Star Trek DS9 S05E06 Trials and Tribble-ations

O'Brian and Bashir added to the line-up for fighting in the bar.

I had wanted to cover the two tribble episodes for a few weeks now, because the TOS episode is one of the funniest, and the DS9 episode is wonderfully done. After seeing Into Darkness last week, I finally took the time to go re-watch the tribbles. This DS9 episode relies heavily on this TOS one.

Summary:

Two agents, Dulmur and Lucsly, from Temporal Investigation arrive on the station to question Sisko about taking the Defiant back in time. Sisko explains:

The Defiant picked up an orb on Cadassia (later determined to be the Orb of Time) to return to Bajor. Barry Waddle, a human merchant, also comes on board. While under cloak to avoid Klingons, the ship experiences a strange surge of power. When they get the view screen up, they see the Constitution-class Enterprise. (Dulmur notes that this is Kirk’s Enterprise and that Kirk has the biggest file of temporal violations. They are not pleased that this is who Sisko is meeting with in the past.) The Defiant has wound up over 105 years in the past and near space station K-7.

The crew quickly discovers that Waddle is really Darvin, a Klingon disguised to look human. He had broken into the room where the orb was being stored. Darvin was unsuccessful in sabotaging the Federation colonization efforts, and the Klingons made him an outcast. Over a hundred years later, when he learned of the orb, he went back in time to correct his errors, pulling the entire Defiant crew with him.

The men learn about 23rd century hemlines.

Darvin beamed off ship, so the crew has to go on board the Enterprise and K-7 to hunt him down. The crew gears up in twenty-third century uniforms, which they all totally pull off. There is the usual adjusting to this archaic time shenanigans: trying to blend in, wearing the right color uniform, remembering hand-held communicators, using handles on the turbolifts, Bashir getting hit on by his great-grandmother, Bashir believing that he’s in a predestination paradox of being his own great-grandfather (because a super-human doctor of the twenty-fourth century has no genetic tests that could prove that…). I'm not sure how much the Temporal Investigation agents will look into that, or would want to.

Odo sits in the station bar and watches Uhura receive the first troublesome tribble. Worf is less-than-pleased when Odo shows him one. Then again, when is Worf ever pleased? Worf explains that tribbles “were once mortal enemies of the Empire” because they would eat through crops and overbreed. Bashir and O’Brian join Worf and Odo in the bar in time for the big Starfleet/Klingon fight to break out.

Dax looks for the bomb right above Kirk's head.

While the tribbles are taking over the Enterprise and K-7, Odo and Worf find the Darvin from their timeline and take him back to the Defiant. They discover that Darvin is planning to kill Kirk with a bomb already planted in one of the tribbles. He thinks that as poetic revenge, seeing as a tribble is what alerting Kirk to the fact that Darvin was Klingon the first time round. So now the crew’s goal is to find the tribble-bomb in time to save Kirk. Sisko and Dax go down into the station storage compartments to look for the bomb; it is there, but they can’t find it under all the dead tribbles. On the other side, Kirk and Spock are opening up the storage compartment. Sisko finds the bomb and has Kira beam it into space before it explodes. After Sisko makes a quick stop on the bridge to introduce himself to Kirk, the crew is ready to go back to their time. Kira uses the orb to get back to the twenty-fourth century. Lucsly thinks Sisko testimony shows all the ends were tied up and the Defiant’s trip won’t warrant any penalties for temporal violation. But after the agents leave, it is shown that there was one end left untied:

Lesson:

Please leave all secret agents and tribbles in the upright and proper era before time-traveling. And don't tell Temporal Investigation more than they need to know.

Quotes:

Sisko: It was an accident.

Dulmur: So, you’re not contending it was a predestination paradox?

Lucsly: A time loop? That you were meant to go back into the past?

Sisko: No.

Lucsly: Good.

Dulmur: We hate those.

Bashir: Aren’t you two wearing the wrong color?

O’Brian: Don’t you know anything about this period in time?

Bashir: I’m a doctor, not a historian.

Odo: Tell me, do they still sing songs of the Great Tribble Hunt?

Star Trek TOS S02E15: The Trouble with Tribbles

I had wanted to cover the two tribble episodes for a few weeks now, because the TOS episode is one of the funniest, and the DS9 episode is wonderfully done. After seeing Into Darkness last week, I finally took the time to go re-watch the tribbles. 

Summary: 

The Enterprise is headed toward an area that is in dispute between the Federation and the Klingons. Nearby deep space station K-7 sends out a distress call, but when the Enterprise arrives, the station looks fine. Kirk and Spock beam down to demand an explanation Station Manager Lurry. It turns out Nils Baris, a Federation official of agriculture, made the call. He orders Kirk to provide security to the storage compartments on the station. The station is storing a high-yield grain, and he fears the Klingons might try to sabotage the Federation’s attempt to win control over a disputed planet. Kirk is upset, but assigns the guards and gives the rest of the crew shore leave.

Uhura and Chekov are hanging out in the station bar when they run into trader Cyrano Jones. He is trying to unload various items on the bartenders. When Uhura shows interest in a purring fuzzball called a tribble, he gives it to her for free. She takes it back to the Enterprise, where it has a little of babies which she shares with the rest of the crew. Meanwhile, Kirk has contacted the Federation over this distress call for grain guards. An admiral backs up Baris and tells Kirk that the grain and the station’s safty is Kirk’s responsibility. Kirk then receives the news that a Klingon cruiser is closing in on the station. But the Klingons are there claiming “shore leave rights.” Kirk allows the Klingons to come onto the station in small groups, most likely as a passive-aggressive way of showing Baris how little importance he gives this grain security business and showing Klingons how little importance he gives them them in general.

While Scotty and Chekov are in the bar, Cyrano Jones offers them a tribble. When they say no, he offers it to the Klingons at the next table. The Klingons call it a parasite, and the tribble shows a strong reaction to the Klingons. One of the Klingons starts trash-talking “Earthers,” specifically Kirk. The Enterprise crewmen are agitated but remain calm until the Klingon insults the Enterprise herself. Then Scotty throws the first punch, leading into a full bar fight. In response to the fight, Kirk cancels shore leave and restricts the crew to quarters.

 
Meanwhile, Bones and Spock are studying the tribbles and find them useless. They have a high metabolism and breed quickly, as Bones says, “They’re born pregnant.” They are taking over the ship in great number. Kirk, Spock, and Bones go down to the station to confront Cyrano Jones about the tribble infestation. Baris and his assistant Darvin confront Kirk and claims that Jones is probably a Klingon agent. 

After seeing the tribbles get into the Enterprise machines, Kirk worries that they may have gotten into the station’s storage. They find the storage compartments full of tribbles who have eaten all the grain. But something is wrong with these tribbles; the grain poisoned them. As security guards remove the tribbles, they react to Darvin in the same way they reacted to Klingons in the bar. Bones runs a scan on Darvin and identifies him as Klingon. He was the agent who sabotaged the grain. Kirk orders the Klingons off the station and orders Jones to remove all the tribbles from the station (a job that could take 17 years). As for the tribbles on the Enterprise, Scotty transports them onto the Klingon cruiser.

Lesson: 
Be wary of free gifts. Really, this episode was all on the fun side and any philosophy was lost in a mound of fuzzy, purring tribbles. 

Quotes:

Chekhov: I was making a little joke, sir.

Spock: Extremely little, ensign.

Kirk: I have never questioned the orders or the intelligence of any representative of the Federation. Until now.

McCoy: Do you know what you get if you feed a tribble too much?

Kirk: A fat tribble.

McCoy: No. You get a whole bunch of hungry, little tribbles.

Scotty: “Well, caption, Klingons called you a tin-plated, overbearing, swaggering dictator with delusions of godhood.”

Kirk: “Is that all?”

Scotty: “No, sir. They also compared you with a Denebian slime-devil.”

Kirk: “I see.”

Scotty: “And then they said you—”

Kirk: “I get the picture, Scotty.”

Trivia: 

"Well, you look like us, but the facial hair tells me you're the bad guys."

One of the most interesting things about this episode to me is the Klingons themselves. If you’ve seen The Next Generation, you know Klingons look a lot different in the twenty-fourth century than in the twenty-third. Although the difference is really due to TV production budgets, there is as in-universe explanation. The Klingon Empire went through a time of radical eugenics in the twenty-second century. This led to deformities, such as the loss of cranial ridges. By the twenty-fourth century, these features had returned. But in the twenty-third century, they looked very humanlike, which would have made it much easier for Darvin to be a secret agent. I'll also note here that Darvin was the only bad guy in this episode. The other Klingons really just wanted some vacation time on a Federation space station.

ISS Oddity

So much awesome. Commander Chris Hadfield on his last day on the International Space Station.

These arrived in the mail this week...

so I got an early start on my summer reading.

Star Trek TOS S03E08: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

Summary:

Enterprise is targeted by primitive missiles. The Enterprise easily shoots them down and the crew begins to trace the origin of the attack. Meanwhile in sick bay, Bones has completed his annual physicals and discovered that he has an incurable blood disease, xenopolycythemia. He tells Kirk that he (Bones) only has a year to live. Kirk has to inform Starfleet to request a replacement.

Bejeweled disk hats, bright plaids.
Just because you're on a planet-ship doesn't mean you lack style.

The origin of the missile attack is traced to a round asteroid which is moving on an independent course. It’s really a ship with an asteroid-like shell and a breathable atmosphere inside. It’s about a year away from colliding with a populated planet. Kirk, Spock, and Bones beam down to the asteroid (because the 23rd century is pretty chill with letting all the top officers go on away missions together). Although their instruments say the ship is uninhabited, they are attacked. The high priestess Natira says they are on Yonada. The ship has been in flight for 10,000 years. The people do not realize that it is a ship; they believe they are on a planet. Kirk, Spock, and Bones are taken underground where Natira addresses an oracle. The oracle gives the three of them an electric shock that knocks them to the ground.

When they awake later, they are in a different room. Kirk wants to tell the people that Yonada is a ship so they can work together in avoiding collision with the planet. Spock points out that this would be a violation of the Prime Directive. Kirk effectively shrugs. An old man arrives and gives them an herb to help them recoup after the shock. He tells them that he once climbed the mountains and realized that things weren’t as they seemed. “For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky.” It is clear that sharing this information is causing the old man physical pain. A device under his skin is hurting him and ultimately kills him.

Bones and Natira share an attraction. Kirk makes a snide remark that basically shows how jealous he is that Bones gets the romantic role this episode. Bones distracts Natira so that Kirk and Spock can find the control room of the ship. Spock recognizes Fabrini writing near the temple; they deduce that the people on board are descendants. Natira shows up. Kirk and Spock hide and overhear her ask the oracle to let Bones be her mate. The oracle says he may but only if he worships the creators and gets “the instrument of obedience” put in his head. Then Then, Kirk and Spock are shocked again and charged with sacrilege.

I wonder if I could pull off that eye make-up.

Bones tells Natira that he’ll stay but begs for Kirk and Spock’s lives. She agrees to let them go back to the Enterprise as a favor to Bones. Bones receives the instrument of obedience and marries Natira. He is shown a sacred book that supposedly contains all the information about Yonada, but the people are not supposed to read it until they reach a new world. Bones contacts Kirk to tell him about the book, but the device in his head knocks him out. Kirk and Spock beam back down and remove the device. Kirk throws Natira around a bit then tells her about the spaceship. Her device causes her pain, but she listens to him. She doesn't understand why the creators would lie to the people, but she can't deny the truth once it is presented to her.

Kirk and Spock use the book in the temple to find the hidden control room. Spock finds a way to redirect Yonada so the collision will be avoided. While in the control room, they find the data banks of Fabrini knowledge, which includes a cure for xenopolycythemia. Natira tells Bones that even though she is free from the oracle’s control, she is choosing to stay willingly and continue on the same path. She also tells Bones that he should go back to his ship and live his life.

Lesson:

There is a reoccurring theme in Trek where a group of people mistakenly attribute a superior technology as a god. In this episode it goes even further in that the people don’t even understand that they are on a ship. Kirk wants to free them of their ignorance and show them the truth. There is a lot of talk about hiding the truth, blind obedience, and ignoring outsiders. It’s a clear secular humanist message: let go of beliefs you were taught and see things for what they are.

But only Natira is freed from the device, and she still chooses to stay. While it probably just a plot device that she stay so they didn’t have to deal with her on the Enterprise in later episodes, I think her choice to stay can say something about faith as well. There is a difference in those who believe blindly or for fear of punishment and those that see the truth and choose to follow the faith. Natira knows that they are on a ship and that the oracle is a computer, but she still believes that her people’s ways are beneficial. She also knows that everyone will learn the truth soon and will need a leader to help with that transition. So while the episode appears to be anti-religion, I think it is really anti-blind obedience, and that it allows a faith when it is informed and freely chosen.

Quotes:

Oracle: “Learn what it means to be our enemy before you learn what it means to be our friend.”

McCoy: “We’re strangers to each other.”

Natira: “Is that not the nature of men and women? That the pleasure is in the learning of each other?”

Kirk: “Bones, this isn’t a planet. It’s a spaceship, on a collision course with Daran V.”

McCoy: “I’m on a kind of collision course myself, Jim.”

Natira: “You’ve released him from his vow of obedience.”

Kirk: “We’ve freed him from the cruelty of your oracle.”

Natira: “Is truth not truth for all? I must know the truth of the world!”

Star Trek VIII: First Contact

Summary:

Since yesterday was First Contact/ Zefrem Cochrane Day, I had to watch First Contact, as if I really needed the reason. The movie opens with the Picard dreaming that he in the Borg hive, remembering the time he was assimilated and became Locutus. Picard is awoken by a message from Starfleet that the Borg have reached Federation space, with a direct course for Earth (obviously). Instead of being thrust into the battle, the Enterprise-E  is sent off to the Neutral Zone; the higher ups don’t want Picard near Borg because it would be “unstable.”

Let’s talk about the Borg for a minute. I love the Borg; they’re a great enemy. They’re unfeeling and calculating and can hurt you in much worse ways than killing you. The terror comes from knowing that if captured, you won’t be enslaved or killed, but you will became that which you hate. I also love that they are genuinely stronger than the Federation. It takes all of Starfleet to fight one Borg ship. (Disregarding some Voyager for a moment, which I think overused/weakened the Borg) it’s nice having a superior enemy face the Federation in battle. And they do some heavy damage. Of course the good guys win in the end, but I love an enemy strong enough and scary enough to convince me that it might just turn out differently.

So, the Enterprise is out in the Neutral Zone and hear the reports of Borg attacks back home. We’re eight minutes in, and Picard decides following orders would make for a boring movie and conquered Earth, so they disobey and high-tail it to the battle. (I believe in Appalachian to Trek translation, high-tail is approximately warp 8.5.)

The Enterprise arrives, and the first thing the Captain does is take control of the entire fleet. I’m not sure how authorization works in Starfleet in wartime, but I’m pretty sure it’s more regulated than a renegade captain just declaring himself in charge. The fleet successfully blows up the Borg cube, but not before the Borg release a sphere that creates a temporal vortex. The timeline changes, and Earth is now 100% Borg. The Enterprise is close enough to the vortex that they remain unaffected, so they follow the Borg back 300 years to undo the damage.

Earth 300 years ago (or rather, 50 years from now) is repairing from WWIII, economic stability, and social riots. There is a small group of people living in Bozeman, Montana, including Zefram Cochrane, who is a day away from making his historical first warp flight. His flight will grab the attention of Vulcans and initiate first contact. The Borg want to prevent first contact so they can assimilate Earth easily.

Bev is rocking mid-21st century style.

 The crew beams down. Picard and Data find Cochrane’s ship, the Phoenix, which is made from an old nuclear missile. That is where they meet Lily Sloane who is kind of freaked out by the whole android, starship, time travel deal. Riker runs into Troi and Cochrane drinking in a bar. Tequila-drinking Troi is way more fun than synthahol-drinking sober Troi. The Enterprise could have used some real alcohol on board. Cochrane turns out to be more angry drunk than historic hero like they all imagine. Riker tries to explain the situation to Cochrane, who rather reluctantly agrees to continue with his flight as planned. He hates all the attention the visitors from the future are giving him; they think he is a noble dreamer while he claims he is only doing what he does for the money.

Classy BAMF.

Back on board, the Borg arrive and begin taking over. Apparently a 24th century starship orbiting 21st century Earth draws attention. They want to turn the ship into a beacon to call more Borg into the Alpha Quadrant. Picard and Worf both lead teams to clear the decks and try to regain control of the ship. Picard runs into Sloane and attempts to explain everything to her. They hid from the Borg in the holosuite, because…Dixon Hill. Phasers don’t work against Borg, but holographic machine guns do (obviously). Side note: Why can you disengage safety protocols on the holodeck? That’s just… unsafe.

Data is captured and taken to the Borg Queen. And the Borg Queen is all over Data. He has the encrypted codes that would give the Borg total control of the Enterprise. But she seems way more into him on a sexual level. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be turned on or repulsed. She activates his emotion chip and begins a process of turning him into an organic being.

Uncomfortably sexy.

A team takes a spacewalk on the hull of the Enterprise to disrupt the beacon the Borg are trying to send. With no help coming, the only Borg threat is on the Enterprise. Worf and Crusher suggest blowing up the ship, but Picard is having none of that. They just got the Enterprise-E and now his crew wants to destroy it like the last one. Picard calls Worf a coward and throws him off the bridge. Then Picard walks off, leaving Crusher in charge of the whole fighting off Borg business. Picard and Sloane have it out; she makes him face the fact that he is still angry at the Borg for personal reasons and is hunting them for revenge, not for saving humanity. He agrees to initiate the self-destruct.

Side note: I’ve always been team Picard-Crusher, and while it is addressed and makes sense why they never wind up together, I really, really want them to. It also makes me a bit defensive when Picard has relationships with other women (or when Crusher sleeps with her heirloom ghost). But I really like Sloane. I’m not getting overly romantic vibes or anything, but I think even if I were, I’d still like her. She isn’t letting these people from the future use their technology and knowledge to make her feel inferior; she steps right up to their level. She calls Picard out on his flaws while Crusher is on the bridge following orders she disagrees with.

While everyone evacuates the ship, Picard stays behind in hopes of recuing Data. While watching all the escape pods leave Enterprise and head to Earth, I can’t help but think 1. didn’t anyone on earth notice those dozens of little ships? It’s the 21st century; we can see things in orbit and 2. I don’t believe that all those pods make it made to the ship. There are some 24th century crewmen stuck in the past. Anyway, Picard goes down to engineering and faces the Borg Queen. He offers to willingly give himself over to the Borg in exchange for Data’s freedom. But Data works with the Borg Queen instead and stops the self-destruct.

Meanwhile on Earth, Riker and La Forge tag along for the first warp flight, because they can. Just as they are getting ready to launch into warp, Data under the Borg Queen’s directive, fires torpedoes at them. But the torpedoes miss; Data sabotaged the attack and gives Picard a chance to escape. Data floods the room with plasma (I think?), wiping out the Borg, including the Queen. So the Enterprise is saved, the Phoenix is saved, and first contact happens as planned (and Cochrane doesn’t shoot first, like in the Mirror universe).

Then there is the whole getting back to the correct time problem. Something about the moon hiding the Enterprise’s warp signature from the Vulcans even though the Vulcans were able to pick up the Phoenix’s. And don’t tell me the Vulcans also missed the Enterprise calling back all those escape pods. The Enterprise casually recreates the Borg time vortex and goes home. The Vulcans hang out to drink and learn rock n’ roll, which is fun enough for me to overlook the time travel issues. Actually, I’m not much of a stickler on the science stuff, and you want the movie to end with Cochrane and the Vulcans, not worrying about the technicalities of making it back to the 24th century. 

This is my favorite of the TNG movies. Exploration for its own sake, diplomacy, questions of morals and humanity, technobabble, action, and a dash of interspecies sexual tension: it has everything that makes Trek Trek. 

Quotes: 

Data: “Captain, I believe I speak for everyone here, sir, when I say to hell with our orders.”

Picard: “They’ll assimilate the Enterprise, and then, Earth.”

Sloane: “Borg? Sounds Swedish.”

Emergency Medical Hologram: “I’m a doctor, not a doorstop.”

Troi: “Timeline? This is no time to argue about time. We don’t have the time.”

Troi: “[First contact] unites humanity in a way that no one ever thought possible, when they realize they are not alone in the universe. Poverty, disease, war, they’ll all be gone within the next 50 years.”

Borg Queen: “I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg.”

Cochrane: “I’ve heard enough about the great Zefram Cochrane. I don’t know who writes your history books or where you get your information from, but you people have got some pretty funny ideas about me. You all look at me as if I’m some kind of saint or visionary or something.”
Riker: “I don’t think you’re saint, Doc, but you did have a vision.”

Picard: “In my century, we don’t succumb to revenge. We have a more evolved sensibility.”
Sloane: “Bullshit!”

Sloane: “Captain Ahab has to go hunt his whale.”

Picard: “Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far; no farther! And I will make them pay for what they’ve done!”

Data: “Resistance is futile.”

Cochrane: “And you people, you’re all astronauts on some kind of star trek.” (I see what you did there.)

First Contact Day

On April 5, 2063, man perfects warp drive. As a result, the Vulcans make first contact with humans. It's a day of both technological and diplomatic advancement for mankind.Today marks 50 years to the day before these events are supposed to occur. Is that a negative 50th anniversary, a future anniversary, or a pre-anniversary? Jumping around in time make verb tenses tricky.  
 
Whatever it’s called, according to Star Trek canon, we’re only 50 years and a worldwide nuclear war away from meeting extraterrestrial intelligent life.  So happy Zefram Cochrane Day!