The Trouble with Tribbles

Episode Summary & Review

Summary

Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, Sherman’s Planet will become a colony of whoever can best develop it. To that end, the Federation intends to ship a large quantity of quadrotriticale to that planet, and Federation Undersecretary Nilz Baris is determined that the grain will arrive, so he orders the manager of Space Station K-9 to issue a distress call! Enterprise responds to discover no emergency; Baris just wants guards for his grain. And then a Klingon ship arrives, seeking shore leave. And Cyrano Jones, an itinerant trader, also arrives, with some odd animals he calls tribbles. Some very hungry, odd animals…

Our Take

A rare comedy episode that actually lands, mostly thanks to William Campbell’s cheerful trader and the Tribbles themselves, whose squeaking chaos gives the whole crew something to bounce off of. Kirk getting buried in grain-eating furballs is still one of the series’ best visual gags, and the Klingon standoff keeps a real plot humming underneath the jokes. Easily worth your time.