The Trouble With Tribbles - episode #42
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The Trouble With Tribbles - episode #42
THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES (2nd season; episode #42)
Directed by Joseph Pevney writer: David Gerrold
There were not too many intentionally funny episodes during the original Trek series. Some were unintentionally funny, of course. But, actual planned comedies are few and can be counted on one hand. Another was A Piece of the Action, where Kirk & Spock mocked the traditional gangster roles. But this one, about a new lifeform called Tribbles, knocked it out of the park. Tribbles are fuzzy balls of fur; they do not have feet or paws that I could see but are able to move slowly on their own somehow. Tribbles are not fond of Klingons and vice-versa. Oh, and Tribbles like to eat - grain, if it's around. And they multiply. Oh, how they multiply.
These creatures are courtesy of writer David Gerrold, who was an aspiring young writer at the time and a fan of the original series. Gerrold put together an amusing teleplay - but it's not the Tribbles that are the source of so much humor in the episode. Rather, Gerrold took the elements of what he'd learned about Roddenberry's Trek universe during its first year and applied his own canny take on Starfleet bureaucracy as it might affect a man-of-action such as Kirk.
Anyone familiar with the show knows of Kirk's tendency to go off on his own agenda and sometimes he has to be lectured to by admirals to follow orders. Here, the completely mundane, the ultimate in banality, is forced upon Kirk; instead of exploring the galaxy as he prefers, he's ordered to guard some wheat, er, grain.
BoG's Score: 10
THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES and TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS
side-by-side comparison:
and
William Campbell played the Klingon Capt. Koloth here; Campbell also played The Squire of Gothos and reprised the role of Koloth in Deep Space Nine episodes. If Star Trek had continued into a 4th season, Koloth would have probably returned to plague Kirk somehow. He & Tribbles did return in the animated episode, More Tribbles,More Troubles, the sequel to this on the animated series, also written by Gerrold.side-by-side comparison:
and
Last edited by BoG on Sat Feb 07, 2015 2:18 am; edited 4 times in total
Trouble with Tribbles full episode
CLASSIC TREK QUOTES:
Chekov: "I was making a little joke, sir."
Spock: "Extremely little, ensign."
Korax: "Well, Frankly, I never liked earthers. They remind me of Regulan bloodworms."
Chekov: "That Cossack."
Chekov: "I was making a little joke, sir."
Spock: "Extremely little, ensign."
Korax: "Well, Frankly, I never liked earthers. They remind me of Regulan bloodworms."
Chekov: "That Cossack."
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