Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Trouble with Tribbles by David Gerrold The Trouble with Tribbles. David Gerrold, the creator of "Tribbles," recalls how this popular episode of Star Trek 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 science fiction 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 Tribble-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 Klingon Empire. Klingons 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 “Errand of Mercy,” 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. Spock 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.