star trek episode trouble with tribbles

The Trouble with Tribbles (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Story and script
• 4.2 Cast and characters
• 4.3 Production
• 4.4 Effects
• 4.6 Continuity
• 4.7 Apocrypha
• 4.8 Reception
• 4.9 Remastered information
• 4.10 Production timeline
• 4.11 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Co-starring
• 5.4 Featuring
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 Stunt doubles
• 5.7 References
• 5.8 External links

Summary [ ]

The USS Enterprise is en route to Deep Space Station K-7 for assistance with an important assignment regarding a disputed planet . One parsec from the nearest Klingon outpost (" Close enough to smell them ," as Chekov puts it), the post is near Sherman's Planet , which is claimed by both sides.

In the Enterprise 's briefing room , Captain James T. Kirk , Commander Spock , and Ensign Pavel Chekov review the area's history: twenty-three years after the inconclusive Battle of Donatu V , the Organian Peace Treaty is set to grant control of Sherman's Planet to the party that can demonstrate it can develop the planet's resources most efficiently.

Lieutenant Uhura reports from the bridge that K-7 has issued a Code One alert , which signals that it is under attack. Kirk orders a speed increase to warp factor 6, while Uhura initiates a red alert .

Act One [ ]

The Enterprise arrives at maximum warp, ready for a fight, only to find no battle. Beaming over with Spock, Kirk demands an explanation from station manager Lurry , but is told he was ordered to do so by Nilz Baris , a Federation undersecretary in charge of the Sherman's Planet development project.

Baris and his aide, Arne Darvin , fear that the Klingons might try to sabotage the Federation's best hope to win control of the planet – a high-yield grain known as quadrotriticale , the only Earth grain that will grow on the planet. Tons of the grain are stored at the station, and Baris demands from Kirk security and protection. Kirk still believes they have misused the Priority One designation, but assigns only two guards to the station, and allows shore leave for the Enterprise crew.

On leave, Uhura and Chekov meet a dealer named Cyrano Jones , who is trying to wholesale to the skeptical bartender various rare galactic items, among them, spican flame gems and furry little creatures that Jones calls tribbles . While they bicker over the price, Chekov notices a tribble has eaten a quadrotriticale sample left on the bar and Uhura is enchanted by it. Jones gives the tribble to Uhura, a move the bartender claims will ruin the market but Jones claims will help spur more sales.

Back on the Enterprise , Kirk receives an order from Starfleet Admiral Fitzpatrick to render any and or all aid that Baris may require. The admiral informs Kirk that the safety of the grain – as well as the project – is the captain's responsibility. Kirk is exasperated, and just then learns from Uhura that a Klingon battle cruiser has arrived within a hundred kilometers of K-7. Kirk orders the ship to go to red alert and for Lurry to be notified. Lurry, however, discounts a possible attack, as the Klingon ship 's captain , Koloth , and first officer, Korax , are sitting in his office. Kirk orders the red alert canceled.

Act Two [ ]

Koloth's ship orbiting Deep Space K-7

Kirk beams over with Spock and the Klingons assert their rights to shore leave under the terms of the Organian treaty. Kirk reluctantly accedes, but sets limits of twelve at a time, with one guard from the Enterprise for each Klingon soldier.

In the recreation room aboard the Enterprise , Uhura's tribble gives birth to a litter. The sounds the tribbles make seem to have a soothing effect on Humans . Dr. McCoy takes one of the offspring to study it. Meanwhile, Kirk argues with Baris about the adequacy of the security Kirk is providing, until Kirk claims he is getting a headache . Going to sickbay for treatment, Kirk sees that McCoy's tribble has also produced a litter. McCoy reports that almost 50% of their metabolism is geared towards reproduction.

Kirk tells crewmembers beaming over to shore leave on K-7 to avoid trouble with the Klingons. Montgomery Scott declines shore leave, but Kirk, concerned for him getting too wrapped up in his technical journals , orders him over to keep an eye on the others and to enjoy himself.

At the bar aboard K-7, Jones tries to sell more tribbles. The Enterprise crew aren't interested, and the tribbles and the Klingons react to one another with loud hostility. The bartender is uninterested in more tribbles either – the one he acquired earlier is already multiplying. Korax starts insulting the Enterprise crew, first by comparing the Humans to Regulan bloodworms . He then tries to provoke Chekov by repeatedly insulting Kirk, but Scott restrains Chekov. Korax then turns his attention to Scott by insulting the Enterprise itself, first calling it a garbage scow , then just garbage, provoking Scott to punch Korax in the face and start a brawl between the two groups. The barman retreats and Jones dispenses himself some drinks in his absence. Security officers from the Enterprise arrest the brawlers and restore order, and shore leave for both ships is canceled.

Act Three [ ]

Kirk interrogates his men on who started the fight

Kirk interrogates the crew involved in the brawl, but none are forthcoming about who started it. Kirk orders that they are all confined to quarters until he determines who started the brawl. After Kirk dismisses his officers, Scott confesses to Kirk in private that he started the fight after Korax insulted them, recalling some of the more colorful examples. Kirk presses further and is perplexed to find that Scott didn't start fighting until Korax insulted the Enterprise but realizes it was due to an engineer's sensitivities. Kirk restricts Scott to quarters, to which Scott happily complies, anticipating time off to catch up on his journals.

In sickbay, Spock and McCoy have a characteristic debate on the aesthetics and utility of tribbles, Spock in particular, notes to McCoy their one redeeming characteristic – they do not talk too much. The question soon attracts Kirk's attention. There are tribbles all over the bridge, including one in his chair . McCoy reports this is because they are "born pregnant" and are swamping the ship with their rampant reproduction. Kirk orders Uhura to call for Jones to be detained on K-7 – and to " get these tribbles off the bridge. "

On K-7, Spock berates Jones for removing tribbles from their natural predators and letting them over-breed. Jones counters with excuses and insists that, at six credits each, they're making him money. Then Baris confronts Kirk on the insufficient security detail for the quadrotriticale. Baris claims Jones is " quite probably a Klingon agent ," but Kirk is unconvinced by the evidence and finds that Jones has done no worse than disrupt activities on K-7, which is not unprecedented. " Sometimes, all they need is a title, Mr. Baris ", Kirk pointedly concludes, and he and Spock return to the Enterprise .

" This is my chicken sandwich and coffee. "

Back on board, the tribble problem has worsened. Kirk can't even get a meal, as tribbles have gotten into the food synthesizers . Scott reports that the tribbles are circulating through the Enterprise 's ventilation ducts , ending up in machinery all throughout the ship. Spock points out that there are comparable ducts aboard K-7 that lead to the grain storage tanks. Realizing the implication, Kirk orders all the tribbles removed from the Enterprise and rushes to K-7, gaining access to one of the storage compartments, but when he opens the overhead door, an avalanche of tribbles buries him.

Act Four [ ]

" First, find Cyrano Jones, and second… close that door. "

Kirk finally climbs out from the pile of tribbles – a population Spock estimates at 1,771,561 – and Spock discovers that they are gorged on the grain. Baris claims Kirk's orders have turned the project into a disaster and that he will call for a Starfleet board of inquiry against Kirk.

Koloth and Korax

But Spock and McCoy notice that many of the tribbles in the pile are dead or dying. Kirk orders McCoy to find out why they died, though McCoy protests that he doesn't yet know what keeps them alive.

Kirk assembles all the principals in Lurry's office. Koloth demands that Kirk issue an official apology to the Klingon High Command , though Baris says that would give the Klingons the wedge they need to claim Sherman's Planet. Koloth also asks that the tribbles be removed from the room. The guards do so, but they pass Darvin, at which point the tribbles shriek just as they did around the Klingons. With his medical tricorder , McCoy reveals Darvin to be a Klingon. He poisoned the grain with a virus that prevents its victim from absorbing nutrients, which is how the tribbles died. " They starved to death. In a storage compartment full of grain, they starved to death! " Kirk summarizes. Darvin is arrested, the Klingons are ordered out of Federation territory within the next six hours, and Kirk says he could learn to like tribbles.

The Enterprise crew gets the last laugh when Scott tells Kirk where he placed the tribbles

In K-7's bar, Kirk and Spock then give Jones a choice: twenty years in a rehabilitation colony for transporting a harmful species, or pick up every tribble on the station (which Spock calculates would take 17.9 years). Jones accepts the latter. Back aboard the Enterprise , Kirk is happy to find the ship has been swept clean of tribbles, and asks Spock, McCoy, and Scott how they did it. They all deflect Kirk's questions until Scott reluctantly replies that before the Klingons went into warp, he beamed all of them into their engine room, " where they'll be no tribble at all. " The crew share a good, long laugh at this.

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2268

Memorable quotes [ ]

" One parsec, sir. Close enough to smell them. " " That is illogical, Ensign. Odors cannot travel through the vacuum of space. " " I was making a little joke, sir. " " Extremely little, ensign. "

" Wheat. So what? "

" I have never questioned the orders or the intelligence of any representative of the Federation. Until now. "

" Is that an offer or a joke? " " That's my offer. " " That's a joke. "

" Once this lovely little lady starts to show this precious little darling around, you won't be able to keep up with them. "

" Its trilling seems to have a tranquilizing effect on the Human nervous system. Fortunately, of course … I am immune … to its effect. "

" Kirk, this station is swarming with Klingons! " " I was not aware, Mr. Baris, that twelve Klingons constitutes a swarm. "

" Do you know what you get if you feed a tribble too much? " " A fat tribble. " " No. You get a bunch of hungry little tribbles. "

" When are you going to get off that milk diet, lad? " " This is vodka. " " Where I come from, that's soda pop. Now this is a drink for a man. " " Scotch? " " Aye. " " It was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad . "

" Oh…I just remembered: There is one Earth man who doesn't remind me of a Regulan bloodworm . That's Kirk. A Regulan bloodworm is soft and shapeless. But Kirk isn't soft. Kirk may be a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood, but he's not soft. "

" Of course, I'd say that Captain Kirk deserves his ship. We like the Enterprise . We, we really do. That sagging old rust bucket is designed like a garbage scow. Half the quadrant knows it. That's why they're learning to speak Klingonese . " " Mr. Scott! " " Laddie… don't you think you should… rephrase that? " (Mocking Scott's accent) " You're right. I should. " (Normal voice) " I didn't mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away as garbage. "

" What's the matter, Spock? " " There's something disquieting about these creatures. " " Oh? Don't tell me you've got a feeling. " " Don't be insulting, Doctor. "

"I see no practical use for them." "Does everything have to have a practical use for you? They're nice, they're soft, they're furry, and they make a pleasant sound." "So would an ermine violin , Doctor, yet I see no advantage to having one."

" They do indeed have one redeeming characteristic. " " What's that? " " They do not talk too much. "

" Too much of anything, Lieutenant, even love, isn't necessarily a good thing. "

" In my opinion, you have taken this important project far too lightly. " " On the contrary, sir. I think of this project as very important. It is you I take lightly. "

" My chicken sandwich and coffee . This is my chicken sandwich and coffee. " " Fascinating. "

" I want these things off my ship! I don't care if it takes every man we've got – I want them off the ship! "

" Well, until that board of inquiry, I'm still the captain. And as captain, I want two things done. First, find Cyrano Jones. And second … " (A tribble lands on Kirk's head) " … close that door. "

" They don't like Klingons. But they do like Vulcans. Well, Mr. Spock, I didn't know you had it in you. " " Obviously tribbles are very perceptive creatures, Captain. " " Obviously. " (Carrying tribbles, Kirk walks over to Baris) " Mister Baris, they like you. Well, there's no accounting for taste. "

" I gave them to the Klingons, sir. " " You gave them to the Klingons? " "Aye, sir. Before they went into warp I transported the whole kit and kaboodle into their engine room, where they'll be no tribble at all. "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• This script, one of Star Trek 's most popular, was David Gerrold 's first professional sale ever. His working title for the episode was "A Fuzzy Thing Happened to Me…". Writer/producer Gene L. Coon did heavy rewrites on the final version of the script. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p 333)
• The tribbles were originally to have been called 'fuzzies', but the name was felt to be too close to a book called Little Fuzzy . Other names considered by David Gerrold were 'shaggies', 'goonies' and 'pufflies' as well a dozen other unknown names. ( Star Trek - A Celebration , page 215)
• While the episode was in production, Gene Roddenberry noticed that the story was similar to Robert Heinlein 's novel, The Rolling Stones , which featured the "Martian Flat Cats". Too late, he called Heinlein to apologize and avoid a possible lawsuit. Heinlein was very understanding, and was satisfied with a simple "mea culpa" by Roddenberry. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp 333–334)
• According to Bjo Trimble , the story for this episode is based upon the short story, Pigs Is Pigs . ( "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• There is a popular story about a line Spock delivers in this episode, "he heard you, he simply could not believe his ears," being placed in the episode as a tribute to Mad Magazine's then-recent Star Trek parody. The December 1967 issue of Mad Magazine (released around October 1967) featured the magazine's first spoof of Star Trek (titled Star Blecch ). It featured a similar line as a joke about Spock's ears (Spock: "…I don't believe my ears!" Kirk: "I don't believe your ears either, Mr. Spook"). As this episode was filmed in August 1967, it was likely just a coincidence since the magazine had not been published yet at the time of filming. The cast did see and appreciate the Mad Magazine spoof when it came out, but a [[StarTrek.com] article stated they likely saw it during the filming of "A Private Little War," in October. [1] There is no record of the cast or writers seeing the spoof before the magazine was released.
• Chekov quips that Scotch whisky "was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad ." That Russian city, originally St. Petersburg, had its name changed to honor Vladimir Lenin , leader of the Communist revolution in 1917. The name St. Petersburg was restored in 1991, after the breakup of the USSR. Some versions that summarize this episode claim Chekov drinks whisky; in fact after Chekov drinks his Vodka, Scott then gives Chekov the full glass of their companion Freeman while Scott drinks his whiskey.
• When Scott is confined to quarters after fighting the Klingons he remarks that he'll be able to study technical manuels; in Star Trek:The Next Generation Relics (episode) Picard offers the 147 year old Montgomery Scott a change to study technical manuels; Scott declines because as he put it "Im not 18 anymore and I cant start out like a raw cadet."

Cast and characters [ ]

• George Takei ( Hikaru Sulu ) does not appear in this episode. For much of the second season, he was filming The Green Berets . Many scenes written for Takei were switched over to Walter Koenig. ( "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• William Shatner recalled the great enjoyment all the cast had filming this episode. He noted, " The trouble we had with 'Tribbles' was [to] keep your straight face. It was just a lot of fun. " ( "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• Guy Raymond (the bartender ) also played a bartender in beer commercials during the '60s, in which he commented on the strange occurrences in his bar.
• Michael Pataki is another actor who guested in two series of Star Trek , appearing as Karnas in TNG : " Too Short A Season ".
• Some of the extras in the bar are wearing turtleneck uniforms from " The Cage " and " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", another couple of extras are wearing colonist jumpsuits from " The Devil in the Dark ". The gentleman who seems to be enjoying watching the fight and another man are wearing Finnegan 's and his stunt double's uniforms from " Shore Leave ", another one is wearing a uniform of the Antares worn by Ramart or Tom Nellis in " Charlie X ". A woman is wearing Aurelan Kirk 's costume from " Operation -- Annihilate! ".
• Ed Reimers, who plays Admiral Fitzpatrick , was the TV spokesman for Allstate Insurance in the 1960s. In a funny sequence from the blooper reel, he catches a tribble thrown at him from offstage and, proffering it to the camera, says, " Oh, and Captain: you're in good hands with tribbles " (a play on the Allstate motto, "You're in good hands with Allstate.")
• William Schallert later guest starred as Varani in DS9 : " Sanctuary ".
• James Doohan insisted on doing his own stunts in the barroom brawl. Jay Jones only doubled for him in a few brief fight sequences.
• This is one of the few episodes in which Doohan's missing right middle finger (lost due to injuries sustained during the invasion of Normandy in World War Two) is apparent. It can also be noticed as he carries a large bundle of tribbles to Captain Kirk, complaining that they've infested Engineering.
• This is one of the few times in the series that Scott and Chekov have a conversation with one another. (However, in " Friday's Child ", when Scott remarks, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me," Chekov quips that the saying was invented in Russia.) Along with Kirk , they would be featured together in Star Trek Generations .
• Paul Baxley is credited as "Ensign Freeman," but is wearing lieutenant's stripes, as pointed out in DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " when Miles O'Brien mistakes Freeman for Captain Kirk and Julian Bashir questions his rank insignia.
• William Campbell ( Koloth ) and Charlie Brill ( Arne Darvin ) both reprised their roles in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine more than 25 years later: Campbell in " Blood Oath " and Brill in " Trials and Tribble-ations ".

Production [ ]

• Wah Chang designed the original tribbles. Hundreds were sewn together during production, using pieces of extra-long rolls of carpet. Some of them had mechanical toys placed in them so they could walk around. ( "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features) The original tribbles became sought-after collector's items, and quickly disappeared from the prop department. According to Gerrold, 500 tribbles were constructed for the episode and the tribble-maker, Jacqueline Cumere, was paid US$350.
• In a 2016 interview, Christopher Doohan recalls being on set during the production of this episode: " My father would often bring my brother and I along with him to the set when the show was shooting, " Chris recalled. […] " He would park us in the shuttle craft and tell us to stay put." " Of course "staying put" is a difficult assignment for seven year-old twin boys… and one day they couldn't resist leaving the confines of the shuttle… and going where no child had gone before. As it happened, the day they chose coincided with the shooting of "The Trouble With Tribbles", one of the series' stranger – and enduringly popular – episodes… Chris and his brother, Montgomery, crept around the set, keeping away from the active shooting, until they came to three tall cabinets with doors just out of reach. " " We were curious to know what was INSIDE, " Chris recalls. " So my brother got on my shoulders and slid the cabinet open. Instantly, more than 200 tribbles came tumbling out, nearly burying us. Not only did it scare us, but we knew we would be in big trouble if Dad – or anyone else – found out. So we rushed back to the shuttle. Five minutes later Dad appeared… and praised us for being so well-behaved! " Thirty years later Chris mustered up the courage to tell his dad the real story. " And he got mad at me, " Chris said with a bemused shake of the head. " It was like it had just happened yesterday! " [2]
• During production of the "buried in tribbles" scene, it took up to eight takes (a considerable number) to get the avalanche of tribbles to fall just right. Gerrold wrote in The Trouble with Tribbles , " If Captain Kirk looks just a little harried in that shot, it's not accidental. Having… tribbles dropped on you, eight times in one day, is NOT a happy experience. " DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " later established that the continuously falling tribbles hitting Kirk were in fact thrown by Benjamin Sisko and Jadzia Dax , frantically searching for the bomb placed by the future Darvin. In reality, the tribbles kept falling out of the hatch because members of the production crew had no direct line of sight with William Shatner during the filming of the scene and could not tell when there were "enough" tribbles; a barrier in the set separated them from the storage compartment, which was filled with prop tribbles. In order to set up the avalanche scene, crew members kept throwing tribbles over the wall to ensure that the bin remained as "full" as possible; when the compartment was empty, these tribbles then fell onto Shatner's head as the crew tossed them one by one. Near the end of the scene, a perplexed Shatner – already chest-deep in tribbles – can clearly be seen turning his head toward the wall behind him, wondering when the prop men will stop. ( The Trouble with Tribbles ; "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• Spock's estimate of how many tribbles there are in three days, dead or alive, starting with one tribble producing a litter of ten every twelve hours is exactly correct, assuming that every tribble always has a litter of ten. Tribble reproduction is exponential, starting when one tribble makes ten. In twelve hours the total number is eleven. twelve hours later, each of the eleven tribbles produce ten, making the count 110 babies. Include the original eleven tribbles, and the total is 121. The formula for tribble reproduction is x=11 n/12 , where x is the total, and n is the number of hours. Given three days (72 hours), the final result becomes 11 6 , which equals exactly 1,771,561.
• According to David Gerrold 's The World of Star Trek , tribble props were misplaced about the set and were being found for several months after the production of the episode.
• William Campbell ( Koloth ) took some of the 500 tribbles home, throwing about 40 of them into a plastic bag and giving them away to neighborhood kids. ( Star Trek - A Celebration , page 215)

Effects [ ]

• Sound effects editor Douglas Grindstaff combined altered dove coos, screech owl cries, and emptying balloons to create the tribble sounds.
• The Enterprise miniature seen out of Lurry's window doesn't move, but if it was orbiting at the same speed the station was rotating, this would make sense.
• The miniature is actually one of the plastic model kits that AMT was selling at the time. In the 1970s, AMT produced a model of the K-7 space station itself, complete with a tiny Enterprise . SCTV blew up a Klingon ship with phaser blasts from some of these K-7 model kits in a low-budget effects spoof of The Empire Strikes Back in 1981.
• Footage of K-7 was recycled in " The Ultimate Computer ".
• According to Michael and Denise Okuda's text commentary on this episode for the second season DVD set, the last fresh footage of the Enterprise was done for this episode. In every episode to follow, the shots of the ship were all stock footage. It is possible that the last of the footage of the Enterprise was filmed during this production of this episode as it is true that they did not film any shots of the Enterprise after season two. But there will be five more episodes going by production order that have previously unseen shots of the Enterprise . " Journey to Babel ", " The Gamesters of Triskelion ", " The Immunity Syndrome ", " The Ultimate Computer ", and " That Which Survives " all have new shots of the Enterprise . [3]
• The bar set, including the bartender's costume, is recycled from " Court Martial ", with slight modifications, mostly in decoration.

Continuity [ ]

• Star Trek returned to the events of this episode in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Trials and Tribble-ations " to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary .
• " More Tribbles, More Troubles " is the TAS sequel to this episode.
• Tribbles were seen in the bar scene (wherein McCoy is apprehended by "Federation security") being petted by a couple patronizing the establishment, on an adjacent table in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .
• Mr. Scott is glad to be confined to quarters-it would give him time to catch up on enginerring technical manuals; later in " Relics " Scott admits that he can't catch up with current technology.
• Bantam Books published a series of novelizations called "foto-novels," in which took photographic stills from actual episodes and arranged word balloons and text over them, to create a comic book formatted story. The third installment was an adaptation of this episode.
• The Organian Peace Treaty mentioned by Chekov in the teaser is a reference back to the first season episode " Errand of Mercy ".
• Despite McCoy and the Enterprise crew being ignorant of tribbles, later productions indicated that they were already known to Starfleet by this time, having been used as a food source for lab animals, as pets, and even at one point being considered as a possible food source for an entire colony (" The Breach ", " The Trouble with Edward ", and Capt. Gabriel Lorca kept a tribble in his ready room aboard USS Discovery ).

Apocrypha [ ]

• Although Kirk comments in the episode on the irony of tribbles in a grain storage bin dying of starvation, in James Blish 's novelization of the episode, Spock also remarks on the elegant symmetry of the respective misdeeds: the poisoning of the grain eliminated the tribble infestation before it exhausted the cargo, whereas the tribbles disclosed the poisoning with no loss of Human life.
• In the Star Trek: Myriad Universes story The Chimes at Midnight , which explores the timeline from TAS : " Yesteryear ", the Enterprise 's first officer Thelin discovered Darvin's role in poisoning the quadrotriticale. Darvin remained a Federation prisoner for several months until a prisoner exchange was arranged with the Klingons.
• In the Star Trek: Myriad Universes story " Honor in the Night ", Cyrano Jones and his tribbles were all killed by an explosion on board his vessel while it was docked at K-7 in 2267. The explosion was caused by an accidental overload in the ship's impulse drive . Consequently, Arne Darvin's sabotage of the quadrotriticale was never discovered (since there were no tribbles left alive to expose him), and the poisoned grain was shipped to Sherman's Planet, where it cost the lives of thousands of colonists. Baris assumed leadership of the remnants of the Human colonies there. He used his considerable expertise in dealing with Klingons (including Darvin, who revealed his true identity to Baris, whom Darvin had grown to respect) to deal with the situation, and eventually became President of the United Federation of Planets . While he had a long and distinguished presidential career and was fondly remembered by the citizens of the Federation (including Leonard McCoy , a lifelong friend), Baris never got over his long-standing feud with Darvin.
• A cat version of "The Trouble with Tribbles" was featured in Jenny Parks ' 2017 book Star Trek Cats .

Reception [ ]

• This episode was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1968 as "Best Dramatic Presentation", but lost to the version of " The City on the Edge of Forever " that was actually shown on-air.
• In a 1985 interview, director Joseph Pevney named "The Trouble with Tribbles" as the best episode he directed. He added that they couldn't do an episode like that anymore, because the franchise has become "deadly serious" (interestingly enough, one year after the interview took place, the light-hearted, comedic Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home premiered in theaters, and in 2019 the tribbles would be featured in the comedic mini-episode " The Trouble with Edward "). [4]
• Pevney also commented that he " Fell in love with that show. I really enjoyed doing it, and I enjoyed working with Leonard and Shatner to make them think in terms of typically farce comedy. The show was successful and I was happy about that. I was proven right that you can do a comedy if you don't kid the script, and if you don't kid Star Trek . If you stay in character, you can have wonderful fun with Star Trek , and the kinds of things you can do with it are endless – if you don't lose the whole flavor of Enterprise discipline. " ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two )
• Despite the broad popularity of this episode among fans, series Co-Producer Robert H. Justman wrote in his book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story that he never liked this episode, as he felt the characters parodied themselves, and that the episode's over-the-top humor lacked believability.
• Third season producer Fred Freiberger also disliked the show. David Gerrold recalled that when he pitched a sequel for the episode, Freiberger replied that he didn't like the original because "Star Trek is not a comedy. " Gerrold's pitch later evolved into the Animated Series episode " More Tribbles, More Troubles ". ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 97)
• Writer Samuel A. Peeples was another individual who worked on the original series but found this episode to be problematic. " I thought that the one with the fuzzy little creatures wasn't my idea of what the show should be, " he remarked. " It was awfully cute and awfully nice, but it covered an area that I felt was unnecessary for that particular type of series. " ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 120)
• Gene Roddenberry also disliked "Tribbles" and the overall tendency for more comedy-oriented episodes, which became prominent under Gene Coon 's tenure as producer, feeling that it deviated from his image of the show, opting for the much more serious approach which dominated Star Trek during his time as line producer in the first half of season 1 . As Pevney put it, " This was the first out-and-out comedy we had done on the series, and Roddenberry was not in favor of it too much. He didn't cotton the idea of making fun on this show. " Eventually these disagreements between Roddenberry and Coon became one of the major reasons why the latter left the series mid-season 2. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two )
• Roddenberry's opinion of the episode seemed to have changed over the years as he later picked it as one of his ten favorite episodes for the franchise's 25th anniversary. ( TV Guide August 31, 1991)
• William Campbell ( Koloth ) recalled that, after this episode was aired, his neighbor's son consequently addressed his wife as "Mrs. Klingon". ( The World of Star Trek )
• This was voted the best episode of Star Trek by viewers of Sci-Fi Channel's Star Trek 40th Anniversary Celebrations.
• It was also voted the best episode by Empire magazine when they ranked the series #43 on their list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time." [5]
• The book Star Trek 101 (p. 18), by Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block , lists this episode as one of "Ten Essential Episodes" from the original Star Trek series.
• Having been a big fan of the original Star Trek series during her youth, Diane Warren – the songwriter who wrote Star Trek: Enterprise 's theme tune, " Where My Heart Will Take Me " – cited this installment as her favorite episode of TOS, upon being interviewed shortly after the start of Enterprise . She went on to say, " That's one of the episodes that, even after all these years has stayed in my mind. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , p. 57)
• Doug Jones , who avidly watched Star Trek: The Original Series as a child along with his family, also selected this as one of his favorite Star Trek episodes. " As a youngster, that was a fun episode […] I like happy endings, I like low-stakes stories myself, and so that was kinda like, 'Oh, there's the fun episode.' " [6]

Remastered information [ ]

• "The Trouble with Tribbles" was the ninth episode of the remastered version of The Original Series to air. It premiered in syndication on the weekend of 4 November 2006 and featured significantly enhanced shots of the K-7 space station, now including the orbiting D7-class IKS Gr'oth . The Enterprise can now be seen more often from Lurry's office, moving toward the left side of the window as it orbits K-7. The remastered episode is marked by the introduction of a revised digital model of the Enterprise , allowing for more detailed and accurate shots of the ship to be created.
• None of the special shots from the DS9 tribute episode was included in the remastered version. Furthermore, the Gr'oth 's design is different from the Greg Jein model seen in the Deep Space Nine episode. That ship is greener, with an avian pattern on it, where this version of the Klingon ship is grey and does not bear that pattern, bringing it more in line with TOS counterparts.
• Coincidentally, the episode that aired after this was " Mirror, Mirror ". Scenes from both episodes were used in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's " Trials and Tribble-ations ".

Production timeline [ ]

• Treatment "The Fuzzies" by David Gerrold : February 1967
• Story outline "A Fuzzy Thing Happened to Me": 13 June 1967
• Revised story outline: 23 June 1967
• Second revised story outline: 26 June 1967
• First draft teleplay "The Trouble with Tribbles": 30 June 1967
• Second draft teleplay: 19 July 1967
• Revised draft by Gene L. Coon : 21 July 1967
• Final draft teleplay by Coon: 25 July 1967
• Revised final draft: 1 August 1967
• Additional page revisions: 15 August 1967 , 16 August 1967 , 18 August 1967 , 21 August 1967
• Day 1 – 22 August 1967 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge , Sickbay
• Day 2 – 23 August 1967 , Wednesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Briefing room , Transporter room , Admiral Fitzpatrick's office (redress of a wall in Transporter room)
• Day 3 – 24 August 1967 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Recreation room (redress of Briefing room); Desilu Stage 10 : Lurry's office
• Day 4 – 25 August 1967 , Friday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Lurry's office , Storage corridor
• Day 5 – 28 August 1967 , Monday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Storage corridor , K-7 Bar
• Day 6 – 29 August 1967 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. K-7 Bar
• Score recorded: 5 October 1967
• Original airdate: 29 December 1967
• Rerun airdate: 21 June 1968
• First UK airdate: 1 June 1970
• Star Trek Fotonovel #3: 1973 - ISBN 055312689X
• The Trouble with Tribbles : The Birth, Sale and Final Production of One Episode paperback: 1973
• The Trouble with Tribbles: The Birth, Sale and Final Production of One Episode paperback: 1976
• The Trouble with Tribbles: The Birth, Sale and Final Production of One Episode paperback reissue: 12 April 1987 - ISBN 0345347889
• " Trials and Tribble-ations ", incorporating "Trouble" footage: 4 November 1996
• Remastered airdate: 4 November 2006

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• US RCA CED Videodisc release: 1 April 1982
• Original US Betamax release: 1986
• US LaserDisc release: 11 October 1986
• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 22 , catalog number VHR 2357, 2 April 1990
• Japan LaserDisc release: 25 March 1993
• US VHS release: 15 April 1994
• As part of the UK VHS Star Trek: The Original Series - Tricorder Pack collection: catalog number VHR 4373, 3 June 1996
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.5, 5 May 1997
• UK LaserDisc release: 11 August 1997
• As part of the US VHS Star Trek - Tribbles Gift Set : 6 October 1998
• Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 21, 24 April 2001
• As part of the TOS Season 2 DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Klingon DVD collection
• As part of the TOS-R Season 2 DVD collection
• As part of The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: The Original Series - Origins Blu-ray collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• William Shatner as Capt. Kirk

Also starring [ ]

• Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
• DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Co-starring [ ]

• William Schallert as Nilz Baris
• William Campbell as Koloth
• Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones
• Whit Bissell as Lurry

Featuring [ ]

• James Doohan as Scott
• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
• Michael Pataki as Korax
• Ed Reimers as Admiral Fitzpatrick
• Walter Koenig as Chekov
• Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin
• Paul Baxley as Ensign Freeman
• David L. Ross as Guard
• Guy Raymond as Trader

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• William Blackburn as Hadley
• Dick Crockett as Klingon brawler 1
• Frank da Vinci as Vinci
• Steve Hershon as security officer
• Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli
• William Knight as Moody
• Starfleet officer 1
• Bob Miles as Klingon brawler 2
• Bob Orrison as Klingon brawler 3
• Eddie Paskey as Leslie
• Gary Wright as DSK-7 officer
• Human civilian
• Human colonist
• Human waitresses 1 and 2
• Human workers 1 and 2
• Starfleet cadets 1 and 2
• Human DSK-7 officer 3 and 4
• Command lieutenant 1
• Command lieutenant 2
• Command crew woman
• Crew woman 1
• Crew woman 2
• Crew woman 3
• Operations crewman
• Sciences crew woman
• Sciences lieutenant
• Sciences lieutenant 1
• Sciences lieutenant 2
• Security guard 1
• Security guard 3

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Phil Adams as stunt double for Michael Pataki
• Richard Antoni as Klingon (stunts; unconfirmed )
• Jay Jones as stunt double for James Doohan
• Jerry Summers as stunt double for Walter Koenig

References [ ]

20th century ; 2067 ; 2245 ; 2261 ; 2285 ; agent ; agriculture ; air vent ; all hands ; amount ; analysis ; ancestry ; animal ; Antarean glow water ; apology ; area ; assistant ; assumption ; asteroid ; asteroid locator ; astronomer ; attraction ; authority ; average ; baby ; background check ; bar ; bargain ; battle ; battle stations ; Bible ; bisexual ; bloodstream ; board of inquiry ; body ; body temperature ; " Bones "; bottle ; breeding ; bucket ; Burke, John ; Burkoff, Ivan ; Canada ; chance ; Channel E ; charge : chicken sandwich ; code 1 emergency ; coffee ; commander ; communication channel ; computation ; computer analysis ; confined to quarters ; contact ; cork ; Cossack ; course ; creature ; credit ; criminal ; D7 class (aka Klingon battle cruiser , Klingon warship ); day ; deal (aka transaction ); death ; declaration of hostilities ; Deep Space Station K-7 ; defense alert ; delusion ; Denebian slime devil ; development project ; dictator ; diet ; diplomatic incident ; disaster ; disaster call ; dissection ; Donatu V ; door ; ear ; Earth ; effect ; emergency ; engineering ; environment ; ermine violin ; evidence ; experience ; Federation ; Federation law ; Federation territory ; feeling ; field ; figure ; French language ; friend ; food processor ; garbage ; garbage scow ; genie ; general quarters ; generation ; government ; grain ; Gr'oth , IKS ; habitat ; hair ; harassment ; headache ; heartbeat ; hip ; history ; home ; honesty ; hour ; Human (aka Earther , Earthman ); Human characteristic ; hybrid ; inert material ; initial contact ; instruction manual ; insult ; intelligence ; intention ; invention ; irons ; job security ; joke ; Jones' spaceship ; kilometer ; Klingon ; Klingon Empire ; Klingonese ; Klingon High Command ; Klingon agent ; Klingon outpost ; knowledge ; lab ; Leningrad ; lily ; litter ; " little old lady from Leningrad "; lobe ; logic ; love ; machinery ; maintenance crew ; maintenance manual ; market ; markup ; maternity ward ; metabolism ; milk ; Milky Way Galaxy ; million ; minute ; money ; month ; morning ; mutual admiration society ; mutual understanding ; national ; nature ; nervous system ; nourishment ; nursery ; observation ; odor ; offense ; offer ; " off the record "; Old Britain ; opinion ; order ; Organian Peace Treaty ; organism ; parasite ; parsec ; penalty ; Peter the Great ; percent ; perennial ; persecution ; plan ; planet ; poison ; polishing ; pouch ; practicality ; predator ; pregnancy ; price ; pride ; priority 1 distress call ; priority A-1 channel ; profit ; proof ; prospector ; pun ; punch ; purr ; quadrant ; quadrotriticale ; question ; rate of reproduction ; recreation ; red alert ; Regulan blood worm ; rehabilitation colony ; relationship ; representative ; reproduction ; result ; robber ; Royal Academy ; Russian ; rust bucket ; rye ; sabotage ; sample ; Scotch whisky ; Scots language ; scout ; search ; security guard ; sensor ; shape ( shapeless ); Sherman's Planet ; Sherman's Planet freighter ; shipment ; shopping ; shore leave ; sitting ; soda pop ; solar year ; soldier ; space ; Spacematic ; space station ; sphere of influence ; Spican flame gem ; spy ; Starfleet Command ; starship ; starvation ; station manager ( manager ); station manager's office ; stock ; stone ; storage compartment ; subspace distress call ; subspace silence ; surveillance ; technical journal ; teeth ; thief ; thing ; thousand ; tin ; title ; ton ; tone of voice ; transporter room ; treatment ; tribble ; tribble homeworld ; triticale ; Undersecretary in Charge of Agricultural Affairs ; vacuum ; virus ; vodka ; volume ; Vulcan ; week ; wheat ; " whole kit and caboodle, the "; year

External links [ ]

• " The Trouble with Tribbles " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " The Trouble with Tribbles " at Wikipedia
• " The Trouble with Tribbles " at the Internet Movie Database
• " The Trouble with Tribbles " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 3 Calypso (episode)

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• What Is Cinema?

Star Trek : Inside “The Trouble with Tribbles,” 50 Years Later

By Thomas Vinciguerra

When America tuned in to Star Trek on December 29, 1967, it got its first glimpse of tribbles. These small, plush alien beings, which swamped the U.S.S. Enterprise and its brave crew, were merely sewn-up pouches of synthetic fur stuffed with foam rubber. But in the fictional Trek universe, tribbles were cute, purring, alive and—because they bred so rapidly—hilarious.

Fifty years after its small-screen debut, “The Trouble with Tribbles” may be the most famous episode of any iteration of Star Trek . It was an unintentional comedy that has delighted generations of fans. Surprisingly, it irritated some of those who helped put it on screen—including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, once dismissed it as “frivolous.”

“The Trouble with Tribbles” was the first professional sale for David Gerrold , a 23-year-old California college student. An unknown budding writer in September 1966 when he saw Star Trek ’s first episode, he almost immediately began thinking of story premises. One of them drew on his teenage experiences of raising frogs, mice, rats, and fish. “I loved animals,” recalled Gerrold, now an award-winning author of many science-fiction novels and stories, in a recent interview. “But all of those critters died on me.”

So in February 1967, he drew up a proposal for an episode he called “The Fuzzies.”

“My original conception was, ‘Aliens are always scary. What if they’re cute but we don’t realize they’re dangerous? What if you had white mice or gerbils that got onto the Enterprise and got out of control?’ ”

Gerrold envisioned a real ecological disaster. “My attitude was that it would be whimsical but that we would have a serious threat,” he said. Nowhere in his work was there to be found now-classic slapstick moments, like William Shatner’s Captain Kirk getting buried in a mountain of tribbles. Gerrold also imagined the buffoonish and chortling Cyrano Jones, the interstellar trader who introduces the beasties to the Enterprise , as a Boris Karloff type. (“You can just see him stroking it and saying, ‘Can I interest you in a harmless little tribble? . . .’ ”)

Gerrold was trying to stay true to what he called the “gravitas” of Star Trek ’s first season. One person who would probably have rather seen that gravitas stay intact was Gene Roddenberry. For all his celebrated humanism and we’re-all-alike-under-the-skin tolerance, he wanted Star Trek to be a straightforward, square-jawed action-adventure. “Gene Roddenberry had no sense of humor,” Gerrold said, “and working with him was a joyless exercise.”

Roddenberry was balanced, and sometimes thwarted, by producer Gene L. Coon, who joined Star Trek on August 8, 1966—exactly one month before the show premiered, and at a time when Roddenberry was already burning out from innumerable rewrites and production headaches. Described by associate producer Robert H. Justman as “a romantic with an obvious sense of humor,” Coon brought a welcome wink and nod to the production.

By Chris Murphy

By David Canfield

“He knew you had to balance gravitas with lightheartedness—that you can’t save the galaxy every week,” said Gerrold. “Roddenberry never understood that.”

With Coon’s encouragement, Gerrold fleshed out “The Fuzzies” into a full story outline called “A Fuzzy Thing Happened to Me.” (He eventually dubbed his title creatures “tribbles” to avoid legal conflicts with H. Beam Piper’s science-fiction novel Little Fuzzy .) Star Trek story consultant Dorothy Fontana compared the outline favorably to a recent episode with distinctly bright overtones. “This story is one we should purchase,” she wrote. “[It has] the elements of fun grounded in serious problems for our principals that made ‘Shore Leave’ so well received.”

“Roddenberry did allow us to take off in lighter directions sometimes,” Fontana told Vanity Fair recently. “He just didn’t want to do an outright comedy.”

It was on the set of the otherwise grim episode “The Apple” that Gerrold realized the potential for more laughs. At one point, he saw Leonard Nimoy casually toss aside an unstable mineral sample that explodes upon hitting the ground. Gerrold picked up on Shatner’s reply: “Would you mind being careful where you throw your rocks, Mr. Spock?”

Gerrold never lost sight of his episode’s underlying drama. From the first, he had his tribbles devouring a highly important experimental grain. And he hit upon using the villainous Klingons (introduced in “Errand of Mercy,” a first-season episode written by Coon) as a central menace.

But with Coon’s encouragement, the jokes ballooned. “I never intended the episode to get that funny until we got into the development,” Gerrold said. “I realized there was the possibility of a lot more humor.”

Many jests were scripted, e.g., Kirk suggesting to Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) that he “open up a maternity ward” as the tribbles began to multiply. But many bits were improvised. When Kirk sees the Russian navigator, Mr. Chekov ( Walter Koenig ), absentmindedly stroking a tribble at his console, he peevishly snatches it away. In that same scene, the communications officer, Lieutenant Uhura ( Nichelle Nichols ), appears with a tribble peeking out of her uniform’s décolletage. At episode’s end, Kirk makes peace with the problematic pests by billing and cooing at them . . . and they respond in kind.

None of this is in Gerrold’s final-draft shooting script. Other shticks, only casually mentioned in print, were played up. In the third act, Gerrold writes that Kirk must “scoop three or four tribbles” from his command chair before he can sit down. On film, the good captain accidentally sits on one of them (it emits an indignant squeak). Gerrold also wrote that even after the tribbles in the storage compartment inundate Kirk, “more and more keep tumbling out.” In the end, the unseen property master Irving Feinberg deliberately and playfully bopped Shatner with a stray tribble or two every few seconds following the initial tumult.

Some of this nonsense, Gerrold said, was because “Tribbles” was shot immediately before a two-week Labor Day break. “I think it was just a case of ‘Let’s just party out on this one.’ ” He also credits the director, Joseph Pevney: “Dorothy Fontana said, ‘Let’s hope Joe directs, because he knows comedy.' ” (Ironically, Star Trek ’s other main director at the time was Marc Daniels, who had steered many episodes of I Love Lucy .)

Eddie Paskey , who was William Shatner’s stand-in, said that it was the star’s antic spirit that carried the day. “Bill was the one. He got into it. He realized, ‘You know what? This is fun and we’re having fun.’ ”

“Tribbles” was developed and shot during the summer of 1967, when Roddenberry was out of town on vacation (or writing a pilot for an aborted Robin Hood series, depending on whom you speak to). As Gerrold put it, “You could say that when Roddenberry was away, the cast could play.”

But when the so-called “Great Bird of the Galaxy” returned to the Desilu soundstages, he was appalled. “Roddenberry entered Stage 10,” said Marc Cushman , author of These Are the Voyages , a three-volume set about the making of the series, “and saw them filming the scene in which Kirk is buried in tribbles. Shatner was having a ball, and people were laughing to the point of tears. But Roddenberry wasn't laughing.” Shortly afterward, Coon—credited as the godfather of this turn toward comedy—left the show. (Coon became a producer of It Takes a Thief and, under the pseudonym Lee Cronin, wrote several third-season Star Trek episodes. He died of cancer in 1973 at the age of 49.)

Robert Justman, the associate producer, took Roddenberry’s side on “Tribbles.” “Although the concept was amusing, the story was just too cute,” he wrote in 1996. “Kirk, Spock, and the others were real people, and real people just did not behave that way; [I felt] our finely drawn characters should never parody themselves.”

And so Justman tried to shunt the show off into what he thought was a dead zone. “Tribbles” ran at 8:30 P.M. on the Friday between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, 1967.

“Justman told me how he was responsible for selecting the order in which the episodes would air on NBC,” said Cushman. “Since he wasn't fond of 'Tribbles' when it was first made, he scheduled it to air when most of the networks were showing repeats.”

On the other hand, “Tribbles” may have been the Star Trek equivalent of “a Christmas show,” as director of photography Gerald Finnerman suggested in a 2002 interview. If that was the idea, Dorothy Fontana believes it worked. “I don’t think it was dead zone time at all,” she said. “A lot of viewers were home on vacation and watching television.”

Gerrold never had any doubts. He hosted around 30 friends to watch the episode on his first color television set; one guest was his college buddy Robert Englund , later Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. “He said, ‘I had no idea you were such a good writer,’ ” Gerrold recalled. “And I said, ‘No one will remember this in 20 years.’ ”

He was wrong, of course. “The ratings were good, the fan letters poured in, and [Justman] and Roddenberry had to reconsider their stance on whether Star Trek should make all-out comedies,” Cushman said. “As a result, 'Tribbles' was given a network repeat.”

Five decades later, Gerrold has only a few complaints—mostly about the “whiny” tribble theme composed by Jerry Fielding, and the dappled white-and-brown fur from which most of the 500 tribbles were built. “It was godawful,” Gerrold said. “It was ugly as hell.”

“But,” he added, “it photographed well.”

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Episode Preview: The Trouble With Tribbles

10 Best Star Trek Moments

As the venerated franchise reboots on the silver screen with the May 8 premiere of Star Trek , TIME's John Cloud runs down its greatest moments.

The Trouble With Tribbles

Star Trek (the original series), The Trouble With Tribbles , first aired Dec. 29, 1967.

An episode viewed with suspicion and some derision in the fan community, Tribbles was a quirky holiday installment of the show. Tribbles were the forerunners of Gremlins — adorable little furry things that could wreak havoc. (They don't quite destroy the ship, but they get close.) With this episode, Roddenberry no doubt wanted to lighten Trek 's dusky mood and indulge his (thoroughly pre-irony) sense of humor. But as 1986's popular Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home would later show, Trek always connected best to a mass audience when the franchise didn't take itself too seriously. What sometimes goes unnoticed about Tribbles are its important canonical moments: it takes place on a "Deep Space" station, a concept that Trek would later spin off into the estimable Deep Space Nine (which later did a kind of Tribble remix episode ). The original Tribbles also contains the most direct admission that Klingons are a stand-in for the Russians (in one of Chekov's best scenes, not that that's saying much). Finally, this show contains some of Leonard Nimoy's driest, best geek moments — as when Spock calculates the breeding rate of Tribbles: "one Tribble multiplying with an average litter of 10, producing a new generation every 12 hours over a period of three days." (Extra points to anyone who can redo Spock's math and arrive at the answer.)

Next TNG: Disaster

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‘Star Trek’ Tribbles, explained

Despite their soothing purr and natural fluffiness, Tribbles are one of the most dangerous alien lifeforms in the Star Trek universe. At first glance, they are adorable little creatures that seem to have a naturally soothing effect on the human nervous system. A single Tribble is a lovable pet, but bringing one aboard a ship can quickly result in a catastrophic full-scale infestation.

The Tribbles were first introduced in the classic Original Series episode “The Trouble With Tribbles,” in which a single Tribble was brought aboard the Enterprise and, within hours, had multiplied by a factor of hundreds. The resulting horde of Tribbles got into just about every system on the ship. The episode proved one of the most enduringly popular of the original series, and the Tribbles became pop cultural icons, remembered for their cuteness – even though the episode itself culminated with Kirk stood chest-deep in a pile of Tribble corpses.

The reason for their remarkable rate of reproduction is simple – each Tribble is born pregnant. Through asexual reproduction, Tribbles can reproduce with litters of ten every 12 hours… all of whom will then go on to do the same. A single Tribble could therefore have over 1.7 million descendants over the course of three days.

Tribbles are also known for their instinctual dislike of Klingons – and the feeling is very much mutual. As Worf said in Deep Space Nine : “they do nothing but consume food and breed… in a few hours you’ll have ten tribbles, then a hundred – then a thousand!”

Tribbles have popped up now and then after their debut – in Enterprise , Doctor Phlox brings one aboard (albeit in a more controlled manner than the Original Series crew did). In Deep Space Nine ’s much-loved “Trials and Tribble-ations,” Sisko and his crew are transported back through time into the events of “The Trouble With Tribbles.” They have even shown up in several recent Star Trek productions, including a cameo by a genetically-modified “attack Tribble” in Star Trek: Picard .

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Explore the stars of Star Trek from your backyard

By far, however, the TV show that gave the most astronomy buffs their start exploring space was Star Trek , which began a three-season run at 8:30 P.M. EDT on Thursday, Sept. 8, 1966. This groundbreaking television show was followed by Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Star Trek: Enterprise (2001), Star Trek: Discovery (2017), and Star Trek: Picard (2020), along with various movies, animated series, and lots of books and comics.

During the five and a half decades that followed the first show, now often referred to as The Original Series, the Enterprise has visited hundreds of planets. Of course, each one originated in some writer’s imagination. But I wondered how many of those destinations were placed in a star system visible in our sky. A lot, it turns out. I stopped counting at 50.

What follows is a list that combines some of the brightest stars in our sky with several not-so-bright ones, all of them important in the Star Trek universe. The next time you look at one of these stars, let your mind drift back to 1966, when people — through their television sets — voyaged to distant worlds. Indeed, with all the recent exoplanet discoveries, it’s not hard to imagine that an alien civilization might exist where no one has gone before, on a planet revolving around one of the stars of Star Trek .

Strange new worlds

Besides Earth, probably the most important planet in Star Trek is Vulcan, homeworld of Mr. Spock. Early on, some official reference books listed magnitude 3.7 Epsilon (ε) Eridani as the star around which it orbited. During an episode of Enterprise , however, Chief Engineer Tucker states that Vulcan is 16 light-years from Earth. And Epsilon Eri is only 10.5 light-years away.

Current Trek star maps place Vulcan in the Omicron 2 (ο 2 ) Eridani system. This triple star, also known as Keid and 40 Eri, is some 16.3 light-years from Earth. Its primary glows at magnitude 4.4. To find it, look 15° west of Rigel.

The brightest star visited by any Star Trek crew on television or film is Canopus (Alpha [α] Carinae), which observers can spot from the southernmost states. Shining at magnitude –0.7, it’s the second-brightest star in our night sky. It featured in The Original Series episode “The Ultimate Computer.” In the episode, which takes place in 2268, the scientist Richard Daystrom installs a tactical computer aboard the Enterprise . The device can control the ship with some 5 percent of its normal crew. Its first task is to survey the inhabited planet Alpha Carinae II.

Note that the brightest nighttime star, Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris), also has a planetary system whose members served as settings for stories, but only in Star Trek books or video games.

The third-brightest star in our sky, Alpha Centauri , is a triple system that’s famous as the nearest star system to our own. It’s also famous in the Star Trek universe, hosting no less than 22 planets. Thirteen of them circle Rigil Kentaurus (Alpha Cen A), five orbit Alpha Cen B, and four more travel around Proxima Centauri (Alpha Cen C).

What’s more, three of these planets are populated. Including outposts and space stations, this system supports some 21 billion inhabitants. When you spot Alpha Centauri (only visible from latitudes south of 30° north), imagine how cool it would be if, in reality, any planets around those stars contained the simplest form of life, let alone intelligent life.

Our next entry is one that requires some searching to see. In the Star Trek universe, more than 150 planetary civilizations belong to a democratic society known as the United Federation of Planets. Such a body often needs neutral ground for negotiations: a planet named Babel, which orbits the star Wolf 424 . This star, also known as FL Virginis, is a system of two red dwarfs a bit more than 14 light-years away that together glow just brighter than a meager 13th magnitude. You’ll need an 8-inch or larger scope, a dark site, an excellent star chart (or software), and lots of patience to track it down. But for a true fan of Star Trek , that’s a small price to pay to spot a star whose planet has two episodes — “Journey to Babel” and “Babel One” — named for it.

The stellar moniker Menkar may not be familiar to Star Trek fans. But call this star Ceti Alpha , and it will immediately conjure up the image of Khan Noonien Singh. This character first appeared in The Original Series episode “Space Seed,” and then in the movies Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek Into Darkness .

Though referred to in Star Trek as Ceti Alpha, a luminary that has at least six planets in orbit, it’s more correct to call this star Alpha Ceti. However, Star Trek’s writers aren’t the only ones to break convention regarding the star’s designation. The alpha star is usually the brightest star in a constellation. Not in Cetus the Whale, though. That honor goes to Diphda (Beta [β] Ceti), which, at magnitude 2.0, is 58 percent brighter than magnitude 2.5 Alpha. Both stars are easy to spot in the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn sky.

Three to beam up

A triad of stars well known to amateur astronomers is the Summer Triangle: Vega (Alpha Lyrae), Altair (Alpha Aquilae), and Deneb (Alpha Cygni). In Star Trek , Vega hosts at least nine planets, the main one being Vega IV with a mostly human colony of nearly 5.8 billion inhabitants. This system is referenced in The Original Series episode “Mirror, Mirror.” Captain James T. Kirk learns that one of the first actions his mirror counterpart took after assuming command of the Enterprise (via assassination) was to execute 5,000 colonists on Vega IX.

Now, on to Altair. The most famous planet in the Altair system is Altair VI. In The Original Series episode “Amok Time,” the Enterprise is headed to this planet to attend the inauguration of its new president when it has to divert to Vulcan for Spock’s mating ritual.

In Star Trek , the name Deneb is used to refer to the “true” Deneb (Alpha Cygni) and also as shorthand for Deneb Kaitos, which is another name for the star Diphda in Cetus. The latter has no less than six planets, while the former hosts nine planets, the most important of which are Deneb II and Deneb IV. This second world is the site of Farpoint Station, where the crew in the very first The Next Generation episode, “Encounter at Farpoint,” meets the ultra-powerful being known as Q.

Tribbles, the Borg, and Denobulans, oh my!

Midway on the sky between the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and the Pleiades (M45), you’ll find the tiny constellation Triangulum. Of its three brightest luminaries, the least apparent is 4th-magnitude Gamma (γ) Trianguli. In The Original Series , the Enterprise visited the planet Gamma Trianguli IV during the episode “The Apple,” finding a civilization controlled by a supercomputer named Vaal.

Every Star Trek fan — and probably most non-fans — have heard of Tribbles, which debuted in “The Trouble With Tribbles” in the second season of The Original Series . Brought aboard the Enterprise by merchant Cyrano Jones, they nearly overwhelmed the ship’s operations. The homeworld of the furry creatures is Iota Geminorum IV, whose central star, Iota (ι) Geminorum , glows at magnitude 3.8 about 4.5° from both Castor and Pollux.

On the other end of the brightness spectrum from most of the stars I’ve mentioned, Wolf 359 is incredibly faint. Although it lies less than 8 light-years away, this red dwarf glows meekly at magnitude 13.5. Wolf 359 lies in southern Leo, almost directly on the ecliptic. In The Next Generation two-part episode “The Best of Both Worlds,” a disastrous battle takes place in this star system between the Federation and the Borg. The real kicker is that the Borg ship is under the guidance of Locutus — formerly the Enterprise ’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who was captured and assimilated into the Borg collective, losing his individuality and prior allegiance in the process.

Only an observer familiar with the series Enterprise will know the planet Archer IV, named for the captain of the NX-01. It’s an important one, however: the first M-class (meaning Earth-like and habitable) planet discovered by humans. To see the luminary around which this fictional world revolves, look toward the southernmost part of the constellation Ursa Major. There, you’ll find the Sun-like star 61 Ursae Majoris , glowing at magnitude 5.3 — just bright enough to spot without binoculars from a dark site.

Enterprise also gave us the wonderfully named Denobula Triaxa, the star we know as Iota Boötis . In fantasy, this is a triple star, but reality shows it is binary. Its components glow at magnitudes 4.8 and 8.3. You can spot them easily through any size telescope because their separation is a worthy 39″. They also show a nice color contrast, with a yellow primary and the secondary a blue-white. In Enterprise, this system is notable as the homeworld of Chief Medical Officer Dr. Phlox.

Resistance is futile

As you can see, a lot of stars in our sky — some familiar, some not — have found their way into the lore of Star Trek . The next time you encounter one, let your mind wander a bit and consider that the prospect of life in the universe is a lot more possible now than it seemed in 1966. Live long and prosper!

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Star Trek (TV Series)

The trouble with tribbles (1967), james doohan: scott, photos .

Quotes 

[last lines] 

[all tribbles have been removed from the Enterprise, but nobody seems eager to tell Kirk what happened to them] 

Capt. Kirk : Mister Scott. Where - are - the tribbles?

Scott : I used the transporter, Captain.

Capt. Kirk : You used the transporter?

Scott : Aye.

Capt. Kirk : Well, where did you transport them?

[the others are looking away, trying to appear not involved] 

Capt. Kirk : Scott, you didn't transport them into space, did you?

Scott : Captain Kirk! That'd be inhuman!

Capt. Kirk : Well, where are they?

Scott : I gave them a very good home, sir.

Capt. Kirk : WHERE?

Scott : I gave 'em to the Klingons, sir.

Capt. Kirk : [whispering]  You gave them to the Klingons?

Scott : Aye, sir. Before they went into warp, I transported the whole kit 'n' caboodle into their engine room, where they'll be no tribble at all.

Korax : [the tribbles squeal as he pours some of his drink into Cyrano Jones' glass]  The Earthers like those fuzzy things. Don't they?

Cyrano Jones : [accepts drink, laughs nervously]  Oh, yes.

Korax : Well, frankly, I never liked Earthers. They remind me of Regulan bloodworms.

[the Klingons laugh] 

Chekov : That cossack!

Scott : Easy, lad. You ought to be more forgiving.

Korax : Though... I just remembered. There is one Earth man who doesn't remind me of a Regulan bloodworm. That's Kirk. A Regulan bloodworm is soft, and shapeless. But Kirk isn't soft. Kirk may be a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood. But he's not soft.

Scott : [as Chekov gets up]  Take it easy, lad. Everybody is entitled to an opinion.

[Chekov sits down] 

Korax : That's right. And if I think that Kirk is a Denebian slime devil, well, that's my opinion, too.

Scott : [as Chekov gets up again]  Don't do it, mister, and that's an order.

Chekov : But you heard what he called the Captain!

Scott : Forget it. It's not worth fighting for. We're big enough to take a few insults.

[swaps Chekov's empty glass with another] 

Scott : Now, drink your drink.

[Chekov sits down and obliges] 

Korax : Of course, I'd say that Captain Kirk deserves his ship. We like the Enterprise. We, we really do! That sagging, old rust bucket is designed like a garbage scow.

[Scotty's ears perk up] 

Korax : Half the quadrant knows it; that's why they're learning to speak Klingonese!

Chekov : [outraged]  Mr. Scott!

Scott : [to Korax]  Laddie... don't ya think you should... rephrase that?

Korax : [in Scottish brogue]  You're right. I should.

Korax : [normal voice]  I didn't mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away AS garbage!

[Korax laughs. Scotty stands up, decks him, and a brawl ensues] 

[Kirk is questioning Scotty about his reasons to start a bar fight with the Klingons] 

Scott : Well, Captain, er... the Klingons called you a... a tin-plated overbearing, swaggering dictator with delusions of godhood.

Capt. Kirk : Is that all?

Scott : No, sir. They also compared you with a Denebian slime devil.

Capt. Kirk : I see.

Scott : And then they said that you were a...

Capt. Kirk : I get the picture, Scotty.

Scott : Yes, sir.

Capt. Kirk : And after they said all this, that's when you hit the Klingons.

Scott : No, sir.

Capt. Kirk : ...No?

Scott : No, er, I didn't. You told us to avoid trouble.

Capt. Kirk : Oh, yes.

Scott : And I didn't see that it was worth fighting about. After all, we're big enough to take a few insults. Aren't we?

Capt. Kirk : What was it they said that started the fight?

Scott : They called the Enterprise a garbage scow! Sir.

Capt. Kirk : I see. And... that's when you hit the Klingon?

Scott : Yes, sir!

Capt. Kirk : You hit the Klingons because they insulted the Enterprise, not because they...

Scott : Well, sir, this was a matter of pride.

Capt. Kirk : All right, Scotty. Dismissed. Oh... Scotty, you're restricted to quarters until further notice.

Scott : Yes, sir. Thank you, sir! That'll give me a chance to catch up on my technical journals!

Scott : When are you gonna get off that milk diet, lad?

Chekov : This is vodka.

Scott : Where I come from, that's soda pop.

Scott : [raising his glass]  Now this is a drink for a man.

Chekov : Scotch?

Chekov : It was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad.

Capt. Kirk : Another technical journal, Scotty?

Capt. Kirk : Don't you ever relax?

Scott : I am relaxing.

Capt. Kirk : [after finding out Scotty started the brawl at the station]  What caused it, Scotty?

Scott : They insulted us, sir.

Capt. Kirk : Must have been some insult.

Scott : Aye, it was.

Capt. Kirk : [in disbelief]  You threw the first punch.

Scott : Aye. Chekov wanted to, but I held him back

Capt. Kirk : You held... Why did Chekov want to start a fight?

Scott : Uh, the Klingons, sir... is this off the record?

Capt. Kirk : [losing his patience]  No, this is not off the record!

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