THE USS ENTERPRISE VS A GIANT ONE CELLED AMOEBA

 Episode Title:  The Immunity Syndrome

Air Date: 1/19/1968

Written by Robert Sabaroff

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura                 John Winston as Lieutenant Kyle                        Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant  Leslie                 Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley           Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel      Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman   Bob Johnson as Starbase 6 Commander         

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo NCC-1701/7

Planets:  none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is heading toward Starbase 6 after long mission that has left the crew in a state of exhaustion.  In his captain’s log Kirk notes that the entire crew is looking to get down to the planet that Starbase 6 orbits.  After receiving a garbled message from the Starbase 6 Commander mentioning the USS Intrepid, Mr. Spock begins to uncharacteristically freak out and declare that the entire crew of the Intrepid has died.  Kirk orders Spock down to sickbay to get evaluated. 

Mr. Spock having a space attack!!

While Spock is gone they are able to reestablish contact and the Enterprise is ordered to investigate the Gamma 7A system.  Kirk actually tries to get out of it (which I found odd) pleading for his exhausted crew and asking another ship be sent.  The Starbase 6 Commander notes that they already sent another ship, the Intrepid, and they haven’t heard anything from her sense.  As the Enterprise heads to the Gamma 7A system Ensign Chekov reports that the sensors show no life readings in the system of a billion inhabitants.  It is starting to look as if Mr. Spock’s proclamation was not far off at all.

Meanwhile, Spock is examined by Dr. McCoy in sickbay, where he explains that the Intrepid’s entire crew were Vulcans and the combined shock and terror in the minds of 400 Vulcans dying at once reached out to him. McCoy is amazed because up until now he had been under the impression that Spock had to be in direct contact in order to make a mental connection.  The trade insults about how humans and Vulcans view death and McCoy sent him back to duty.

Spock returns to the bridge just and Lt. Uhura announces she has lost contact with Starbase 6. More importantly the Enterprise comes across something that they can only describe as “a rip in space.”   It is a dark blob of matter that seems to block out the stars.  Like a black hole it is so strong that not even light can escape from it.  Suddenly, half the crew is struck with sickness and/or faints.  Kirk asks Spock if he can explain what this thing is.  Spock says he can’t and he tells Kirk he also cannot speculate what it is either as he has no information on it.   Kirk keeps asking his senior officers for some answers but they all keep coming up with nothing causing Kirk to nearly have a breakdown of his own.  He and Spock try to at least eliminate what this thing is not and Kirk has Chekov launch a sensor probe into the void. The probe transmits a piercing, high-pitched noise before contact with it is lost.

You can always count on McCoy to visit you with the good drugs!

Since this a crew that boldly goes Kirk orders the ship into the zone, and as they enter, the piercing sound returns and all the stars disappear from the main view screen. This causes them to freak out a bit but I don't really understand their surprise.  They knew going into this thing that it blocked the light of stars it seems odd that they are now surprised after going inside that they can't see those very stars.  Dr. McCoy then reports that the crew is getting worse, and Scotty reports a loss of power.  Spock notes whatever this thing is it is draining all forms of energy from both the ship and the crew.  It now appears certain that this is what lead to the death of both the Gamma 7A system and the USS Intrepid.

A rip in space!

              The Enterprise is being pulled further into black space.  The ship and crew continue to lose energy.  McCoy keeps everyone awake with stimulants so they can have a functioning crew.  Kirk orders a full reverse but that appears to make the ship accelerate closer to the center of the mass.  Scotty and the Captain brainstorm that the laws of physics must work differently down here and Kirk orders the ship to accelerate and that seems to slow them down. 

The Enterprise in the dark!

Kirk holds a meeting with his senior officers and he decides they are going to make a break away.  They are going to divert all available power into a massive forward thrust, in the hope of breaking free of the zone.  Spock approves of the plan but notes the Intrepid would have tried the same thing.  Spock does believe that they have one clear advantage and that is the all Vulcan crew could accept they were dying because it was illogical. However the escapee attempt only ends in massive failure.

Yes, we are fighting a giant amoeba!

Despite the disappointment of not escaping they did make an interesting discovery.  The thing at the center of the mass is a gigantic amoeba.   Kirk launches a sensor probe into it, which reveals that the object is indeed made of protoplasm, and is alive. McCoy thinks they should a shuttle craft into it to both gather the data needed to destroy it and learn about this new life form.  McCoy, who is clearly excited about this prospect, volunteers himself for the job.   Spock insists that he is better qualified and this angers McCoy.  Kirk is forced to choose between to friends realizing whoever he picks is likely to die.

After a good deal of soul searching Kirk decides Spock is the one to go.  After some more verbal boxing with Dr. McCoy, Spock pilots a shuttle through the creature's outer membrane and makes his way toward the nucleus.   When he reports back he has number of things to say.  First he wants everyone to know that Dr. McCoy could not have possibly survived what he had to do. (Because you know Vulcans are unemotional and never gloat or anything like that.) The second thing is much more important and my favorite part of the episode.  He reports that the giant amoeba is about to enter mitosis.  What is worse than a giant amoeba that eats enter solar systems?  Two giant amoebas that eat solar systems.  Kirk’s reaction to the idea of two is quite amusing.  Spock suggests a method to destroy it but that part of the message is lost.   It doesn’t matter because Kirk, being a master strategist, just figures it out after joking with McCoy about how they would be the invaders in a universe full of those things.  Then Kirk thinks of antibodies which in turn causes him to think of antimatter that wonderful substance that he used to kill an evil cloud last week.  Kirk has his plan. 

Spock taking the job McCoy wanted!

Kirk takes the Enterprise into the creature's body, and orders Scotty to prepare another antimatter bomb, just like the one they made last week, with a timer set for a seven-minute delay. The bomb is fired into the cell's nucleus and the Enterprise backs out, snagging Spock’s shuttle craft with a tractor beam.  

The Enterprise stands victorious again.

Additional thoughts: There is this meme that went around the internet back when Game of Thrones was very popular prior to their infamous end.  In the meme it showed fans of various franchises reactions to the idea of visiting their fantasy worlds.  Each fan reaction is expressed positively to the idea of going to these fictional places, except the Game of Thrones fans.  They know their world is messed up and they want no part of it.  I have to think that maybe we Star Trek fans should take the same attitude to our franchise.      

On second thought I don't want to visit the 23rd century!

Why is that you ask?  Isn’t Star Trek the peace-loving pacifistic future where diversity is loved and not scorned? It is but it is also a place, where in the space of a single year the Doomsday Machine showed up and wiped out an entire solar system, the Nomad probe exterminated life on a number of planets, and now a giant amoeba is also destroying an entire solar system.  The causalities run into the hundreds of billions.  This would be like if the space of the same year France, Brazil, and India were complete destroyed and their entire populations killed.  You think 2020 was bad? Be glad you don’t live in the late 2260s.  Later franchises that take place in the 24^th century or 32^nd century should view the 23^rd with horror.         

There is one particularly scary part about this threat.  Like the Doomsday Machine they don’t know where it came from, but what they speculate is it came from a larger celled universe.  They thought the Doomsday Machine originated in a nearby galaxy and they didn’t expect ever to see another one.   If this big cell just dropped in their universe from a larger celled universe this would mean that the bigger universe's cells can accidently come down on us at any time.  I would lose sleep over this if I was living in the universe of Star Trek.   

On a lighter note, I think this is one of the best Spock/McCoy spats I have seen in a while.  McCoy makes big plans to save the ship in which he might killed while doing it, only to have Spock snag it away with the Captain’s permission.  Spock always seems to come out ahead their spats.  

  

Lt. Leslie is back, it has only been a week since the loss of his dear twin brother.  You would think they would assign him some time off.  Well work can be therapeutic. Also it looks like Lt. Kyle has left transporter room and is now a fully trained helmsman!  Congrats to Lt. Kyle. 

FINAL  GRADE 5 of 5

CAPTAIN KIRK PLAYS "MEET THE PARENTS" WITH SPOCK

Episode Title:  Journey to Babel 

Air Date: 11/17/1967

Written by Dorothy C. Fontana

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 James X. Mitchell as Lieutenant Josephs                        Frank Da Vinci as unnamed Vulcan Aide          Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley         Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel          Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Jerry Catron as Crewman Montgomery Jeannie Malone as Purple-Skinned Delegate            Mark Lenard as Ambassador Sarek                     Jane Wyatt as Amanda Grayson           William O'Connell as Thelev           John Wheeler as Ambassador Gav           Reggie Nalder as Ambassador  Shras                   Billy Curtis as Small Copper-Skinned Ambassador             Russ Peek as unnamed Vulcan Aide                        

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo NCC-1701/7, unnamed Orion ship

Planets:  Vulcan, Babel

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The episode begins with the USS Enterprise providing a ferry service to delegates that will be attending a conference on a neutral planet named Babel.  The conference is to decide the admission of the planets of the Coridan system to the Federation, which are rich in dilithium but poorly defended.  Its dilithium stuffed surfaces has led to many competing claims to these planets some of them from fellow Federation members.  Coridan itself wishes to be part of the Federation as a full-fledged members.

Kirk meets Spock's Mom and Dad

As the shuttlecraft Galileo drops of the Vulcan Ambassador and his human wife. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy go down in dress uniforms to meet the couple and there is a funny moment where McCoy tries to learn the Vulcan hand salute.  The Ambassador introduces himself as Sarek and his wife Amanda Grayson.  Sarek seems to rudely blow off Spock as first officer extends the traditional greeting, and refuses to have Spock be his tour guide. Kirk, taken back by Sarek’s refusal to have Spock as his tour guide, asks his first officer if he like to go down to the planet to see parents before they leave Vulcan.  Spock then informs his Captain that the Ambassador and his wife are in fact his parents.  (More on that point in my “additional thoughts” section.)

Kirk decides to give the Sarek and his wife a tour himself and in the engineering room tries to spark up a conversation between the father and son, however Sarek cuts it short.  After the two Vulcans leave Amanda explains to Captain Kirk the source of the trouble. Spock went off to Starfleet instead of his father’s chosen occupation through the Vulcan Science Academy.  Kirk tries to point out that Spock can better explore the universe in Starfleet, but Amanda says that Sarek despises the potential for violence.  So he will no longer speak to Spock.

McCoy with Spock's parents

Kirk hosts a feast in the officers’ lounge for the dignitaries and two important things happen while they are there.   The first is the Tellarite Ambassador Gav demands to know Sarek’s position on the issue of Coridan.  Sarek refuses to tell him anything to which Kirk backs him up.  Also we have Dr. McCoy meeting with Spock’s parents.  We learn from McCoy’s questions that Sarek is over 100 and retired relatively young.  More importantly McCoy learns from Amanda that Spock, as a child, had a sehlat that she describes as a type of teddy bear.  This delights McCoy until Spock informs him that these “teddy bears” are alive and have fangs. 

Sarek not getting long with the Tellarite Ambassador 

Later on the bridge, Spock discovers that the Enterprise is being followed by a mystery ship.  It matches no known configurations of anything they have seen before.   It passes them at warp 10 but does not fire.  The ship is going to become and ongoing annoyance for the rest of the episode.

In their quarters Sarek chastises Amanda for telling personal stories about Spock.  Amanda is rather pleased at Sarek’s defense of their son.  She even tells him that she believes he is now proud of Spock.  Sarek says his feelings are immaterial and logically a first officer of a Starfleet vessel is entitled to respect, regardless of their relationship.  Sarek returns to the reception where he is once again confronted by Gav, which ends in a physical altercation that Kirk breaks up. 

Sarek defending his son to Amanda's surprise

A security officer later discovers that Gav has been murdered.  The method of death was identified by Mr. Spock as tal-shaya, a Vulcan fighting technique.  Spock bases this on the precision in how the neck of Gav was broken.  Given their earlier encounters suspicion falls on Sarek.  Captain Kirk and Spock then confront Sarek.  Sarek actually agrees that he is mostly likely suspect, and he was off mediating by himself at the time.  It looks bad as Sarek has no alibi; however he then has a heart attack.

Dead

So it turns out Sarek does have an alibi and a good one.   Sarek isn’t as healthy as he let on.  He has a heart condition, hence his earlier retirement, and he off having another heart attack while the Tellarite was being murdered.  McCoy confirms this and confirms that Sarek needs heart surgery now.   McCoy can do it, in theory, but they are going to need a blood donner.  Fortunately Spock is a match but he needs to take a drug that will make him produce more blood.  This is will take Spock out of active duty for a little while almost like an organ donner.  Spock of course will do it.

In the corridors of the Enterprise Kirk is attacked by the Andorian aide Thelev , who we later learn is the actual murder.  He isn’t fighting an overweight Tellarite now, Thelev is combating James T. Kirk one of the greatest fighters in the galaxy.  Thelev finds himself outmatched fighting an opponent with such speed and grace that he needs to cheat.  He pulls a knife and with pure luck happens to connect and stabs Kirk right in the back.  A lesser fighter would have then fallen and been another murder victim but this is Captain Kirk.  Even with his stab wound he manages to beat his opponent unconscious and then calls for security to take him away. 

A sick Sarek, can't be the killer

With Kirk now recovering from his injury in sickbay Spock realizes that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.  With the Captain undergoing treatment it is up to him to assume command and defend the ship against the unknown attacker.  His father will therefore have to wait and that means he will most likely die. His mother tires to argue from logic which fails because Spock is already convinced of his logic.  She then tries to appeal to his emotion which is useless. 

                

Kirk and his would-be-murder

Kirk realizes that in order to save Sarek he needs to go back on duty and convince Spock that he is fine.  Kirk gets up, gets dressed, and heads to the bridge.  Spock is convinced and goes down to sickbay.  Kirk is then about to call Scotty to the bridge to take over when the Enterprise is then attacked.  Kirk decides to stay and fight wounded.  Their opponent is speedy and all the Enterprise’s phaser shots miss.  The crew learns from their security division that their prisoner is not really Andorian and has been communicating to the other ship with a device in his fake antennae.  Kirk orders him brought to the bridge, and Thelev gets to watch his side lose.  Kirk decides to play possum.  He orders the ship to cut power and act like they are dead.  As the enemy ship goes in for the kill the Enterprise launches a surprise attack of photon torpedoes crippling their opponent’s ship.   Kirk was about to have the other ship boarded but then it self-destructs.  Thelev said they were under orders to do that it was a suicide mission from the start. With that Thelev dies having taken a suicide pill from before. 

While Kirk is winning the space battle McCoy is winning the medical one

While Kirk had his impressive space naval victory, McCoy completed Sarek’s surgery all while the ship was shaking under attack. Spock uncovers that this was all an operation conducted by the Orion Syndicate trying to start a war and sell dilithium.  The reason the ship seemed so powerful is they were giving all their energy to the attacks with no attention of returning.  When all was said and done Kirk, Spock, and Sarek were all in sickbay recovering and the family from Vulcan had a fun family together, and McCoy gets to tell everyone to be quite and lay down happy with the fact that he got the episodes last word.  This is the only time in Star Trek that I can remember that a character seems to break the fourth wall when they are not doing a log entry.  I assume he was talking Chapel.     

Additional thoughts: So earlier this year the crew of the Enterprise discovers that Mr. Spock had a betrothed who he never mentioned before; and now after preparing for this conference, which must have been weeks, Spock knew his parents were coming and never bothered to tell anyone.  I am sensing a pattern.  Spock has family members that he does not want talk about or even acknowledge.  To be fair he did mention that he had a father and mother and gave their occupations however he had to work up to that.  When we first see Kirk and Spock together Spock says he had a human ancestor.  I suppose one’s parents are their most immediate ancestor but when one talks about an ancestor we assume you mean ancient grandparent with too many ‘greats’ to count.

Amanda, a surprise Spock family member and not the last

One of the great misconceptions about Vulcans is they don’t have emotions.  They have emotions they just maintain absolute control over them.  We have at this point of the series seen Mr. Spock lose control of his.  In “The Naked Time” the virus caused him to confront his guilt of never telling his mother that he loved her.  In “This Side of Paradise” the spores allow him to openly express love and infatuation.  The episode “Amok Time” his pon farr erodes his control.  

While Mr. Spock seems to display emotion only when something causes him to lose control Sarek, despite his stoic demeanor, seems to actually driven by his emotional state while pretending to driven just by logic.  For example the first thing we learn about Sarek is that he engaged emotional blackmail of his son by cutting him out of his life trying to make him quit Starfleet and attend the Vulcan Science Academy.

Sarek a Vulcan led by emotions that he pretends is logic

Being driven by his pride and emotions isn’t something that Sarek has limited to his son, but he also applies it to his career as well.  He undertakes this mission to Babel knowing that he is very ill. Yet because of his pride and desire for privacy, he does not bring a Vulcan physician that would be familiar with condition, nor does he bring a backup diplomat who could take over if his health becomes an issue.  Even worse when suspicion falls upon him for potentially being the murderer of Gav, instead of informing Kirk and Spock that he was off having a heart attack at the time of the murder that Dr. McCoy could probably verify with a quick exam, he lies and says he was meditating in private.  Instead of admitting weakness he allows himself to continue to be a suspected murder, slowing down the potential of catching the real killer who was still on the loose at this time.  Not to mention failing to get justice for the family of Gav.  Then it all became pointless because he had a heart attack right in front of everyone so his privacy didn’t even last long enough to justify the deception assuming you ever could.

This episode was particularly insightful to the inside workings of the mind of Mr. Spock.   Throughout the series we have seen Mr. Spock a challenge by various members of the Enterprise crew on his outsider status of being a Vulcan. Sometimes is done playfully like with Mr. Spock’s rivalry with Dr. McCoy, conversations with Captain Kirk or even Lt. Uhura.  However there are other times where it’s more of insidious attack like Stiles in “The Balance of Terror ” or Boma in “The Galileo Seven.”  In this episode however we learn through his mother that when he was a child he was harassed by other Vulcan children for being half human.  Not only was he verbally harassed but he was often bullied and beaten by his classmates.  Since Vulcans control their emotions as adults he does not have to worry about unapologetic harassment and humiliation, however there is always the lingering thought that they do not truly accept him.  We learned in “Amok Time” that Mr. Spock in his voyages on the Enterprise has become something of a legend on Vulcan. 

The irony is that it took him leaving Vulcan to truly become accepted amongst his people.  That probably was not part of the plan but for it was also how he became accepted by his own inner psyche.  As a child Spock was labeled a human by Vulcans and as an adult when he surrounds himself with humans he is labeled a Vulcan.  This is the reason why he left Vulcan and this is the reason why he chooses to be among humans.  In “I, Mudd” Mr. Spock told Dr. McCoy that he didn’t know of any other place in the universe where he was much more needed than on a starship full of irrational humans.  However it is not their need to why he chose to be there, but his own.  Only in being surrounded by humans can he ever feel Vulcan.  

In this sense Spock always wins his conflicts with Dr. McCoy.  For whenever Dr. McCoy starts on his whole teasing of Mr. Spock on his Vulcan characteristics he only pleases Mr. Spock in ways that he can't understand.  Mr. Spock must get in the small arguments with Dr. McCoy on purpose for his own psychological therapy.  No one makes Spock feel more Vulcan than Dr. McCoy.

                    On a side note this is a great Captain Kirk episode as well.  We could see Kirk engage in hand-to-hand combat with the assassin and win despite the fact that the assassin stabbed him with a knife.  We could see a weakened Kirk take control of the bridge when the ship is under attack by a strange and foreign adversary and prevail in that situation as well.  Kirk kicks butt all the way through.

Kirk to take command despite injury

Despite the fact that he’s talked about a lot Mr. Scott never makes it apparent since entire episode.   To be fair there wasn’t much for him to do; they were only going to a conference there were no great feats of engineering that needed to be done on screen.  However I could see a fan forgetting and thinking he was in this episode is seeing how often his name is dropped.

When I was watching this once with my father, who himself has had two heart surgeries, he found McCoy’s describing the condition and necessary steps to fix it absurd.  Particularly, the part about needing so much blood.  I tried to explain to my father that they are aliens so it is probably different.   He is probably right about the show’s writers not really researching the subject.

Meeting the many aliens of the United Federation of Planets

This episode has long been a fan favorite and he can easily see why there a lot of fun and interesting things that happen.  This is an episode that truly begins to explore what it means to be in the United Federation of Planets.  We meet all sorts of different aliens for the first time and we get to watch them interact amongst each other.  As Star Trek grows this is something we see much more of but the foundation is here.   And of course that final scene is one of the great scenes of the franchise.  With Kirk, Spock, and Sarek all laid up in sick bay and McCoy trying to control everything so his patients can focus on getting better. There is a Star Trek novel I once read that took place shortly after this episode and scene with the three patients was continued.  I can’t remember which book it was however.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

IT IS TIME FOR THE CUTE FURRY CREATURES FROM HELL

 

Episode Title:  The Trouble with Tribbles

Air Date: 12/29/1967

Written by David Gerrold

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Mike Howden as Lieutenant Rowe        Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli                        Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley    Paul Baxley as Ensign Freeman       Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman  William Frederick Knight as Crewman Moody            Steve Hershon  as unnamed Security Guard     David L. Ross as unnamed Security Guard     Bobby Bass as unnamed Security Guard     Edwin Reimers as Admiral Fitzpatrick                Bob Orrison as unnamed Klingon                     William Schallert as Under-Secretary Nilz Baris     William Campbell as Captain Koloth         Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones     Whit Bissell as Station Manager Lurry                  Michael Pataki as Korax            Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin         Guy Raymond as unnamed Trader         Richard Antoni as unnamed Klingon                     Dick Crockett  as unnamed Klingon                    

Ships and Space Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser, K-7 Space Station

Planets:  Sherman’s Planet

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with a debriefing on the mission at hand with Kirk, Spock, and Chekov.  This establishes two things for the viewer.  First it sets the stakes.  In a great call back to the Klingons' first appearance, the three discuss the Orgainian Peace Treaty and its terms with how to deal with disputed territory and planets.  When a planet is disputed the right to colonize is granted to the power that can show it can demonstrate a stronger ability to develop the planet.  The second thing the opening establishes is that Chekov’s knowledge of history is somewhat spotty through his Russian goggles.   

The Enterprise coming and looking for a fight!

Their meeting comes to an end when the red alert goes off and Lt. Uhura tells them they have a Code 1 which mean invasion.  The Enterprise flies to the station K-7 at maximum warp looking for a fight.  When they get there however they find no Klingon ships around it appears to be a false alarm.  When Lt. Uhura raises Manger Lurry, he offers to explain.  Kirk is enraged and tells him he better prepare to do more than that. 

Kirk and Spock beam over and when they do they are introduced to a Federation Under-secretary.  This man is a little weasel name Baris, and he has a little brown-nosing assistant named Darvin.  Baris announces that he was the one to order the alarm.  His reason was he has a special grain called quadrotriticale.  It is the only crop that can grow on Sherman’s Planet and it is vital to the colony’s success.  The problem is Baris feels there is a likelihood that the Klingons could try to sabotage their efforts and he has no guards for his valuable product.  So instead of just requesting some guards like a responsible official he decides to falsely pull the Federation fire alarm.  This enrages Kirk that he would divert a starship for some silly wheat.  However, with some encouragement from Spock, he agrees to place some guards for the good of the colony.    Kirk also authorizes some shore leave for his crew. 

The unhappy Baris later goes and cries to Starfleet Command leading to Admiral Fitzpatrick to call Kirk and tell him to cooperate with more enthusiasm.  This reinforces the importance of Sherman’s Planet and the fact that Starfleet doesn’t take to pulling the Federation fire alarm that seriously.

Uhura decides to do some shopping on shore leave and brings the young Ensign Chekov along.  They run into Kirk and Spock.  Chekov then horrifies his Captain with his knowledge of quadrotriticale, making the Kirk wonder if everyone has heard about it but him.  While the two young officers get a drink a slimy merchant named Cyrano Jones tries to sell some trinkets to the bartender.  Jones comes off as a Harry Mudd-lite type of person, who the crew of the Enterprise just dispatched last week. 

Would you trust this man with anything? Really?

Jones pulls out a cute little creature he calls a “tribble.”  When the bartender sees how taken Uhura becomes with the little guy he is convinced to buy a number from Jones.  Jones gives Uhura her tribble explaining to the bartender that once she shows it around he won’t be able to keep out all the business he will get.

The good Lieutenant is getting more than she bargained for!

The red alert goes off again and this time there really is a Klingon ship.  As the Enterprise readies for battle, Kirk calls over K-7 to get another surprise in a day of surprises.  The Klingon Captain and his First Officer are already there.  I, as a viewer, am also surprised.  How did Captain Koloth and First Officer Korax get over there so quickly?  The Enterprise went on alert right away.  Did the Klingons never raise their shields?  When Kirk goes over to meet with Koloth the Klingon Captain claims he just wants to have shore leave rights and Kirk grants them.  This sends the Baris into a frenzy which makes Kirk happy. 

The Klingon Captain and his First Officer

Elsewhere Lt. Uhura is learning about the trouble with tribbles as her tribble gave birth to ten babies.  This doesn’t seem to be a big deal it just means that ten more crew members have pets or nine as McCoy just want study his. 

Realizing the tensions between Starfleet and the Klingons could flare up at any moment Kirk orders Scotty to take shore leave with the some of the crew in order to keep the peace.  Scotty just wants to read his technical journals and not hang out on a Starbase but he obeys orders. While there the Klingon First Officer Korax starts to talk crap about humans and Starfleet.  Chekov wants to slug him especially after Korax goes off on Captain Kirk, but Scotty stops him.  However when Korax starts to belittle the USS Enterprise, Scotty turns around and slugs the Klingon himself.   This causes a massive brawl that only ends when Starfleet security shows up to arrest everyone.  Kirk cancels shore leave for both ships, and we get an amusing scene where poor Mr. Scott has to explain to his Captain that he caused the brawl. 

Tribbles are everywhere!  In the halls, in Captain Kirk’s chair, and all over the bridge tribbles are making their presence felt.  The only thing Dr. McCoy can tell is that they are born pregnant and have a nicer personality than Spock.  Spock is happy that they don’t talk too much.

Throw down!

Baris believes that Jones is a Klingon agent set to destroy their operations on Sherman’s Planet. Kirk and Spock reluctantly integrate Jones.  Jones just says he is a passing businessman.  Jones seems somewhat unaware of the trouble that tribbles cause and sees their rapid breading as nothing more than a good way to maintain his stock. 

Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous!

The tribbles continue their trouble on the Enterprise for they have now gotten into the food remixers.   Kirk realizes that if they could do that then they could also have gotten to the grain storage.  He calls Baris and Lurry for an emergency gathering at the very grain storage.  When Kirk opens it up he is then buried in tribbles.  Baris is now beyond enraged he threatens Kirk’s career, but Kirk isn’t moved.  Spock notices that many of the tribbles are dead.  This means Kirk is standing in tribble corpses, which is really gross.  Kirk isn’t lost however he orders McCoy, who had just now has thought that they should stop feeding the tribbles, to investigate with Spock to the cause of the grain-eating tribbles’ death. 

"I get to say 'he's dead, Jim' a thousand times!"

Kirk calls a meeting with Larry and Baris, to which Koloth crashes to demand an apology.  During the meeting we have it confirmed that Klingons and tribbles don’t like each other.  Klingons tend to act like elephants that have seen a mouse, where tribbles drop their soft purr and start to sequel.  At this point Baris’s assistant Darvin walks in and the tribbles in Kirk’s hand squeal as if they have seen a Klingon.  McCoy’s tricorder confirms it and Kirk uses the tribbles to coerce a confession out of Darvin that it was he who poisoned the grain.  The false human is taken away, Kirk tells Koloth where to stick it, and Kirk also comes to the conclusion that he might actually like tribbles.

Exposed

Back on the Enterprise Kirk is surprised to find his ship tribble-free.  When asked how it was done, Scotty confessed that he used his skill with the transporter to send all of them over to the Klingon ship just before they warped out.    

Additional thoughts: A parasitic species threatens to eat up the resources of the Enterprise, the Klingons have a high ranking spy in the Federation government, and colony threatened with a sadistic form of starvation.  Yet this episode is generally viewed as one of the lighter and sillier episodes.  That is not by accident for “The Trouble with Tribbles” gives off that feel, it’s not a bad thing just an observation.

Kirk has a great line in this when he say to Uhura “Too much of anything, even love, is not necessarily a good thing.” I find myself using this quote often.  I hold it right up there with Spock’s lines about understanding without approving and having not as nice as wanting.  Kirk has other great lines in this series but I really enjoy this one.

In one of the rare instances that I checked Spock’s math I discover of course he is right.  In this case about how many tribbles there would be after a certain amount of time.  At first I thought he was wrong but then I realized I needed to multiple a factor of eleven and not ten.

This episode contains one of the best examples of my favorite Captain Kirk idioms.  “Now as a Captain I want two things done.  The first thing I am going to say will be inspiring and directly to the point so you all know who is in charge.  Then the second thing will be some silly and ridiculous little thing to let you know I am person too.  Please close that door so more dead tribbles will land on my head.”  I like this almost as much as Kirk telling machines to kill themselves.

All of the Kirk/Scotty interactions were great.  I love the look on Kirk’s face when he is under the impression that the fight with the Klingons was started by the crew trying to defend his honor.  Then how that same expression changes when he learns the fight had nothing to do with him but the Enterprise.  I believe for a second he was jealous of his own ship.  Silly really seeing as how Kirk could be come just as defensive about his ship as Scotty.  After all as he said in the last episode, “She is a beautiful lady and we love her.” 

Who started it?

I really enjoyed the scene between Jones and Spock.  The fact that Jones can’t understand Spock because his simple minded brain isn’t fast enough to keep up was worth the entire episode.  Spock, of course, just adapts but it was fun to watch none the less.

Oh but the poor tribbles!  Kirk was horrified when he thought Mr. Scott transported them into space, but when he sends them to the Klingon ship is that really better. The Klingons and tribbles hate each other.  They're the only ones that tribbles do hate.  That is where Mr. Scott sent them?  I mean it’s funny to think of the horrified Klingons but did the tribbles deserve that?  

FINAL GRADE 5 OF 5