Trivia / Star Trek S2 E15 "The Trouble with Tribbles"

• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Gene Roddenberry named this as one of his ten favourite episodes.
    • However, some works (including the "These Are the Voyages" book) have said that Roddenberry did not like having comedy episodes like this and "I, Mudd" made, and that this was a factor in the later departure of Producer Gene Coon.
  • Initially Leonard Nimoy was not a fan of the episode as he felt it to be frivolous. Its deepening reputation as one of the classics of The Original Series as the years went on helped him change his mind.
  • Nichelle Nichols really liked the episode, as it allowed Uhura to be a woman and took her off the bridge. It was one of her largest roles in any single episode in the series.
• Enforced Method Acting: During the big finale, the people throwing the Tribbles at William Shatner couldn't actually see what they were doing and kept pelting him with them long after they should have stopped. Kirk's annoyance is completely genuine. (The DS9 tribute episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" uses this bit of trivia to amazing effect thirty years later.)
• Executive Meddling: David Gerrold suggested a subplot which would have involved two companies engaging in mutual corporate espionage, even each sabotaging the other's efforts to colonize Sherman's Planet (the tribbles would have been an element of this sabotage). This was rejected with a scrawl of "Big Business angle out" in the margin; in 1967 it was, at least in the eyes of the show's sponsors, utterly unacceptable to suggest that any corporation — even centuries in the future — might ever engage in behavior less than completely and shiningly ethical.
• I Am Not Spock: William Campbell (Koloth) recalled that, after this episode was aired, his neighbour's son consequently addressed his wife as "Mrs. Klingon".
• Inspiration for the Work: The idea was based on the introduction of rabbits in Australia in 1859, who reproduced at a vastly increased rate owing to the lack of predators.
• Life Imitates Art: The cast and crew continued to find tribbles all over the set for weeks after shooting the episode.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Despite this episode's popularity, producer Robert H. Justman wrote in his book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story that he never liked this episode. He felt that the humor was too over-the-top and the show became a parody of itself.
• No Stunt Double: James Doohan insisted on doing his own stunts in the barroom brawl.
• Prop Recycling: A large number of recycled costumes can be seen in the space station bar scenes. A few bar patrons are wearing colonist jumpsuits from "The Devil in the Dark", two extras are wearing the cadet costumes made for Finnegan and his stunt double in "Shore Leave", and some are wearing turtleneck uniforms from the two pilots (one man is actually wearing a turtleneck shirt with the Antares insignia from "Charlie X"). A female extra is wearing Areel Shaw's costume from "Court Martial".
• Recycled Set: The bar set, including the bartender's costume, is recycled from "Court Martial", with slight modifications, mostly in decoration.
• The Red Stapler: With a little Pet Fad Starter thrown in. David Gerrold said they received a lot of fan mail asking where you could buy a tribble (though the episode makes it clear why you don't want one) and one very angry letter accusing them of blatant animal cruelty!
• Science Marches On: Bones uses the word "bisexual" for the concept which is now referred to as "hermaphroditic" or "intersex". David Gerrold has stated the wording used is what was allowed by the network, even though it was inaccurate and potentially misleading.
• Throw It In!: Lots of cute little character moments were ad-libbed by the cast, helping to make the episode an all-time classic:
  • According to legend, the stagehands didn't like William Shatner very much, so they continued the avalanche of tribbles much longer than was scripted (including the final tribble that bounces off his head at the end). Shatner can clearly be seen glancing up at the prop men with annoyance.
    • Supposedly, it was Chris Doohan (son of James Doohan) and one of his brothers throwing the tribbles at him.
  • Michael Pataki improvised his character Korax's Brief Accent Imitation of Scotty.
  • DeForest Kelley contributed the "We quit feeding them, they stop breeding" line, which David Gerrold tried to find a good place to insert into the script. He only found it, ironically enough, when he was making cuts after the first draft ran too long.
• Uncredited Role: This script was Gerrold's first professional sale ever, so it should come as no surprise that a lot of work was done on it by other hands to make it "ready for prime-time". All sources agree that producer/showrunner Gene L. Coon made major contributions to the script. Gerrold, in his book, acknowledges that two scenes were written entirely by Coon from whole cloth (the teaser with Kirk testing Chekov and the "ermine violin" snarkfest between Spock and Bones) and claims that as far as he is concerned, Coon deserved to be credited as co-writer. Herb Solow and Bob Justman, in their book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, don't go into as much detail but concur that the script was "heavily re-written" by Coon's hand.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Scenes which were cut from the script included the Enterprise chasing after Jones in his vessel, and resulted in the scene where Kirk has tribbles tumbling onto him while in the grain locker. Gerrold felt that this enforced editing process "tightened up the story and made for a better series of gags".
  • The original intent for Koloth was to make him a recurring Arch-Enemy/Worthy Opponent of Kirk's — as you can see, that never went anywhere.
  • Koloth himself was created by necessity. The original plan was for John Colicos to return as Kor, but Colicos was unavailable.
  • Alas, Roger Carmel (Harry Mudd) was unavailable...
• Working Title: "The Fuzzies", "A Fuzzy Thing Happened to Me...", "You Think You've Got Tribbles...?"^note That last one lasted for about as long as it took Gerrold to propose it to Gene Coon, who flatly rejected it.
• You Look Familiar: Trelane is perhaps the smarmiest Klingon ever.

---