Trials and Tribble-ations
"Trials and Tribble-ations" is the 104th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the sixth episode of the fifth season. It was written as a tribute to the original series of Star Trek, in the year of that show's 30th anniversary; sister series Voyager also produced a tribute episode, "Flashback".
Set in the 24th century, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine follows the adventures of the crew of the space station Deep Space Nine, near the planet Bajor, as the Bajorans recover from a brutal, decades-long occupation by the imperialistic Cardassians. In this episode, Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew aboard the USS Defiant are taken back in time to the events of the Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", and must work to prevent the assassination of Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise by a Klingon using a booby-trapped tribble.
The idea for the episode was suggested by René Echevarria, and Ronald D. Moore suggested the link to "The Trouble with Tribbles". The two were credited for their work on the teleplay, with the story credit going to Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler and Robert Hewitt Wolfe. The episode features the Deep Space Nine actors digitally inserted into footage from the Original Series. Actor Charlie Brill, who played the role of Arne Darvin in "The Trouble With Tribbles", returned to reprise the role as an older Darvin.
"Trials and Tribble-ations" was warmly received by critics with praise directed at the nostalgia and level of detail seen on screen. It was the most watched episode of the fifth season. "Trials and Tribble-ations" was nominated in three Primetime Emmy Award categories and for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but did not win any awards. It was released on VHS initially alongside "The Trouble with Tribbles", and later as part of the normal release schedule. It was subsequently released as part of the season five DVD set.
Plot
Agents from the Department of Temporal Investigations 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, 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 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.
Original "Tribbles" creator David Gerrold was contacted by The New York Times, who wanted to interview him about the anniversary and the rumored "tribbles" episode. When he questioned Berman about the episode, Berman initially denied it. Gerrold responded that he did not want to embarrass anyone, but would like to be able to endorse the project. Berman asked what the endorsement would cost, to which Gerrold requested public acknowledgement of his work and to be cast as an extra in the episode. Berman agreed. Gerrold compared inserting new footage into an existing episode to Back to the Future Part II and later said that he would have gone in a different direction had he written the story. Nonetheless, he said the final product ended up being better than anything he would have created.
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.