Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Trouble with by The Trouble with Tribbles. David Gerrold, the creator of "Tribbles," recalls how this popular episode of was made, from conceptualizing the first draft to the final script, shooting on set, and explaining the techniques and disciplines of TV writing. Plus, receive 32 pages of photos, original illustrations by Tim Kirk, and much more! Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send me an email. Recent Tweets. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send me an email. Get your own Tribbles at TribbleToys.com. This website is copyright 2021 by David Gerrold. All rights are reserved. Violators will be eaten. "Trouble With Tribbles" At 50: Writer David Gerrold Reflects. 50 years ago today, one of the most popular episodes of Star Trek (the Original Series, aka TOS) aired. "The Trouble With Tribbles" is often at the top of 'best' and 'favorite' lists, and continues to be an enduring tale in the Trek lexicon. The 13th episode in the second season (this being up for debate because of "The Cage" and everything around it), "Tribbles" was directed by Joseph Pevney from a script by writer David Gerrold . This would end up being Gerrold's first professional sale of a story, but nowhere near his last. The author of several both in and out of the Trek universe, Gerrold continues to speak on his involvement with Star Trek and at numerous events the world over. On his facebook page today, Gerrold posted what he called a "reshare of something I wrote last year", mostly about "Tribbles": The day it was first broadcast, I said, "It's only one episode of one TV series. In twenty years, no one will remember it." That was my way of putting things in perspective as well as recognizing that the real challenges still lay ahead. It wasn't the first time I was wrong, it wasn't the last either. The Trouble with Tribbles. Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. (Original Review, 1980-11-19) I have always found the similarities between RAH's "Flatcats" in THE ROLLING STONES and Gerrold's "Tribbles" in THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES to be more than just coincidence [2018 EDIT: Incidentally Star Trek writers wrote two episodes based on this same story: "The Trouble with Tribbles" (Star Trek) and "Trials and -ations" (DS9)]. For the uninitiated, Flatcats look EXACTLY like tribbles, except that they have three tiny eyes in their fur. They purr when stroked in a pleasing manner, and, most importantly, they REPRODUCE like. well, like tribbles. The ROLLING STONES have an interesting time when they bring one aboard their spaceship and then take off on a long trip. it produces 8 little'uns, which in turn quickly produce 8 each. which. Anyone who knows Gerrold, can you find out if he knew about RAH's book. and in any event, if I was RAH I would have screamed bloody murder. [2018 EDIT: Here] Read THE ROLLING STONES instead. It’s much better. [2018 EDIT: This review was written at the time as I was running my own personal BBS server. Much of the language of this and other reviews written in 1980 reflect a very particular kind of language: what I call now in retrospect a “BBS language”.] ( ) This review is also published on my blog. Time for another step back in the Trek schedule. Today, we'll take a look at David Gerrold's The Trouble With Tribbles , published on 12 April 1973. This book goes into some detail about how Gerrold came to write the titular episode, and includes several drafts as well as the final script, each annotated with information about how and why some of the earlier concepts were changed for the final script. In addition to describing the writing process, Gerrold gives a bit of information about how the props were made and how shooting went, and finally reflects on the impact the episode has had, both on him and others. He concludes the book with an anecdote about sending a spare tribble to a hospital to encourage a girl, paralyzed by meningitis, in her recovery. This isn't the first time I've mentioned this book--I noted it last year, when I wrote about Gerrold's The World of Star Trek (published simultaneously), but I've only recently acquired a copy. Was it worth the wait? Not really. It's well written, of course, and amusing enough to read, but by the time I got through the final draft of "The Trouble With Tribbles", I was pretty well sick of the story. Whitfield's The Making of Star Trek goes into more interesting detail about the production aspects, and Gerrold's own The World of Star Trek is a more interesting look at the writing. The form of the book is basically autobiographical, but it's rather scant of details. There's a little talk at the beginning on how Gerrold has always been a fan of science fiction, and a few more anecdotes scattered throughout, but otherwise the focus is very much on the revision of the script. My suggestion: unless you're a particularly big fan of "The Trouble With Tribbles", read The World of Star Trek , instead. Boldly Rewatching the Voyages: The Trouble with Tribbles. (Note: This post is viewable as a page elsewhere on this site. If you haven’t read it yet, my introductory post on this Star Trek: The Original Series rewatch is a good place to start. Previous essays on specific episodes can be found here.) Original Air Date: December 29, 1967. Crew Death Count: 0 (but a lot of tribbles die and I’m not sure how funny that is) Bellybuttons: 0 (but watch for the barmaid uniforms on station K-7) Last week, in “Wolf in the Fold,” we conveniently blamed a traumatic experience and its awful consequences on a woman. This week, it’s all Uhura’s fault. The Enterprise responds to a distress call from Deep Space Station K-7. (Is this a precursor to the deep space stations of DS9?) Federation Undersecretary Nilz Baris (William Schallert), responsible for agricultural affairs in the quadrant, is overseeing a shipment of quadrotriticale grain for crop development on nearby Sherman’s Planet. The station, and the planet, are in territory claimed by both the Federation and the Empire. soon arrive and mayhem ensues, including what must be the longest barfight in television history. Meanwhile, Uhura takes possession of a tribble from space trader Cyrano Jones (Stanley Adams) and brings it aboard the Enterprise . Despite their harmless appearance and nearly hypnotic effect on humans, the tribbles reproduce so rapidly they become a danger to both the Enterprise and K-7. When the tribbles find their way into the quadrotriticale, everyone finds out the hard way that the grain has been poisoned by Baris’ assistant Arne Darvin (Charlie Brill), who turns out to be a Klingon spy under heavy disguise. “The Trouble with Tribbles” gives us humor, political intrigue, Klingons, plenty of banter between the crew members, and a background of deeper issues that remain relevant today. Writer David Gerrold may or may not have been influenced by Robert Heinlein’s 1952 novel The Rolling Stones , which Gerrold had read fifteen years prior. Heinlein’s novel, in turn, took some inspiration from the 1905 short story Pigs is Pigs , about over- producing guinea pigs, by Ellis Parker Butler. Cyrano Jones is a scoundrel along the lines of Harry Mudd, not surprising as Gerrold also did an uncredited rewrite of the “I, Mudd” script. “The Trouble with Tribbles” even harks back to “,” as K-7 and Sherman’s Planet are subject to the Organian Peace Treaty resulting from that experience. This creates a neutral status on K-7 allowing both Federation and Klingon personnel to take shore leave there while the grain situation is sorted out. Neutrality is only temporary, however, as claim will be offered to one empire or the other if the treaty’s requirement is satisfied, which Chekov tells us is: “one side or the other must prove it can develop the station most efficiently.” This puts the Federation’s claim in jeopardy, because, as Kirk tells us, “Though the Klingons are brutal and aggressive, they are most efficient.” Portrayal of the Klingons is my only real dispute with the episode. Even that complaint isn’t entirely fair, as we can’t help but view “The Trouble with Tribbles” from our modern-day perspective with years of Klingon appearances in various Star Trek episodes and movies. Still, even by the episode’s own criteria, we can’t help but feel let down. Besides Kirk’s “brutal and aggressive” comment, the Klingon commander himself, Koloth (William Campbell), tells us, “We Klingons are not as luxury-minded as you earthers. We do not equip our ships with – How shall I say it ?– nonessentials.” Koloth’s light-hearted conduct might not be so distracting if he did not look like Trelane in blackface. Campbell was a good actor, but he was not the best fit for a military commander from a warlike, “death with honor” species. In his final scene with Kirk, Koloth goes so far as to bow without protest when Kirk tells him to depart the system. There are a few other character moments that don’t quite add up. quotes, of all things, The Lilies of the Field , the 1962 novel by William Edmund Barrett, when describing the tribbles: “They toil not, neither do they spin.” (Maybe it’s an in-joke – Stanley Adams appeared in the 1963 film adaptation of the novel.) Chekov, in addition to his usual refrain of crediting every invention and discovery to Russia, refers to the Klingon second-in-command Korax (Michael Pataki, much more effective in a Klingon role) as a “Cossack” when the Klingon criticizes humans. The Cossacks, Orthodox Christians who primarily inhabited rural areas, defended Russia against Napoleon’s army and served Russia courageously in World War I, but fierce anti-communism led some Cossacks to serve the Nazis during World War II. So the insult might have seemed sensible in the 1960s but likely wouldn’t make much sense by the twenty-third century. Finally, Chekov also accompanies Uhura, who is such an essential officer she asks Kirk, in passing, “How often do I get shore leave?” This scene delivers our weekly misogyny, as Chekov tells Kirk he is escorting Uhura because “she wants to shop and I thought I would help her.” Kirk then asks Chekov his opinion of quadrotriticale but ignores Uhuru. The shopping, of course, leads to Uhura getting all girly over the tribble and bringing it on board the Enterprise . A typical woman. Yikes. On the other hand, maybe I shouldn’t criticize, as was reportedly happy with the story, bringing Uhura off the bridge and giving her more screen time than most other episodes. Federation bureaucracy is, as always, a bit muddled: K-7 has a local manager, Lurry (Whit Bissell), whose authority is superceded by Baris as the Federation’s undersecretary. Baris seems to have limited authority to direct Kirk, and he clearly has pull within , as an admiral contacts Kirk with orders to cooperate. Meanwhile, Darvin influences Baris from behind the scenes. Darvin is intent on setting up Jones as a Klingon agent, feeding information to Baris that reflects unkindly on Jones. It all amounts to effective dramatic intrigue and an observation on the complexities of government service. We like to think bureaucratic positions can be precisely defined, but when it comes to government service in a complex and diverse world (ours or the Federation’s) it will never be possible to anticipate every situation. Individuals will butt heads and areas will remain gray and, if reasonable individuals are involved, proper solutions will be worked out. It doesn’t help that Baris and Kirk are immediately unkind to one another, with Baris refusing to acknowledge that his emergency is only one of many in the Federation, and Kirk insulting the undersecretary at every opportunity. At one point, Kirk says, ““I have never questioned the orders or the intelligence of any representative of the Federation until now.” We know that’s not true, given Kirk’s history with Starfleet administrators. Scott complicates matters with nearly schizophrenic behavior. He is initially reluctant to take part in shore leave until Kirk orders him (much as Kirk the enabler set up Scott with the ill-fated dancer in “Wolf in the Fold”); no, Scott is happy to sit in his quarters studying technical journals. Yet, once on the planet, he goes bar-hopping with Chekov. After the two have imbibed unspecified amounts of Scotch and Vodka, they are goaded into a barfight with Korax and his men. Korax hurls insults at the human species and Captain Kirk, he even mimics the chief engineer’s Scottish dialect, but it’s his criticism of the Enterprise that provokes Scott into throwing the first punch. The overly drawn out fight scene with about a dozen humans and Klingons is intended for comedic effect, but Scott’s assault and battery, so soon after his brush with murder in “Wolf in the Fold,” isn’t very funny. We can’t help but wonder if this is typical behavior for the chief engineer, who we also find recovering from “a wee bout” of shore leave in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Soon after the drunk and disorderly incident, Scott is thrilled to be restricted to quarters, where he can return to his technical manuals, before finally committing an act of war against the Klingon Empire (more on that later). The tribbles and quadrotriticale both represent human (or humanoid) mismanagement of nature. Spock describes quadrotriticale as a “high-yield grain, four-lobed hybrid of wheat and rye,” derived from . In fact, triticale is a real wheat-rye hybrid, developed in Europe in the 1800s to generate a higher yield with improved disease resistance compared to ordinary wheat. The first North American triticale breeding was conducted by the University of Manitoba in 1953 (Spock references Canada as the point of origin of quadrotriticale’s predecessor). Triticale crops struggled to deliver on the high-yield objective until a breeding program in Mexico in 1964 led to improved outcomes. What “The Trouble with Tribbles” does not anticipate are the potential hazards of what we now know as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GMOs are commonly fed to livestock and are ingredients in increasing numbers of processed foods. There are sufficient reasons for concern about GMO safety to justify more research, but so far regulators and consumers have largely accepted the word of large agribusinesses that have a profit incentive to sell more GMOs. The inability to isolate GMO crops only complicates matters – wind and pollinators easily transfer GMO pollen to other crops, creating accidental hybrids that not only affect crop integrity, but create legal challenges, because GMOs are typically the intellectual property of whichever company bred the specific grain. The need for quadrotriticale is never really justified. Lurry calls quadrotriticale “the only earth grain that will grow on Sherman’s Planet.” Why do they require an earth grain? If Sherman’s Planet is M-class (and Memory Alpha says it is), the planet must have native plant life suitable for humanoid consumption. The fact that the quadrotriticale on K-7 is so easily poisoned demonstrates the danger of relying too heavily on only one food source. Then there is the risk of introducing a potentially invasive species to Sherman’s Planet. Kudzu is the classic invasive plant example in the U.S. Kudzu arrived from Japan in 1876 and was promoted to farmers in the 1930s for soil erosion and inexpensive livestock feed. But kudzu is an invasive weed in much of the U.S. While kudzu’s true impact is sometimes exaggerated, I well remember the years I lived in North Carolina, where it was common to see entire fields overrun with kudzu. Invasive plants can devastate native plant and animal species and are nearly impossible to remove once established. How closely has the Federation studied quadrotriticale’s potential effects on Sherman’s Planet? Tribbles are an even more problematic invasive species. They are initially regarded as low-maintenance pets, small animals that purr in a way that’s pleasing to both man and (Spock denies being affected as he quickly comes under a tribble’s spell). Spock also identifies a “redeeming characteristic” that coincidentally explains one of the things I love about dogs: “They do not talk too much.” Yet tribbles soon turn up throughout the Enterprise . The episode doesn’t identify the tribbles’ home world, but Spock claims that Jones removed tribbles from a place where natural predators controlled their explosive breeding. (McCoy says the critters are “born pregnant – which seems to be quite a time-saver!”) David Gerrold’s real inspiration for “The Trouble with Tribbles” was Australia’s rabbit population. Like Kudzu in the U.S., non-native rabbits were introduced to Australia in the 1800s. The rabbits were originally intended as a cheap food source, and those rabbits came in handy during the 1890s and 1930s, when economic depressions forced a lot of Australians into poverty. But Australia offered these European rabbits mild winters where they could reproduce year-round, allowing the animals to spread faster than any mammal known in human history. The rabbits have had ruinous effects on native plants and animals, livestock crops, and soil erosion. By episode’s end, tribbles have infiltrated every part of the Enterprise and station K-7. It seems inevitable that they will end up on Sherman’s Planet; like invasive plants, invasive animals are nearly impossible to eradicate. Besides the Australian rabbits, read about the spread of Asian carp and Burmese pythons in North America for only two examples. Should we view the tribbles as an overbred domestic pet, or as a pathogen, essentially a very large bacteria or virus? McCoy is assigned to investigate the tribbles, and puts aside his usual complaining to do a masterful job, putting the creatures solidly in the pathogen category. We must also consider the tribbles’ rapid rate of reproduction – Spock says they reproduce every twelve hours. Because of their short life spans, viruses and bacteria evolve quickly, leading to virus variants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The tribbles can already cling to walls – who knows what abilities evolution might endow them with? Looked at more closely, tribbles might be equivalent to large, fuzzy anthrax. The question is relevant, not only to how we treat the tribbles, but how we dispose of them. This brings us back to Mr. Scott. He ingeniously removes the tribbles from the Enteprise by beaming all of them to the Klingon ship (wasn’t he confined to quarters?) and thereby commits an act of biological warfare. Let’s consider the facts: Kirk and Spock charge Cyrano Jones with transporting harmful animals, acknowledging that tribbles amount to biological weapons. The episode establishes that tribbles and Klingons have a mutual disgust for each other. Scott informed Kirk the tribbles were on the verge of disrupting mechanical systems on the Enterprise , and that’s from a starting point of one tribble. We can safely expect the increased tribble population will quickly overwhelm the Klingon vessel. Klingons and the Federation are already hostile parties with their claim on Sherman’s Planet in delicate balance. We can only imagine the consequences of sabotaging a Klingon ship. I’m no expert on international (or interplanetary) war crimes, but I’m confident this qualifies. Kirk and Scott will have a lot of explaining to do. Star Trek at its best sneaks up on us with life lessons tucked inside entertainment, and “The Trouble with Tribbles” is a fine example. The episode has moments of genuine humor (the scene with Kirk and Scott after the barfight is especially funny) but amounts to a testament to humans’ inability to out-think nature. Just as human over-hunting of humpback whales will create a problem for the Enterprise crew in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), this same crew might be creating disasters for later generations by aiding in the proliferation of quadrotriticale and tribbles. We might think Kirk’s final punishment of Cyrano Jones is excessive, eighteen years picking up tribbles on K-7, but it’s equivalent to the Federation’s penalty for transporting harmful animals: twenty years in a rehabilitation colony. (And we saw one of those colonies in “Dagger of the Mind,” so Jones is getting off easy!) If the twenty years seems equally excessive, consider the dramatic consequences of the kudzu, rabbits, carp, and pythons cited above, not to mention the many other invasive species we dimwitted humans have spread throughout the globe. How do we account for the endangerment or extinction of native species and the associated impact on public health and the economy? Maybe a little humor is an effective way to broach such uncomfortable subjects. If we need Kirk buried under a pile of tribbles to get to a serious conversation about humans’ impact on our environment, including human-caused climate change, beam me on board. Just, for now, give me the grain-free bread. A final note of Trek trivia: If you have not yet seen the DS9 episode “Trials and Tribble-ations,” what are you waiting for? David Gerrold. Gerrold wrote the scripts for the TOS episode " The Trouble with Tribbles " and its sequel, the TAS episode " More Tribbles, More Troubles ", as well as another TAS episode, " Bem ". The first of these was nominated for a Hugo Award in the category "Best Dramatic Presentation", which he shared with Joseph Pevney. He provided the story, along with , for " ". He also provided an uncredited rewrite of the final draft of the script for " I, Mudd ". Before his script outline that became "The Trouble With Tribbles" was bought by Star Trek producers, Gerrold (a recent college graduate), early in 1967, submitted a sixty-page outline for a two-part episode, "Tomorrow Was Yesterday". After that outline was responded to, positive for its quality, negative for its usefulness to the series, Gerrold was invited by producer Gene Coon to submit some script outlines suitable for the program's budget. Gerrold submitted five outlines, including "A Fuzzy Thing Happened To Me…" (which became Tribbles), "The Protracted Man", "Bandi", and two others with titles Gerrold did not recall some years later. One of the others involved Kirk playing a chess game with his crew as chess pieces, the other involved a spaceship-destroying machine, an idea he noted as eerily similar to Norman Spinrad's story " The Doomsday Machine " that was produced for the same season. Coon saw "Fuzzies…" as the best candidate for a potential Star Trek episode and guided the young Gerrold through the proccess of developing it into a workable script. Meanwhile, Gerrold was also granted access to visit the set during the production of several episodes (including " The Apple ") to gain first-hand knowledge of the series format and audiovisual language. Coon also assigned Gerrold to do a rewrite on Stephen Kandel's script of " I, Mudd " during his "writing student" tenure at the show. After the success of "Tribbles", Gerrold also came up with both " More Tribbles, More Troubles " and " Bem " as story ideas for the third season, however the new producer, refused to buy either of them. They were re-developed and produced for the The Animated Series five years later. However, Freiberger bought a story idea from Gerrold, "Castles in the Sky", which was eventually developed into " The Cloud Minders ". Unlike Coon, Freiberger did not trust the novice writer's capabilities, and assigned television veteran Oliver Crawford to co-write the script with Gerrold. Eventually, Freiberger, dissatisfied with the outcome, pulled both of them out the assignment, and hired Margaret Armen to rewrite the script. A caricature of Gerrold was included in " More Tribbles, More Troubles " as an in-joke. According to the novelization of the episode by Alan Dean Foster, this individual was named "Hacker," a name which Gerrold later found insulting. In early October 1986, Gerrold, together with Robert Justman, Edward K. Milkis and D.C. Fontana were brought back by Roddenberry to form the original production nucleus to "help out" with the pre-production of Star Trek: The Next Generation . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission , pp. 9-11) In 1987, Gerrold became a story editor on The Next Generation , in which capacity he wrote many elements in the Writers' Bible for the series. Having had an inside track he submitted a series of articles under the column heading "Generations" to Starlog , the first of which appeared in issue 118, May 1987 and which ran through issue 123 of October 1987, often illustrated with production art by Andrew Probert. The intent was, much as Susan Sackett had done in her "Star Trek Reports" columns on Star Trek: The Motion Picture for the same publications in the 1970s, to keep readership apprised about the progress of the production of The Next Generation". He left the show near the end of the first season, partly because of the dispute over his controversial script, "Blood and Fire". The story, which was basically an allegory of AIDS, and involved allegedly homosexual characters, was initially scrapped by the producers. It was re-written by Herb Wright as "Blood and Ice", removing the gay characters, but it still remained unproduced. Gerrold received credit as Program Consultant for the early part of the first season, from " The Naked Now " to " Lonely Among Us ". However, the main reason for Gerrold's departure was the constant harassment by Roddenberry's lawyer, Leonard Maizlish (who was responsible for all Original Series production staff members departing the show during or after the first season). Gerrold has stated, " [I] finally got the very clear message that Gene's lawyer didn't like me. And that whatever Gene promised me, the lawyer was going to take away. (…) what he was doing was significantly undermining everybody that might be a threat to Gene, so that he could stay in control. " [1] and , " Gene's lawyer (Leonard Maizlish) was making it impossible for anybody to do any real work. He was rewriting scripts. He was committing Guild violations. People were very unhappy. It was one of the worst working environments I'd ever been in. So when my contract came up for renewal, I asked Gene not to [renew it]. Later, I found out that Maizlish was telling people what a troublemaker I was, that I'd been fired because I was mentally ill, that I never did anything useful for the show – real character assassination of the worst sort. " [2] Producer Justman, one of the Original Series veterans who left the production and citing Maizlish's actions as "destructive meddling", has confirmed Gerrold's stance as he too left the production because of Maizlish. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 433-434) Not being able to divulge the main reasons for his departure at the time, due to his non-disclosure obligations, Gerrold has additionally stated in his last Starlog "Generations" column (published in the October 1987 issue, just after the first time airing of the pilot episode " Encounter at Farpoint "), " My contract with Paramount expired at the end of May and I asked to please not renew it. Why? In April I was offered the opportunity yo write and produce a four-hour science-fiction mini-series for CBS and Columbia Television. The series is called Trackers and the Executive Producer is Daron J. Thomas. If the mini-series is a hit, then a regular weekly SF TV series would be developed from it. This was a very difficult decision for me to make. Star Trek has always been a home to me. It had always been fun and the people have always been good to work with. But… now, it was obvious to me that it was time to leave home. Or as my agent put it: "You can't turn down the chance to be the Great Bird of your own galaxy." " ( Starlog , issue 123, p. 15) That series, however, never got off the ground. In addition to writing, he provided the voice for Em/3/Green in the TAS episode " ", and was an extra in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Trials and Tribble-ations ". He originally wanted to appear in a smaller role in " The Trouble with Tribbles " (some sources say he wrote the part of Freeman for himself), but it never came to fruition. Gerrold's son Sean, who was twelve at the time of the filming of "Trials and Tribble-ations", joined his father on the DS9 set. Sean asked his father where the Enterprise crew kept their money (a question which Gerrold himself had once asked Gene L. Coon) and expressed disappointment that James T. Kirk and Spock were not actually there. ( Trials and Tribble-ations introduction) Gerrold wrote the novelization of the TNG pilot, Encounter at Farpoint , and the Original Series novel, The Galactic Whirlpool , which was developed from his the aforementioned "Tomorrow Was Yesterday" outline. He also wrote the foreword of the "Trials and Tribble-ations" novelization and the introduction of the Constellations anthology. Outside fiction, Gerrold wrote The World of Star Trek , a behind-the-scenes reference and interview book, and The Trouble with Tribbles , detailing his experiences in the production of the titular episode, both in 1973. More recently, Gerrold wrote and directed the fan-made internet series Star Trek: New Voyages episode "Blood and Fire" (2007), which features James Cawley, John Carrigan, , and Bill Blair. It is a re-working of his "Star Wolf" book Blood and Fire (itself, a re-working of the aforementioned story he originally wrote for TNG). This time, the allegory of AIDS and the involvement of homosexual characters, was included. Another episode, a further sequel to "The Trouble with Tribbles", was planned. After a series of controversial artistic disputes between Gerrold and the Phase II production concerning the filming of the episode "Mind-Sifter" and the scrapping of Gerrold's own episode "The Protracted Man", the latter of which that was well documented in a dispute between himself and a fan on the TrekToday bulletin board, Gerrold resigned his position as the series showrunner. ( citation needed • edit) Although Gerrold had for many years a contentious relationship with both Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry, he has reconciled himself to his association with the show and speaks of his experiences fondly. [3] In 2015, David Gerrold would become involved in the copyright infringement lawsuit between both CBS/Paramount and Alec Peters, regarding the Star Trek fan film "Axanar". Although he stated that he had "no dog in this fight", he had become a creative consultant on the project after reading the script, being quoted as saying " This is Star Trek " , and later spoke out in favor of fan films and "Axanar". [4] [5] In 2016, Gerrold found himself involved in a second copyright infringement lawsuit involving Star Trek . A lawsuit was filed by Dr. Seuss Enterprises (DSE) against Gerrold and comic book artist Ty Templeton for their proposed Star Trek -Dr.Seuss “mash-up” book "Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!". The project generated $30,000 in a Kickstarter campaign that was promptly shut down (and the donations frozen) when DSE asserted their ownership of the Dr. Seuss property. A lawsuit quickly followed in late 2016 accusing the mash-up creators and their publisher ComicMix of both copyright and trademark infringement. The claim was largely dismissed in court in June 2017, but that ruling was rescinded by the same judge in December 2017. [6] The 2009 DVD box release Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection featured a reunion of fan extras in the "Special Star Trek Reunion", including Gerrold, Christopher Doohan, , Jo Ann Nolan, and Fred Bronson chatting on the same sound stage used for the rec deck scene. [7] Non- Star Trek work. Outside Star Trek , in the early 1970s, he created the TV series "Land of the Lost" for brother-producers . Besides scripting the pilot plus several additional episodes, Gerrold served as story editor during two of the show's three seasons; he also compiled the 200-word Pakuni language (which was abandoned after the second season). In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Gerrold was a free-lance writer for Starlog magazine, for which he wrote regular columns; among others, aside from the one mentioned above, was one called "Rumblings", which concerned itself with science fiction in general, though not few of them had Star Trek as main subject. In the mid-1980s, Gerrold co-wrote the novelization for the movie "Enemy Mine". The book contained a number of post-rescue scenes which did not appear in the film, while eliminating the climactic showdown between the Dennis Quaid and Brion James characters. He has written the "Star Wolf" trilogy, using some scripts not used for Star Trek , which enthusiasts sometimes call " Star Trek like it should have been"; apart from his Star Trek novels and the tribbles episode, his most famed work may be "The War against the Chtorr", in which he describes a biological invasion of planet Earth by a hostile ecology. He also wrote the novelization of the 1973 film Battle for the Planet of the Apes , which featured Paul Williams, France Nuyen, music by Leonard Rosenman, and cinematography by Richard H. Kline. Gerrold himself appeared in the movie in a small cameo role, as a dead ape in a battle scene. Martian Child , a 2007 comedy-drama film based on a novelette and subsequent novel by Gerrold, concerns an author adopting a boy after his fiancée passes away. The story is semi-autobiographical – Gerrold himself adopted a boy in 1992. The film's protagonist, played by actor , is also named David in this film. Gerrold served as executive producer for the production. 'Star Trek stuntman Lauro Chartrand appeared in this film. The original novelette had received a 1995 Hugo Award.