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Star Trek TAS - Season 1 - Episode 05

Star Trek TAS - 1x05 - More Tribbles, More Troubles

Originally Aired: 1973-10-6

Synopsis:
The tribbles return for more trouble as the Enterprise encounters Cyrano Jones, the Klingons and a new breed of the popular pest. [Blu-ray] [DVD]

My Rating - 7

Fan Rating Average - 4.9

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Problems
- While Scotty was beaming the passenger from the scout ship onto the Enterprise, he magically acquires and loses a mustache several times, probably because they were using stock footage of the mustached transporter operator guy for half of the cuts.

Factoids
- This episode is a kind of "part 2" for TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles.
- We get to see a Klingon emblem for the first time in this episode.

Remarkable Scenes
- The Klingons attacking the scout ship.
- The Klingons disabling the Enterprise with their new weapon.
- Uhura, regarding the ship being defenseless: "We could always throw rocks!"
- Spock: "You can't afford to lose that grain!" Kirk: "I can afford to lose the Enterprise even less!"
- Kirk winning against the Klingons using the robot ships.
- A tribble eating creature! Hahaha.
- The tribble eating creature trying to sink his teeth into a giant tribble.
- Kirk reluctantly defending Cyrano Jones from the Klingons.
- The Klingons buried in tribbles.
- Kirk buried in tribbles.

My Review
This episode is a funny homage to TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles. Indeed, it's funnier than the original, even if less intelligent a plot. You have to forgive it for that, as TAS was largely marketed to children. Granted it was cliched to deliberately bury people in tribbles again, I would have seen it as a missed opportunity if they hadn't taken advantage. :)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

  • From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2009-10-14 at 1:02pm:
    Funnier than the original? This is a tiny fraction of comedy compared to The Trouble With Tribbles.

    Oh yeah, is it me, or are they mispronouncing the name of the grain (quadrotriticale) throughout this episode?
  • From CAlexander on 2011-04-05 at 10:42pm:
    I didn't think it was as funny as the Trouble with Tribbles, but it was cute. As you say, a less intelligent plot.

    - The tactic of using the robot freighters to overload the Klingon battlecruiser was interesting because it was a real, legitimate tactic, rather than the "make up imaginary scientific words" tactics so often used in later Star Trek shows.
    - A weapon that can render the Enterprise helpless and susceptible to boarding hardly sounds useless. I guess it was too expensive, and the Federation must have developed counter-measures.
    - The Klingon captain's voice is so wimpy sounding, it is really hard to imagine this is the same species that becomes so ultra-macho in later shows.

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