Felicitations Trekkies and welcome to
Day 4 of Star Trek Favorites. I have chosen to stay within the
confines of Season 2 because I have always found some of the most
entertaining episodes in the series here. Some were fraught with
mystery or a disturbing, hidden menace while others made me laugh.
From the writing to the performances, Season 2 truly shines on but
what do you do when your show revolves around the importance of grain
and potential sabotage? Why you simply add a fuzzy creature to
distract you from political agendas and cowboy brawls. This is The
Trouble with Tribbles.
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| Totally not wearing pants under this table. |
Starfleet official Nilz Baris (William
Schallert of The Patty Duke Show, In the Heat of the Night, Santa
Barbara, Innerspace and Bag of Bones) of space station
designate "K 7" is near the Klingon Empire's neutral zone
and Sherman's planet of which both the empire and Starfleet have
claims over. Mr. Baris is in charge of the distribution and
allocation of a new genetically engineered grain known as
Quadrotriticale. According to Starfleet science it will be able to
produce food supplies in gross in virtually any environment. A misuse
of the disaster emergency channel establishing a disaster had not
occurred. Mr. Baris informs Kirk and Spock that the Enterprise is at
his fingertips to respond with how high to his command of jump.
A Klingon battle cruiser is in orbit of
K7 declaring their right to shore leave and recreation. Captain
Koloth (William Campbell of Love Me Tender, Cannonball,
Dementia 13, Star Trek: Judgement Rites and Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine) of the Klingon Empire is representing his government's
claim for the planet for shore leave. Meanwhile in K7's bar, a
grifter or peddler Cyrano Jones (Stanley Adams of Breakfast at
Tiffany's Highschool Big Shot, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Lillies of
the Field, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were
Afraid to Ask and The Great Gundown) is introducing one of
his favorite marks to a life-form known as a Tribble. These creatures
replicate asexually and can breed into infinite numbers provided they
have enough food.
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| You have angered my dance belt, Kirk. For that, I will blow you out of the stars. |
Scotty, Chekov and some of the rest of
the Enterprise are told be on their best behavior while on shore
leave while Koloth's men lead by his second-in-command Korax (Michael
Pataki of Broadside, Batman. Five the Hard Way, The Flying Nun,
Superdome, The Amazing Spider-Man, Star Trek: The Next Generation and
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers) gets a little
pickled and taunts our Starfleet boys into a donnybrook that Scotty
himself throws the first punch.
With the tensions high on both sides,
Koloth and Kirk are at their wit's end while Baris is frustrated with
the whole scenario, gripes and complains even further when the
Tribbles have been mass breeding as Spock and McCoy attempt figure
out how to stop their breeding cycles or slow it as they are all over
the ship.
Will the Klingons be able to lay claim
to the planet? Will the grain be any use to them? Will Starfleet
reprimand Kirk for allowing too many fuzzy wuzzies dominating his
ship?
Now a few bits of trivia for this
episode. To create the one Tribble to move on its own the prop
supervisor bought a battery powered toy dog, stripped it down the
mechanical works. Recovering it with fur they had several ones of
this same toy dog that the railing of the bridge the toys were so
loud the dialogue had to re-recorded and looped. James Doohan
(Scotty) insisted on doing his own stunts in the big barroom brawl.
The working title of this episode was "A Fuzzy Thing Happened to
Me..." Eight takes is how many times Shatner had to be
bombarded with Tribbles from the hatched storage compartment which
were dumped on him by the production team. He should be grateful it
wasn't some sort of fluid instead.
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| You get one more hair in my drink, I will gut you like trout. |
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