Trials and Tribble-ations

Plot

Agents from the Department of Temporal Investigations (DTI) arrive at Deep Space Nine to question Sisko about an incident involving the Defiant. The ship was sent to Cardassia to retrieve the sacred Bajoran Orb of Time, stolen during the occupation. On their way back to Bajor the ship takes on a passenger, a human trader named Barry Waddle. Suddenly, the ship finds itself more than one hundred years in the past and approximately 200 light years away from its previous location, near Deep Space Station K7 and the USS Enterprise. They discover that the hitchhiker is actually Arne Darvin, a former Klingon agent disguised as a human who was caught by Captain Kirk on K7 after poisoning a shipment of grain.

Fearing that Darvin used the Orb of Time to alter the past to prevent his capture, the crew dress in period uniforms and investigate the Enterprise and K7. The ship and station are infested with tribbles, small furry creatures that reproduce rapidly. They attempt to interact with history as little as possible while searching for Darvin, but Dr. Bashir, Chief O'Brien, Worf and Odo get involved in a bar brawl between the Enterprise crew and a number of Klingons on shore leave. During the brawl, Worf and Odo spot Darvin and bring him back to the Defiant. There, Darvin gloats that he has planted a bomb in a tribble to kill Kirk.

Captain Sisko and Lieutenant Commander Dax infiltrate the Enterprise bridge to scan for the bomb, and confirm it is not on the Enterprise. The rapid breeding of the tribbles makes searching for the bomb on K7 impractical, so they shadow Kirk. They overhear him discussing the tribble infestation, and deduce that the bomb is in the grain storage compartments. They enter the compartments and scan the tribbles, many of which are dead from eating the poisoned grain. Captain Kirk opens the compartment and is covered in falling tribbles. Dax and Sisko find the bomb among the tribbles still in the compartment and the Defiant transports it into space, where it harmlessly explodes. The crew of the Defiant use the Bajoran Orb to return to their time, but not before Sisko takes an opportunity to meet Kirk in person.

The DTI agents, expressing optimism that the crew's actions have not seriously altered history, let Sisko off with just a warning. Once they are gone, Odo summons Sisko to DS9's Promenade, which is now covered in tribbles, much to the annoyance of Quark.

Production

Premise and writing

As the 30th anniversary of Star Trek was approaching, plans were being made. The film Star Trek: First Contact was entering production, a television special was planned to celebrate the franchise and Original Series actor George Takei had been cast to appear in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback". Producer Ira Steven Behr later recalled that he thought that Deep Space Nine might not be included as he considered it to be the "middle child" of the franchise. Rick Berman contacted Behr and asked him if he would be interested in doing something to celebrate the anniversary. Behr agreed to discuss it with the staff writers. Initially, there was concern that if the proposed episode aired during the actual anniversary week (around September 8), that it would have to serve as the season opener, preempting the already planned opener.

The writers discussed potential ideas. Ronald D. Moore had previously brought back Original Series character Montgomery Scott for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", and since Takei was appearing in Voyager, they decided that having a member of the main cast from The Original Series return would be repetitive. Some consideration was given by Moore to sending the DS9 crew to revisit the Iotians, as seen on the gangster-themed planet visited by Kirk in the episode "A Piece of the Action". The concept was for the Iotians to have moved on from imitating gangsters to having become huge fans of Captain Kirk and Starfleet. It was intended as a way to honor the dedication of the fan community. René Echevarria suggested a time-travel episode, which was seen as an expensive proposition. Echevarria pressed for the idea. Moore suggested inserting the DS9 crew into "The Trouble with Tribbles", saying it could resolve the question of why a constant stream of tribbles kept hitting Kirk in the head.

When the discussion came to inserting the DS9 crew into the bar-brawl scene, Berman liked the idea but was unsure if it could actually be done. Visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel created test footage and screened it for Behr and Moore, who thought that it was simply footage from the original episode. Once Hutzel revealed that an additional security officer (played by visual effects camera operator Jim Rider) had been seamlessly added to the sequence, the episode was green-lit. During the scripting process, "The Trouble with Tribbles" was regularly consulted, so the writers could decide where to insert characters. The names of Temporal Agents Dulmur and Lucsly were anagrammed from Mulder and Scully, characters on The X-Files.

Directing, cinematography, and music

Jonathan West was hired to direct the episode after other potential directors were rejected. West had previously been the cinematographer on staff for both Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation, as well as directing several episodes of the franchise. He had nine days of preparation time before shooting began. He sought to match the same production values as The Original Series but found that lighting style and color saturation to film had changed in the intervening years. Visual effects supervisor Dan Curry directed some of the second-unit sequences, and together with West and cinematographer Kris Krossgrove worked to rectify these issues. This was achieved by switching to a finer grain of film, using different lenses, as well as by shooting from specific angles. With Gerrold on set as an extra, West used him as an unofficial advisor on matching the scenes from "The Trouble with Tribbles".

The actual digital insertion of actors was conducted in the same manner as seen in the 1994 film Forrest Gump. The original footage was remastered, and was seen as such an improvement that it inspired the subsequent clean-up and re-release of all of "Original Series" episodes. This remaster was conducted by Hutzel and is the first transfer since 1983, when a version was created for VHS and laserdisc release. Hutzel identified 19 scenes from "The Trouble with Tribbles" which were matched in "Trials and Tribble-ations". The scene matching between the new footage and the old took nine weeks to complete with a budget of $3 million. It involved both two-dimensional and three-dimensional tracking shots as well as insertion of matte shots and the use of both blue and green screens for the actors. The scene where Sisko meets Kirk on the bridge toward the end of the episode was taken from the episode "Mirror, Mirror".

Due in part to the special effects, the costuming, the set re-constructions, and the residual payments to The Original Series cast, Behr later described "Trials and Tribble-ations" as "probably the most expensive hour of episodic TV ever produced". The only member of The Original Series cast who was spoken to directly by the producers was Leonard Nimoy, who was enthusiastic about the idea and was surprised that it had taken them so long to come up with it. The remaining cast members were each contacted through Paramount's legal department. Dennis McCarthy wanted to re-work the Jerry Fielding score previously used on "The Trouble with Tribbles". He said that he intended to use the production equipment and orchestra available to bring the score up to the same scale previously seen on Deep Space Nine. However, the producers wanted a new score and so McCarthy explained that he composed it in a Fielding-inspired mindset. The only piece that was directly re-recorded by McCarthy is the Alexander Courage "Theme from Star Trek", which involved a 45-piece orchestra.

Design and makeup

Art director Randy McIlvain led the set re-creation for the Enterprise and K7, describing the excitement of working on the episode as "contagious". McIlvain spent a fair amount of time getting the window angles correct on the sets. Mike Okuda re-created the graphics seen on the Enterprise sets using a computer, while others were re-drawn by artist Doug Drexler. Some sets were not re-created in full, such as the bridge, parts of which were later added digitally. The captain's chair from the bridge re-creation was later one of the Star Trek items to be auctioned by Christie's. Set designer Laura Richarz watched "The Trouble with Tribbles" carefully looking for small details to replicate on the new sets, such as the legs of benches in the bar on K7. However, she said her biggest challenge was tracking down the chairs seen on the space station. She contacted John M. Dwyer, who had worked on the original episode. He explained to her that the company which created the original chairs had gone out of business. After searching shops selling retro furniture, the production team found a single chair that matched those seen in the original episode. It was purchased and a mold was made to create more chairs. The actors were impressed when they saw the resulting sets, with Terry Farrell exclaiming "Wow, we're on the Enterprise!"

Greg Jein had already been working on a new model of the USS Excelsior for the "Flashback" episode of Voyager when he saw the test footage for "Trials and Tribble-ations". He promised to make a new model of the Enterprise too, but warned that he didn't know when he would have time to do it. He started work on it immediately, and together with his colleagues he not only built a 5.5-foot long (1.7 m) model of the Enterprise, but created a new model of Deep Space Station K7 and the Klingon cruiser as well. The Enterprise model is the first to have been built of the original Star Trek starship in more than 30 years. Other props were also recreated, with around 1,400 tribbles created for the various scenes. They were purchased from Lincoln Enterprises, a company set up by Majel Barrett, widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. The rest of the era-specific props were newly created, and were made by Steve Horsch.

Costume designer Robert Blackman was concerned about the re-creation of the Klingon uniforms seen in The Original Series as he thought that the metallic material used would be nearly impossible to create accurately. He was subsequently relieved to have found four original costumes and an additional shirt in the costume archives, calling them a "godsend". His team created patterns from other costumes to remake them. Makeup supervisor Michael Westmore had previously worked on a television series during the 1960s and recalled what type of makeup was available at the time. He had the team restrict themselves to techniques of that era to ensure that the DS9 crew blended properly into the scenes. The hairstyles of the crew were meant to be reminiscent of The Original Series, with Alexander Siddig sporting a style previously seen on James Doohan. René Auberjonois said that Siddig's new hairstyle reminded him of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Filming and casting

The cast and crew were enthusiastic on set, with editor Steve Tucker calling it a "giddy party". Behr said of the cast and crew in the episode: "They all were having fun. Just sitting on those sets, being on that bridge, it was a hoot, a real hoot." Deirdre L. Imershein was brought in at the last minute to play Lt. Watley, as she was a friend of one of the production crew and had previously appeared as a Risan pleasure girl in The Next Generation episode "Captain's Holiday". She was brought in because none of the actresses the producers had seen during the casting process could say the role's one line ("Deck 15") convincingly enough. Her involvement led to the expansion of the role into a second scene where she was revealed to possibly be Bashir's great-grandmother.

Charlie Brill returned to film new scenes as Klingon agent Arne Darvin, while original series writer Gerrold was allowed to appear as an extra in two scenes as a crewman from the Enterprise. In one of those scenes, he was holding an original tribble from "The Trouble with Tribbles". Walter Koenig taught the DS9 actors how the consoles were operated on the Enterprise. Koenig later commented that he was paid eight times as much for this and the residual payment as he had been for the original episode. A string of other visitors came to the set during filming, including Majel Barrett and former The Next Generation producer (and TOS co-producer) Bob Justman.

Reception

Before the episode was shown, a half-hour special was shown on the Sci Fi Channel about the making of "Trials and Tribble-ations" on November 2, 1996. Paramount also promoted the episode by arranging the placement of around 250,000 tribbles in subways and buses across the United States. It received Nielsen ratings of 7.7%, placing it in sixth place in the timeslot. It is the most watched episode of the fifth season during its initial broadcast. The last time the series had received similar ratings was nearly a year earlier with season four's "Little Green Men".

Two reviewers watched the episode for Tor.com in 2010. Torie Atkinson described "Trials and Tribble-ations" as a "perfect episode", and "one of the best Star Trek episodes ever made, in any series." She praised the humor and the references, and found Dax as a stand-in for fans of The Original Series. She gave the episode a score of six out of six. Eugene Myers wasn't disappointed following the hype about the episode, saying that it was "steeped in nostalgia". He thought that the bomb-in-a-tribble plot was ingenious and allowed the episode to step outside of merely being good due to the success of "The Trouble with Tribbles". His favorite scene was the constant stream of tribbles hitting Kirk on the head because Sisko and Dax were throwing them out of the grain compartment while looking for the bomb. He also gave the episode a score of six out of six. Keith R.A. DeCandido reviewed the episode for Tor.com in 2014; he also gave the episode a favorable review, with a score of ten out of ten.

In his review for The A.V. Club, Zack Handlen called the episode a "delight" and a "lark". He thought that having Brill film new scenes showed some continuity between the old and the new, and that the special effects worked well enough. He summed it up by saying: "It's not tightly plotted, and once the initial rush of nostalgia fades, there isn't a lot of depth or suspense to replace it. But there are laughs, more than enough to justify the experiment, and the nostalgia never fades away entirely." In the book Deep Space and Sacred Time: Star Trek in the American Mythos, Jon Wagner and Jan Lundeen compared the temporal agents seen in "Trials and Tribble-ations" to the police detectives seen in the television series Dragnet. Gem Wheeler, in her list of the best episodes of Deep Space Nine for website Den of Geek, listed "Trials and Tribble-ations" as the sixth best. In a list of the top 100 episodes of the Star Trek franchise, "Trials and Tribble-ations" was placed in 32nd place by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.

Home media release

The tie-in novelization of "Trials and Tribble-ations" was written by Diane Carey and published by Pocket Books. In 1998, a "Talking Tribble Gift Set" was released containing both "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Trials and Tribble-ations" on VHS. "Trials and Tribble-ations" was first released in the normal run of VHS issues as part of a two episode cassette alongside "The Assignment" in the United Kingdom on October 1, 1999. A single episode release followed in the United States and Canada on July 10, 2001. It was released on DVD as part of the season five box set on October 7, 2003.

The season 2 remastered DVD set of The Original Series includes "Trials and Tribble-ations", special features for the episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles", and "More Tribbles, More Troubles" from Star Trek: The Animated Series.