"The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS...

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by CrazyMatt, Jul 2, 2013.

  1. CrazyMatt

    CrazyMatt Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Location:
    Sitting in Kirk's command chair
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    And that's really my point, you said it better than I did. I'm not saying it's not a good episode... in fact, when I'm in a generous mood, I might even say it's a very good episode. But I can easily name 10-15 episodes from the first two seasons that I think are better.
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2013
  2. TorontoTrekker

    TorontoTrekker Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2002
    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    This. A thousand times this.

    I've written comedy for the stage - there's a craft to constructing a comedic script, just like any other writing, and it may actually be harder to do than drama. The script is tight, the actors' timing was perfect, the comedy comes from the fundamental natures of each character, and while I agree that Koloth wasn't the epitome of the fierce Klingon warrior, it's quite possible that he felt the mission was just as ridiculous as Kirk did and wasn't taking events seriously.

    If any character should have been cast differently, though, it should have been Freeman - Paul Baxley was Shatner's stand-in, and it shows in his flat performance and line delivery.
     
  3. mb22

    mb22 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    May 11, 2009
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    David Gerrold states that he wrote the role for himself, but was turned as being to skinny so Baxley was given the (unnecessary to the plot) role
     
  4. Ssosmcin

    Ssosmcin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2002
    Location:
    ssosmcin
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    Nah, it doesn't. It's not my favorite episode, but it's far from the bottom of the list of good episodes.

    I've clocked 41. Not that length of time watching the series has any bearing on this....

    Still waiting to hear specifics. "Sucks" and "bad" don't shed any light on why you have such a violent hatred of this episode.

    I like this episode. I don't like Three's Company. So, wrong again. By the way, insulting people does not count as explaining why you don't like this episode. It's certainly not the best method of getting people to side with you.

    Okay, getting closer to something here (although saying "bad" twice in the same sentence is cheating). However, it's not poorly written. You might not find it funny, which is fine, but it's obviously a well constructed episode by a writer with a firm grasp of the series and characters. You can dislike something without it being bad. For example, I hate I Love Lucy, but I respect it for the classic it is.

    I take him seriously as a Klingon who's duplicitous and who has nothing to gain by being belligerent. Not all Klingon's have to be identical.

    And this differs from every other episode that ended with the crew having a laugh exactly how?

    Continually repeating the word BAD is no substitute for a compelling argument and it's very hard to take that sort of review seriously. I maintain that this is not a bad episode. You just don't like it. Which is fine.
     
  5. LOKAI of CHERON

    LOKAI of CHERON Commodore Commodore

    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    People don't necessarily have to justify an opinion with an in depth analysis and point by point breakdown. Heck, I can't tell you why I don't like TTWT beyond the plain silliness and horribly inappropriate slapstick. I patently don't have the intellectual capacity to provide a more detailed argument, but I do know I simply don't like it.
     
  6. Elder Knight

    Elder Knight Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2002
    Location:
    SE USA
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    "Pun? What pun?"
    "Shut up! He thinks he's witty!"


    Not to mention that it's wordplay that was spoiled by the episode's on-screen title!

    My least favorite part of the show, though I still enjoy it.
     
  7. Myko

    Myko Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2004
    Location:
    Hell on Earth, Stockholm
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    Stunt double actually, not stand-in. Eddie Paskey was Shatner's stand-in. Baxley was probably cast because of the upcoming fight scene.
     
  8. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2013
    Location:
    New York State
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    I think Baxley stands out in the episode because he's behaving exactly like a real person, which is to say flat and uninteresting, while the industry-standard acting style of the period was to put on more of a deliberate personality. Professional actors in 1967 played it a little bigger, while Baxley might have fit right in doing an episode of re-imagined BATTLESTAR GALACTICA circa 2005, with it's understated naturalism.

    I'm phrasing it badly, but I think I'm onto something.
     
  9. TorontoTrekker

    TorontoTrekker Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2002
    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    That's sort of what I was alluding to. ;) I think, too, that there might have been some union rules preventing David from being cast - though I admit that I don't know what the rules were in 1967.

    If memory serves, he's also used the Freeman character (or at least the name) in a few of his novels. I can only assume that he's using the character as a proxy for himself, to express his own commentary on the events of the plot (especially since his real surname is Friedman - I don't think that's a coincidence). I've never actually asked him about that, though. I probably should.

    And David is still pretty skinny. I can only hope I'm in that kind of shape when I'm in my late 60s. (Not likely - I'm not in that kind of shape now, in my mid 40s.)

    I stand corrected - thanks.

    You may well be right - but I don't think it's just a 1967 thing, I think it's a Star Trek thing. There's a definite "Star Trek" acting style, a little more theatrical than most other television.
     
  10. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2005
    Location:
    Real Gone
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    Have you watched any of Star Trek's contemporaries? In general its acting style was industry standard for the time.
     
  11. TorontoTrekker

    TorontoTrekker Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2002
    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    Some, but not recently. (I remember seeing a lot of "Bewitched" and "I Love Lucy" as a kid, and a fair bit of "The Addams Family".) Admittedly, it was more common in those days for actors to have a theatrical background, meaning that everything had to be bigger so that people in the back row would be able to see. Nowadays, most actors are just TV or movie actors, and very few have done a lot of professional theatre.

    I still think that there's a distinct Star Trek style of acting - if you watch DS9 or Voyager and compare them to shows that were on at the same time, they were much more theatrical.
     
  12. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2003
    Location:
    Brockville, Ontario, Canada
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    There's nothing distinct about the acting on TOS that's any different than what else, particularly dramas, was being aired at the time. I have shows on DVD from that era and there's nothing to set it apart.
     
  13. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2013
    Location:
    New York State
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    Nothing but magnificence! :)
     
  14. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2003
    Location:
    Brockville, Ontario, Canada
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    I've just been watching some early Mission: Impossible and original The Outer Limits and the acting style and so many other little details of television filming are very much like TOS. And on both shows you see so many TOS alumni.

    Some interesting DNA trivia, too. Robert Justman worked on The Outer Limits before Star Trek so it's not surprising there's a lot of similarity in how stories were told. And Mission: Impossible was also being produced at Desilu Studios so it's note surprising that there could be similarities in how the two shows were filmed and produced.
     
  15. doubleohfive

    doubleohfive Fleet Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2001
    Location:
    Hollywood, CA
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    In general, I enjoy "The Trouble With Tribbles."

    While watching DS9 with my girlfriend all the way through (she'd never seen it), we paused and watched "Trouble" just before watching "Trials & Tribble-ations" as she didn' remember the original episode and we both found it quite charming.

    That said, a lot of its luster has waned over the years for me. Partly because of the near-lionization some fans engage in over David Gerrold's skill as a writer, and more so because my own personal interactions with Gerrold have been less than positive. (I'm not crazy about people who enjoy and defend making rape jokes.)

    That said, the episode is a fun romp, and even if it is Gerrold's one-hit wonder, there are days I wish I weren't so interactive with fandom or the people we fawn all over because it really kills the illusion sometimes.
     
  16. Shaka Zulu

    Shaka Zulu Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 28, 2013
    Location:
    Bulawayo Military Krral
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..


    Don't forget how he is standing up to Kirk in Star Trek Into Darkness.
     
  17. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2013
    Location:
    Marsden is very sad.
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    I agree with this.
    I used to pick this as my favorite, but now I think it's in the teens.
    Balance of Terror and Errand of Mercy are in my top favorites, now. Not that I don't like light hearted situations, but too much can be detrimental, and I think those kind of episodes could have influenced Fred Frieburger to state this is not a comedy and stripped too much humor away.
     
  18. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2003
    Location:
    Brockville, Ontario, Canada
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    ^^ Gene Roddenberry was the one not happy with the turns at overt humour during the second season and likely impressed it upon Frieburger in the third season. Roddenberry had been away when "I, Mudd" and "The Trouble With Tribbles" were produced on Gene Coon's authority, and when GR got back he was not amused. Apparently he felt the humour was overdone and he didn't care much for those episodes.

    Roddenberry was the one who first said, "Star Trek is not a comedy."
     
  19. TOSalltheway

    TOSalltheway Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2011
    Location:
    Canada
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    Thank you, finally. I am tired of the feeling that I am the only person who feels not only that this episode is bad, but it is embarassing.

    William Campbell, brilliantly cast as Trelane, is horribly cast as the most non threatening Klingon ever.

    The writing is on par with a mediocre episode of Three's Company. Trek can be funny, look at A Piece of the Action. In that episode the writers gave a reaon for the crew to act as they did and hence the humour of the situation. In Tribbles you have "the best crew in the fleet" in a situation where they are risking interplanetary war. How do they deal with it, bad puns.

    Please people, tell me I am not the only person embarassed by this episode.
     
  20. Poltargyst

    Poltargyst Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jun 12, 2014
    Re: "The Trouble With Tribbles" is the most overrated episode of TOS..

    I'm not embarrassed by it, I like it. TwT is clearly superior to an episode of Three's Company.