Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 5-06: Trials and Tribble-ations - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the second half of Deep Space Nine's big 30th anniversary episode, Trials and Tribble-ations! Click HERE for part one.

Hey, have you ever wondered how many Star Trek episodes have a dash in the title? Because I haven't. It had never even crossed my mind until right now. The answer is "8": The Magicks of Megas-tu, The Counter-Clock Incident, Q-Less, Trials and Tribble-ations, The Siege of AR-558, Badda-Bing Badda-Bang, Species Ten-C and First Con-tact.

I originally planned to mention here that this is the highest-rated Deep Space Nine episode on IMDb, but it's not anymore. It's dropped to second place, behind In the Pale Moonlight. That's a shame I reckon, because the very next episode to air, Let He Who is Without Sin, is the lowest-rated episode on IMDb. That's the biggest gap in quality between adjacent episodes since The City on the Edge of Forever came out the week after The Alternative Factor.

Alright, I'll be analysing the second half of Trials and Tribble-ations so there will be SPOILERS below. There may be some spoilers here for earlier series as well, but I won't spoil anything that comes after this episode.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 5-06: Trials and Tribble-ations - Part 1

Episode:

104

|

Writer:

Ronald D. Moore & René Echevarria

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Director:

Jonathan West

|

Air Date:

04-Nov-1996

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've finally reached Deep Space Nine's legendary Star Trek: The Original Series tribute episode Trials and Tribble-ations! This would've been a more impressive milestone for me if I hadn't skipped 73 episodes to get here.

Man, I haven't written about a Deep Space Nine episode in four years, that's crazy. I could've waited three more years and written about this 30th-anniversary episode on its own 30th anniversary, but I just wrote about The Trouble with Tribbles and More Tribbles, More Troubles and I've got to complete my tribble trilogy. (Publishing this 8 days earlier would've also been good).

This was the first tribble episode to not be written by David Gerrold, because he didn't work on Deep Space Nine. Instead, they assigned this to Ronald D. Moore and René Echevarria, who clearly knew a bit about the classic show. It was directed by Jonathan West, who'd also been working as DS9's director of photography since the start of season three. I guess his cinematography skills were useful for a project like this.

Okay, I'm going to go through Trials and Tribble-ations scene-by-scene with screencaps, so there'll be SPOILERS below. This is first-time viewer friendly, however! Everything Star Trek that aired after November 4th 1996 is off limits, everything that came before is fair game.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-11: Rivals

Episode:

31

|

Writer:

Joe Menosky

|

Air Date:

02-Jan-1994

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally writing some thoughts about Deep Space Nine's Rivals. Not Relics or Rascals or whatever else my brain keeps telling me to type.

I'm not getting back into writing about 26 DS9 episodes a year, because that turned out to be work, but I hope to throw in the occasional episode every now and then. Rivals is perhaps not the DS9 episode most people would pick to write about if they could only choose one, but I promised I'd get around to it eventually so I feel like I owe it to you. Even though I promised it way back in January 2018.

Another reason I picked this one to write about is because it's the next episode after Sanctuary, so it means I haven't skipped any yet. By the way the intro to my Sanctuary review has gotten hilarious wrong in the meantime, and it's getting a little more wrong all the time:

"There will never be more episodes of Trek airing in a year ever again. Unless Discovery gets three spin-offs and they're all released simultaneously."

2019 won't be breaking 1993's 55 episode record, but with Discovery, Short Treks, Picard and Lower Decks in production, plus the other cartoon, the Section 31 spin-off, and a possible Starfleet Academy series on the horizon, it seems possible we'll soon be getting more Trek episodes a year than ever before.

Rivals was the first Star Trek episode to air in 1994 by the way. 1994 was an important time for Deep Space Nine as it was the year that Star Trek: The Next Generation ended, leaving DS9 to represent the franchise entirely on its own... for a dozen episodes or so. Then Voyager started up and got all the attention. DS9 also got its very own nemesis that year, as Babylon 5's first season started airing a few weeks after this episode. (At least that's how it worked out in the US. For folks watching Trek on BBC 2 in the UK, Babylon 5 beat DS9 to television by over a year.)

Anyway there'll be SPOILERS for the whole damn episode below, and I'll probably end up spoiling something from an earlier episode of Star Trek as well. I mean an episode that aired earlier, not an episode from one of the prequels. No Discovery or Enterprise spoilers here.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-10: Sanctuary

Episode:

30

|

Writer:

Frederick Rappaport

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Air Date:

28-Nov-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'd like to apologise for my inability to stick to my long-term plans for the site. I didn't actually tell anyone I was planning to get a Deep Space Nine episode review posted on January 3rd in time for the 25th anniversary, but I was. Also the plan was to have reached a good episode by then, so that I could celebrate the series, and instead I've ended up with... Sanctuary. By the writer of Move Along Home. I'm so sorry.

Not that I'm saying that Sanctuary's a bad episode. No, it would make much more sense to save that bombshell until later in the review.

By the way, every time I start writing about a DS9 episode I check the episode's air date to put in the box above, and then I invariably add '1993' to the post's labels because every single episode I've rewatched and reviewed so far was first aired during the same 12 months. That's 30 episodes in one year, how is that even possible? Well 29 really, seeing as Emissary aired as one feature-length story. But Sanctuary was the penultimate Star Trek episode of 1993, with Next Gen's Parallels bringing the franchise's busiest ever year of television to an end a day later. There will never be more episodes of Trek airing in a year ever again. Unless Discovery gets three spin-offs and they're all released simultaneously.

I'd also planned to make this one of my quick reviews, without the long recap, but it didn't work out. I ended up with a long rant about a four-minute scene that happens in the fourth act and barely mentioned anything else. So I've gone and rewritten the whole thing, to give you more SPOILERS and to give me just a little more reason to resent watching it.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-09: Second Sight (Quick Review)

Episode:

29

|

Writer:

Mark Gehred-O'Connell & Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe

|

Air Date:

21-Nov-1993

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm starting to think they should've given Colm Meaney some sci-fi googles before setting off sparks right in his face.

I'm up to episode 29 of Deep Space Nine, the second season's Second Sight, which is the first episode to feature Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe writing together as a team. The two of them together would later give us some of the very best episodes of the whole series... and a bunch of those crappy Ferengi episodes too. There's no Ferengi in this one, but I remember hating it anyway, so I'm going to be lazy and only give it a quick review, without the long recap.

There'll still be SPOILERS though, for this and earlier episodes of Star Trek, so consider yourself forewarned.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-08: Necessary Evil

Episode:

28

|

Writer:

Peter Allan Fields

|

Air Date:

14-Nov-1993

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Deep Space Nine's Necessary Evil, by writer Peter Allan Fields and director James L. Conway. I'm mentioning those names because they happen to be the same ones you'll find in the credits for season one's Duet, which is maybe the best episode so far. In fact looking at the other stories they'd later work on separately (Way of the Warrior, For the Cause, In the Pale Moonlight for instance) it seems like neither of them really understood how to make a bad episode.

Though I did watch an episode of The Orville that Conway directed a few weeks back... and my research for that reminded me he did that episode of Next Gen where Wesley Crusher falls into a flower bed and is given a death sentence. And then dies. R.I.P. Wesley. Or maybe he doesn't, I don't want to spoil it.

But if you continue past this point you will find a huge variety of SPOILERS for Necessary Evil and perhaps a couple of earlier Trek episodes as well. It's a detective story based around a couple of mysteries, so you might want to be more careful with this one if you haven't seen it before/in a while.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-07: Rules of Acquisition (Quick Review)

Episode:

27

|

Writer:

Ira Steven Behr

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Air Date:

07-Nov-1993

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about second season Deep Space Nine episode Rules of Acquisition (originally known as 'Rules of Aquisition', without the 'c', but they fixed the title for later broadcasts).

I started listening to a Deep Space Nine podcast called The Rules of Acquisition a while back, and I was a little disappointed to discover that they're not just covering this one episode every week, over and over again. They could've Star Wars Minute'd it for the first 43 podcasts, then started to delve more deeply into its themes and philosophy over the next few years, but nope they had to move onto episodes people would actually want to hear about instead. Though they also keep spoiling Westworld and Game of Thrones, so I may have to pause listening to them until I've experienced all popular entertainment released up until the podcast airdate. But that's fine, as I've still got quality DS9 podcasts like Greatest Generation: DS9, bOrgcast and soon Misson Log to listen to if I want to remind myself how redundant my own website is.

I've been giving Deep Space Nine episodes a full screencap recap up to this point, but there's 26 of the bloody things this season and I've got other things I want to write about too, so this is one's going to be a quick review instead (because it's a Ferengi story and I hate 'em). There'll still be massive SPOILERS for the episode and possibly earlier Trek episodes too, but I'll not spoil anything released later.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-06: Melora

Episode:

26

|

Writer:

Evan Carlos Somers and Steven Baum and Michael Piller & James Crocker

|

Air Date:

31-Oct-1993

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures it's two-thirds of the way through October and I'm only up to episode 6 of Deep Space Nine's second season. I'm starting to think that I'm going to run out of year before I can finish the season off.

It's not the worst time to watch this episode though, as Melora originally aired in October. In fact, it was shown on the 31st, but I don't think it's a horror episode. At least, not deliberately. Though it's an episode with a character's name as its one-word title and they're rarely ever good in my experience.

I should probably have made this one a quick review and gotten it over with, but instead it's getting the full recap treatment, with maximum SPOILERS. I may also spoil events in earlier Trek episodes, but nothing that came later.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-05: Cardassians

Episode:

25

|

Writer:

James Crocker

|

Air Date:

24-Oct-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about an episode of Deep Space Nine that's probably about Cardassians.

I won't bore you with a long introduction this time. Just be aware that I'll be recapping the whole episode and referring back to earlier Star Trek episodes, so there'll be massive SPOILERS. You'll not see any spoilers for episodes aired afterwards through (Star Trek or otherwise).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-04: Invasive Procedures

Episode:

24

|

Writer:

John Whelpley and Robert Hewitt Wolfe

|

Air Date:

17-Oct-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about more Deep Space Nine. Season 2, episode 4: Invasive Procedures, to be precise.

The series' second season kicked off with a big flashy three-parter with a phaser fight every episode, plus location shoots, Odo morphs, an elaborate dogfight sequence, stuntmen falling off cliffs... it was basically a two-hour apology for season one. But those kinds of episodes come at a cost, and in this case, the cost was money, so I expect these next few stories are going to be on the cheap side. Though they did pay to put a smokey space-fog background behind the station this week, which is cool.

We're also done with serialisation for a while, probably because certain people in certain positions of authority wanted to keep everything contained to single episodes that could be watched in any order. To be fair though this was still a fair few years before DVD season box sets and Netflix, and the ridiculously expensive VHS tapes only had 2 episodes on.

Anyway, I'm going to sharing screencaps of the whole episode and writing down my thoughts underneath, so there's going to be massive SPOILERS past this point. Plus I'll probably end up spoiling something from an earlier episode of Trek along the way, but nothing from anything that came after this. As far as I'm concerned it's October 1993 right now, and I don't even know what a DVD or a Netflix even is.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-03: The Siege

Episode:

23

|

Writer:

Michael Piller

|

Air Date:

10-Oct-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm back to Deep Space Nine, watching second season episode The Siege, which is something entirely different to seventh season episode The Siege of AR-558 and should definitely not be mixed up with third season episode The Search... even though that's what I accidentally ended up writing on my notes.

The Siege is the dramatic conclusion to the 'The' trilogy, following on from The Homecoming and The Circle (I suppose you could also call it 'The Circle trilogy' if you want to be a soulless minion of orthodoxy). I can't see any strange Babylon 5/Deep Space Nine coincidences to mention here, but slightly space-stationy Stargate spin-off Stargate: Atlantis also starts its second season with an epic three-parter that's resolved with an episode called The Siege, so that seems like something worth mentioning.

The episode's by writer/producer Michael Piller and director Winrich Kolbe, the folks who kicked off Next Gen's first good season with the episode Evolution and would later work on Voyager's pilot Caretaker, so they've brought out the big guns on this one. Doesn't mean that it's going to be good, they've made a lot of crap between the two of them too, but I'm hopeful.

Okay, I'll be recapping the episode and writing my commentary under fuzzy DVD screencaps, so there'll be massive SPOILERS. In fact I'll probably end up spoiling things from other Star Trek stories too, but only ones that came before it. Anything released after 10th October 1993 is safe.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-02: The Circle

Episode:

21

|

Writer:

Peter Allan Fields

|

Air Date:

03-Oct-1993

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This month on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching The Circle, which is the very first episode of Deep Space Nine to have a 'previously on' clip at the start. That's because it's the second part of the The Homecoming, though you wouldn't know it from the title.

Up until this point, two-parters in Star Trek have been clearly labelled, so we've had The Menagerie, Part II, The Best of Both Worlds, Part II, Chain of Command, Part II etc. and Voyager would later continue the tradition. DS9 just had to be different though... except for the couple of times when it wasn't.

This is Peter Allan Fields' first story for the series after Duet last year, which was an oasis of awesome in that desolate wasteland of a season. I'm hoping that this is a: better, and b: pretty average for season two, because the series could really use a sharp increase in quality.

I'll be recapping the whole episode with beautiful SD screencaps from the Region 2 DVDs and throwing in some of my commentary along the way. This means that there'll be SPOILERS for the whole episode and I'm considering anything else with the Star Trek name on it released before October '93 to be fair game too. I won't spoil what comes after though... or things that came before in prequel.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-01: The Homecoming

Episode:

21

|

Writer:

Ira Steven Behr

|

Air Date:

26-Sep-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the first episode of Deep Space Nine season 2! It's also the first part of the first three-parter in Star Trek history, and the first multi-part story in the franchise where each part has a different title.

It's not the first episode by Ira Steven Behr though, as he wrote that bloody The Nagus episode last season. But that's fine, even the best writers have their off days. Though if I ever see more than three Ferengi on screen at once I'm turning it off.

I'll be screencapping the entire episode and writing my thoughts underneath as I go, so expect SPOILERS. I'm considering any Star Trek episode made before it to be fair game, but I won't be spoiling anything that aired after it.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 1 Review

No episode here today on Sci-Fi Adventures, instead I'm going to write about the whole of Deep Space Nine's difficult first season, all 19 episodes of it, and I really hope I can remember something about them otherwise this is going to be a bit of a struggle.

Uh... Q getting punched, Rumpelstiltskin, allamaraine count to four, Sisko's insanity clock, computer dog, Troi's mother, jumja sticks... if I think hard enough some of it's coming back to me.

As this is a season review it's likely to contain some SPOILERS for everything from Emissary to In the Hands of the Prophets and possibly earlier Trek episodes too, so proceed with caution. I've already spoiled that Q gets punched, imagine what else I could end up ruining for you!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1-20: In the Hands of the Prophets

Episode:

20

|

Writer:

Robert Hewitt Wolfe

|

Air Date:

20-06-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm going to go through the final episode of Deep Space Nine's first season and write words underneath my screencaps. This is it, the end's in sight, I just have to clear these last 40 minutes or so and I'll have fulfilled the promise I made all the way back in my Emissary review to write about every episode in season one!

In the Hands of the Prophets is the first Deep Space Nine episode with 'Prophets' in the title. I wish I could say something like "when the word 'Prophet' appears in the title you know something huge is about to go down", but to be honest it only appears in three episodes titles throughout the entire seven year run, and one of them is a Ferengi episode. The writers resisted the prophet/profit pun for two and a half years, but in the end they were only human.

Plus this is the first Trek season since The Best of Both Worlds to not end on with part one of a two-parter. Voyager would later carry on Next Gen's tradition of making people suffer for months with a cliffhanger, but DS9 preferred to leave viewers with a feeling that next year shit's going to get even more real.

Alright I'm going to go through the whole damn episode and write anything that jumps into my mind along the way, so there will be SPOILERS for this story and other Trek episodes that came before it. I'll not spoil later seasons though.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1-19: Duet

Episode:

19

|

Writer:

Peter Allan Fields

|

Air Date:

13-Jun-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm up to the penultimate episode of DS9 season one!

Duet is the third episode of the season with Peter Allan Fields' name on it, following Dax and Progress, and it's got yet another one-word title! What is this, Voyager? Out of curiosity I checked his season two episodes and noticed that they all had two-word titles... until he ruined his streak with Crossover. And then he retired from his staff position as a producer, so no three-word titles for the third season.

I'm going to go through the whole episode, writing comments under screencaps, so you probably don't want to read any further unless you've already seen it. The episode's all about a mystery, so my SPOILERS could really do some damage to your enjoyment. I may also spoil events from earlier Star Trek episodes, but nothing that happens later.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1-18: Dramatis Personae

Episode:

18

|

Writer:

Joe Menosky

|

Air Date:

30-May-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, the antepenultimate episode of Deep Space Nine season 1!

Dramatis Personae holds the honour of being the very first episode in Star Trek history to have a Latin phrase as its title (it refers to the cast of characters in a play). It's also the first DS9 episode by writer Joe Menosky, who didn't write a whole lot of DS9 but was considerably more prolific on Next Gen and co-wrote many of the big two-parters on Voyager with Brannon Braga. He skipped Enterprise, but he's currently on board Star Trek: Discovery as a staff writer.

I don't like a lot of his Next Gen episodes but I do like a number of his Voyager stories so I'm not sure what I'm going to think about this. Maybe the story's way better than I remember it being. Maybe it's saved by some great character scenes. Or maybe it's a season one episode and I shouldn't get my hopes up.

I'm going to recap and review the episode as I go so there'll be many many SPOILERS below, including ones for earlier Trek episodes no doubt. But the 400-something episodes that came after it are safe.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1-17: The Forsaken

Episode:

17

|

Writer:

Don Carlos Dunaway and Michael Piller

|

Air Date:

23-May-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the final disc of my Deep Space Nine season 1 DVD set! The finish line is within sight. But first I need to make it through... a Lwaxana Troi episode.

The Forsaken is the first of three Lwaxana Troi episodes on DS9 and I'm surprised to have reached it so early; I didn't think she appeared until season 2 or 3. In fact I'm surprised she shows up on the series at all, considering how tied the character is to her daughter Deanna Troi, who was making appearances on every Trek series besides DS9.

It could've been worse though. In the series bible Lwaxana's listed as one of the recurring characters, alongside Jake, Nog, Keiko and Gul Dukat! Though the actress, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, has made at least five appearances in the series so far... playing the computer on board Starfleet ships.

I'm going to be recapping and reviewing the whole episode, with big screencaps everywhere, so there will be SPOILERS. For this episode and some of the ones that have come before it (perhaps including Next Gen eps). But I won't say a word about what happens afterwards, aside from just then when I mentioned how many episodes Lwaxana was in, and that Deanna shows up in everything.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1-16: If Wishes Were Horses

Episode:

16

|

Writer:

Nell McCue Crawford & William L. Crawford and Michael Piller

|

Air Date:

16-May-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've finally reached Deep Space Nine's leprechaun Rumpelstiltskin episode!

If Wishes Were Horses is an episode of Star Trek about imaginary creatures harassing the crew, because this is what happens when a writing staff is put under pressure to put out 20 something episodes a year. They start going strange, and this tends to get worse the longer the series goes on for (see: Next Gen season 7). Makes me glad that Star Trek: Discovery is only getting 13 episodes for its first season.

I have to admit that I'm dreading this one, but I don't really remember it, so it's possible that it'll surprise me in a good way! Maybe all those people who put it down near the bottom 10 in their DS9 episode lists were just being mean to it because they hate fun. Or maybe not.

Okay I'm going to recap the episode with screencaps, observations, opinions and SPOILERS, but only for this story and maybe a few that came before it. I'll give away nothing about where the series is going... except that it gets better, I promise.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1-15: Progress

Episode:

15

|

Writer:

Peter Allan Fields

|

Air Date:

09-May-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm digging through another episode of Deep Space Nine. A Kira episode in fact, which means more Bajoran problems.

Progress is Peter Allan Fields' second episode of DS9 after co-writing Dax with D.C. Fontana, and he'd have his name on eight more scripts before the end of its run. Stories like Necessary Evil, For the Uniform, In the Pale Moonlight, Duet... oh plus he also wrote The Inner Light for Next Gen. It's been a long while since I've seen either series, but I feel like they were some of the good ones. So you'd think that I'd be getting my hopes up right about now, but there's another piece of writing I need to take into account and that's the words "SEASON 1" on the box this episode came in. It's rarely a good omen for science fiction series, especially this one.

I'll be recapping the entire episode and sharing my opinions along the way, so you should expect SPOILERS for any episode (or movie) so far. Everything that comes after is safe though.