The Trouble With Tribbles

[darkshadow0001]

I've got to say to this date this episode has to be one of the best of TOS. While I was on break at work the other day, this episode was playing on television and it's got a lot of great humor in it. Especially when Chekov says the grain is a "vussian invention" and when Scotty told Kirk the reason why they got into the bar fight was the Klingons called the Enterpside a garbage scawl (i probably didn't spell that right but I don't care haha)

What was your favorite scene from this episode?

 

[ToddPence]

My favorite scene is the whole thing where Scotty tells Kirk that he punched out the Klingon not because he insulted Kirk, but because he insulted the Enterprise. This is one of the most cleverly written episodes of the original series, and it's hard to believe that it was written by a college student with no previous writing experience. If you ever get a chance to grab Gerrold's book about writing this episode, it's a great read and almost as great a firsthand insight into the original series as Whitfield's book.

 

[Wingsley]

Definitely an example of how underrated TOS is to this day. I love the humor. Too bad we didn't get to see the Enterprise pay more visits to K-7.

 

[Mysterion]

One of the few times Trek does funny and it is actually funny.

A favorite line:

KIRK: I have never questioned either the orders, or the intelligence of any representative of the Federation...

[pause, looking at Baris]

...until now.

 

[cblmc1296]

I love the entire exchange between the Klingon and Scotty & Chekov in the bar ... a great mix of humor both subtle and obvious as well as tension/excitement. I also think the music makes the whole build up to the punch. I wish they had used that same music when the scene was replayed in DS9 Trials and Tribble-ations.

 

[Forbin]

If you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I have a ship to attend to.

 

[TOSalltheway]

I know this makes me odd man out, but I have always found Tribbles to be an embarassment. It was written at the level of a mediocre Three's Company episode. Juveline humor, poorly written at best. The writers and actors were bending over backwards to say "look at me, I am funny". For Trek humor that works check out " A Piece of the Action". Okay everyone, tell me how wrong I am.

 

[Captain Robert April]

You're wrong.

 

[Mysterion]

I know this makes me odd man out, but I have always found Tribbles to be an embarassment. It was written at the level of a mediocre Three's Company episode. Juveline humor, poorly written at best. The writers and actors were bending over backwards to say "look at me, I am funny". For Trek humor that works check out " A Piece of the Action". Okay everyone, tell me how wrong I am.

I think you have this totally backwards.

 

[MacLeod]

From memory "A Peice of the Action" was the other episode the writers of DSN were looking at when it came to the 30th Anniversary episode. Had they not meet the actor who played Darvil in the original episode in a resaturant whilst discussing it I think they were going to go with "A Peice of the Action" as the back drop for the 30th Anniversary episode.

What ever you think about "Trials and Tribble-ations" it seems as if everyone working on it, wanted to make it as special as they good. Compare that to VOY 30th Anniversary episode "Flashback" whilst not a bad episode for VOY it seems as if the DSN people went that extra mile. Of course "Flashback" did have a rather large goof by even Trek standards, they killed off a crew member who is clearly visible at the end of ST VI, or was that his twin brother?

 

[Captain Robert April]

"Flashback" also botched the timeline rather horribly, showing that they didn't even bother watching ST VI past the opening five minutes.

From Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country:
SPOCK: Good morning. Two months ago a Federation starship monitored an explosion on the Klingon moon Praxis. We believe it was caused by over-mining and insufficient safety precautions. The moon's decimation means a deadly pollution of their ozone. They will have depleted their supply of oxygen in approximately fifty Earth years. Due to their enormous military budget, the Klingon economy does not have the resources to combat this catastrophe. Last month, at the behest of the Vulcan Ambassador I opened a dialogue with Gorkon, Chancellor of the Klingon High Council. He proposes to commence negotiations at once.

From "Flashback":
JANEWAY: So what happened? Did you go to Praxis?

TUVOK: No. We were warned off by the Klingons, and resumed our survey mission. However, two days later, we learned that two Starfleet officers were accused of murdering the Klingon chancellor. They were brought back to the Klingon Homeworld to stand trial. Captain Sulu had served under both officers for many years, and he felt an intense loyalty to them.

Kinda hard to respect the episode after picking up on that.

 

[Terra Pryme]

"Flashback" also botched the timeline rather horribly, showing that they didn't even bother watching ST VI past the opening five minutes. Kinda hard to respect the episode after picking up on that.

Well, it was pretty difficult respecting the whole Voyager series after they had an episode where crewmen turned into salamanders after going to Warp 10, so I feel for you.

DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" was much better.

 

[nightwind1]

I know this makes me odd man out, but I have always found Tribbles to be an embarassment. It was written at the level of a mediocre Three's Company episode. Juveline humor, poorly written at best. The writers and actors were bending over backwards to say "look at me, I am funny". For Trek humor that works check out " A Piece of the Action". Okay everyone, tell me how wrong I am.

You're absolutely wrong, in every conceivable, measurable way. In many fan polls over the last 40 years, The Trouble With Tribbles is consistently ranked somewhere in the top 3-5 favorite episodes.

 

[cblmc1296]

Montgomery Scott's words of wisdom: "Everyone's entitled to an opinion."

I can't agree with TOSalltheway but, to be fair, it's really difficult to qualify what makes an episode good or bad in an objective sense. It's all subjective.

I happen to like Tribbles. The humor is OK but I enjoy it just as much for the fact that all the main characters have a good deal to do (save for Sulu who didn't appear). I always like episodes like that.

 

[Captain Robert April]

"Flashback" also botched the timeline rather horribly, showing that they didn't even bother watching ST VI past the opening five minutes. Kinda hard to respect the episode after picking up on that.

Well, it was pretty difficult respecting the whole Voyager series after they had an episode where crewmen turned into salamanders after going to Warp 10, so I feel for you.

DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" was much better.

They had the advantage of 1) Ron Moore and Rene Echevarria knowing "The Trouble With Tribbles" backwards and forwards, cold, and 2) having David Gerrold on the set.

As for "A Piece of the Action", even the director, James Komack, only said the script was "okay", and wasn't all that funny; it was the Star Trek cast doing all this outlandish stuff that made it funny, along with the cast willing to show off their comedic chops.

 

[Tiberius]

"Flashback" also botched the timeline rather horribly, showing that they didn't even bother watching ST VI past the opening five minutes.

From Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country:
SPOCK: Good morning. Two months ago a Federation starship monitored an explosion on the Klingon moon Praxis. We believe it was caused by over-mining and insufficient safety precautions. The moon's decimation means a deadly pollution of their ozone. They will have depleted their supply of oxygen in approximately fifty Earth years. Due to their enormous military budget, the Klingon economy does not have the resources to combat this catastrophe. Last month, at the behest of the Vulcan Ambassador I opened a dialogue with Gorkon, Chancellor of the Klingon High Council. He proposes to commence negotiations at once.

From "Flashback":
JANEWAY: So what happened? Did you go to Praxis?

TUVOK: No. We were warned off by the Klingons, and resumed our survey mission. However, two days later, we learned that two Starfleet officers were accused of murdering the Klingon chancellor. They were brought back to the Klingon Homeworld to stand trial. Captain Sulu had served under both officers for many years, and he felt an intense loyalty to them.

Kinda hard to respect the episode after picking up on that.

Man, aren't you being a bit hard. After all, it's one tiny detail that could be nothing more than a slip of the tongue. It's not like the fact that it was two months instead of two days was some vital plot point.

Do you also have no respect for that episode where Riker leaves a digit out of the stardate? or Darmok, for having the phasers come from the torpedo tube?

 

[scotpens]

The writers and actors were bending over backwards to say "look at me, I am funny".

You must have “The Trouble With Tribbles” confused with the strained, overplayed humor of “I, Mudd.” Although that one was still funnier than “A Piece of the Action.”

 

[Forbin]

Much as I loved Trial and Tibble-ations (and I really loved it), one thing stood out painfully to me - the music in the fight scene in the bar. They naturally replaced the playful, fun, comedic 60s music with some pretty dull standard DS9 music. It just emphasized to me how modern Trek music just wasn't very interesting.

 

[Timo]

Man, aren't you being a bit hard. After all, it's one tiny detail that could be nothing more than a slip of the tongue.

It's more like ten tiny details that are rather obviously wrong. But I don't really mind, because it's all from Tuvok's sick imagination anyway - it's sort of the point of the whole story that his recollection of ST6 is fundamentally incorrect, due to the weird disease that's forcing him to (mis)remember the adventure.

It's more damaging for the episode that very little of the flashbacking is dramatically justified: mostly the characters spend time doing or saying nothing of importance, and reliving parts of ST6 (authentic or false) that bear no relevance to the one novel and previously untold part of the adventure (Sulu's rescue attempt and quarrel with Kang) or even to Tuvok's medical plight. IMHO, our VOY heroes should have been brought to "virtual conflict" with Sulu and friends a lot sooner if the flashbacks were to be of any actual interest...

Good thing VOY didn't try and revisit an actual TOS episode, due to obvious practical limitations (only doable with CGI trickery!). Really, a lot of the charm of "Trials and Tribble-ations" comes from going back to the (twenty-two) sixties, and would have fallen flat if the same treatment had taken our DS9 heroes only back to the (twenty-two) eighties or nineties.

...Who knows, perhaps the right time for a trip back to the TOS movie era comes during the current decade, when the eighties are the height of nostalgic fashion?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Greg Cox]

The problem with "Flashback" is that they missed the point. If you're going to do a TOS tribute episode, then you need to go for it, have fun, and not just do a typical Voyager episode with a brief "flashback" to ST VI squeezed in.

And if you're going to feature a special appearance by George Takei, then the episode should be about Sulu, damnit, not Tuvok. I mean, what's the point of bringing Takei back if you want to do a Tuvok story? You can do that any week.

(Look at "Relics" on TNG. That episode was about Scotty, not Geordi.)

Plus, there's the pacing issue. The DS9 ep got Sisko and the others back to the TOS era by the end of teaser. But with "Flashback," you have to wade through lots of boring technobabble about Tuvok's neurological problem before Sulu even shows up. It's like they completely forgot the ep was supposed to be, you know, fun.

"Relics" and "Tribble-ations" got the TOS nostalgia trip right. "Flashback" made you wonder why they even bothered to hire Takei at all . . .