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

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Writer:

Ronald D. Moore & René Echevarria

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Director:

Jonathan West

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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: The Animated Series 1-05: More Tribbles, More Troubles

Episode:

5

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Writer:

David Gerrold

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Director:

Hal Sutherland

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Air Date:

06-Oct-1973

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally watching a Star Trek: The Animated Series episode! That's because today is the series' 50th anniversary!

It's also the 50th anniversary of Lassie's Rescue Rangers, Everything's Archie, My Favorite Martians, and Mission: Magic!, the other four cartoon spin-offs started by Filmation in 1973, but Star Trek: The Animated Series has had a more lasting impact. People actually remember it existed. That's partly because they went to the trouble of bringing (most) of the original cast back and got scripts from writers who'd worked on Star Trek before. It's partly because the series goes absolutely crazy half the time. But it's mostly because it's got Star Trek in the title. The series did fall out of favour for a long while, but it's been invited back into the family in recent years. Maybe someday they'll invite Star Trek: Prodigy back as well.

Anyway, the episode I'm watching isn't the pilot. It's More Troubles, More Tribbles, the sequel to The Trouble with Tribbles, written by the same writer! Well, one of the writers, as Gene Coon wasn't around to do an uncredited rewrite this time. It'd been a long time since The Troubles with Tribbles had first aired, five years, but Trek had become a hit in repeats so I'm sure people were eager for more tribbles. I know I am.

There will be SPOILERS below for this episode and maybe some earlier ones as I go through it scene by scene and share my thoughts, but I won't spoil anything about later stories. Except for Harry Mudd showing up again eventually, I totally give that away.

Star Trek: The Original Series 2-15: The Trouble With Tribbles

Episode:

44

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Writer:

David Gerrold

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Director:

Joseph Pevney

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Air Date:

29-Dec-1967

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm going to try to find something new to say about The Trouble with Tribbles, arguably the most famous episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It's the one with the tribbles in it.

You've probably figured out from the clues that this was written by David Gerrold. In fact, it was his first professional sale. He went on to provide two scripts for Star Trek: The Animated Series and was part of the team that developed Star Trek: The Next Generation, even writing some of the series bible. Unfortunately, season 1 TNG was a damn mess behind the scenes and he left the show without writing a single episode.

The title card doesn't mention that it was heavily rewritten by producer Gene Coon. It was one of his final episodes as producer, as the work was exhausting and he was butting heads with Gene Roddenberry over the amount of comedy he was bringing to what was supposed to be a serious show.

This was originally the last episode of 1967, which basically covered Coon's time on the series, give or take a few episodes. It's probably not a coincidence that 1967 may have also featured the best run of stories in the franchise's history. They weren't all winners, but the first episode to air that year was The Galileo Seven, one of my favourites, then you've got stories like Arena, Space Seed, Devil in the Dark, Errand of Mercy, City on the Edge of Forever, Amok Time, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel etc. I'm not saying that Gene Coon was the real talent behind classic Star Trek, it was a team effort, but the show shined brightest when he was part of that team. And not just a freelancer dropping off scripts like Spock's Brain.

Okay, I'm going to be going through the whole episode and writing my thoughts underneath screencaps, so there will be SPOILERS here. I won't spoil anything that aired after it though. Even episodes that actually have 'tribbles' in the title.

Babylon 5: A Call to Arms - Part 3

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the final third of the 5th Babylon 5 movie, A Call to Arms.

I'm getting really close to the end of the Babylon 5 franchise now, with only 13 episodes of Crusade, one more pilot movie and two Lost Tales left to go before it's all over. Oh, plus an animated movie that came out of nowhere recently. And there is always the threat of that reboot series actually getting made, along with more animated films. But after all that I'll be done.

I suppose it could be worse. I could be working my way through Doctor Who or Star Trek...

This is the third and final part of my A Call to Arms review, so if you want to go back to PART ONE or PART TWO click the appropriate text. This is going to include big SPOILERS for the movie and the rest of Babylon 5, but I'll not spoil anything about Crusade.

Babylon 5: A Call to Arms - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the middle third of the Babylon 5 movie A Call to Arms, which is basically the pilot for the short-lived spin-off series Crusade. Or the prologue to it at least. It lays the groundwork.

The film aired on TNT right at the start of 1999, just 7 weeks after the previous movie, The River of Souls... which was arguably a bit too soon. Especially considering that it had only been a month since viewers had said an emotional goodbye to the characters in Sleeping in Light. It's like when half the Star Trek cast came back for the movie Star Trek: Generations right after wrapping their era up with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, except worse because those guys at least waited three years!

This is part two (of three) so if you want to go back to PART ONE, click that text. This will include big SPOILERS for the movie and the rest of Babylon 5, so be aware of that. I'll not spoil anything about Crusade, however.

Babylon 5: A Call to Arms - Part 1

Written By:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Directed By:

Mike Vejar

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Release Date:

1999

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the first part of my three-part review of the Babylon 5 TV movie A Call to Arms! Here's a fun fact for you straight away: this is one of only two Babylon 5 stories to share its name with a Deep Space Nine episode (the other being Chrysalis). 

A Call to Arms is the last of the four Babylon 5 TV movies made for TNT, as The Legend of the Rangers was actually made for the Sci Fi Channel. Legend of the Rangers features a new cast and new sets, and it goes off doing its own things. Call to Arms, on the other hand, is a proper Babylon 5 movie, featuring the station and the lead characters and everything. A Call to Arms and The Legend of the Rangers are similar in some ways though, as they were both designed to function as a pilot movie and both of their spin-offs got cancelled before a single episode had aired. At least Call to Arms' series, Crusade, was able to get 13 episodes filmed before being shut down.

Call to Arms also had the proper Babylon 5 production team behind it, with J. Michael Straczynski writing and Mike Vejar returning to direct. They didn't bring back composer Christopher Franke however, making this the first B5 story to be missing his music since the original pilot (and they eventually went back and rescored that to match the rest of the series). Instead, this features a soundtrack by Evan Chen, who'd continue to work on the Crusade series.

Alright, I'm going to go through the whole film scene by scene sharing my reactions and observations, so there will be huge SPOILERS here for the movie and perhaps the rest of Babylon 5. I won't spoil a thing about Crusade or Legend of the Rangers, however.