S05.E06: Trials and Tribble-ations

[John Potts]

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Darvin, a disgraced Klingon spy, travels back in time to alter some events to his liking. The DS9 crew must find what he's trying to change and prevent it without altering the time line.

...which as a description is true, but not what anyone is going to remember this episode for. Despite the involvement of a Bajoran Orb, not to mention the X-Files - sorry, inter temporal investigations - duo, this is all about the nostalgia factor. But even if it is essentially a throwaway comic episode, it's actually a pretty decent standalone story. Darvin's plot makes a reasonable amount of sense (particularly for a time travel plot) and the way the old footage is integrated with the new is almost seamless.

Oh, and Enterprise should never have elaborated on the Klingon make up change - "It's a long story, we don't like to talk about it!" was as much an explanation as I needed. The audience doesn't need everything spelt out, IMO - I'd prefer no explanation to a stupid one.

[SVNBob]

I've said it before....

They missed a trick when they were remastering TOS and updating some of the special effects for DVD/Blu-Ray.  They ought to have incorporated the appropriate footage from this episode of DS9 back into the original "Trouble with Tribbles."  As an Easter Egg at least.

[BBHN]

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They ought to have incorporated the appropriate footage from this episode of DS9 back into the original "Trouble with Tribbles."  As an Easter Egg at least.

It would have been cool to see Sisko, Worf, etc, hanging out in the background in the original episode.

[readster]

Was such a fun story, but man, Nana Visitar was sooo pregnant by this point in time. She looked HUGE! I thought her maternity uniform was a ballet dress. Which of course, Nana was a dancer. 

[legaleagle53]

14 hours ago, SVNBob said:

I've said it before....

They missed a trick when they were remastering TOS and updating some of the special effects for DVD/Blu-Ray.  They ought to have incorporated the appropriate footage from this episode of DS9 back into the original "Trouble with Tribbles."  As an Easter Egg at least.

I still love watching the original episode and thinking, "OK, so O'Brien, Odo, and Worf were sitting there in the bar, and Jadzia and Sisko were sitting in the overhead compartment while Kirk was trying to get it open... ."

This was actually one of the most fun episodes of the entire series (and as part of the 30th Anniversary Trek celebration, it was light-years better than Voyager's dismal contribution).  I think my favorite part was watching Jadzia go all fangirl over seeing Captain James Tiberius Kirk in the flesh and seeing Curzon's old Klingon buddy in his prime.  And then, of course, there was the very end, where even Sisko couldn't resist the opportunity to interact with Kirk.

Oh, and as for the two Federation time cops?  You all might be interested to know that they got their own spin-off of sorts in the first two novels in the Department of Temporal Investigations series, Watching the Clock and Forgotten History. The former gives us quite a bit of backstory about both of them -- and yes, their names are a shout-out to Scully and Mulder -- and the latter gives the origin of the Department of Temporal Investigations (which I'm betting evolved into the 29th-Century Timefleet).  There are also three other novellas in the series, with the latest one to come out next month. Apparently, these two gents have been popular with Trek fans for over 20 years now!

Edited May 12, 2017 by legaleagle53

[blueray]

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 I think my favorite part was watching Jadzia go all fangirl over seeing Captain James Tiberius Kirk.

It was Spock that she was fangirling ;).

[kassygreene]

My sister and I discovered the Original Trek back in the day - the first scene we saw was the beginning of Act 3 in The Trouble With Tribbles (who started the fight with the Klingons, and why?), and made the commitment when Kirk opened up the storage bay and all those tribbles came tumbling down.  

It was a helluvan introduction...

So this episode beautifully back-ended it, especially with Sisko & Dax tossing more and more tribbles through the hatch.

I was living in the Bay area when this originally aired, and there was stuff going on in the city (future home of Star Fleet Academy), including I seem to recall some sort of tribble giveaway at the Embarcadero - a very short BART ride from my office, but I worked for mundanes there and just couldn't risk it.  A wonderful episode, meticulously interwoven to the original show.  They even had to digitally erase evidence of a coffee stain from Spock's uniform shirt, which had been revealed when they enhanced the original footage.

[legaleagle53]

4 hours ago, blueray said:

It was Spock that she was fangirling ;).

True, but I also distinctly remember her fangirling over Kirk and not being able to understand why Sisko didn't share her excitement at seeing him in the flesh or why Sisko wouldn't let her interact with any of them.

[iMonrey]

The discrepancy in the Klingon appearance was more problematic in this episode - not because Worf would not explain it, even though the other characters acknowledged the difference. But because Kira identified Darvin as a Klingon who has been "altered" to look human. However, considering how the Klingons looked in TOS, no "alteration" would have been necessary, aside from shaving his beard and re-shaping his eyebrows. 

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Oh, and Enterprise should never have elaborated on the Klingon make up change

 Actually I'm glad they finally addressed it, because it bugs me to this day. I wish they had simply created a different race when they decided they wanted to have a species with a Mr. Peanut face. I maintain it was a mistake to "re-imagine" an entire group of people simply because they had access to better make-up affects. The Klingons played too important a role in TOS to simply ret-con what they looked like so drastically. 

That said, this was without question one of the funnest episodes of any of the Star Trek series. The effects were damned impressive for 1996. The scene where Kirk is questioning the line-up about the fight with the Klingons, with O'Brien and Bashir inserted into the line, is especially fascinating.

Edited June 15, 2017 by iMonrey

[Maverick]

 They really went all out for this one.  A far superior effort to Voyager's anniversary tribute.  

[starri]

19 hours ago, iMonrey said:

But because Kira identified Darvin as a Klingon who has been "altered" to look human. However, considering how the Klingons looked in TOS, no "alteration" would have been necessary, aside from shaving his beard and re-shaping his eyebrows. 

From Kira's perspective, Klingons should look like Worf, so Darvin would have had to have been altered to look like that.

It is a long story...

[legaleagle53]

15 hours ago, starri said:

From Kira's perspective, Klingons should look like Worf, so Darvin would have had to have been altered to look like that.

It is a long story...

And one that Klingons do not discuss with off-worlders!

[rmontro]

A fun episode.  I hadn't realized Klingons were that long lived (Darvin was well over 100).

It kind of bugged me that Worf said that the Klingons hunted down all the tribbles and killed them all.  Obviously they didn't fully succeed because there's one in Generations.  Klingons do seem to exaggerate their accomplishments (for example, claiming Shakespeare was originally written in Klingon - or as they say in this episode, Klingonese).  Wiping out tribbles sounds like an impossible task anyway, look at how long it was supposed to take Cyrano Jones to clean them off the space station.  

On 5/13/2017 at 7:15 PM, kassygreene said:

They even had to digitally erase evidence of a coffee stain from Spock's uniform shirt, which had been revealed when they enhanced the original footage.

What, Spock can't drink coffee?  I know they didn't serve raktajino, but still...  I guess Spock wouldn't be seen with a soiled uniform, but maybe he just didn't have a chance to change it yet  :)  Busy with ship business and all  :)

On 5/11/2017 at 9:13 AM, John Potts said:

Oh, and Enterprise should never have elaborated on the Klingon make up change - "It's a long story, we don't like to talk about it!" was as much an explanation as I needed. The audience doesn't need everything spelt out, IMO - I'd prefer no explanation to a stupid one.

I remember loving that line when this first aired.  It was such a copout, but also a funny one.

[SVNBob]

Some great bits of behind-the-scene trivia that just make me smile in regards to this episode.  On top of the whole concept of course.

First off, it wasn't just green-screening, they recreated the sets.  And the scene where Sisko and Dax first beam on to the Enterprise was the first time Avery and Terry saw the set.  So their awestruck reaction to being "on the Enterprise" was real.

Apparently, a scene with Dax on the Enterprise bridge took 12 takes, just to get the timing absolutely right.  That's dedication.

A tidbit I just learned.  They got David Gerrold, the writer of the original "Trouble with Tribbles", to make a couple of cameos on set as a member of the Enterprise crew.  He's a red-shirt (naturally) seen in one of the Enterprise corridors picking up a tribble off the floor.

But my favorite story is this one.  It turned out that the DS9 cast was having problems opening the old communicators, either flipping them open too far or not enough, thus ruining multiple takes.  Then a voice from off-set called out, "Here, let me show you."  It was Walter Koenig, who had been invited to tour the recreated sets.  He walked on set and took the communicator from the surprised actors.  He then said a silent prayer: "Please let this work", then flipped open the communicator perfectly on the first try.  He handed back the communicator saying, "it's all in the wrist", then walked back into the shadows of the sound stage.

[legaleagle53]

22 hours ago, rmontro said:

It kind of bugged me that Worf said that the Klingons hunted down all the tribbles and killed them all.  Obviously they didn't fully succeed because there's one in Generations.  Klingons do seem to exaggerate their accomplishments (for example, claiming Shakespeare was originally written in Klingon - or as they say in this episode, Klingonese).  Wiping out tribbles sounds like an impossible task anyway, look at how long it was supposed to take Cyrano Jones to clean them off the space station.  

17.9 years, to be exact.

[rmontro]

20 hours ago, SVNBob said:

Apparently, a scene with Dax on the Enterprise bridge took 12 takes, just to get the timing absolutely right.  That's dedication.

That's one of the few scenes that bugs me.  The way Dax is hunched over in the background looks very uncomfortable and unnatural.  I guess the idea is she's bending over to pay attention to the control panels, but it looks like they squished her into that position so that she would fit into the background of the scene with Kirk.  That's a pretty minor tribble - er, quibble, though.

20 hours ago, SVNBob said:

But my favorite story is this one.  It turned out that the DS9 cast was having problems opening the old communicators, either flipping them open too far or not enough, thus ruining multiple takes.  Then a voice from off-set called out, "Here, let me show you."  It was Walter Koenig, who had been invited to tour the recreated sets.  He walked on set and took the communicator from the surprised actors.  He then said a silent prayer: "Please let this work", then flipped open the communicator perfectly on the first try.  He handed back the communicator saying, "it's all in the wrist", then walked back into the shadows of the sound stage.

That's a fantastic story.

7 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

17.9 years, to be exact.

Thanks  :)  That reminds though, of another bit I didn't like.  Where Dax gives the calculation of the amount of tribbles as one million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one, assuming an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every twelve hours over a period of three days, or whatever she says.  It's a direct quote of Spock's from the original Trouble with Tribbles episode, and we hear Spock say it again later in the same episode, and then Dax and Sisko look at each other.   She was kind of like "See, I was right", but it seemed a little out of character for her, because we don't usually see her coming up with these kind of calculations elsewhere in the series.  And also because the joke falls a little flat, since we've heard it before.

[legaleagle53]

6 minutes ago, rmontro said:

That's one of the few scenes that bugs me.  The way Dax is hunched over in the background looks very uncomfortable and unnatural.  I guess the idea is she's bending over to pay attention to the control panels, but it looks like they squished her into that position so that she would fit into the background of the scene with Kirk.  That's a pretty minor tribble - er, quibble, though.

That's a fantastic story.

Thanks  :)  That reminds though, of another bit I didn't like.  Where Dax gives the calculation of the amount of tribbles as one million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one, assuming an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every twelve hours over a period of three days, or whatever she says.  It's a direct quote of Spock's from the original Trouble with Tribbles episode, and we hear Spock say it again later in the same episode, and then Dax and Sisko look at each other.   She was kind of like "See, I was right", but it seemed a little out of character for her, because we don't usually see her coming up with these kind of calculations elsewhere in the series.  And also because the joke falls a little flat, since we've heard it before.

As I recall, when she and Sisko overheard Spock repeat what she had earlier said, Sisko looked at her and she just smiled and shrugged.  But you're right -- I always did wonder how she came up with the math on that one!

[SVNBob]

1 hour ago, legaleagle53 said:

But you're right -- I always did wonder how she came up with the math on that one!

The same way fellow science officer Spock did.  Here's how it goes.  There's 3 basic assumptions. 

1. Tribbles reproduce every 12 hours.
2. When they do, they have a litter of 10 (the average litter).
3. The total population started from 1 single tribble.

Given the 72 hour time-frame, that means 6 periods for tribble reproduction. Let's use P to represent those, and T to represent the number of tribbles.  That translates the 3rd assumption into: When P = 0, T = 1.

Let's move ahead 12 hours.  There's now the original tribble plus the new litter of 10.  So when P = 1, T = 11

Another 12 hours ahead; P = 2.  All 11 tribbles have a litter of 10 more tribbles each.  So 11 x 10 new tribbles (110), plus the 11 from before.  T = 121. 

And now we see a pattern developing.  121 is 11 squared, or 11 ^ 2.  11 is 11 to the first power, or 11 ^1, and 1 is 11 to the zeroth power, or 11 ^ 0.  (Any number to the power of 0 = 1, except maybe 0...but that's not relevant here).

So it's looking like the formula for T is simply 11 ^ P.  Let's make one more step forward to check.  P = 3.  The 121 tribbles reproducing gives us 1210 new tribbles (121 x 10), plus the old 121.  That's 1331 for T at P = 3, and that does equal 11 ^ 3.  The formula holds.

Let's now jump to the end; P = 6.  By the formula we've derived, T should be 11 ^ 6.  Doing the math, that totals 1771561.  Or "one million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one tribbles."  And it's all from relatively basic math.  (Especially given the ones that do said math are non-human and from the 23rd and 24th century. )  But there's other ways to look at it, and interesting implications if you continue the calculations.  It does seem that the Klingons were actually justified in exterminating the tribbles.  The Great Tribble Hunt might have even saved the galaxy.