“Learning to Love Star Trek” is a weekly blog series by Sci-Fi Block Editor in Chief Robert Ring, begun January 1, 2010. In this series of blog posts, Robert is endeavoring to determine whether he can make a Star Trek fan out of himself through an exposure to a combination of episodes from Star Trek the Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation (Update: TNG has now been replaced with Deep Space Nine). Click here to read his introduction to the experiment.

I had seen “The Trouble with Tribbles” once or twice before now, and at the time I had viewed very little Star Trek. I really did not get why the episode was so popular. Now I have watched a fair share of the series, and I gotta say, I still really don’t get what the great appeal of this episode is. This is, of course, the famous episode in which the Enterprise becomes overrun with cute little furry creatures while Kirk bickers with a Federation official and while his crew gets in fights with Klingons on a space station. In the end, I’m left wondering, What’s the point?.

I will say that I do see a few minor appealing facets of the episode. The tribbles themselves are unique and add a different dynamic from what we’re used to seeing on the show. Also, the character interaction is frequently amusing, even if it isn’t all that interesting. It’s fun to see Spock and Bones spar over the merits of cute creatures, which naturally leads to one of their classic arguments that basically hinges on Spock’s belief of the marginal inferiority of the human race, but there’s nothing special there. There are a few mildly comedic moments involving Kirk’s frustration with the creatures, but I find nothing especially great there, either (though I will admit, I laughed out loud at his growling outburst near the end: “WHERE?!”).

Aside from a handful of amusing elements, I don’t see anything engaging about the story itself. Kirk argues with a guy a lot, critters multiply exponentially around the Enterprise, and a random Klingon secret agent is discovered. Also, there’s Cyrano Jones, who I’m sure some people like, but who I completely hate. Way too annoying for my tastes, even if he is a fictional character. And I’m a Star Wars fan. Let that sink in.


This guy’s worse than Harry Mudd.

So, yeah. I just don’t get it. All I can see is that the tribbles are unique. According to Memory Alpha, co-producer Bob Justman didn’t like the episode because he felt like the humor was overdone. I disagree. I actually find the moments of humor slightly amusing. There’s just not much of it, and there’s nothing else to carry the story along.

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