Yes, that’s my take on it as well.
It’s a new week and a new episode everybody, time to talk “The Trouble with Tribbles”! Yes, one of the classics of the series and considered by many to be their favorite, if not one of the best. It’s a relatively relaxed episodes with lower stakes with what little danger exists not being recognized until after the fact. But the low budget fuzzballs and some really great scenes make for a pretty fun outing. It’s hard not to enjoy the brawl in the bar, with Scotty managing to keep his cool while the Klingons insult the captain, and then finally losing it once they work they way to insulting his ship. And Kirk’s exasperation at his first meeting with Lurry and Baris, and discovering what the priority one distress call was over, got a genuine laugh out loud from me. Also, the image of Kirk opening the wheat silo and being inundated by countless tribbles is an iconic Star Trek image.
For a fairly lightweight episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles” casts a pretty long shadow. Wikipedia tells me there was supposed to be a follow up episode in season three that never happened, but that script did end up being made into an episode of the animated Star Trek series (“More Troubles, More Tribbles”), virtually unchanged. And of course there’s a classic DS9 episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” that revisits this episode with some technical wizardry integrating their cast into this episode. It’s worth checking out if you haven’t seen it. Tribbles also turn up in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, an episode of Enterprise called “The Breach”, and the 2009 version of Star Trek as well as its sequel Into Darkness.
There are also some familiar faces in this episode. Baris is played by William Schallert, who you probably said, “Oh, it’s that guy” when you saw his face. He’s been in so many things, it’s hard to choose just a few from the list. Also, the Klingon captain Koloth may have looked familiar to you - that’s William Campbell, who previously played Trelane in “The Squire of Gothos.” Wikipedia tells me that Campbell would play Koloth again on a DS9 episode titled “Blood Oath.” I don’t believe I’ve seen it.
One more thing - I think I’m going to have to pick this up to continue my indoctrination of my kids to all things Trek:
The Trouble with Tribbles is ST legend, so it is hard to say anything very original about it. I recall years ago reading Gerrold’s book about making the show and remember one particular tidbit: The idea of the tribble population explosion is nearly identical to that in Heinlein’s book The Rolling Stones. Gerrold admits he read Heinlein’s book but doesn’t think he consciously copied the plot.
This episode is one of the ones that gets at the relationships between the main characters and the sense of comradery of the crew. So the lightness really works, because it evokes that spirit.
“Laddie… don’t ya think you should… rephrase that?”
“You’re right, I shooood”
The delivery of the famous Bar Insult Dialogue by Michael Pataki and James Doohan is a thing of beauty.
The supporting cast, down to some bit players like the Bartender and the aforementioned Michael Pataki as the drunken Klingon, all really put in memorable performances. And the regular cast do really great work as well. Direction and performances really make this one work.
Sorry, I’ve been catching up lately but haven’t put down my thoughts. I really enjoyed this episode. It has a certain choices I really enjoyed.
First of all, I love that Dr. McCoy continues to imply to everyone who will listen that he has no idea about Vulcan physiology. Even though he’s saved Vulcans multiple times now. In this episode he notes that Spock’s father is gravely ill, and when Spock suggests McCoy use him to give blood to his father, McCoy thinks that they could both end up dead that way. Spock’s mother won’t have that! She doesn’t them both to die!
Meanwhile, there’s a peace conference going on, and right after that scene with Spock’s mother and Spock and McCoy, we cut to a fight ALREADY IN PROGRESS. I loved that. Oh btw, Kirk is fighting again while this drama with Spock was going on.
Later Spock has to take command and can’t risk the ship by putting it in Scotty’s hands. (I love that too. Poor Scotty). Now his mother is upset that he WON’T risk his life to save his father. I loved that touch. Very mother-like.
Another thing I loved is that after Kirk goes to the bridge to fool Spock into thinking the ship is in good hands, the Enterprise gets attacked, and of course, Kirk can’t risk putting the ship in Scotty’s hands at that point, so he just grits his teeth and deals with it.
And in THIS episode, we get to see why you don’t want to put the ship in Scotty’s hands. When the Klingons have him chasing distress signals, he finally figures it out. He knows that the Klingons made this up to lure the Enterprise away from the planet. So what does he do? He has the ship continue to look for the phantom ships for another hour or two. Bahahahah. I love it. It’s the perfect touch after last week’s episode where you’re wondering “man, Spock and Kirk really don’t want to hand it over to Scotty”.
As for the action on the planet with the species, honestly it was all a bit weird. So these people don’t have any use for doctors, and they act like they’ve never dealt with kids before. How have they not died out? It was all just a bit too primitive sounding. In TNG, they made it so Starfleet isn’t even allowed to make contact with societies like this. But I guess it was okay back in the TOS days because we needed their minerals.
“You’re out of your Vulcan mind, Spock!”
All right folks, who’s up for a little more Trek? Everybody? That’s what I like to hear! This week it’s time for a little “Gamesters of Triskelion.” Though I must mention we’re off to a bit of a bad start because I’ve never liked the title of this episode. Gamesters, really? Is that even a word? I would think that Gamblers would be a better choice, and more appropriate given the way the episode plays out. But anyway.
This episode follows the trope of Kirk and some others being forced into a deadly competition with others for the amusement of some unseen ultra-powerful entities. We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again before we’re through. I don’t have much to say about the actual content of the episode, it’s fairly standard. I’m simultaneously a bit impressed and repulsed by the lengths Kirk goes to in order to ensure the safety of his crew - for a bit, I was a little uncertain if Kirk was plying Shahna in order to get some, or using her for some other purpose. Once we learn the nature of his intention, I was a little bit “Damn, Jim! That was cold blooded!” but I suppose it does all work out in the end for everyone.
I was impressed with the actress who played Shahna, I thought she did really well with what was kind of a goofy character, yet another of those under-developed, “what is this thing you call love?” types. But she played the “confusion mixed with hard-edged gladiator” role pretty well, I thought. I found it interesting to research her actress, Angelique Pettyjohn, to find that she was usually a burlesque and, uh, adult performer.
Last, I must admit that I don’t understand the terms of the final game played - the terms state specifically that the teams can’t touch each others colors, which you see both do pretty flagrantly wthout penalty, and then it’s also stated that the teams will fight to the death when Shahna is allowed to surrender. Did I miss something?
Also, a programming note: I will be out of town next week on vacation and won’t be able to view an episode. Like last time, it’s totally cool with me if you all want to move on without me. Otherwise I’ll pick up here in two weeks with the next episode.
This is one of my favorites because all the pieces seem to mesh together nicely with the overall theme. It leans hard into its campiness and I like the visual representation and voice characterization of the “Gamesters” so much; I’m so glad they didn’t go with “rotoscoped energy being #5”.
It’s nice the way established cultures thousands of years old can be fundamentally transformed with a few hours’ demonstration of Kirk’s determination and a persuasive speech.
Side note: I can’t hear the fight music on Star Trek anymore without cracking up, because now all I hear is the Decapod national anthem.
This one just…never did it for me. It did introduce endless “Quatloos” wagering jokes into the nerd gestalt. And that’s about it.
Thank you, I meant to address that. Is this the first instance of the term “quatloos”? I know I’ve heard it so many times, I just never really thought about where it came from.
This is indeed the grandaddy of all Quatloos.
Imagine my surprise and delight seeing her in a lesbian sex scene. I had to look her up. Yup that’s her!
“I got rights!”
“You got nothin’. You mind you place, mister, or you’ll… you’ll be wearin’ concrete galoshes.”
“You mean cement overshoes?”
“Uh … Aye.”
All right folks, after a short break I’m back and ready for some more Star Trek, and this week we get A Piece of the Action! So, right up front, in the past I have always thought of this episode as kind of a turning point, when things started to get a little … well, lazy maybe. When they just kind of cashed in all the goodwill of the past episodes and started in on all the “Planet of the (blank)” episodes, where blank would be I don’t know, Nazis, or maybe even gangsters. But watching the episode again, I have a new appreciation for it. Yes, it’s totally goofy, and clearly they decided they could make use of existing sets to just put the crew on a planet made up like 1920’s Chicago. But they do at least put in the work to make this whole thing hold together, to make sense - kind of.
You see, there’s this book. A big book of all things mobster related. And a hundred years prior to the Enterprise’s visit, another starship visited Sigma Iota II, and for whatever reason left this book behind. And the planet’s inhabitants, being very “imitative”, sort of took the whole thing to heart and just completely reshaped their society around this book. If you can accept this, you can pretty much roll with everything else. I’m not sure if the writer was trying to say something about religious texts and dogmatic following of them, maybe I’m seeing something that wasn’t there. Regardless, this is a fairly low stakes and much hijinks episode, and if you can get into it there are rewards.
Like the silly interplay between Kirk and Spock getting into their roles as gangsters, come to cut the Federation in on the planet’s “action.” This episode shows me that, had they decided to, Star Trek could have been made into a pretty decent comedy. Spock is a natural straight man and Nimoy goes all in with reactions and mannerisms and the director must have told Shatner to just do whatever they hell he wanted because he goes all in with his performance. Showing the natives how to play fizzbin and adopting the speech and mannerisms of gangsters, for some reason. But it holds together, and it is fun. There’s not a lot here, but what is here is a pretty good time in my opinion.
A few technical notes - I enjoyed the revolving shot in the beginning, with Kirk sitting in the captain’s chair and trying to explain to Oxmyx how a log from a ship leaving 100 years ago could have been just discovered. Also, Vic Tayback appears as Krako! I used to love watching Alice as a kid.
I straight up love this episode. I can easily ignore the holes in the plot. Shatner gets a chance to not only chew the scenery, but actually consume… all… of the… scenery. Nimoy is the ultimate straight man. It’s a definitive showcase for their abilities and comradery, at least at that time. And let’s face it, the language use is so well done.
I love it, too. It’s silly on many levels, but the performances are all great, and it is good entertainment.
“You’re determined not to let me share in this, aren’t you?”
“This is not a competition, Doctor. Whether you understand it or not, grant me my own kind of dignity.”
“Vulcan dignity? How can I grant you what I don’t understand?”
“Then employ one of your own superstitions - Wish me luck.”
Hello again, fellow Star Trek fans. It’s time for a new episode and this week we get “The Immunity Syndrome”. In plot terms, it’s not really anything we haven’t seen before - Enterprise goes up against some big, unknowable entity that has destructive intentions for our galaxy. But this one has a little something extra, I feel - a touch of cosmic horror, maybe? The tear in space, the 11,000 mile long single-celled alien entity, its “anti” life field, it all seems nearly Lovecraftian. Or maybe I’ve just read too much Lovecraft. But regardless, I liked the mood of this one. I also really liked the interplay of Spock and McCoy, seems like usually we’re just seeing those two snipe at each other but this episode shows the depth of their relationship.
There are also some fun details in this one, like Spock feeling the lives of the Intrepid’s crew cry out and then suddenly silenced, or the fact that Lieutenant Kyle gets to hang out on the bridge for once! Also, the origin of this gif:
I really enjoyed this episode. As you said, the crew getting older part wasn’t that interesting, but using that premise to springboard into showing that having an experienced Captain at the helm of a starship is really important was something I didn’t see coming, and I ended up enjoying the episode a lot more than expected because of that.
I think they did it that way because in the end that was the solution to the problem of getting older. You just need a little fear and adrenaline to fight off this radiation!
I have to admit I didn’t enjoy Obsession as much as you and Navaronegun. First of all, I wish it hadn’t been named Obsession, as that made a lot of the beats in the episode kind of predictable. I still enjoyed it overall, it was a good hour of television.
When the young officer who is a young Kirk stand-in comes in, he’s introduced by his name, which we’re supposed to recognize. Is he related to someone from earlier episodes?
I kind of liked that Kirk had to connect the dots for the young man after they realized that phasors did nothing to the creature. Had to remind him that even if he’d been able to fire, it wouldn’t have helped, so he’s not to blame for the death of others, just like Kirk wasn’t to blame years ago. It’s common sense, and didn’t have to be said out loud maybe, but on the other hand, when you’re there and blaming yourself, you’re not exactly in the best frame of mind, and the fact that Kirk can say out loud something that is common sense even when he’s supposedly obsessed, it’s a good sign that this is a smart man. My opinion of Kirk definitely went up in this episode.
Honestly, Kirk as a man of action more than Picard, I’m realizing, is more a function of how much more dangerous the galaxy is, as @Navaronegun pointed out, rather than a function of him preferring action over more cerebral solutions.
With that said however, it did bother me a little that they were able to determine a method of communication with the creature possible, by smelling that it wanted to go home, and yet, no one ever brought up the possibility of a peaceful solution with the creature, by trying to contact it through smells or something.