, and it seemed like a fun place. I must find my copies.

One of the things I remember about his book is that, prior to "Tribbles," he had written a story treatment for Trek, which became his novel Yesterday's Children. Was it ever made into a movie?

Not to the best of my knowledge, although I did remember seeing a Gerrold written Trek novel that sounded closer to the rejected treatment than it did to Yesterday's Children. (Actually if he hadn't of mentioned the Trek connection to YC I never would have guessed that it started as an attempt to rewrite his rejected treatment. It was that different.)

"The Galactic Whirlpool" was the name of Gerrold's Star Trek novel based on his original "Yesterday's Children" story proposition.

Thanks.

I remember one story Gerrold related in Trouble, referred to earlier: Shatner picks up the big brown tribble off of his transporter disk, makes a gesture of futility, then says his 'Energize' line, but carried the tribble with him through the rest of the act (mentioned higher up on the postings). They went over and filmed the scene where he meets up with Lurry and Baris but not Darvin, then into the storage compartment. So Shatner was still carrying the tribble until the 500 dumped on him. From the other early Trek non-fiction "The Making of Star Trek", I understood that they would tend to shoot transporter scenes back to back, bridge scenes, and so on, but not film scenes in the order of appearance in the episode (which is supposedly standard practice in both film and tv, and why we have continuity people to make sure the phasers are on the belt and not in his hand, the black eye makeup is on Scotty's left eye [or whatever eye] and so on) because it's more cost effective to shoot that way. It made for great scene continuity, at any rate. And then Shatner got his great comeuppance by having the 500 prop tribbles fall on him... OH! ehehehehe since the prop tribbles aren't alive, they really are dead!
(Ducks when somebody throws a tribble at him!)

If anyone's interested, you can download (for free) an eBook copy of David Gerrold's book, The Trouble With Tribbles here. (I learned about this from Gerrold's own website.) For those of you who have never read it, it's a highly recommended look at the creation and history of one of TREK's most famous eps. Enjoy!

Live long and prosper.

The character Gerrold wanted to play in "Tribbles" was named Ensign Freeman. Turns out Mr. Gerrold's birth name is Jerrold Freedman. He probably adopted that name, as there was another Jerrold Freedman writing for TV and movies at the same time.

I used this episode in my calculus class, to explain the concept of relative growth rate of functions. There is a spoof of the episode in a published book of student calculus projects (I forget the author's name). In the spoof, "Mr. Spook" doesn't know calculus (!!!) so he uses non-calculus techniques to analyze the tribble population explosion. "Captain Kork" brings in a calculus explanation. The project ends with this question: Which would have the greatest long-term effect on tribble population, a one-time-only elimination of 99% of all tribbles, or a permanent halving of their reproductive rate. My students all got the right answer intuitively.

If you have the DVD from either the season, or the 40-DVD, sets, and if you have a TV with a monitor input (as opposed to an RF input), check out the scene of Kirk and Spock walking down the corridor, right after Uhura gives away all her tribbles. You can see the coffee stain on Spock's shirt that David Gerrold spoke of in his intro to the novelization of "Trials and Tribbleations."

The back bulkhead of Dr. McCoy's lab appears to be one of the bulkheads of the Botany Bay from "Space Seed."

Also, we see two Klingons in the bar with no beards.

Barris says, "They will have a board of inquiry and they will roast you alive! And I'm going to be there, Kirk, to enjoy every minute of it!"

Hmm. Sounds like someone other than Cyrano Jones has been visiting the Klingon sphere of influence, and some of their bloodthirstiness has rubbed off!

Watching this episode, you almost expect to see Sisko and his crew in the background of certain scenes.

Am I the only one in this quadrant who finds the funny Star Trek eps rather silly (being a synonym for 'not quite good')?

Kirk, who once threatened to use general order 24 because he didn't like the planet's politics, reprimands a high official for misusing distress call 1. Kirk probably has a point there, but I fail to understand why Kirk has to insult the official every time he sees him.

Depite Kirk's allegations Baris is NOT too blame for the fact that Darvin is a Klingon spy. There are 2 possible scenarios here:
1. Darvin entered Federation bureaucracy years ago as an office clerk and slowly promoted to a higher level or;
2. Darvin was hired recently to enter the ministry of agriculture.

In both cases Federation (Intelligence) is too blame for not noticing that he is a spy, just as was the case with Norman, who entered the Enterprise's crew without difficulties in I, Mudd.

Why was Uhura allowed to buy an (alien) pet and take it to the Enterprise? Isn't that a violation of (military) on-board-rules? I've never seen cats, dogs, goldfishes or sehlats on it. (I know that Data had a cat, but that is a century later when starships are love-boats carrying families and children.)

PETA warning: hurling the tribbles into space is considered a cruelty (although the vacuum would kill them in less than a minute) but kaboodling the whole lot into a Klingon ship were they will be probably massacred with sticks and knives not?

I don't like the Star Trek funnies.

I liked 'A Piece of the Action' and that would be considered a funny wouldn't it?

I liked "A Piece of the Action" and that would be considered a funny, wouldn't it?

IMHO, not so much due to its script, but as a result of the way the director of that episode, James Komack, sent it in. (Komack later went on to do the sitcoms The Courtship Of Eddie's Father and Welcome Back Kotter.)

I actually liked the lighter epsiodes as much as the darker ones. Kinda showed that all life isnt dark and grim and even boldly going where none have gone before you can still find time to laugh. Even though in space no one can hear you guffaw!

(PS my most absolute favorite Trek book is How Much for Just the Planet? by John Ford and any of the books by Peter David)

Also the writer of "Piece of the Action", David Harmon, was primarily known as a sitcom writer. He was in Sherwood Schwartz's stable and contributed for shows like Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch.

---

Quote:

I liked 'A Piece of the Action' and that would be considered a funny wouldn't it?

---

I am reading the Tribbles book by Gerrold and it surprises me that he thought of an alternative plot for the Fuzzy-story. In that story complete planets have been eaten by imported Fuzzies, because they just eat and eat and eat (and procreate), thus destroying complete ecologies.

As we have some of these effects (on a smaller scale) on Earth -- rabbits in Australia, Nile perch in Lake Victoria (Africa), Asian lady beetles in Europe -- I fail to understand why Trek-people may bring Tribbles on a Federation starship.

Several Federation people make big mistakes here:
1. station manager Lurry - for letting alien animals on the space station
2. Nilz Baris, a pencil pusher who apparently doesn't know that alien animals may be very dangerous to local fauna and flora
3. James Tiberius Kirk, who has already witnessed how alien animals, brought over by space travellers, can kill entire populations, including his own brother Sam Kirk...

Todd wrote, wayback when: Re: Sherman's planet. Writer David Gerrold named it after his girlfriend Holly Sherman.

Interesting, as Mr. Gerrold has of late said he's gay.

Maybe Sherman was the first name of the love interest Gerrold picked to honor with a planet's name?

(I'm not surprised that Gerrold's gay. Having read some of his novels, especially The Man Who Folded Himself, I kinda suspected he was. Not to mention the fight he had with Roddenberry about getting a gay crew member on TNG. So yeah, I kinda suspected as much.) (Bear in mind, this doesn't keep me from enjoying David Gerrold's work. I still like to read his books from time to time.)

Live long and prosper.

Well the main character of "The Man Who Folded Himself" wasn't so much a homosexual per se as he was an extreme narcissist.

Todd wrote, wayback when: Re: Sherman's planet. Writer David Gerrold named it after his girlfriend Holly Sherman.

Interesting, as Mr. Gerrold has of late said he's gay.

Doesn't mean that he didn't have a GF at the time. Some people are well into adulthood (even married with kids) before "comming out", either to others or even to themselves.

When Scotty compared Chekov's vodka to soda pop, do you think he was referring to this stuff?

Re:last post
More like Sprite Zero, I'm afraid, though the fact you can still get it is interesting....
(Does Marty McFly order it in bulk, one wonders ...?)
Btw, the British T.V ads for Sprite actually do feature said creature, abeit in CGI form.....
As for R's "How Much...." comment, one must mention the game of golf that Scotty & Chekov play with a thinly disguised Brigader A Lethbridge Stewart & the UNIT mob from Doctor Who...
It's Hysterical...

re: Gerrold/Sherman relationship - perhaps it would be more appropriate to say female friend rather than girlfriend (English is so imprecise!). I believe Holly was a summer intern on the show that summer - she went to Cal State Northridge (or San Fernando Valley State U as it was then).

Bob Googooian

According to Trek 2.0, the conversation in the bar between Scotty and Chekov, about the virtues of vodka vs. scotch (among other things) was their only dialog together in the entire series.

"Chekov, please signal again... you're breaking up...

I've lost him..."

That's in a movie, though, not the TV series.

According to Trek 2.0, the conversation in the bar between Scotty and Chekov, about the virtues of vodka vs. scotch (among other things) was their only dialog together in the entire series. - Adam Bomb

I would have thought they had some dialogue together in Spectre of the Gun.

Y'know, as this is next on the list of 'To Be Updated' Enhanced Trek episodes... would it be a cool touch or a revisionist travesty to use the DS9 version of the lineup scene, and generally add the Trials and Tribleations elements (where appropriate to fit in with existing shots, not new scenes) into this episode? I frankly lean toward "Pretty cool" and a nice nod to Trek continuity...

According to this episode's Memory Alpha page, November 22, 1985 marked the date that Cyrano Jones was technically free, as 17.9 years had passed since the episode had originally aired. Now, I love Star Trek as much as anyone on this board, but (and this is only my opinion) some people have way too much time on their hands.

Would it be a cool touch or a revisionist travesty to use the DS9 version of the lineup scene, and generally add the Trials and Tribleations elements...into this episode?

I'd love to see the DS 9 effects integrated with this episode. As for having Bashir and O'Brien in the line-up in the enhanced version, I could go either way on that. As someone once said, "You won't have long to wait."

The Strange New Worlds anthologies have had a lot of tribble stories. Which were your favorites?

Virginia used to have a senator (or maybe it was a congressman?) named Paul Tribble. No fooling.

The man running for local Coroner here was named Tribble too.

You must live near a Quadrotriticale field.

For a "humorous" episode this ends on a tragic note if you ponder it.Kirk is ready to be horrified that Scotty might have beamed all of the Tribbles on board the Enterprise into space.Scotty(looking hurt that Kirk could think that he'd perform such an inhuman act)tells Kirk that he beamed them all into the Klingon ship's engine room.We leave everyone on the bridge in hysterics,episode ends.Hey folks,just what touching,compassionate reaction do you think that the Klingons will have when faced with an engine room of Tribbles? R.I.P.Tribbles,thanks Scotty.

Missed Opportunity Dept: When this episode was shot, Whit Bissell (Lurry) had come off The Time Tunnel. He played a character named General Heywood Kirk. Maybe Shatner could have had a line such as "He (Lurry) looks like an ancestor of mine." Which would have forged a link between Irwin Allen's sci-fi universe and Trek. Or, set Roddenberry and Co. up for possible legal ramifications. On second thought, forget I ever said anything...

Great minds think alike, Adam. Check out my post for The Trouble With Tribbles Board on 11/06/01. You'll have to click the archive link. Also, check out a post by He's Dead Jim on 6/3/06 on the "Lines You'll Never Hear on Star Trek Part 90" board

thanks Todd!

Gen. Kirk: My future self is on next week, the new and improved Troubles with Tribbles.The ds9 version was better!So that's why them tribbles kept fallin and fallin and fallin and

The remastered "The Trouble with Tribbles" repeats this weekend.

saw the new and improved Tribbles, there are now 4 versions - the cutup version ,the complete version on dvd, the remastered version.the improved version had the Spock looking at Kirk when the station wasn't under attack look cut out.

oh and the 2.0 version.

what do you think? The Klingon ship was there at least!

What's 2.0?

g4 showed the Tos 2.0 with the blurbs on the top of its screen? Luigi??? you dont know????

they started showing the TNg 2.0 ,then stopped.

No. I'm not following.

Can some Trekker clear it up for Luigi??
Maybe Butch or Adam? or am I dreaming?

On the t.v. channel G4. At one time they showed what they called TOS 2.0, TNG 2.0. Basically it's the episode shown with added items running along the top and sometimes bottom of the screen. A couple of examples are how many takes it took to do a certain scene, or the number of times a certain phrase is said in an episode.

Okay, I see. Kinda like that show that used to run on MTV, Pop-up video, right?

Very similar.

Luigi, that was VH1 not MTV that did "Pop-up video." As for Trek 2.0 some little pop-up trivia would have been fine with me but instead what they did was show the episode in a window was was maybe 75% of the screen and had the rest of it cluttered with boxes that had other info about the episode. Sort of like the news and business cable channels when they are trying to cover more than one topic at once. Off to one side they had the "Spock Market" game where fans online could trade stocks related to the episode and the stats for them would appear in one of the side boxes. Also quotes from the chatroom would get posted alongside the trek facts. Personally I didn't like 2.0 at all. This article from Wired totally hits the nail on the head as to why I didn't like it.

I started noticing Uhura's Undies 122 shots!

mmmmmmmm.

I really miss Pop Up Video, VH1 UK used to show it a lot when I first got digital cable, but after a rebrand it seemed to vanish & I've only seen the odd one since.

When I was last stateside I saw an episode of the Brady Bunch given similar treatment. Can't remember what channel though.

Here's more about Trek 2.0. Too bad they don't have a screen cap. G4 ran 2.0 for about six or seven months. I didn't care for it either, but since it was Trek, I watched it anyway. G4 also ran non-2.0 Trek uncut on Saturdays.
G4 also tried the 2.0 approach with Next Gen (which didn't even last a complete run of the series, AFAIK) and Cops.

TV Land dropped Koloth's line about "non-essentials." Among others.
And, Pop-Up Video frequently plays on VH-1 Classic. They're all old episodes, though - no new ones have been made in about seven or eight years.

GREAT ENHANCEMENTS

Klingon ship visible orbiting Space Station K-7.

However, the shot of K-7 is different from the ones seen on "Trials & Tribble-ations"

It appears that in the remastered TOS version, each section of K-7 has the letter "K" on it and a letter of the Greek Alphabet

Example: "K-W"

If they wanted to have some fun, they should have remastered it with O'brian and Bashir getting chewed out by Kirk. To everyone's knowledge, that's how everyone in the TOS universe remembers it.

I haven't watched it yet, but it'd be cool if they did that.

According to Trek 2.0, the conversation in the bar between Scotty and Chekov, about the virtues of vodka vs. scotch (among other things) was their only dialog together in the entire series. - Adam Bomb

They had dialog in "Friday's Child." When the Enterprise is searching for the Deirdre, Scotty asks Chekov for a report and Chekov replies that he hasn't picked up any debris on the scanner. Then there's another similar exchange later on.

Btw, did they show the DS9 crew in the background in this version?

Okay, it just occurred me to do a Search, and I see that it did not (even though my question was mostly facetious, as I assumed they did not appear).

The original takes place in a timeline in which the DS9 people were not present.

Wait a minute then... If that were true, then the episode of trouble with tribbles but with the DS9 characters would be included in the DVD pack "alternate timelines."

Don't temporal mechanics give you a headache?

The remastered "The Trouble with Tribbles" airs next weekend, with "The Paradise Syndrome" the following week.

Since I didn't comment on the remastered episode before...

New shots of K-7, along with a Klingon D-7 battlecruiser. You can now see the Enterprise orbiting past in Lurry's window, rather than staying fixed in one spot.

It's not really clear why the Enterpise would "orbit" K-7. K-7 can't have enough of a gravitational field to support an orbit. Even though K-7 is rotating, the Enterprise is moving against the stars in the distance. Although K-7 is rotating, the stars outside the window don't appear to move.

One very minor nit -- in the teaser when Uhura appears on the viewscreen, it shows just her face. When the shot switches to a closeup on the viewscreen, it shows her full head and shoulders.

You can clearly see Doohan's missing finger when he carries the armload of tribbles into the rec room.

The free copy of Gerrold's making-of book is still availabe.

---

quote:

The free copy of Gerrold's making-of book is still available.

---

You can still get it from Archive.org at http://web.archive.org/web/20080518095943/http://www.benbellabooks.com/gerrold/Tribbles.pdf

However, don't count on this staying around -- save it now if you want it.

nope ,sorry Alan, all I got was computergibberish...

Here's an amusing April Fools item I found courtesy of Trekmovie. I wonder if PETA would be angered...

I have the first (at least I think it was the first) printing of Gerrold's Tribbles book, from 1973. It's in a case with other Trek books. I haven't looked at it in years; it may fall apart if I touch it, as it's close to 40 years old.

I posted this item in the "Cemetery", but it belongs here as well: Michael Pataki, who played Korax the (not soft) Klingon in this episode, passed away of cancer on 4/15/10. More here.

When Chekov mentions that "littld old lady from Leningrad", I have to smile. There hasn't been such a city in nearly twenty years. After the Soviet Union fell, the city reverted to its original name, St. Petersburg.

Of course, Mr. Gerrold had no way of knowing this in 1967, 24 years before the fact.

And there's nothing to say a new Leningrad couldn't be built between now & the 23rd century. ;-)

Hmmm, a bunch of die hard Commies got together and built their own city

Or maybe Russian Beatles fans & it's spelled Lennongrad? ;-)

Yeah, it's right next to McCartneygrad

Is their sister city Ringograd or PeteBestgrad?

It's okay...those Commies are tucked away in their own city of Leningrad on the Moon! It's just a few miles away from
Moonbase Alphagrad!

Leningrad is also mentioned in STIV:TVH as being a city on twenty-third century Earth.

Must be that one named after John Lennon

Here's an analysis of Robert Heinlein's short story, "The Rolling Stones", and how it's gimmick may have inspired this episode. There's a nod to the name of the pet "Martian Flat Cat" in the movie The Shawshank Redemption.

McCoy describes the Tribbles as "bisexual, reproducing at will". Since only heterosexual creatures can reproduce with each other, what possible impact could the Tribbles' bisexuality have on their reproduction rate?

I would suspect that what McCoy was trying to say is that a tribble has both sets of sex organs-they don't need more than one to reproduce.

Otherwise the censors would be saying"this is sick-those tribbles are ******* all over the ship".

It might have gotten the script banned.

In his book on the making of the ep, David Gerrold, IIRC, mentioned that he originally wanted to say the tribbles were homosexual, but that was shot down. I think even saying they were asexual was also shot down by the censors. For some reason, though, saying the tribbles were "bisexual" was acceptable. Go fig.

"Live long and prosper."

"Tribbles" is, admittedly, one of my favorite episodes from the second season, but one thing that would have definetly it better is if Sulu had been present. At that point in his career he was off filming "The Green Berets", a Vietnam War-propaganda film starring everyone's favorite ultra-patriot and raging alcoholic, John Wayne.

And I say, that was too bad that Sulu could not have been part of the script for this episode. I think it was a shame that it was Walter Koenig as Chekov that got all the best lines here, and I read that if George Takei had actually been available, some of Chekov's lines would have gone to Sulu, except for the dialogue that had him attributing virtually everything to Russian origin. Oh well.

The exchange of dialogue I did like went like this:

(Scotty and Chekov in the bar)
Scotty: When are ya gonna get off that milk diet, lad?
Chekov: This is wodka!
Scotty: Where I come from, that's soda pop. Now, this here's a drink for a man!
Chekov: Scotch?!
Scotty: (taking a sip) Aye!
Chekov: (sarcastically) It was inwented by a little old lady from Leningrad!

As for the Tribbles themselves. Cyrano Jones said they were from "the far reaches of the galaxy". Now, in the time if TOS, they had of course not yet established the system of Galactic Quadrants, and at times it was possible for the Enterprise to achieve speeds of over Warp 10, so I guess that's why they didn't specify just what planet of what star system they originated from. Also, on DS9 Worf spoke of the Klingons travelling to the Tribble homeworld at some point in their history and eradicating every last one. Of course, they made a major comeback on the station at the end of the show.

Too bad the "glommers" from the Animated Series aren't canonical, they might have been useful in attempting to eliminate all Tribbles from existence. But then the Klingons would be guilty of genocide! Would even they go that far?

I guess the best way to deal with Tribbles is to pet them and enjoy their calming sounds they make, but just don't feed them, then they couldn't get the nourishment they need to reproduce. At least they could still get wet, as opposed to Mogwis, because that's how they reproduce!

Um, if the Klingons did "travel... to the Tribble homeworld at some in their history and eradicat(ed) every last (tribble)", then the Klingons are guilty of genocide. Incidentally, Memory Alpha identifies the tribble's home world as Iota Geminorum IV. Apparently this was revealed in the aforementioned ep of Enterprise.

Live long and prosper.

Really? Wow, thanks Benn. I had not ever thought to check Memory Alpha for the name of the Tribble homeworld, because I thought that it had never been officially established in Trek canon.

As for what Worf said about Tribble genocide, I wonder how accurate that information was. After all, he refused to discuss the Klingon forehead ridge mystery with Bashir and O'Brien, and years later, it would be explained on Enterprise, through the whole Arik Soong/Augments storyline.

And the name of the planet where Tribbles originated from, well, somehow I missed that. Anyway, thanks for the info!

But will it be Ringograd or PeteBestgrad?

Spock compares tribbles to an ermine violin. I wonder how a violin covered with ermine would sound? Has anybody tried it?

Here's an analysis of "Tomorrow Was Yesterday", the story outline that got Gerrold's foot in the door. The writer of the piece, Dave Eversole, says:

---

quote:

It is also a fairly spot-on parable of 1960's liberal political sentiments: "Get the old folks out of office; let the young'uns take over."

---

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of this episode's airing. Vanity Fair has published a commemorative article; it can be found here. According to the article, it was Bob Justman who decided the air date of the episodes, and it was Bob Justman (who wasn't particularly fond of this one) who scheduled it during the holiday season, when most other shows were in reruns. (In the third season, a repeat of "The Enterprise Incident" was scheduled during the holiday season.)

Here is the dialogue immediately following Kirk getting buried by the tribbles from the garin compartment:

SPOCK: They seem to be gorged.
BARIS: Gorged? On my grain? Kirk, I am going to hold you responsible. There must be thousands of them.
KIRK: Hundreds of thousands.
SPOCK: One million seven hundred seventy one thousand five hundred sixty one. That's assuming one tribble, multiplying with an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every twelve hours over a period of three days.
KIRK: That's assuming they got here three days ago.

Doing the calculations using the given figures, we come up with the exact number of tribbles cited by Spock. Someone went to the trouble of doing the actual calculation so the number would be the correct one, kudos.

In the Nitpicker's guide, Phil wonders why there were no guards in the bar keeping an eye on the Klingons. Well, there WERE two guards when Scott and friends enter the bar and sit at their table, but then they waved a greeting at each other and the two security guards left the bar for some reason, effectively deserting their posts.

Yeah, but were those guards there in an official capacity, or had they just dropped by for a drink? The episode never says.

There is a loud, fairly high pitched hum in mister Lurry's office. That noise would quickly drive ME insane.

Cyrano Jones's left wrist sports a band of pale skin indicative of someone habitually wearing a wrist watch.

Tribbles eat a lot. They don't appear to poop a lot though, which is just as well because it would have made a bad situation much worse.

Btw, how do creatures without teeth eat such large quantities of a wide variety of foods?

In a rec room overun with tribbles, we see two crewmen playing chess with the critters walking on their chess board. Must make for an interesting game.

This was one of the few times that TOS mentioned its own continuity, as the Organian Peace Treaty is mentioned.

Kirk and Koloth have obviously met before. I wonder where and when that happened?

Had their been a fourth season, Koloth would have been a recurring character, whom Kirk and Co. would run into from time to time. Of course, sadly, there never was a fourth season.

Sure there was!
It's called 'Star Trek The Animated Series'!

The ending was funny, until you realize what the Klingons probably did with all those tribbles that Scotty beamed over to their ship.

And, of course, the Klingon Empire then engaged in the Great Tribble Hunt which drove the tribbles into extinction.

That is until the DS9 crew brought a bunch back from their jaunt into this episode. I guess they put those tribbles on a planet, far from the Klingon Empire!

The same scene probably played out differently on the Klingon ship;
Koloth; I don't see any tribbles on the bridge.
Korax; And you won't find a single tribble on this ship, Captain.
Koloth; Good work, Korax.
Korax; It wasn't me. It was Korg.
Koloth; Korg! Where are the tribbles?
Korg; I beamed them all out into space.
Koloth; Good work! You're promoted to be my new First Officer!
Korax; Hey! What about me?!
Koloth; You can always join the tribbles in space.
Korax. Uh...no. Congratulations. Korg.
Korg; Thank you.
Korax; Just watch you back. In case of...you know...transporter accidents!

Yeah, that's probably what happened!

There's something else about the tribbles in the grain silo. There's a guard right there close to the bin. There are thousands of tribbles eating and cooing and moving around in that bin. Unless those silos are incredibly well soundproofed, and why would they be, the guard should have heard something suspicious going on in there long before Kirk came to investigate.

Well, maybe they are soundproofed. The episode never says otherwise.

No one wants to hear alien grain screaming. ;-)

Funny

Tim wrote, a while back,

---

quote:

Had their been a fourth season, Koloth would have been a recurring character, whom Kirk and Co. would run into from time to time.

---

It's rather sad that tribbles didnt figure into any future episodes. I wasnt there, (well, I was, but I was a toddler ;) but I would think that this episode was popular then as it is now.

Surely the showrunners could have worked tribbles into another episode....

There was an episode featuring them in the Animated Series, and they were seen or talked about here and there in some episodes of subsequent series. For instance, in The Search for Spock, patrons in the bar where McCoy goes to hire a space ship are seen in the background petting tribbles.

The Chief did refer to the "tribble-quipped showgirls" from Shore Leave in the Classic Trek Nitpicker's Guide. ;-)

In his book The Trouble With Tribbles, David Gerald mentions attending a meeting of science fiction fans and when he mentioned he wrote this episode that he was surprised that the other people really liked the episode. (And that the episode was nominated for a Hugo.)

It's rather sad that tribbles didnt figure into any future episodes. I wasnt there, (well, I was, but I was a toddler ;) but I would think that this episode was popular then as it is now.


It was revealed, in the DS9 episode, Trials And Tribbleations, that, by the end of the 23rd Century, the Klingons has hunted the tribbles into extinction.

That is until a new race of tribbles, that sprang from the one that Odo brought back to the present. I'm guessing that the Federation put those tribbles on a planet FAR from Klingon space.

Ah, thanks, I did not know that.

It's all good.

Something I found on line, at tbe site "Fansided" - Though not all of the 500 tribbles have been accounted for, William Campbell, who played Koloth, took at least forty of the tribbles home and passed them out to children in a nearby neighborhood.

A nice move for Mr. Campbell. I wonder if those kids, who are now in their early to mid sixties, hung on to the original Tribbles. If they did, they got a nice collectors' item.

But I would think that this episode was popular then as it is now.

Not with associate producer Bob Justman, nor with Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry was away from the production during most of the shoot, and did not like the comic tone of the episode. (According to what David Gerrold said in the Vanity Fair article linked above, Roddenberry had no sense of humor.) And, Bob Justman scheduled the episode to run in what he felt was a dead zone in TV viewing. (From what I remember from Gerrold's Tribbles book, Gene Coon got a lot of credit for the episode. Bob Justman's name was never mentioned. A sad omission, for a man who worked his tail off on the show for two and two-thirds seasons. )

Something I found on line, at tbe site "Fansided" - Though not all of the 500 tribbles have been accounted for, William Campbell, who played Koloth, took at least forty of the tribbles home and passed them out to children in a nearby neighbourhood.

That was a nice gesture on his part.


Not with associate producer Bob Justman, nor with Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry was away from the production during most of the shoot, and did not like the comic tone of the episode. (According to what David Gerrold said in the Vanity Fair article linked above, Roddenberry had no sense of humour.) And, Bob Justman scheduled the episode to run in what he felt was a dead zone in TV viewing.

I wonder if the two men softened their stance on this episode in later years.