Episode Behind the Scenes

TREKCORE > TOS > EPISODES > THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES > Behind the Scenes

This episode would later serve as the basis of the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Trials and Tribble-ations".
   
David Gerrold wrote a sequel episode that would have been produced for the fourth season. However, when the show was cancelled, Gerrold later turned it into "More Tribbles, More Troubles" for "Star Trek: The Animated Series".
   
David Gerrold wrote a story outline for an early episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" called "Blood and Fire" in which the Regulan Bloodworms that are referenced here contaminate the U.S.S. Copernicus. Starfleet regulations require ships infected with the Bloodworms to be destroyed on site in order to prevent the spread of them. However, the Enterprise doesn't learn of the contamination until after Commander Riker leads an away team over to the Copernicus. Aboard the Enterprise are two homosexual crewmembers named Freeman and Eakins, who must give blood transfusions to the away team in order to keep them alive. The episode was designed to be an allegory to the AIDS scare of the 1980s. Everyone on staff allegedly loved the episode, but Gene Roddenberry's lawyer advised him not to produce it.
   
William Campbell, who played Captain Koloth, previously played Trelane in "The Squire of Gothos". He would later reprise the role of Koloth in the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Blood Oath". Koloth would also reappear in "More Tribbles, More Troubles", although he'd be voiced by James Doohan.
   
Michael Pataki, who played Korax, would later play Karnas in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Too Short a Season". Korax would later reappear in "More Tribbles, More Troubles", although, he'd be voiced by David Gerrold.
   
Stanley Adams, who played Cyrano Jones, would later reprise the role in "More Tribbles, More Troubles". Adams, himself, would later write "The Mark of Gideon".
   
When Koloth is requesting that the tribbles be removed from the room, part of his goatee (on his left side) disappears.
   
In the last exterior shot of the Enterprise and the station, neither one is moving.
   
Chekov's drink repeatedly changes hands between shots.
   
Kirk says the Klingons will always be accompanied by an equal number of security guards, but there are no security guards present during the bar fight.
   
During the bar fight there's nobody with blue shirts present, but when Kirk lines up the supposed participants for discipline, there are two men with blue shirts present.
   
Kirk confines Scotty to quarters, but a scene or two later he's back on the bridge and stays there until the end of the episode.
   
Charlie Brill, who played Arne Darvin, would later reprise the role in "Trials and Tribble-ations."