Wouldn't the Klingons just kill all the Tribbles?

[johnnybear]

I always thought that The Klingons probably shut the Tribbles away in another section because I think they were scared of them! Then when they were near another planet probably beamed them out! The thought of them actually murdering the little furry things isn't for the faint hearted or the fact that the Tribbles might have attacked the Klingons too! Sucking onto them because they have no teeth!
JB

 

[Ithekro]

I can imagine Klingons randomly blasting Tribbles and just wrecking their own ship doing so.

 

[xvicente]

I am sure they just opened some airlocks and spaced the tribbles. The same thing Scotty assured Kirk he wouldn't do.

Realistically, how else the 1,771,561 tribbles could be dealt with?

 

[Kor]

I've been reading John Byrne's excellent TOS comics (yeah I know, not "cannnon"). Koloth ended up doing a year of punitive duty for his failure at K-7.
Klingon High Command probably considers it his own fault for ending up with a ship full of tribbles. Just let him deal with the mess himself!

I vaguely recall some printed background materials from around TOS or maybe shortly thereafter, which said Klingon ships were run more like privateers. If so, then they're basically on their own, and the Empire would be disinclined to make a diplomatic incident out of stuff like this (especially considering that the Klingons were on a sabotage mission in the first place).

Kor

 

[BillJ]

The Klingon crew had months and months of Tribble McNuggets. Unfortunately, no dipping sauce.

 

[Poltargyst]

Given the Tribbles are an analogy of the 'Rabbit problem', it's not unreasonable to expect that the Klingons would do exactly what humans did: take any measure necessary to cull the ecological menace.

I agree that Scotty beaming them over to the Klingon ship, lighthearted though its played, should have started a major diplomatic incident. It'd be like if Australia had just sent all the rabbits to Indonesia and said "Not our problem anymore, deal with it yourselves". There'd be hell to pay.

Well given the fact that a Klingon plot to kill, at the least, tens of thousands of people with poisoned wheat had just been foiled, I don't think the Klingons would really have a leg to stand on diplomatically if they got pissed and wanted to make Scotty giving them the Tribbles into some big issue.

And I really don't have a problem with the Klingons killing the little buggers.....My issue is noone on the Enterprise, who all seemed to be concerned for the welfare of the Tribbles of varying degrees, seems to have even had the slightest thought cross their mind that the Klingons were going to wipe them out and they all acted like this was some wonderful solution that would be great for the furballs. Like I said not even Spock, who never hesitated to point out the unpleasant, seemed to grasp the logic of what the outcome would be.

There is no indication that anyone thought it was a good outcome for the Tribbles. There is simply no thought given to the welfare of the Tribbles at all. Everyone's entire focus is how funny it is that the Klingons hate Tribbles and now they have a ship full of them.

 

[K'Toska]

I had the same thought myself, but I also consoled myself with the idea that the Tribbles took over and began piloting the Klingon ship.

 

[mb22]

Would using predators like the glommer ("TAS: "More Tribbles More Troubles") to devour the Tribbles be considered more humane?

 

[Ithekro]

Like sending in the dogs to take care of a rabbit problem.

 

[Grant]

Even as a 10-11 year old I was annoyed---they think beaming them into space is inhuman, but sending them to a Klingon ship where they will clearly be killed is considered funny and appropriate.

It's why I can't stand the "funny" episodes and the episodes that end with a laugh.

 

[Redfern]

I suspect that tribbles would not take too kindly to Caitians. If their internal anatomy in any parallels their external forms, M'Ress and her species are possibly obligate carnivores. Tribbles may "smell" them as predators and react just as violently as they did to the Klingons, shrieking and recoiling. It was probably not the best time for M'Ress while the ship visited K-7.

M'Ress: "Mr. Scott? If you're the least bit short handed for this 'transporter' operation of yours, let me crew a station! No, I'm not certified, but how hard can it be? Slide up those levers, something beams 'up'; slide them down, something beams 'down'. Please! Anything that will get these beggers off the ship any faster, I'm game! I heard about the captain opening that hatch and several hundred of the vermin falling on him. He thinks that was bad? At least most were dead and those still living seem to like you human. Me? I was scaling down one of the gangways and my paw slipped... The bottom of the shaft was filled with the nasty hairballs. I would have preferred the broken bones! They started writhing and shrieking as though being shoved into a meat grinder! A newborn got lodged in my left ear! It carried on so much, I'm actually deaf on that side now! Dr. McCoy or someone will need to perform surgery to repair the damage. I don't care if it's an hour's procedure. I don't like people poking things in my ears! Why? Let's just say there was an 'incident' during my academy days. I won't go any further. You humans actually like doing that sorta' thing?! Weird... Anyway, you gotta' let me run one of those pad! I'd like to consider it payback for the misery they gave me. By the way, they may not have 'teeth', but the lil' monsters have really acidic 'spit' and something like a "crop" used to grind food sliding down their gullets. One latched onto my tail anf gnawed the %^&* out of it! The 'spit' burned off the tuft! I swear, if I don't to beam out the b*st*rds, I'm stealing a phaser from the armory and setting it to 'heat' so they'll really suffer! No merciful vaporizing from this b*tch kitty!"

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Poltargyst]

I had the same thought myself, but I also consoled myself with the idea that the Tribbles took over and began piloting the Klingon ship.

Hah! I like it.

 

[BillJ]

I wonder if the Tribble incident is why Scott never got his own command? Pissed off intergalactic PETA.

 

[Ithekro]

It became a "we'll make it someone else's problem and laugh about it" moment. Which works for me. Other people have issues with it.

 

[telerites]

Scotty should implanted a few tiny anti-matter bombs in some of them and the episode could have ended with a bang.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

I can imagine Klingons randomly blasting Tribbles and just wrecking their own ship doing so.

I'm sure they'd have no problem getting out a bunch of swords and batleths and cutting the little bastards to shreds with no damage to the ship.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

Given the Tribbles are an analogy of the 'Rabbit problem', it's not unreasonable to expect that the Klingons would do exactly what humans did: take any measure necessary to cull the ecological menace.

I agree that Scotty beaming them over to the Klingon ship, lighthearted though its played, should have started a major diplomatic incident. It'd be like if Australia had just sent all the rabbits to Indonesia and said "Not our problem anymore, deal with it yourselves". There'd be hell to pay.

Well given the fact that a Klingon plot to kill, at the least, tens of thousands of people with poisoned wheat had just been foiled, I don't think the Klingons would really have a leg to stand on diplomatically if they got pissed and wanted to make Scotty giving them the Tribbles into some big issue.

And I really don't have a problem with the Klingons killing the little buggers.....My issue is noone on the Enterprise, who all seemed to be concerned for the welfare of the Tribbles of varying degrees, seems to have even had the slightest thought cross their mind that the Klingons were going to wipe them out and they all acted like this was some wonderful solution that would be great for the furballs. Like I said not even Spock, who never hesitated to point out the unpleasant, seemed to grasp the logic of what the outcome would be.

There is no indication that anyone thought it was a good outcome for the Tribbles. There is simply no thought given to the welfare of the Tribbles at all. Everyone's entire focus is how funny it is that the Klingons hate Tribbles and now they have a ship full of them.

I think the fact Scotty specifically said he gave them a good home. Kirk, who had been shocked a minute earlier when he thought Scott had beamed them into pace, and Uhura, who was totally bonkers over the things and she horrified at the though of McCoy dissecting one earlier in the episode were both now laughing. Plus Spock didn't bother to point the logic that the Klingons would probably just kill them all, when he's had no hesitation in stating the unpleasant truth before,....I think that all strongly indicated noone seemed to think a mass killing was about to take place.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

This was not the writer's intention, but in my head cannon for TTWT, after everybody laughs and the producer credits are seen, Scotty says "Just kidding. I used the Transporter to de-materialize the tribbles and break them down into recyclable parts, including protein for the food synthesizers."

Everybody knew he was kidding about the Klingon ship, because that's crazy.

And K-7's chief engineer would do the same thing.

 

[GNDN18]

In The Trouble with Tribbles, David Gerrold recalled that Gene Coon suggested having Scotty poison the remaining tribbles with the poisoned grain, except for one; the sole-surviving tribble would then have been beamed over to the Klingon ship.

Coon thought that would have been funnier.

 

[johnnybear]

Even as a 10-11 year old I was annoyed---they think beaming them into space is inhuman, but sending them to a Klingon ship where they will clearly be killed is considered funny and appropriate.

It's why I can't stand the "funny" episodes and the episodes that end with a laugh.

I always thought it was meant to mean that The Klingons either shut off the sections that The Tribbles had materialized into or they would be wading into the things full of hair and spit! No inference of any harm or butchery for a show of the sixties!
JB