BAD EPISODE!!! BAD SERIES!!!

Well, heck, Anonymous, one *wonders* why you stay
anonymous!! Ya got anything useful to do besides
dissing the show for no explanied reason?

One good thing about this episode: It partially explains how the Klingons eliminated the tribbles.

How's that? Mass tribble-cide?

Animated series was the worst thing ever to happen to Star Trek, possibly even beating Wesley, Pulaski and Shelby.

Well, you certainly have a point but would you
care to explain why you feel this way? I mean,
that's pretty severe. Wesley was supposed to
appeal to the kids; all the kids I know think he
was a dork. Pulaski was rude to Data. KILL HER!!!
(At ease, self, at ease.) My best friend and I
have formed The We Despise Wesley Crusher,
Katherine Pulaski, and Agents Diana Fowley and
Spenders Club. (All the other acronyms were
already used.) Wanna join?
On the other hand, I kinda liked Shelby and I bet
she had a hard time at school. ("Oh look, guys,
it's 'Shelby Coming round the Mountain when she
comes'.") Look on the bright side: she made Troi
start wearing regular uniforms. :-)

It was Captain Jellico that made Troi wear real uniforms. It was in Chain of Command, part I. And, no I don't like Jelico either. (Neither does Riker:)

You are so right.

Gee, am I the only person who liked the animated series? I thought it was fun! And I liked the inclusion of more aliens, such as M'ress and Arex. One nice thing about animation, you can put in plausible aliens without having to worry about making them look realistic. Even with all the advanced technology, I think they'd still have difficulty making a good-looking Caitian, or a three-armed, three-legged, red person.
Also--I happened to like Pulaski. I liked Beverly Crusher better, but I liked Pulaski. I thought it was a shame that they took her off the series without any explanation of where she went. I think it would have been fun to have her pop up on DS9 for an episode, just passing through.

No, D.K. I liked it too... though I hated Pulaski... She just didn't have the right chemistry...

The Completely Useless Star Trek Encyclopedia (by Steve Lyons and Chris Howarth) is a good reference guide to the series. nah just kidding, but it is a good book.

The animated series is ok, but the animation is really bad

Re: "the animation is really bad"

I personally have not seen any of the animated series, but don't forget that this was done in 1973. Animation has come a long way in the last 20 years. It's not totally fair to compare the animation of the 70's to the animation of today. Also the writing for cartoons has come a long way. Just look at the old Superfriends cartoons with all of the naration that is not needed today because the writers write it like they would any episode of "live action" shows they put on tv now. Examples: "The New Superman/Batman Adventures", "Gargoyles", "Spider Man", etc.

True, but I find it ironic that one of the reasons Star Trek was a good choice for animation was that it ended budgetary concerns... but ultimately, I feel the Animated Series looks worse than the original. The designs are all flat and uninteresting.

uhhh, actually animation a lot older (eg. old Looney tunes cartoons) are better. Peace and Love people

Well, that was ever so witty. Last warning.

Yeah, before we write Phil!

Oh I'm soooo scared. [(Phil takes out his scissors) . . . snip, snip, snip]

You going to write Phil? That a book?

warning- do not mess with the dig

Dearest Dig . . . Phil is not a book. Phil is the guy who controls this discussion board and has absolute control over every piece of information posted here. I can, with the push of a little button, delete messages. I can, with the push of a button, camp onto anyone's message that I want. I can, with a push of a button, lay waste to whole topics. I can also, with the push of a button turn the entire discussion board private so that no one would leave messages who wasn't approved by me. That would kill any access you and your kind would ever have to my board. And that would be the end of that.

I would, however, prefer not to do that because I maintain this website as a service to fans of the shows listed here. And I would like everyone, including you, to have the opportunity to participate. All that I ask is that those who visit my site and leave messages have the emotional maturity to maintain a civil conversation. I realize that this is a somewhat scarce commodity in our society and one that is not developed very often within the context of the Internet. It is, however, one that I cultivate on my web site and if you cannot find the strength of will to believe in your own viewpoint enough to allow others to enjoy their own then I would suggest you leave.

While you may have the capability to create messages, I have the capability to delete them. So while a record of your existence here might rise like fog on a cold morning . . . by the time the sun comes up, you will be gone and there will be no trace that you ever existed!

On the other hand, if you would like to make some meaningful comments about an episode, you are more than welcome here. EVERYONE'S opinion is welcome here and everyone's comments are given a fair hearing because I am a firm believer in honoring each other with the diginity that every human should be afforded simply by their existence. Not many ascribe to that understanding but I do and ask those associated with me in any way to do so as well.

To recap . . . you have the opportunity to find some friends here. And you also have the opportunity to be a short-lived nuisance. As always, how you decide to proceed is solely within your control. I would hope that you will choose wisely.

Phil Farrand
Author, Nitpicker's Guides

But I liked it anyway. Thanks for your input, Phil.

To Digsy: The Origional Series was badly acted at times. This dosen't make it unentertaining, though.

So um, Charles, did Digsy leave another message? Hmm. It seems to have disappeared. Imagine that! ;-)

Gee, it looks like someone is editing this board. Imagine that! ;-)

Bravo Phil! That speech was worthy of Kirk himself!

Except, if Kirk had said it, it would have been

"And ... you also have the ... opportunity ... to be ... a short-lived nuisance. As always, how you decide ... to proceed is ... solely ... within ... your control"

Sorry, Todd and Phil, I couldn't resist... Everyone knows Shatner's overdramatic delivery is his trademark, and widely imitated by impressionists...

It would also probably have a few profanities sprinkling it.
"...to be...a bleeping... short-lived nuisance."
"...within...your...bleeping...control."
Well, it would!

One wonders though, would Kirk really give an anti-swear word speech? He is certainly fond of "more colorful metaphors". Not that I disagree with the Chief, though.

Or, as David Duchovny put it, 'exploring the richness of the English language in its
cursing form.' Ick

In all seriousness, though . . . I, for one, appreciate your efforts to ensure that this board is free of the childishness and hostility which seems to dominate so many other discussion groups. Thanks.

Ditto. In fact, double ditto. All Hail The Chief, for He Is Great!

DK Henderson, you`ll be pleased to know that I`m also a fan of the animated series. I notice how after Digger`s and KND`s messages people have discussed whether or not they like Shelby and Pulaski, but no-one has mentioned Wesley. Does anyone like/take pity on/not mind Wesley Crusher?

Wesley was very annoying at the beginning, but got better with time, I think. His very best episode was probably "Final Mission."

Yeah, Final Mission was good, and I personally liked "The First Duty." Picard (sort of) saved Wesley's posterior, instead of the other way around.

Well, Wesley *did*, over time, get so I could look at him and not wince over his
geekiness... but he *still* wasn't exactly my favorite. :-) I favored Tasha Yar. She
was soo cool!

I liked Wesley. I thought they used him a bit too often as SuperKid, but other than that....Actually, I can't think of any Star Trek regular that I don't like. (I don't regard Shelby as a regular. Although, if they'd used her more often, they might have explored deeper than her surface obnoxiousness and she might have become more likeable.)

Why are these episodes listed in production order whereas the episodes in the live-action series are listed in airing order?

'Cause I decided on it. *grin*

I liked the animated series. Yes it had it's faults, but when I was 13 it was the only Trek in town. No, the animation is not the best, and yes the scripts fell to the Saturday morning syndrome, But I still find it entertaining. Some of the stories are actually pretty good and if the powers that be had given the creators a little more time and money this could have been a great Trek. The entire series was produced in just 5 months!It did have it's advantages as well. We got to see more exotic aliens, grander planetscapes, starships, and cities. So if you get a chance to see the show, try to look for the good parts, there are many. There are even a couple shows that are as good as any Trek, then or now, all they needed was the time and money.

PS- Nice speech Phil, you is da man.

In this episode, the tribbles don't seem to freak out when they're in proximity to Klingons, as they did in the live-action show. Maybe the genetic engineering mellowed them out.

More Tribbles, More Troubles is currently the featured episode on my animated Star Trek website.
There are lots of pictures, 4 avi's, RealVideo, a link to buy the video,
and the entire episode in RealAudio format.
http://mainengineering.simplenet.com/tas_main.html
Please stop by, and comments are always welcome in my guestbook,
disscussion area, and here. Thank you.

PLOT OVERSIGHTS
Kirk uses the term "intergalactic" when speaking of Cyrano Jones, but hasn`t Starfleet only explored part of THIS galaxy?
Kirk tells Sulu to take the other ship in tow, and Spock vetos that. As he gives his explanation, he says they have it in tow. When did that happen? Did Sulu carry out Kirk`s order despite the objection?
CHANGED PREMISES
Kirk says Cyrano Jones has violated several mandates, but Spock in The Trouble With Tribbles says Cyrano Jones has never broken the law. (What never? Well, hardly ever...)
Koloth sure sounds different from the way he did in TTWT!
CONTINUITY AND PRODUCTION PROBLEMS
At the beginning the Enterprise is at impulse. They aren`t even trying to reach Sherman`s planet ;-)
In the wide shots of operating the transporter controls Scott has a captain`s insignia (two full, one broken in the middle) but in most scenes, he has a Lt Commander`s insignia (one full, one broken)
In one scene near the beginning it seems Scott is on the bridge, and not even at his usual station!
Both times Kirk orders to have Koloth on screen, Spock and Uhura disappear from their consoles.
In all scens but the one where he comes up onto the bridge McCoy has the insignia of a full commander. Scott also has this insignia in the first shot of the briefing room.
Arex disappears from navigation twice: First when Kirk tells Uhura to close communications with Koloth, and second when Kirk is talking to Spock near the end.

TAS is, I would consider, a marvelous addition to the Trek repertoire. I consider its 22 episodes to be the fourth season of TOS, and collectively, the fifth year of Kirk's five year mission. Sure it had some less than stellar episodes, but certainly the other shows have had their share of those as well.

The Klingons fired on one of the robot ships and destroyed half its warp engines. Yet the remainder of the vessel remained intact. Does that seem right? I'd've thought even the partial destruction of the robot ship's engines would result in the total destruction of the ship.

After Cyrano Jones is beamed aboard the Enterprise, the ep goes to a commercial. When it returns, Kirk orders a security guard to "secure all stations". The shot is facing the Transporter platform. The guard, in order to obey Kirk, turns right. Uh, there's a wall there, IIRC. The door to the Transporter Room would be to the left. The security guard, btw, is based on "Tribbles" author, David Gerrold. So Gerrold got his TREK cameo years before DS9's "Trials and Tribble-lations" ep.

Cyrano said he had the tribbles genetically engineered so they would not breed. How? I mean, would Space Station K-7 really just happen to have a genetic scientist drop in who would have the time to develop such genetic engineering? And if the tribbles were incapable of reproducing, why are there so many with Jones on the Transporter platform?

And why doesn't Scotty know he's beaming tribbles aboard? Surely the combines masses of Cyrano Jones and the tribbles would have been a bit abnormal.

If Jones has been confined to K-7 just how did he happen to acquire the Glommer? Somebody would have had to bring it to the station as Jones couldn't leave it. And if it was a Klingon, you'd they'd've kept a closer watch over it.

Did the Glommer devour all the tribbles on K-7 other than the ones Jones has with him? Even if it eats tribbles quickly, it still should have taken it some time for it to cut down on the tribble population. At best, the 17 some-odd years Cyrano was to have spent clearing the little fur balls off the Space Station would have been cut in half I would think. Jones should still be on K-7.

If tribbles are "harmful creatures" and the transportation of such creatures is against Federation laws, how is it that Jones is allowed to board a shuttle with them? Surely Mr. Lurry or whoever is the current administrative head of K-7 would not have allowed him to leave with tribbles.

By the way, shouldn't the crew of the Enterprise know that's Jones aboard the one-man spacecraft? IIRC, "The Trouble With Tribbles" estaablished that Cyrano has his own ship. Its registry should be in the Enterprise's library computer banks. The only other possibility is that Jones acquired another vessel. But how?

Jones sold tribbles on a Klingon planet? How did he get to the planet if he's busy cleaning up K-7? How could he not know the planet was a part of the Klingon Empire? Did the natives look different form regular Klingons? Did they have ridges on their foreheads?

The Klingons don't use their new weapon very effectively do they? With two battle cruisers they could have wiped out the Enterprise. Koloth's ship uses the immobilizing beam and the other battle cruiser attacks the Enterprise. Simply immobilizing the Enterprise doesn't do much of anything unless the Klingons can also attack it while it is impotent.

The tribbles get fatter faster than they got pregnant eating the quintotritcale don't they?

There were only so many tribbles braought on board with Cyrano Jones. Why weren't they immediately taken to a secure area so they would not be running around the ship? And given the limited number of the animals there is, how could security have so much trouble finding them? Surely their bio readings would be very distinctive from humans and Vulcan readings.

After Scotty beams the tribbles aboard Koloth's ship, Kirk has Uhura hail Koloth. At one point while Kirk and the Klingon are conversing, Koloth's image appears in front of the Bridge's viewscreen. (The animation cel was apparently put in wrong.)

When Jones puts the Glommer on the Transporter pad, it stands well within the circular pad. However, as Scotty beams it over to the Klingons, half of it is outside of the pad.

The giant tribbles are colony of tribbles? Why would they do that? What would cause them to form such "colonies"? And surely you'd be able to tell the giants are made up of a bunch of tribbles by looking at them. The surface of a giant tribble must have "seams" indicating where other tribbles are.

I thought Scotty beamed all the tribbles over to the Klingons. Why are there still the two we see in the tag? For that matter, why hasn't security gotten the tribbles away from the quintotriticale? Why were they allowed to stay to continue eating it?

Unlike the first time we see the tribbles, the tribbles in this ep are all one color - pink. Must be a side effect of the genetic engineering Jones had done to them.

Ultimately, this episode owes way too much to the original tribbles ep. Too many of its best bits are taken from "The Trouble With Tribbles".

Later in the ep it's revealed that Jones stole the Glommer from the Klingon planet that Cyrano was selling tribbles on. Again, Jones is confined to Space Station K-7 until he removes the tribbles from the Station. So he couldn't have gone to the Klingon planet to sell tribbles and steal the Glommer. Worse, Jones said that the Glommer is what shortened his stay on K-7. Huh?

Why would the Klingons create the Glommer in the first place? Until Jones sold the tribbles on the one planet, I don't think tribbles were ever a menace to the Empire were they?

NANJAO: James Doohan does the voice of Koloth

I will concede that the animation suffers when compared to stuff like the 90's BATMAN animated show, or the ANIMANIACS series. OTOH, the shows were truly ST (far more so than horse manure like ENTERPRISE)

Note when the shots of Scotty(with the wrong sleeves in the wide shots of the transporter) cuts to the closeup shot, his sleeves change to the right ones and he also grows a mustache.

Note when Kirk calls for Cyrano Jones to come to the bridge. Jones is standing in front of the transporter doors and the door seems like it is off center. it looks like the cell is off to the right and you can see inside the transporter from the left side. does anyone else see that?

Why would the Klingons create the Glommer in the first place? Until Jones sold the tribbles on the one planet, I don't think tribbles were ever a menace to the Empire were they?

In the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribbleations" I think Worf refers to a glorious victory of the Klingon empire over the Tribbles, which may imply that they have some prior history (which could also explain why Tribbles hate Klingons).

Funny, I thought the reference to the "Great Tribble Hunt" (or whatever it was called) was an event that happened after "The Trouble With Tribbles", that is it was the result of Scotty beaming the tribbles over to Koloth's ship. I could be wrong, though.

Live long and prosper.

On the DVD version of this episode, Koloth no longer appears on the Bridge of the Enterprise.

Interesting registry number on the robot ship. "NCC-G1465". I don't think we've ever seen another Federation vessel that had a letter in its registry/construction number. Other than "NX" or "NCC", the prefix codes, that is.

The first time we see Jones' vessel on the main viewing screen, you see the reflection of the animation cell on the lower half of the viewscreen.

Why is the door to the Bridge turbolift open? There's no one standing in the doorway. No one entering or leaving the Bridge. Yet the doors are clearly open.

Once again, we have the shot of the Bridge where the turbolift is right next to the Main Viewscreen.

Oh great. The Klingons fire their new weapon and instead of ordering evasive maneuvers, Kirk asks for an analysis from Mr. Spock. Get the ship out of the way, first Jim. Then ask questions about the weapon. Sheesh.

I swear, if you look carefully, the doors to the Bridge's turbolift keep opening and closing. And no one's going in or out. There's no even a living soul near them.

And once again we have the shot of Arex, Sulu and Kirk with Spock and Uhura away from their posts. It seems like every time there's an emergency situation, these two sneak off somewhere. You don't suppose they're having an affair, do you?

When the robot ships attack the Klingon battlecruiser, in one of the shots, the robot is missing its construction number on the warp nacelle.

Um, after the Klingons stop using their stasis weapon, Kirk tells Sulu to hold his fire until the Klingons fire first. Uh, aren't the Klingons in violation of Federation space at this point? Didn't they just attack a Federation vessel? Shouldn't Captain Kirk be doing something a little more proactive than waiting for Koloth to order Klingons to fire first?

If the genetically engineered tribbles cannot reproduce, how does Cyrano Jones plan to restock his supply of the little fuzzballs?

The glommer eating the tribble marks the second death to occur in TAS. The first was that of Spock's pet sehlat, I-Chaya in "Yesteryear".

Hey! We've got our first TAS "47". Kirk tells Jones he's in "violation of 3 Federation mandates and 47 local ones."

Kirk comments that the Klingons can't control more than one ship with their stasis field. Say what? Just minutes ago, the Klingon battlecruiser had immobolized the Enterprise and its two robot ships.

Sulu notes the Klingon vessel is coming back for the Enterprise after it crippled the second grain ship. The next shot shows Koloth's ship on a viewscreen surrounded by a brass cover. I assume this is the view of the battlecruiser from Sulu's scanner. If so, it has a better view than Spock's scanner in "One of Our Planets Is Missing".

This episode contains, I believe, the first time ever that we see the interior of a Klingon battlecruiser.

Koloth says the Klingons detected some transporter activity from the Enterprise. Yet the Captain and his crew weren't curious to know anything further about it? Surely, the Klingon sensors would have detected that the Enterprise was beaming something aboard the battlecruiser. And surely Koloth would have wanted to know immediately what it was that was being put on his ship. I guess not. Which makes Koloth something of an idiot if you ask me.

"Live long and prosper."

On the DVD version of this episode, Koloth no longer appears on the Bridge of the Enterprise. - John A. Lang

19 minutes and 33 seconds into the ep - and it is still there, John. I've been watching David Gerrold's commentary track to this ep and just saw it again.

"Live long and prosper."

I must've missed that. I'll have to watch it again.

I just want to confirm, Benn's right. Koloth does appear on the Bridge of the Enterprise for 0.5 seconds. That's how I missed it. You have to watch FAST!

TRIVIA: The reason the Tribbles are pink is because the color artist for the cels was color blind.

This episode contains, I believe, the first time ever that we see the interior of a Klingon battlecruiser.
Sorry, but maybe not, depending on your POV (and how picky you want to be, of course). In "Elaan of Troyius," the unnamed Klingon captain communicated visually from his ship to the Enterprise. You may, or may not, count the wall behind the Klingon as an "interior."

I should have said, "extensive interiors shots of a Klingon battlecruiser." I'm very much aware that in TOS we saw a wall of a Klingon ship. But this was the first time we really saw the rooms in one.

"Live long and prosper."

When Cyrano Jones comes to the Bridge, the Turbolift doors behind him are off-center.

Uh, John, you really do need to read the previous nits more closely. Glenn of nas mentioned the Cyrano Jones/turbolift nit in his Friday, January 14, 2005 post.

"Live long and prosper."

Dang!

All the good nits are taken!

RE: Everyone: I really do TRY to read the previous nits, sometimes I scroll down too fast & miss one or two nits. I apologize.

SPECIAL VOICE: Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones

SPECIAL VOICE #2: David Gerrold as Korax

(Yeah, I know he didn't do the ORIGINAL Korax, but I felt I should mention it anyway!)

Uh oh. That looks like a spambot test immediately above.

Is this a botnet, or a single IP? If it's a single IP, can we block it?

It's a bot, Scott. IPs in 5 different countries from the ones I checked.

Well, then it's time to reef the mains'l and batten down the hatches, because spam's a-comin'!

Y'know, it may just be my imagination- but it seems like the design of the Starfleet Cargo Ship Antares from Charlie X (shown on the Star Trek.com website) is perhaps intended as an homage to the design of the drones in this episode?

It'd be the other way around, Zarm. "Charlie X" predates "More Tribbles, More Troubles."

"Live long and prosper."

It'd be the other way around, Zarm. "Charlie X" predates "More Tribbles, More Troubles."


Yes, but in the original Charlie X, we never saw the Antares. This new version is indeed a small tribute to TAS.

Oh, okay. So Zarm's talking about the remastered "Charlie X". My bad.

"Live long and prosper."

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Should've mentioned that.

Uh oh!

Must be the Book of tribbles, ScottN

No, !, it's that [CENSORED] spambot, making yet another try.

duh.

Darn Borg computer viruses...

I think Beryl, Tamie, Elvin, and Onita are spambots, looks like the links got killed though.

For some reason, the spambots like this particular board on NitC.

Looks like they learned how to talk from Yoda.

My links, you will follow, hmmm?

I'm going to close this thread temporarily. Hopefully the Spambot will go away. It'll be reopened in a few days by either me or the topic mod.

TRIVIA: The reason the Tribbles are pink is because the color artist for the cels was color blind.

Obviously Filmation was an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Now to a nit.... and based on my viewing of just one DVD, it appears to be pervasive.

The Red Alert warning goes on all by itself without Kirk or anyone else ordering Red Alert.

I just watched "More Tribbles, More Troubles" off the TOS S2 Blu-ray set. This also has Gerrold's commentary, which I believe is the same one used previously.

The original 35mm film is captured in HD but is otherwise not remastered. Wow, it looks bad. You can see every speck of dirt on the cels, and there's a lot. Whenever a ship moves across the screen, a cloud of spots follows it.

Director Hal Sutherland was indeed colorblind, leading to the pink tribbles and Klingons.

Despite being played by the same actor, Cyrano Jones' voice sounds really off. I don't know if Stanley Adams' voice changed, he forgot how to do the character, and/or he just wasn't good at voice acting (not all live actors are).

Doohan wasn't bad as Koloth, but Gerrold wasn't that great as Korax.

PLOT SUMMARY: While transporting quadrotriticale to Sherman's Planet
Quintotriticale, actually.

Why would they need robot ships? Was there a shortage of ship pilots?

The laws of physics don't work (then again, do they ever in the ST Universe?)
The robots ships stop when the tractor beams are disabled. Once in motion they should continue until acted upon by an outside force.

Three times during this episode Scotty refers to the "corridors" of the Enterprise.The correct terminology for a ship should be passageways.Since the Enterprise employs naval terms to their ship's interior,such as bridge,sickbay,& so forth,it seems inconsistent that they would not do so for the passageways.If the Klingon shields were operating,just how did Scotty transport the tribbles over to it?

Actually I think that all throughout Star Trek they call them corridors.

They do Brian & that's my point,it is inconsistent.They use Earth naval terms for the Enterprise such as Bridge,Brig,Sickbay & so forth.Therefore it would only make sense that they'd also use the naval term passageways as they do on ships.Corridors & hallways would be for buildings & not starships.Star Trek isn't the only culprit here though,pretty much any sf TV series I've watched involving an Earth spaceship does the same thing.

Just watched this ep again on the 2nd season remastered STAR TREK DVD set.

First of all, why was the glommer allowed to roam the Enterprise? We only have Cyrano Jones' word the thing only eats tribbles. And we all know how reliable a judge of animals Jones is.

Speaking of reliability, I'm guessing the tribbles can still reproduce. Jones was beamed aboard the Enterprise with a pitiably small number of tribbles. For awhile in the ep, we're told what you get when you feed a tribble too much is a fat tribble. Except at the end of the end, when it's revealed that the big tribbles are colonies of the little fur balls. Uh, yeah. 'Cept Jones didn't bring that many tribbles with him. For there to be as many tribbles and colonies as large as we see (especially aboard the Klingon battle cruiser), they'd still have to be able to reproduce.

Just before Jones enters the Bridge, there's a shot of Kirk in his command chair. Boy, is the Captain's torso waaaaay out of proportion.

At one point, during the Klingons' second attack, I believe it was, on the viewscreen, there's a shot of the Klingon battle cruiser rushing towards the Enterprise. The forward, primary hull of the battle cruiser is completely off model.

Live long and prosper.

Klingons are really rubbish marksmen. Cyrano's ship is barely moving and it still takes them many shots just to damage it, then a lot more shots to destroy it.

Why transfer the grain from the damaged ship to the Enterprise? Just leave it in place and take the ship in tow.

How does that tribble keep climbing on Kirk's chair, and why is it bigger every time it does? There's nothing on the bridge for it to eat.

The first time the Klingon stasis field is used it disrupts the transporter's functions, but the transporter works fine the other time.