such_heights | Star Trek Rewatch Episode Post!

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.

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Star Trek Rewatch Episode Post!

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