Star Trek Logo 'The Trouble With Tribbles'

by David Gerrold
Star Trek Cast

Starfleet Command issues Captain Kirk with a top-priority order to proceed to Deep Space Station K-7 and protect a shipment of Quadrotriticale grain, which is due to be sent to the famine-stricken Sherman's Planet. Kirk is indignant at having to look after what he regards as just “wheat”, and his annoyance increases when Nilz Baris, the Federation Undersecretary for Agriculture, and his annoying assistant, Arne Darvin, inform him that they believe a crew of Klingons on shore leave at the space station may attempt to steal the grain for themselves. Meanwhile, the rotund space trader, Cyrano Jones, arrives on the station and shows Lieutenant Uhura a cute, furry creature called a Tribble; the communications officer is enchanted by the adorable, purring animal, and takes it back aboard the Enterprise. Unfortunately, Tribbles are born pregnant, and the more the voracious creatures eat, the more they multiply, and it is not long before the ship is completely overrun. Meanwhile, the tension between the Starfleet crew and the visiting Klingons has reached boiling point, and it is not long before a bar-room brawl breaks out. Then, when Kirk checks the storage bins aboard his ship, instead of the Quadrotriticale grain he discovers hundreds of bloated, but dead, Tribbles. Someone has poisoned the grain, and a Klingon agent is suspected - but how will Kirk discover their identity?

William Shatner (Captain James Tiberius Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (First Officer Lieutenant Commander Spock), DeForest Kelley (Doctor Leonard H. ‘Bones’ McCoy), James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott), Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Nyota Uhura), George Takei (Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu), Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Andreivich Chekov), William Schallert (Nilz Baris), William Campbell (Captain Koloth), Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones), Whit Bissell (Mr. Lurry), Michael Pataki (Korax), Ed Reimers (Admiral Fitzpatrick), Charlie Brill (Arne Darvin), Paul Baxley (Ensign Freeman), David L. Ross (Guard), Guy Raymond (Trader/bartender), Eddie Paskey (Security Guard)

Directed by Joseph Pevney

TX:
29th Decmber, 1967

Notes:
*Featuring Captain James Tiberius Kirk, First Officer Lieutenant Commander Spock, Doctor Leonard H. ‘Bones’ McCoy, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu and Ensign Pavel Andreivich Chekov