“More Tribbles, More Troubles” is written by: David
Gerrold and is directed by: Hal Sutherland.
It was produced under production code 22001, was the 5th episode
of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was broadcast on October 6, 1973.
“The Trouble with Tribbles” was one of the best episodes of the original series of Star Trek, so it isn’t surprising that David Gerrold revisited the idea for Star Trek: The Animated Series. “More Tribbles, More Troubles” despite being aired fifth, was actually the first animated episode to enter production, something that makes sense when you think about it. It’s a follow-up to a popular, light-hearted episode that could easily ease the cast into the work of voicing animated counterparts to their live action characters. “More Tribbles, More Troubles” is Gerrold attempting a sequel to a story and it feels as if much of this one was mandated to have specific callbacks to the original episode: the ending included Kirk and a Klingon both in separate piles of Tribbles, the multiplication problem makes it slightly easier to animate how many of the Tribbles there are, and the tension between the crew of the Enterprise and the Klingons. This leads to an episode that could never really capture the same imagination or ingenuity of the original episode, as is often the problems with sequels. Gerrold makes this a direct sequel, it’s got a similar setting and the Enterprise is also delivering grain to the same system as in the original episode, but at least now the Enterprise and the Klingons know that Cyrano Jones is a conman, Stanley Adams returning to the episode in the role which is a very nice slice of camp for the performance. Gerrold is able to elevate the script by having Jones genetically modify the Tribbles so they won’t multiply and has apparently developed a Tribbles eater, a glommer. Gerrold's script is honestly the best thing about the episode, despite being derivative it's perhaps the most engaging episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series outside of "Yesteryear".
This is clearly an episode where the Tribbles are
going to be a problem, instead of multiplying they eat the grain and begin to
get bigger. No doubt this was done to
save on animation as it is easier to animate a growing Tribble over the
multiplying variety. The animation in
this episode, while still of the same quality of the other episodes I have
discussed thus far, is actually quite suited for the outright comedic style of
the script. There’s this genuinely funny
visual gag where Kirk cannot sit in the captain’s chair because a giant Tribble
is there. It also helps that like “The
Trouble with Tribbles”, “More Tribbles, More Troubles” has a strong conflict
with the Klingons, even if that conflict is only one Klingon character because of
budget and cast constraints (he is played by James Doohan. The big twist is that the glommer wasn’t developed
by Cyrano Jones, but the Klingons and
Kirk’s decision to give it back is one motivated by its uselessness against the
larger Tribbles. Shatner is clearly
having fun running circles around the Klingon, even if it’s also clear this was
an early episode that was recorded. In
fact the rest of the cast while helping still has that sense of getting used to
voiceover with even Leonard Nimoy being a little off. Somehow it is actually DeForest Kelley as
Bones who while is still in a supporting role seems to be understanding the
type of comedy episode he is in.
Overall, what saves and ultimately elevates “More
Tribbles, More Troubles” is not originality, but the sheer quality of David
Gerrold’s script as a writer. It does
the basic need of moving a sequel episode forward while slightly over relying
on the aspects that worked the best in the original episode. It’s when the visual callbacks happen that
the episode doesn’t work as well as it could have, because even with that
Gerrold is a writer who just captivates the audience throughout the 25 minutes
that I once again would have loved to see this as a live action episode. 8/10.
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