Host Name: Ethan C
Date For TVBC Session: 4/11/2021
Show Name: Star Trek: TOS
Episode Title(s): The Trouble With Tribbles
Season(s): 2
Episode #: 15
Source(s): Amazon Prime
Episode Length: 50 min
Show Description/Introduction:
The show that started it all... Gene Roddenberry had an image of the ideal human society and (retroactively) mandated that in Star Trek, the 24th century humans would have solved all the world's problems and as such they would never be in conflict with each other (a rule that was subsequently broken in DS9). The series was cancelled after the third year in 1969 but the cult following was strong.
Captain James Tiberius Kirk: Lothario, risk-taker, and the most casual officer on the ship.
Lt. Uhura: Communications officer and a female (!). Always has an oversized earbud in her ear.
Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy: The ship's doctor who hates Spock. His catch phrases are "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor not a [insert profession here]" and "It's worse than that - he's dead Jim." Neither are featured in this episode.
Spock: Half-human and half-Vulcan, a race of aliens who eschew emotion in the pursuit of pure logic. Spock disdains his human heritage and has gone full Vulcan.
Montgomery Scott: The hard drinking salty chief engineer. He's Scottish if you can't tell.
Ensign Smith: The hitherto anonymous guy in a red shirt who always joins the away team on mission with most of the important command crew and dies within five minutes (not featured here).
Other Characters:
* Alexander Rozhenko (species: Klingon-human; allegiance: Klingon Empire) - Worf’s son with the now deceased Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire (who was half Klingon). Alexander was raised mostly by Worf’s adoptive parents on Earth and has not had much of a relationship with his father, although they are now becoming closer. Alexander has enlisted with the Klingon Defense Force and is fighting with them in the Dominion War.
* General Martok (species: Klingon; allegiance: Klingon Empire) - A famed Klingon warrior and leader, Martok is Worf’s close friend and mentor. By offering Worf a place in his House (dynasty/family), Martok has essentially adopted Worf, which is why he and his wife, Sirella, oversee Worf’s wedding ceremony.
Discussion Topics:
How cool is Star Trek??? Right???
FUN ZONE:
All this trivia is unsupported and is entirely from my own memory of "facts":
Spock was supposed to be the sexy one.
It had one of the most multi-racial casts ever with two minorities Uhura and Sulu.
It depicted the first interracial kiss - Kirk and Uhura (power dynamics aside).
Nichelle Nichols was going to quit as Uhura but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. impressed on her the importance of her role and she decided to stay.
Chekov was added after the Russians started making noises about how it was bullshit that there weren't even Russians in the show even though they proved they're more spacey than Americans with Sputnik.
