Star Trek
The Trouble with Tribbles
TV Flash files “The Trouble with Tribbles” as a desk essential hour — Star Trek (1966–1969) on NBC, season 2, episode 15, aired 1967-12-29, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E15: listed hour 44 of 79 in the Star Trek guide, hour 15 of 26 in season 2. It aired 1967-12-29 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Wolf in the Fold” (S02E14). Next is “The Gamesters of Triskelion” (S02E16).
Essential hour: “The Trouble with Tribbles”. Comedy as world-building. The cute hour that taught ensemble timing before the timeline had GIFs.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
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...
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Trouble with Tribbles sit in the Star Trek guide?
S02E15 is listed hour 44 of 79 — hour 15 of 26 in season 2, season 2 episode 15.
When did Star Trek S02E15 air?
The Trouble with Tribbles aired 1967-12-29 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start if I have never seen original Star Trek?
The aired opener is “The Man Trap,” but many first-timers prefer “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the second pilot and a cleaner crew contract. Either is fair. Do not start at season three.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it for the fandom operating system still running: letter campaigns that saved a starship, ship wars before we had the word, and hours the timeline still litigates. Cancelled is not dead if the group chat refuses to log off.
So about last night's group chat: someone said "The Man Trap" is a fake start, someone else dropped a Kirk/Spock still captioned canon, your honor, and a third person announced that season three is optional like that is a personality. This is not new discourse. This is 1966 with better lighting and worse sleep. NBC tried to bury a space opera on a Friday, then a Tuesday, then wherever the schedule could hide a show it did not understand. The audience refused to log off. (I said spoiler-free. I lied a little: the…
Filed against
- William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk
William Shatner’s Capt. James T. Kirk commanded Star Trek into cancelled immortality — fandom’s founding text, letter campaigns, conventions, ship wars before we had the word, and the doctrine that dead shows can live forever. Staccato…
- Leonard Nimoy as Spock
Leonard Nimoy’s Spock is Star Trek’s coworker who will not do small talk — a cancelled space opera that invented the fandom operating system. Letter campaigns, conventions, ship wars, the doctrine that cancelled can still mean immortal.…
- DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard McCoy
DeForest Kelley’s Dr. Leonard McCoy was Star Trek’s group chat that said the quiet part — ship’s doctor as workplace heat on a cancelled space opera that refused to die. Letter campaigns, conventions, ship wars before we had the word. TV…
- Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Nichelle Nichols’s Uhura is Star Trek’s communications officer as a fandom operating system — bridge presence that letter campaigns and convention culture refused to let NBC bury. Original Trek invented ship wars before we had the word;…
- James Doohan as Scotty
James Doohan’s Scotty is Star Trek as the miracle in the engine room — a cancelled space opera’s practical magic, beamed up from a three-season NBC run that fandom refused to let die. Conventions, letter campaigns, and the idea that…