TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS

'"Trials and Tribble-ations"' is a fifth season episode of ''.
It was written as a tribute to the of Star Trek, in the 30th anniversary year of the show : sister series '' produced a similar episode, "Flashback".
The episode sees the crew of DS9 travel into their past, and encounter the events of the original series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
The crew interact with events of that episode, meeting James T. Kirk and visiting the original series ''Enterprise'' by means of modern special effects technology which allows the DS9 actors to be inserted into footage from the original episode.
It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

Contents

Background

Trivia

Notes

External links

Background

Agents Dulmer and Lucsly, from the Department of Temporal Investigations, interrogate Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine as to why he and his crew aboard the USS ''Defiant'' travelled to the year 2268, to Station Deep Space K-7. While the crew was there, they foiled an assassination attempt on Captain James Kirk of the USS ''Enterprise''.

Trivia

★ Making a cameo appearance as an ''Enterprise'' crew-member is David Gerrold, who wrote the original "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode for the original series and helped develop ''. Gerrold wrote the character of Ensign Freeman into the original episode with the intention of playing the part himself. However, Gene Coon nixed the idea, saying Gerrold was too skinny. Paul Baxley, William Shatner's frequent stuntman, was cast in the role. Paul Baxley being William Shatner's stuntman is referenced by Bashir's and O'Brien's mis-identifying Freeman as Kirk in the K-7 bar.

★ Charlie Brill, who played Arne Darvin in the original , returned to play the same character in this episode of . According to a text commentary written by Mike Okuda on the DVD version of the episode, the producers were ambivalent on whether to do a return to ''The Trouble With Tribbles'' or ''A Piece of the Action'' when they happened to chance upon Brill sitting in the same restaurant that they were discussing the planned tribute.

★ Between the original episode and ''DS9'' the appearance of Klingons had changed radically (their design had originally been altered for ''). When Bashir and O'Brien ask Worf why 23rd Century Klingons look so different he will only tell them "it was a bad time in our history... we do not discuss it with outsiders". Bashir and O'Brien ponder possible causes, genetic engineering and mutated virus, both of which were later shown to be the cause in an episode of ''Star Trek: Enterprise''. Contained in the 'Special Features' of the region 2 box set of DS9 season 5, the producers are seen to comment that the joke at the Klingons' expense was as much for plausibility's sake as for the purpose of humour, claiming "any explanation we could come up with would have been ridiculous!"

★ The two Temporal Investigations officers' names "Dulmer" and "Lucsly" are anagrams of the two main characters on The X-Files "Mulder" and "Scully".

★ This episode answers one question from the original episode: after Kirk opens the grain bay door and is inundated with thousands of tribbles, it was originally unknown why — after all the tribbles had fallen out — a tribble would periodically fall on Kirk every few seconds. The ''DS9'' episode reveals that it was Sisko and Dax (hiding in the grain bay) who were scanning the tribbles and then tossing them out the bay door. During the actual filming of this scene in the original series, the occasional tribbles were chucked at William Shatner by stage crew above the set.

★ Events in the original episode are either stretched or shortened for this episode. Kirk has an extended intercom conversation with Baris, including dialogue from a beam-over, to allow Sisko and Dax an extended conversation. The three-day layover of the ''Enterprise'', from Jones' sale of the first tribble to the million tribbles falling on Kirk, is shortened to barely a day.

★ Devices function slightly differently: Bashir's scanner does not rotate as fast as McCoy's, the doors open and close more slowly, and enhanced sound effects accompany the turbo-lift activation handles, Kirk's chair's comm button.

★ The Klingon D-7 battle cruiser, never seen until the third season, appears in rich detail in rendezvous movement with Station K-7 (the only time a Klingon ship was seen, before the third season of the original series, was a multi-colored "wedge shape" in "Friday's Child"). The K-7 station and the ''Enterprise'' also have richer exterior shots.

★ When discussing the change in color signifying departments in the Starfleet uniform, the dialogue is as follows (Sisko is wearing command gold, O'Brien and Jadzia in engineering red, and Bashir in science blue):

★
★ 'Bashir': Wait a minute. Aren't you two wearing the wrong colors?

★
★ 'O'Brien': Don't you know anything about this period in history?

★
★ 'Bashir': I'm a doctor, not an historian. (Which also parodied McCoy's "I'm a doctor, not a..." catchphrase.)

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★ 'Sisko': In the old days, command officers wore gold, engineering officers wore red...

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★ 'Jadzia' (interrupting): And women wore less.

★ While the majority of scenes showing the original cast came from "The Trouble With Tribbles", Sisko's last scene on the ''Enterprise'' bridge (in which he speaks with Kirk) made use of the final scene from "Mirror, Mirror", in which Kirk meets Marlena Moreau, the counterpart of his love interest from the Mirror Universe. Kirk's smiling reaction shot to Sisko was originally a display of guarded interest in his universe's Marlena. Uhura's stunned look of recognition in the background of the shot is still visible, although her expression can be interpreted as showing fascination with "Lieutenant" Sisko.

Notes

★ Trouble with Tribbles: The Birth, Sale, and Final Production of One Episode, David Gerrold, , , Ballantine Books, 1973, ISBN 0-345-23402-2

External links

★ Trials and Tribble-ations at StarTrek.com

★ Trials and Tribble-ations at Memory-Alpha.org

★ A side-by-side comparison of the bar fight from this show and "The Trouble with Tribbles"