Star Trek Rewatch Episode Post!

[such_heights]

A dispute over control of a planet brings Enterprise to a space station, where they must deal with Klingons, edgy Starfleet Command officials, and a previously-unknown race of small, unbearably cute, voraciously hungry and rapidly-multiplying furry creatures. [Memory Alpha]

The Enterprise is on her way to a deep space station near Sherman's Planet, a planet under territorial dispute between the Klingons and the Federation.

Kirk, Spock and Chekov are shooting the breeze about the history of the sector when an emergency distress call comes from the station, implying that they are under attack.


Turns out there's no emergency, but there are some bureaucrats.


Kirk is displeased.

There's a shipment waiting to be delivered to Sherman's Planet - a grain called quadrotriticale (trying saying that three times fast). Grain = serious business in this part of the quadrant, and the Federation official who's overseeing the project demands the Enterprise's help in protecting the grain from the Klingons, a request enforced by Starfleet Admiralty.


Now Kirk's seriously displeased.


Enter Cyrano Jones. A wheeler, a dealer, and an all-round nuisance if the bartender's put-upon expression is anything to go by, his wares include adorable little fluffballs called tribbles.


Uhura, who's on a shopping trip aided and assisted by Chekov (aw!), is rather taken with them. What harm could they do, right?


Things get even better when the Klingons do show up, demanding shore leave.


Turns out rabbits have nothing on the breeding capacities of the tribbles, and they start multiplying all over the station and all over the ship when Uhura takes her new pet back to the Enterprise.


Even Vulcans think it's logical to find them pleasing.


Meanwhile, the Klingons are spoiling for a fight.


Insulting humans? That's okay. Insulting the ship's captain? Starfleet officers are above that sort of easy goad.


Calling the Enterprise garbage?


YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW.


Brawling ensues.


Kirk's displeasure is becoming a running theme here.


McCoy and Spock are hanging out with lots of little fluffy animals. Being a senior officer on the Federation's flagship is very serious business.

The tribbles have got into the ventilation ducts! They're into the grain! This is an opportunity for lots of little fluffy animals to fall on Kirk's head.


(You guys, I love this episode.)

The tribbles are dead and dying, however, because they've been poisoned - there's something in the grain.

And it turns out that tribbles' prodigious talents include purring, looking cute, reproducing at a rate of knots, and being natural Klingon detectors.




Exposed!

Darvin's an undercover Klingon spy who was trying to sabotage the Sherman's planet project by poisoning the grain. He's arrested, the Klingons leave Federation territory, and Kirk gets back to the ship to find their infestation of tribbles magically gone. Why? Scotty beamed them all into the Klingon cargo bay before the ship went to warp.


Hilarity ensues, and credits roll!



Further Reading

The LOLcat version
DS9's S5 episode Trials and Tribble-ations -- Deep Space Nine had a crossover episode with TOS, and it is DELIGHTFUL.

What did you think of the episode?

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Comments

[arch]

This is the first time I've actually seen this episode (although the caps of the piles of tribbles are familiar, of course).

The interchange between Kirk and Scotty after Kirk's dressing down of the crew is pretty entertaining. I mean, it's a typical comedy bit, but Shatner actually plays it hilariously ("My chicken sandwich and coffee!" That little resigned handwave with the tribble before beaming down to check the storage compartment!). In fact, Shatner's hilarious throughout the whole episode. The interchanges between Kirk and Mr. Barris are pretty great.

On the other hand, Barris has a point when he talks about how Kirk has resisted him at every turn. And the Klingons pretty much have a point with their insults about Kirk.

This is the first episode of TOS I've seen with Klingons. After watching TNG, I was shocked to see that the TOS Klingons are just dudes with beards. I hadn't realized that the character design for Klingons changed so drastically. I bet that caused NO WANK WHATSOEVER.

Also, Barris's secretly Klingon assistant looks just like Eddie Jemison.

[arch]

Uh, the parenthetical bit in the second paragraph makes no sense. Pretend there's a sentence in there transitioning between the Scotty/Kirk confrontation and Kirk discovering tribbles in his meal!

[midnitemarauder]

You should watch the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations"! I think it's Chief O'Brien who asks Worf about it: "Those are Klingons?!?" and Worf's huffy response of "We do not talk about it with outsiders."

A huge Trek fan, still I never got into the Enterprise spinoff with Scott Bakula, but they did an episode or two where the Klingon's appearance in TOS is explained by a virus of sorts - some kind of genetic procedure/experimentation to make Klingons look more like humans. I haven't seen it, so I don't know how well the explanation/ret-conning went over.

But even the Klingons in Star Trek III - The Search for Spock (the lead - Commander Kruge - played by Christopher Lloyd of Taxi and Doc Brown/Back to the Future fame) looked more like the present incarnation than those in TOS. And as far as I can recall, most fans were pleased with the "new" look. So by the time Worf's character rolled around in The Next Generation, it was already taken for granted that Klingons were dark skinned with those bony ridges, and most fans just waved away the "old" appearance as a production/budget issue.

(As you can probably tell, a lot of things were handwaved for reasons of 'lack of decent budget and technology' - particularly the setting/scenery of pretty much every alien planet they visited consisting of spartan, boulder-infested surroundings! Hee! I mean, even our own current technology makes a lot of TOS things look a bit silly in comparison. We have computers and gadgets now that make Spock's tricorder look pretty ridiculous. But back in the late '60s, it wasn't AS cheesy as it looks to us today. For comparison, you should see some of the old eps of Dr Who! :-P Cheesy special effects was part of the sci fi package.)

[oxoniensis]

Hee! I mean, even our own current technology makes a lot of TOS things look a bit silly in comparison.

*grins* That's one of the things that struck me most - it's so amusing seeing what they thought would look ultra-futuristic back then! Well, that and the incredibly bouncy tables - I loved the way no furniture at all was damaged in the bar fight!

[badgerbag]

I thought there was a whole explanation (in the novels?) about Klingon genetics programs - they would pick out their enemies and then interbreed with them somehow to create people who could interact with them and/or fight them better with their special genetic insights!

[sunnyrea.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing about Barris' assistant!!! And had the 'is that...? no wait he's too young'