Podcast Enterprise: S2E15 Trouble with Tribbles

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode begins, you find that the USS Enterprise is en route to a space station called K7. This space station is quite large and is very close to a planet called Sherman’s Planet, which is one of those strategic locations. It is a strategic planet claimed by both the Federation and the Klingons, and the only thing that is keeping these two races from going to war with each other is the Organian Peace Treaty. According to the treaty, neither race is allowed to fight each other; the Klingons cannot fight the humans, and the humans cannot fight the Klingons. They have to figure out a peaceful way to resolve any issue they may have, and that also applies to Sherman’s Planet.

As the Enterprise is en route to Deep Space Station K7, which is the last stop before Sherman’s Planet, they receive a code one alert from the space station. A code one alert indicates near-total destruction and an attack, so the Enterprise goes into red alert. Kirk orders them to travel at warp six speed, but when they get to the space station, they find absolutely nothing. There’s no Klingon attack, no sign of danger—just total silence. Everything is peaceful. Kirk gets communication from the space station manager, Lurry, who says that he has a problem and that Kirk better come down. There is no attack, which infuriates Kirk to no end. So, he goes down to the space station with Spock, and they meet a very charming individual called Nilz Barris, who is an undersecretary in charge of Sherman’s Planet for that quadrant.

Barris has issued a code one alert because he has a peculiar wheat, as Kirk likes to call it, called Quadrotriticale, which is the only thing that will grow on Sherman’s Planet. He has several tons of it stored on Deep Space Station K7 and wants Kirk to supply him with guards to protect the storage compartments. For that, he issued the code one alert. Immediately, Kirk and Barris are at loggerheads because neither can see eye to eye. Kirk believes that Barris is acting too powerful, while Barris feels that Kirk is being very unreasonable. In any case, Barris also has a very short-tempered aide called Arne Darvin, who has some secrets of his own, as we’ll discover later.

While all of this is happening, Kirk also declares shore leave because they’ve come so far, and the crew comes down to the space station. Here, at the bar of the space station, we are introduced to a very flamboyant merchant called Cyrano Jones, who is selling a lot of things. He’s trying to sell gems and some Anterian glow water. The barkeeper is not buying his stuff, but Uhura, who has come down for her shore leave, finds him selling a small, furry, purring, musical little creature called a Tribble. She is immediately taken in by that creature. She wants it, buys it, and takes it back to the Enterprise.

And that’s where the troubles begin because the Tribbles start multiplying. Soon there are eight, then several more. Dr. McCoy cannot figure out how these things are multiplying. The ship is soon overrun with Tribbles—they’re everywhere. They’re on the bridge, in the engine room, in the air vents, and even in the food synthesizers. While Kirk is getting a headache from this, the Klingons decide to orbit Space Station K7. The captain of the Klingon battle cruiser and his aide come down to Deep Space Station K7, adding to Kirk’s woes as he now has to deal with them and prevent an all-out war. Kirk tells them they can only bring 12 Klingons at a time for shore leave.

Pandemonium ensues as the Klingons provoke the humans on shore leave, leading to Scotty starting a fight with them. This results in a great deal of bruising, and shore leave is canceled for both sides. While Kirk is grappling with all these issues, he also manages to corner Cyrano Jones and ask why he didn’t warn them about how quickly the Tribbles reproduce. Nobody knows exactly how they reproduce, but they do. It then strikes Kirk that since the Tribbles are getting into the air vents and food synthesizers on the Enterprise, they’ve probably gotten into the storage compartments on Deep Space Station K7. This hunch proves correct, as on examining the storage compartments of the space station, Kirk finds that the Tribbles have eaten all of the Quadrotriticale, much to Barris’s anger.

Barris had tried to warn Kirk to look after the grain, but it was too late. All the grain is gone, and now the human race is at a disadvantage, leading to potential political ramifications. Kirk launches an investigation and eventually discovers that many of the Tribbles who ate the Quadrotriticale have died. It turns out that the Klingons had something to do with it—the Tribbles don’t like the Klingons, which becomes important later. McCoy informs Kirk that the grain has been infected with a virus that turns inert once ingested, eventually leading to starvation. This is what happened to all the Tribbles.

With some ingenious deductions, Kirk finds out that Barris’s volatile and short-tempered aide, Arne Darvin, is actually a Klingon surgically altered to look like a human. He is the one who poisoned the grain in an attempt to give the Klingons an advantage, potentially creating a war-like situation and allowing them to invade Sherman’s Planet. Once this is uncovered, Kirk has Darvin arrested and evicts the Klingon commander from Deep Space Station K7. Everything seems peaceful, but when Kirk returns to the Enterprise, he finds that there are no Tribbles left aboard. He wonders where they have gone, only for Scotty to humorously inform him that they have transferred all the Tribbles to the engine room of the Klingon spaceship. The Tribbles can’t stand the Klingons, and the Klingons can’t stand the Tribbles, leading to a very humorous ending where all’s well that ends well.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Acknowledgements

1. Intro music: Music from anchor.fm
2. Shotcut for editing the podcast
3. References: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/