We're honored to be joined for the duration of our deep dive on "The Trouble with Tribbles" by none other than its legendary writer, David Gerrold! Among Gerrold's many accomplishments over the years, he is the recipient of the 2022 Robert A. Heinlein Award, honoring a lifetime of outstanding achievements in science fiction writing.

When the Enterprise is summoned by a distress call from Space Station K-7, Captain Kirk is irritated to find that the so-called "emergency" requires him to do nothing more than protect some storage compartments full of a special form of wheat. But it turns out that the emergency is quite real, since that wheat is needed to revitalize nearby Sherman's Planet, a strategically-positioned territory that the Klingons also have a vested interest in. Just when Kirk thought he had his hands full with stuffy Federation bureaucrats and a shipload of Klingons itching for a fight, along comes an interplanetary hustler, who offers the Enterprise crew a cute, furry little creature that has a penchant for reproduction. Over the years, "The Trouble with Tribbles" has become so famous that even people who have never seen "Star Trek" before know what a Tribble is. But for those who have seen it -- and, in many cases, hundreds of times -- "The Trouble with Tribbles" has earned its iconic status in "Star Trek" lore, due to a cleverly-constructed teleplay by David Gerrold, brilliant direction by Joseph Pevney and superb performances from a game cast that fully embraced the episode's delightful and comedic tone. After all, the image of Captain Kirk buried under a mountain of Tribbles is enough to bring a smile to anyone's face, as does everything else about this timeless classic.

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