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Trials and Tribble-ations (episode)

  • View history
  • 1.2 Act One
  • 1.3 Act Two
  • 1.4 Act Three
  • 1.5 Act Four
  • 1.6 Act Five
  • 2 Memorable quotes
  • 3.1 Conceiving the episode
  • 3.2 Combining the past with the present
  • 3.3 Production
  • 3.4 Reception
  • 3.6 Cast trivia
  • 3.7 The Enterprise
  • 3.9 Award nominations
  • 3.10 Remastered information
  • 3.11 Video and DVD releases
  • 4.1 Starring
  • 4.2 Also Starring
  • 4.3 Guest stars
  • 4.4 Co-stars
  • 4.5 Actors appearing in the original Star Trek episode
  • 4.6 Uncredited co-stars
  • 4.7 Uncredited co-stars appearing in the original Star Trek episode
  • 4.8 Stunt doubles
  • 4.9 Stunt doubles appearing in the original Star Trek episode
  • 4.10 References
  • 4.11 External links

Summary [ ]

Dulmur and Lucsly

Temporal Investigation agents Dulmur and Lucsly

Lucsly and Dulmur from Temporal Investigations arrive on Deep Space 9 aboard the USS Nash and are welcomed into Ops by Major Kira and Lieutenant Commander Dax . The investigators ask for Captain Sisko , and Kira directs them to his office. Before they go in, Dax makes a joke about how temporal investigators are always on time. But this elicits absolutely no response from the apparently humorless investigators, who promptly go into the captain's office.

Sisko asks if they want anything to drink; they say they only want the truth. Dulmur asks Sisko why he took the USS Defiant back in time. Sisko says it was accidental and he confirms that he is not contending their trip back was a predestination paradox , a statement which relieves the investigators, as they hate predestination paradoxes. When they ask him to start at the beginning, Sisko tells them this may take some time and then assures them that he's not cracking a joke, something the investigators say they hate as well. Sisko tells them that two weeks prior, the Cardassian government had expressed a desire to return one of the Bajoran Orbs that they had procured during the Occupation , so the Defiant traveled to Cardassia Prime – under cloak to avoid detection by the Klingons – to collect it, without knowing which orb it was or even if it were genuine, as many counterfeit orbs had emerged over the years. Though they were unaware of this at the time they recovered it, they had indeed gained possession of the Orb of Time . Sisko had security lock the Orb in crew quarters so it could be authenticated on Bajor . Before leaving Cardassia Prime, they took on a passenger.

Commander Worf brings a man into the Defiant 's mess hall who, upon seeing Chief O'Brien and Dr. Bashir , expresses his relief to finally see Humans again. Worf introduces the man as Barry Waddle , a Human merchant who had been trapped on Cardassia when the Klingons attacked. He is an elderly, seemingly harmless man. Waddle says he deals in gemstones , mostly kevas and trillium . While he orders a raktajino from the replicator , he tells O'Brien and Bashir about how Cardassians drink hot fish juice in the morning and that after being on Cardassia for a time, he was hoping for a Klingon invasion as they can make good coffee , even if they are foul-smelling barbarians . He then notices Worf is right there, apologizes to him, and steps away. O'Brien and Bashir gently tease Worf about his aroma, telling him he has a rather earthy , peaty aroma with a touch of lilac – which only serves to annoy Worf further.

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), DS9

The Enterprise appears

On the bridge , as the Defiant is halfway back to Deep Space 9 and Sisko tells the investigators that he was finally beginning to relax, O'Brien relays the story of the incident in the mess hall with Worf to Dax and suggests that she mention lilac the next time she sees him, but she refuses, saying she has her own ways of torturing Worf. " Don't look at me, " Sisko responds. At that moment, O'Brien announces a massive surge in chroniton radiation around the ship as the entire bridge glows brightly. The viewscreen shows nothing but white noise. The ship drops out of warp and decloaks as someone activates the transporter . Sisko orders Dax to get the ship back under cloak and deactivate the transporter, but it is already too late, as the individual has already left the ship. Just then, as the ship gets back under cloak, Dax tells Sisko that they are now over two hundred light years from their previous position. Sisko orders the viewscreen activated and the sight they see on the screen shocks them all; a Constitution -class starship, marked NCC-1701… the original Starfleet -registered USS Enterprise .

Act One [ ]

In Sisko's office, Dulmur asks him to specify which Federation starship Enterprise as there have been five , but Lucsly quickly corrects him, saying there are now six . Sisko clarifies that it was the first Enterprise, the Constitution -class , NCC-1701. The investigators sit back in their seats in horror at the realization it is "his" ship, James Kirk 's, which Sisko proudly confirms. The enraged investigators both call Kirk a menace, saying that his file, containing seventeen separate temporal violations, is the biggest on record. They ask what the Enterprise was doing, and Sisko says it was orbiting one of the old deep space stations , K-7 , exactly one hundred and five years , one month, and twelve days previous, on Stardate 4523.7, a Friday .

Sisko's story continues. Back on the Defiant , a briefing is occurring with the senior staff. Worf and Odo have discovered that Waddle's "real" name is Arne Darvin , a Klingon surgically altered to appear Human. Worf tells Sisko that the younger Darvin is, at that moment, on board K-7, posing as a Federation official. Odo picks up and tells Sisko that the younger Darvin's mission was to derail Federation colonization efforts in the area by poisoning a load of grain which was – or rather, is – stored on K-7. However, in eighteen hours, Kirk will expose Darvin and he will be arrested. Worf tells them that Darvin's arrest ended his career, as Klingon Intelligence turned their back on Darvin and he became an outcast, apparently spending the next hundred years eking out a meager living posing as a Human merchant. And then, in what Odo calls a "final indignity," he was trapped on Cardassia by the Klingon invasion. Sisko then is able to pick the rest of the story up from there. Apparently, Darvin then heard rumors about an Orb capable of taking him back in time. Bashir wonders if Darvin may be going to warn his younger self about Kirk, but Dax thinks Darvin may be planning to kill Kirk. And not knowing how or where or when, Sisko decides that they will have to search both K-7 and the Enterprise without raising suspicions or altering the timeline themselves, as he ironically notes that the last thing he wants is a visit from Temporal Investigations when they get home.

To blend in, Odo and Worf change into civilian traders' clothing, and Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, and Bashir all change into appropriate Starfleet uniforms , with Dax taking the extra precaution of applying makeup to cover up her spots.

Stepping out into the corridor, Sisko, who is now wearing a gold command uniform with lieutenant 's stripes, sees Bashir, still in sciences blue, albeit with an appropriately altered hairstyle, Sisko tells him that he went with lieutenant's rank because he didn't want to arouse suspicion. Just then, O'Brien appears in a red support uniform, with ensign 's insignia, and Bashir asks if Sisko and O'Brien are wearing the wrong colors. O'Brien asks if Bashir knows anything about this time period, and he denies having such knowledge, as he is a doctor, not a historian . Sisko clarifies that the colors were switched in Kirk's era. Dax then appears in the miniskirt uniform of the day (though in operations red rather than her usual sciences blue), saying that "women wore less," and the doctor, unsurprisingly, declares that he will like this time period.

In the Defiant 's transporter bay , O'Brien reports that the old-style duotronic sensors the Enterprise used allow for tiny interruptions in the scan cycle enabling the Defiant to decloak for three seconds and beam everyone to where they need to go. Worf and Odo are sent to K-7. Worf reports that most of K-7 consists of storage areas and industrial fabrication facilities , and since security on a space station such as K-7 is not as tight as it would be on a starship, they do not expect to have to take long to search the station. The other four go to the Enterprise , O'Brien and Bashir together, and Dax and Sisko together, each pair to opposite ends of the ship. After reminding everyone to do their best not to interact with people from this time period, Sisko and Dax go first, beam into a turbolift and step out into a corridor on the Enterprise .

Act Two [ ]

Bashir and O'Brien beam into another turbolift and try to proceed to Deck 21. O'Brien's vocal command goes unheeded and, not knowing what could be wrong with the turbolift, they try to take an intercom panel off to see what's happening when they're interrupted by the lift's doors opening. A woman steps in, nods to O'Brien and Bashir, takes one of the handles on the side of the turbolift and orders it to Deck 15. Sheepishly, O'Brien and Bashir take hold of the handles near them and Bashir whispers to O'Brien, " I won't tell anyone if you won't. "

Dax marvels as to how many people are packed into the ship. Finding an auxiliary communications juncture, Sisko pretends to do repairs and Dax admires the "classic" 23rd century design of the Starfleet tricorder she carries, but Sisko quiets her before she attracts anyone's attention.

Odo, Uhura, and Chekov, 2268

Odo observing Uhura and Chekov

On K-7, Odo steps into the station's bar and sits down at a table, discreetly pulling out a portable scanning device. As he does, the door opens again, admitting Ensign Chekov and Lieutenant Uhura into the bar. As they walk up to the bar, a waitress asks Odo what he would like to drink; he tries to order raktajino . When the waitress tells him he is the second person who ordered that today, he asks who the other one was; she says that it was an elderly Human male. She tells Odo that he said he would probably be back later. Then, after being informed that raktajino is Klingon coffee, she tells Odo they have no Klingon beverages, and so he settles for Tarkalean tea . As he sits at the bar and watches, he sees Uhura obtain a tribble from Cyrano Jones .

Back on the Enterprise , Bashir continues to scan for Darvin. O'Brien is supposed to be conducting repairs so as to blend in, but unfortunately, he cannot make heads or tails of it as it's all cross-circuited and rewired. Bashir jokes that it sounds like one of O'Brien's repair jobs. Both are then interrupted by a young engineer who wonders why they are working at that panel, because Scotty had told him to do it. He then wonders why they need a doctor to repair a power relay. Bashir makes up a story about conducting a study on work-related stress and is checking O'Brien for stress. After O'Brien accidentally pulls out a circuit that darkens the whole deck (and quickly replaces it) Bashir tells O'Brien he has seen enough and that they need to go to sickbay . O'Brien tells the engineer he would appreciate if he did not mention this to anyone. The engineer says he won't, and expresses his hopes that O'Brien feels better soon.

On K-7, Worf enters the bar and sees Odo sitting at a table. Worf tells Odo he has finished searching the primary habitat levels. Before he can get any farther, he notices a trilling sound and demands to know, " What is that noise? " Odo says the sound is very soothing; he holds the tribble up as it squeals at Worf, who disgustedly recognizes it.

Act Three [ ]

Odo has Worf sit down before he attracts any further attention. Sitting down, Worf asks where Odo got it; he tells Worf that he got it from one Cyrano Jones, who said that tribbles like everyone – but apparently not Worf, a feeling which Worf shares. He calls the tribble a "detestable creature," noting that feeding a tribble more than the smallest morsel will cause prolific reproduction. Worf tells Odo how tribbles were considered mortal enemies of the Klingon Empire , which Odo is amazed to hear, finding it hard to believe that a simple tribble could be someone's "mortal enemy." Worf further explains that the Empire considered tribbles to be an ecological menace and that many warriors were sent out to kill any and all tribbles that they could find. Once the tribble homeworld was located, a Klingon armada obliterated it. According to Worf, tribbles were considered extinct by the end of the 23rd century, which Odo sarcastically calls "another glorious chapter in Klingon history ," and then proceeds to ask Worf mockingly, " Tell me, do they still sing songs about The Great Tribble Hunt ? "

Sisko taps badge

Sisko confuses 23rd and 24th century Starfleet communication devices

Before Worf can say anything else, the station goes to red alert . The same has happened on the Enterprise . Seeing everyone rush to battle stations, Dax asks Sisko what they should do; he says they should do the same. They find an empty turbolift and Sisko contacts the Defiant , or at least he tries to; he slaps the insignia on his uniform out of habit, expecting it to be the working combadge that it is not. After a moment of realization, he pulls out the old-style communicator and this time successfully contacts the Defiant. Kira reports that a Klingon D7-class battle cruiser has dropped out of warp and is approaching the station. Sisko asks if the Klingons have locked weapons, but Kira says they have not as yet. Recognizing something familiar, Dax asks Kira to identify the Klingon vessel; she identifies it as the IKS Gr'oth . Dax immediately recognizes it as Koloth 's ship and she tells Sisko that Koloth is not here to attack. She remembers Koloth telling her about how he once traded insults with Kirk on a space station near the Federation-Klingon border and how he regretted never getting to face Kirk in battle. Kira then reports that the Klingons just beamed two people to the station manager's office. Dax remembers one of them being Koloth, and asks Sisko if they could beam over to K-7, as they know that Darvin was there a short time ago. However, Sisko refuses and tells Kira to contact O'Brien and have him and Bashir prepare to transport to the station. Dax wants to see Koloth and points out that it is not as if he would recognize her, but Sisko stands firm. After closing the channel with Kira, Dax says it would have been fun, but Sisko corrects her: it would have been " too much fun."

Sisko informs the investigators that Dax was indeed correct. The Klingons only wanted shore leave , and Captain Kirk allowed the Klingons to beam over in small groups. Once the red alert ceases, everyone resumes their search for Darvin.

Kira contacts O'Brien and Bashir on the Enterprise , telling them the next band shift in the Enterprise 's scan cycle is coming up. O'Brien tells her they will be ready. He and Bashir duck into a turbolift, but Lieutenant Watley is there with them again. She notices that Bashir has left the flap open on his tricorder, thereby draining power. He closes it and thanks her for the tip. Watley asks Bashir if he is a doctor; he replies in the affirmative. She says that she just transferred over from the USS Lexington and O'Brien, acting as a regular member of the crew, welcomes her aboard. Watley tells Bashir that she will be in sickbay the next day at 1500 hours for her physical and tells him her name as she walks out of the turbolift. Bashir recognizes her name as his great-grandmother's last name and wonders if it could be her, which O'Brien scoffs at, as the odds of that happening are astronomically small. Since no one ever met his great-grandfather, he then begins wondering if he is supposed to meet with her later in a predestination paradox and become his own great-grandfather. O'Brien accuses Bashir of being ridiculous, but he begins to convince himself that if he does not meet with Watley, he may not ever even be born. Just then, Kira calls and asks O'Brien if they are ready for transport; the Chief's reply: " Are we ever! " Bashir denies being able to wait to get back to Deep Space 9 and watch O'Brien's reaction when he finds out Bashir was never born, a comment which causes a smirk from O'Brien as they beam out.

Kirk, Spock, Sisko and Dax

Sisko and Dax see Kirk and Spock

Elsewhere on the Enterprise , Sisko and Dax are near another panel, pretending to work on it, when Dax looks up, sees Captain Kirk and Commander Spock walking toward an intercom close to them, and gets Sisko's attention. They look at the two legendary Starfleet officers for a moment. Then Sisko reminds her they are supposed to be only maintenance crew members doing their jobs. But Dax cannot help looking as Kirk deals with the intercom transmission. She notes how he is so much more handsome in person; Sisko tells Dax how Kirk had a reputation for being a ladies' man, but she reveals herself to be referring to Spock instead. At that moment, Sisko closes the panel, takes Dax by the hand, and they walk away from Kirk and Spock. Dax is amazed that Sisko does not want to meet Kirk. Sisko calls that the farthest thing from his mind, as they have a job to do. Dax then reminds Sisko about how Kirk is one of the most famous captains in Starfleet history. Sisko then admits that indeed he would like to meet Kirk, shake his hand, and ask him about fighting the Gorn on Cestus III . That, however, is not the reason they are there. Dax concedes Sisko's point, but laments that as she remembers this time period, it is difficult for her not to want to be part of it again. At that point the turbolift opens and they enter.

Klingon Gr'oth crewmen

"Those are Klingons?"

Bashir and O'Brien enter the bar on K-7, whereupon they good-naturedly tease Odo and Worf for sitting at the bar for the last three hours while they were crawling through conduits on the Enterprise and the station. Odo says they believe that Darvin will return, and Bashir picks up on the raktajino hint, a clue that others might have missed. Before they can say anything else, Chekov, Scotty, and Freeman enter. O'Brien is amazed, having mistaken Freeman for Kirk. Worf agrees that it would be an honor to meet Kirk. O'Brien suggests buying Kirk a drink, but Odo reminds them they cannot, and O'Brien agrees, as altering the timeline would be too great a risk to take. The waitress comes up and asks them what they want, including a warning not to dare ask her for a raktajino. She then points out the Klingons when Odo asks who else had ordered a raktajino, but they fail to recognize the Klingons as such, since they look nothing like Worf or any other Klingons that the crew had met. When they act confused, the waitress decides they have had enough to drink and walks away. Everyone at the table then looks over at Worf, wondering what's going on. Worf tells them that those are Klingons, and that it is a long story that Klingons do not discuss with outsiders. Meanwhile, a Klingon named Korax has spent his time loudly insulting Kirk, trying to get a rise out of the Enterprise officers. Chekov stands up to fight, but Scotty restrains him, saying they can take a few insults. O'Brien is impressed at how "Kirk" (Freeman) is ignoring Korax. At that moment, a confused Bashir asks if that is really Kirk, and O'Brien says it is, but then Bashir points out that the man is only wearing lieutenant's stripes. Odo says they have more problems at the moment than a case of mistaken identity. Just then, Korax begins insulting the Enterprise herself, which quickly gets under Scott's skin – he is the engineer, after all. When Korax, who had called the Enterprise a "sagging old rust-bucket designed like a garbage scow ," clarifies his statement by claiming, not that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage, but instead that it should be hauled away, as garbage, Scott slowly stands up and punches him.

Worf, Bashir, Odo, and O'Brien on K-7

" What are you doing?! "

Every Klingon and Starfleet officer stand up immediately and then, despite Odo's efforts to stop them, Bashir, O'Brien, and Worf all stand up. Everyone ends up in the huge brawl in the bar. When the door opens to admit more Enterprise security, Odo notices Darvin in the background and knocks a Klingon off of Worf so they can both give chase to Darvin. Meanwhile, caught up in the fight, Bashir and O'Brien fail to notice Worf and Odo's departure and are themselves, shortly thereafter, arrested by the security officers and taken into custody along with the other crew members who were involved.

Act Four [ ]

In Sisko's office, the investigators are not happy, as regulations clearly state that Starfleet officers must take all precautions in taking minimal part in historical events. Sisko admits that they made a mistake, but it caused no alteration of the timeline. Dulmur is not so convinced and goes so far as to point out that this could be an alternate timeline as far as they know, but Sisko says that if they had altered history, they would have known immediately upon their return. After exasperatedly wondering out loud why everyone he interviews always has to mention that particular fact, Lucsly bids Sisko to continue.

Kirk questions Scott, Chekov, O'Brien, and Bashir

Kirk questions a group of officers that includes Bashir and O'Brien

Sisko tells them that instead of going to the brig , the arrested officers were taken in for questioning. Bashir and O'Brien find themselves in a line in front of Kirk, who wants to know who started the fight. Kirk walks up and asks O'Brien who started the fight; O'Brien tells Kirk he does not know. Likewise, Chekov tells Kirk he does not know who started it. When no one confesses, Kirk confines everyone to quarters until he finds out who started it. After they are dismissed, O'Brien and Bashir walk away as quickly as possible. O'Brien is astounded that, of all the people in the lineup, Kirk asked him about the fight and that, even more astonishingly, he ended up lying to him! O'Brien says he wishes Keiko could have seen it. Accidentally stepping on a tribble, Bashir wonders who left it out in the corridor alone. But rounding the corner, O'Brien realizes that the tribble is actually far from alone.

Meanwhile, Odo and Worf have captured Darvin in the midst of the fight on K-7 and have beamed him back to the Defiant. Odo tells Darvin that he will face some very serious charges when they return, but Darvin says they would not dare put one of the greatest heroes of the Klingon Empire in the brig , to which Worf angrily tells Darvin he is no hero to the Empire. But Darvin says he will be one soon and wants his statue in the Hall of Warriors to have him standing with Kirk's head in one hand and a dead tribble in the other. Worf grabs Darvin and demands to know what Darvin did: did he hire someone to kill Kirk, or sabotage the Enterprise ? But Darvin says that though he did nothing like that, Kirk's death will have a certain poetic justice to it.

Shortly thereafter, Sisko, who is still on the Enterprise with Dax, is amazed to hear from Odo that Darvin has planted a bomb in a tribble. Odo describes it as revenge from Darvin, as in the original timeline, Kirk noticed how a tribble reacted to the younger Darvin and realized he was a Klingon. While Darvin has obviously refused to reveal the bomb's location, he did say it was set to go off within the hour. Dax suggests they risk going to the bridge and using the internal sensors to scan the ship within minutes. Sisko agrees and orders everyone else to K-7 to search for the bomb. However, Odo suggests that Worf remain on the Defiant due to his mutual dislike of tribbles, to which Sisko agrees. However, O'Brien is concerned they may not be able to reach the station's internal sensors. Sisko tells him that then he will have to manually scan every tribble on the station. O'Brien, in disbelief, says there must be thousands. Bashir notes it could be hundreds of thousands, but Dax has already worked out the number as one million, seven hundred and seventy-one thousand, five hundred and sixty-one, starting with one tribble, producing an average litter of ten every twelve hours over a period of three days. Sisko tells everyone they have their orders and closes the channel.

Kirk looks at Dax

Kirk shares a look with Dax on the Enterprise bridge

Later on the bridge, Sisko is sitting at a station and Dax is standing over by the engineering station when Kirk comes onto the bridge. He tries to sit in his chair but ends up accidentally sitting on a tribble. Removing the tribble, Kirk looks over at Dax who smiles and shrugs at him. He then calls Dr. McCoy to the bridge. Dax steps over and tells Sisko that she has reworked the sensor interface. Sisko scans the bridge. No explosives are found, which relieves Dax as she almost expected the tribble Kirk sat on to explode. Nothing is found on the first six decks either. Just then, McCoy comes up to the bridge and begins talking to Kirk. Dax seems to recognize him, and Sisko identifies him as McCoy, the ship's doctor. Just then, Dax recognizes him, having met him when he was a medical student at " Ole Miss ." Sisko asks if it was Curzon who met him; she says it was actually Emony , when she was on Earth judging a gymnastics competition. Dax tells Sisko that McCoy had the hands of a surgeon and that she knew he would be a doctor. Her smile suggests their acquaintance might have been more than purely social. Sisko is rescued from having to respond by the completion of the scan– there are no explosives aboard. Dax, stating the obvious, says that the bomb must be on K-7.

Act Five [ ]

In the bar on K-7, Odo, Bashir and O'Brien are searching through tribbles frantically when Odo gets a call from Sisko telling them the bomb is not on the Enterprise – thus, it must be over there. Unfortunately, Odo reports that they have been able to scan only two decks so far. When Sisko offers to send more people over from the Defiant, Odo tells him it is no man-power shortage; rather, it is that the tribbles are multiplying so fast that they cannot keep up with them. Dax suggests that she and Sisko stay close to Kirk, as Darvin likely will have put the bomb someplace he knows Kirk will be in the next half hour and, as a result, Kirk may lead them right to it. Odo says they will keep scanning the tribbles for now.

Tribble scan

Sisko and Dax search for the tribble-bomb

Sisko and Dax get set up in the recreation room when Kirk and Spock come in. Kirk, upon ordering his chicken sandwich and coffee , sees that the tribbles are in all the food slots. Kirk tells Spock, " I want these things off the ship. I don't care if it takes every man we've got; I want them off the ship! " Scott comes in with an armful of tribbles and tells them the tribbles are in the machinery and probably in all the other food dispensers as well, probably having gotten there through one of the air vents. Spock realizes there are similar vents on the station…" and in the storage compartments! " Kirk realizes, interrupting him. Sisko is given a clue then, and he and Dax beam to K-7 and climb down into one of the storage compartments to begin scanning tribbles for the explosive. Sisko notes that most of the tribbles are dead, as the grain has been poisoned. Dax detects a faint tricobalt signature, indicating the bomb is in the compartment somewhere. They begin scanning through the tribbles when they hear a strange, multi-toned beeping sound. As it turns out, that sound is Kirk, outside, trying to open the overhead hatch leading into the storage compartment. He finally does get it open – and ends up being buried in tribbles. Sisko and Dax see the hatch open, and as it turns out, Kirk's opening the hatch all but exposes the bomb-laden tribble in the storage compartment. Dax realizes it is directly in front of them. Sisko begins searching frantically for the bomb, tossing tribbles away as he scans them, some of them falling through the hatchway and landing on Kirk. Down on the floor, Nilz Baris threatens to hold an inquiry against Kirk, stating there must be thousands of tribbles. Kirk laments it must be hundreds of thousands. Spock comes up with an exact figure of 1,771,561, using the exact formula that Dax had used earlier. In the hold, Sisko and Dax hear this, look at each other and simply shrug. Just then, Sisko finds the bomb-loaded tribble. He places the "tribble bomb" on his tricorder, contacts Kira, and has the Defiant beam the bomb into space, where it explodes harmlessly. As they start to get up, Dax tosses the last tribble in her hand down, where it falls through the hatchway and onto Kirk, causing him to ask in anguish, " Close that door! "

Sisko tells the investigators that after the bomb exploded, history continued uninterrupted and, thanks to a tribble's characteristic "alarm chirps" and McCoy's tricorder scans, Kirk exposed Darvin as a Klingon agent exactly as he had done before. By the time the DS9 personnel returned to the Defiant , Kira had figured out how to use the Orb to return the ship back to its proper time. Back in Sisko's office, the investigators ask if that is when they returned to the future, but Sisko is forced to admit that it was not, as he realized that there was one more thing he had to do – something he had thought of since he first saw the Enterprise on the Defiant 's viewscreen. Sisko goes to the Enterprise 's bridge and brings a duty roster over to Kirk, seated in his chair, for the latter's approval. As Kirk looks it over, he looks over at Sisko, and asks his name. Sisko tells Kirk his real name and says that he has been on temporary assignment on the Enterprise . Before Sisko left, he just wanted to tell Kirk it was an honor serving with him. Kirk smiles, nods at him and then tells Sisko, " All right, Lieutenant, carry on. " Sisko thanks the legendary captain and leaves the bridge, while Spock and Uhura watch him walk away.

Back in his office, Sisko tells Dulmur and Lucsly that if they want to put a reprimand in his file for that, then they are welcome to do so. They both stand up and tell Sisko they will have to review everything before making a final recommendation, but it does not seem as if any harm was done. Dulmur says he probably would have done the same thing himself, given the chance. Sisko walks them out of the office; Lucsly tells them he will have their full report in about a month, but that he should have nothing to worry about. Sisko admits he is happy to hear it, and the investigators then quietly leave the station, heading directly for their ship at Docking Port Seven. Dax asks Sisko if it went well; he says it did. Kira tells Sisko that Odo wants to see them on the Promenade .

Quark's infested with tribbles

Quark is surrounded by tribbles.

Odo asks Sisko if he told the investigators; Sisko says they did not ask, and that he is open to suggestions. Dax quips that they could build a new station. It turns out that Odo brought his tribble back with him, and that it reproduced. True to Worf's warnings about them, a considerable number of the creatures are now all over the Promenade – particularly Quark's Bar , with one even sitting on Quark 's head.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" I guess you boys from Temporal Investigations are… always on time. "

" That's… " " The Enterprise."

" Be specific, Captain – which Enterprise ? There have been five. " " Six . " " This was the first Enterprise , Constitution -class. " "His ship. " " James T. Kirk. " " The one and only! " " Seventeen separate temporal violations – the biggest file on record. " " The man was a menace. "

" Don't you know anything about this period in time? " " I'm a doctor, not an historian. " " In the old days, operations officers wore red, command officers wore gold… " (showing herself off in her red skirt) " And women wore less. " " I think I'm going to like history. "

(referring to the tribbles) " They were once considered mortal enemies of the Klingon Empire. " " This? A mortal enemy of the Empire? " " They were an ecological menace; a plague to be wiped out. " " Wiped out? What are you saying? " " Hundreds of warriors were sent to track them down throughout the galaxy. An armada obliterated the tribbles' homeworld. By the end of the 23rd century, they had been eradicated. " " Another glorious chapter in Klingon history. Tell me, do they still sing songs of The Great Tribble Hunt ? "

" I had no idea. " " What? " " He's so much more handsome in person. Those eyes! " " Kirk had quite the reputation as a ladies' man ." "Not him… Spock. " (Sisko quickly shuts the panel he's pretending to work on and starts pushing Dax away) " Let's go. "

(Sisko taps the badge on his uniform out of habit) " Sisko to Defiant… " (Sisko realizes his mistake, then pulls out the old-style communicator) " Sisko to Defiant. "

" They are Klingons… and it is a long story . " " What happened? Some kind of genetic engineering? " " A viral mutation? " " We do not discuss it with outsiders. "

(referring to the Enterprise ) " That sagging old rust bucket is designed like a garbage scow. Half the quadrant knows it. That's why they're learning to speak Klingonese. " " Mr. Scott! " " Laddie… don't you think you should…rephrase that? " (mocking Scotty's accent) " You're right. I should. " (normal voice) " I didn't mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away as garbage. "

" Your men could've avoided that fight, Captain. " " Regulation 157, Section 3, Paragraph 18: Starfleet officers shall take all necessary precautions to minimize any participation in historical events. " " All right. It was a mistake. But there were no lasting repercussions. " " How do you know that? For all we know, we could be living in an alternate timeline. " " If my people had caused any changes in the timeline, we would have been the first to notice when we got back. " " Why do they all have to say that? "

" So, your men were arrested. " " That's right. But instead of being taken to the brig, they were brought in for questioning. "

" I want answers. I'm waiting. (turns to O'Brien) Who started the fight? " " I don't know, sir. " " All right. " (turns to Chekov) " Chekov… I know you. You started it, didn't you? " " No, sir. I didn't. " " Well, then who did? " " I don't know, sir. " "' I don't know, sir…' I want to know who threw the first punch! " (looks at his officers but receives no answer) " All right, you're all confined to quarters until I find out who started it. Dismissed!"

" You are no hero to the Empire ! " " I will be. I've been thinking about my statue in the Hall of Warriors. I want it to capture my essence. Our statues can be so generic sometimes, don't you think? " " I take it whatever your plan is, you've already set it in motion. " " I see myself standing with Kirk's head in one hand and a tribble in the other. " " What have you done?! Did you hire someone to kill him? Or did you sabotage the Enterprise ? " " Nothing so mundane. Let's just say that Kirk's death will have a certain poetic justice to it. "

" McCoy… Leonard McCoy!… I met him when he was a student at Ole Miss… I had a feeling he'd become a doctor – he had the hands of a surgeon. "

" I'm not sure we can get to K-7's internal sensors. " " Then you will have to manually scan every tribble on the station. " " There must be thousands of them by now. " "Hundreds of thousands. " " One million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one. That's starting with one tribble with an average litter of ten every twelve hours. After three days… " " Thank you. You have your orders, people. Sisko out. "

(referring to the tribbles) " They seem to be gorged. " " Gorged?! On my grain?!! Kirk, I'm going to hold you responsible! There must be thousands of them! " "Hundreds of thousands. " " One million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one. That's assuming one tribble, multiplying with an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every twelve hours over a period of three days. " " That's assuming that they got here three days ago. " " And allowing for the amount of grain consumed and the volume of the storage compartment. "

" After the bomb was detonated, history continued uninterrupted, and thanks to the tribbles, Kirk was able to uncover the truth about Darvin. "

" Excuse me, Captain. Here's tomorrow's duty roster for your approval. " " Lieutenant… uh, Lieutenant… " " Benjamin Sisko, sir. I've been on temporary assignment here. Before I leave, I just want to say… it's been an honor serving with you, sir. " " All right, Lieutenant. Carry on. " " Thank you, sir. "

Background information [ ]

Conceiving the episode [ ].

Kirk offers a piece of the action

Kirk and Spock on Sigma Iotia II

"Trials and Tribble-ations" was conceived as a tribute to Star Trek: The Original Series , broadcast to coincide with Star Trek 's 30th anniversary . When Paramount asked executive producer Ira Steven Behr to come up with a suitable story to mark the event, he and the writing staff of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine gathered together and began brainstorming for plot ideas. Behr toyed with the notion of harkening back to the episode " Charlie X ", since that installment was a favorite of Behr's and because actor Robert Walker – who had guest-starred as Charles Evans in the TOS episode – was still available. Skeptical that Walker would be interested in returning to Star Trek , this concept was discarded. ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 123 , pp. 79–80)

An alternative idea , conceived by writer Ronald D. Moore , was to revisit Sigma Iotia II , from the episode " A Piece of the Action ", where imitators of Kirk and Spock would be discovered as a social commentary on the Trekkie phenomenon. However, fellow writer René Echevarria wanted to revisit a classic episode using original footage. This was made possible by recent technological innovations, such as those used in the 1994 Robert Zemeckis movie Forrest Gump .

  • When the writers sat down to decide which episode to use, there was little question that " The Trouble with Tribbles " was not only arguably the most famous TOS episode but also an excellent choice in that it was relatively lighthearted compared to other well-known episodes such as " The City on the Edge of Forever ". In what Ira Steven Behr later described as the most incredible coincidence he has ever experienced, Behr and the other producers were at the Mulberry Street pizza parlor in Beverly Hills , discussing the possibility of bringing original TOS actors back for this episode, Behr mentioned Charlie Brill ( Arne Darvin ), who he then spotted at the counter alongside his wife. Although Behr was hesitant to discuss the matter directly with Brill (due to the complications that normally entail Hollywood negotiations), Brill was greatly honored to be given a chance to make history twice and felt that Gene Roddenberry would be proud. Behr later joked, in a DVD audio commentary for this episode, that the remarkable turn of events proved God was a DS9 fan, while Brill stated that he was happy he hadn't gone out for Chinese food instead.

The Klingon question

Worf faces "the big question"

  • The difference in appearance of TOS and TNG / DS9 / VOY Klingons, first recognized as canon here (it was not broached in the DS9 second season episode " Blood Oath "), was addressed in the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes " Affliction " and " Divergence ". There was a conscious effort to keep Worf at a distance from TOS-era Klingons due to the obvious make-up differences. Ronald Moore wrote Worf's explanation (or lack thereof) into the script because he felt that there was "not a single explanation that's less than preposterous" for the make-up differences and he believed that fans could figure out why the Klingons looked so different. Bashir and O'Brien's dialogue concerning the issue had them suggesting reasons, "genetic engineering" or "viral mutation", that had long been proposed by fans as the reasons for the differences. When the Enterprise episodes were filmed, the final canon explanation for the difference combined both their suppositions.

Combining the past with the present [ ]

  • The writers were initially skeptical about whether creating an episode such as this with the relatively limited budget of a television series would be possible. However, when the visual effects team showed them a clip from "The Trouble with Tribbles," they were unable to tell that an extra person had been added to the scene because the blending was so seamless.
  • Contrary to the normal technique of chroma key (better known as " blue screen " or " green screen ") shooting, in which the new footage is shot with a blue or green background in order to allow the computer to easily place the characters into another piece of footage, the scene in which Dax and Sisko are working behind Kirk and Spock was shot with an actual set background and then placed into the existing footage. This was due to the fact that there was no panel for Sisko and Dax to pretend to repair in the original shot.
  • Creating the footage for scenes such as the fight with the Klingons took almost a full week to shoot due to the number of components involved, the complexity of staging, and other minor details.
  • More crude blue screen techniques had actually already been employed in the Star Trek franchise for combining new performances with pre-existing footage; it had been employed previously in the Orlando, Florida venue of the Star Trek Adventure live-performance attraction .
  • However, there were some minor details that didn't come out as planned. In his foreword for the novelization, David Gerrold – who wrote the original episode – spoke about his involvement in production on the anniversary episode. Among other things, he tells how Robert H. Justman pointed out, during a visit to the set, that both the wall paneling and the orange mesh screen in front of the set ladder were not right. Michael Okuda explained that those were the only two things they could not perfectly recreate, as the company that made the reflective plastic had gone out of business ten years earlier and that nobody else produced that kind. ( Trials and Tribble-ations , "Introduction")

DS9 Producers & Enterprise model

From left to right: René Echevarria , Ira Steven Behr , Robert Hewitt Wolfe , Ronald D. Moore and the new model of the USS Enterprise

  • The original Enterprise , now in the Smithsonian museum exhibit, had been refurbished and altered slightly over the years. Knowing that fans would inspect every minor detail of this episode for consistency, the staff consulted sketches made for the original series and had a special set of plans made for the new model's construction. They even inspected it with a magnifying glass to ensure that everything was perfect.
  • The original model of space station K-7 had been lost by the time this episode was made. The recreation used in the new footage was created as faithfully as possible by watching the original episode as any fan might.
  • The clip featuring Sisko meeting Kirk was created with footage from " Mirror, Mirror " rather than "The Trouble with Tribbles", taking Kirk's introduction to the prime universe Marlena Moreau and inserting Sisko in Moreau's place.
  • Sisko's comment about asking Kirk about fighting the Gorn on Cestus III is a reference to " Arena ", where Kirk and a landing party exchanged fire with the Gorn on the planet's surface.
  • In the original episode, after Kirk opens the cargo hold door and is showered in tribbles, lone tribbles continue to fall on him one by one, every minute or so, for the rest of the scene. This episode provides an explanation: Sisko and Dax are hiding in the cargo hold, scanning all the tribbles and then tossing them out the door.
  • When Kirk sits on the tribble in his captain's chair , Dax is standing right where he looks, and shrugs sympathetically toward him. In "Trials and Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends", a featurette on the DS9 Season 5 DVD, Terry Farrell claims that director Jonathan West insisted, much to her delight, that the glance be as short as possible, since, if it went on too long, the audience would be hard-pressed to believe that Kirk would not make a point of introducing himself to such a beautiful young officer new to his ship.
  • In relation to making the show "feel" as close to the spirit of the original as possible, Ronald D. Moore has commented, " My only real gripe was the music – I had hoped it would be more like the original score and I thought it hurt the show particularly during the barroom brawl by changing the tone of the scene. Rene and I also had this idea to redo the entire end title sequence as an homage to the original series, with freeze frame shots from various DS9 episodes in the background, the TOS end credit music and changing the font of our credits to match theirs. That idea never got very far chiefly because we were the only proponents of it and also because the show was so far over budget that we couldn't afford to spend any more money anyway. " ( AOL chat , 1997 ) To date, the only episodes of a Trek show to have changed title and credit sequences for specific episodes have been the Star Trek: Enterprise mirror universe episodes " In a Mirror, Darkly " and " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II ", and the Star Trek: Discovery episode " Will You Take My Hand? ", which featured a modified end credit sequence.
  • Moore also stated that as of the end of Season 5 of the show, this was the most expensive one-hour episode produced. ( AOL chat , 1997 )
  • Here is an example of the " Forrest Gump " technique. The first image is the original from " The Trouble with Tribbles ", the second is the altered version from this episode. The third image is the original from " Mirror, Mirror ", the fourth is the altered version from this episode:

The original from "The Trouble with Tribbles"…

Production [ ]

  • Once this episode was green-lit, an immediate question faced by the production staff was when it would air. The actual 30th anniversary of Star Trek was 8 September 1996 , but if the show aired that week, it would make it the first episode of the fifth season . The producers discussed the possibility of showing this episode as a kind of stand-alone show before returning to established chronology the following week with " Apocalypse Rising " but they ultimately decided to abandon this idea. ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. ? ))

Jonathan West directs 'Trails and Tribble-ations'

Jonathan West directs Alexander Siddig on set

On the set of 'Trials and Tribble-ations'

On the set of "Trials and Tribble-ations"

  • The producers specifically chose Jonathan West to direct this episode due to his cinematography training. According to West, he shot the episode as if it were actually 1967, with lens choices and lighting techniques which gave the episode a sixties look. He also used a slower speed film stock with finer grain and a different color saturation (likely Eastman EXR 100T 5248) instead of the faster film stock used for the 24th century scenes (Eastman EXR 500T 5298), the former more closely matching the stock that TOS would have used in 1967 (Eastman 50T 5251). ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. ? ))
  • In "Trials and Tribble-ations: A Historic Endeavor", a featurette on the DS9 Season 5 DVD , production designer Herman Zimmerman explains that he had just returned to Deep Space Nine from working on Star Trek: First Contact as "Trials and Tribble-ations" was going into early pre-production. Zimmerman noticed that the art department was drawing up construction plans so as to build the Enterprise sets by using the only floor plans that they could find on the Paramount lot. However, these plans had an incorrect scale which put the Enterprise 's corridors at seven and a half feet wide, when Zimmerman knew they were actually twelve feet wide. He points out that if he hadn't returned at that moment, all of the Enterprise sets would have been in ⅝ scale.
  • According to Terry Farrell , it was easier to interact with stock footage than real people, due to the fact that they could watch the existing footage and observe exactly what the other person would be doing in the scene.
  • Jadzia Dax 's enthusiasm about the 23rd century and her desire to revisit old friends was the writers' avenue by which to convey their own enthusiasm about writing the episode. It was also intended to represent the way fans of TOS would feel when watching the fusion of past and present Trek series.
  • When Jadzia and Benjamin Sisko enter the corridor aboard the USS Enterprise , the reactions from the actors are genuine, as they had not been on the set prior to that shot and were truly amazed by how faithfully the set recreated the look and feel of TOS. According to Terry Farrell , " What was great was that we were supposed to react to the sets like, 'Wow, we're on the Enterprise !' And it was easy because we felt like, 'Wow, we're on the Enterprise !' It looked so real !" This technique is commonly used in Hollywood; for example, two performers whose characters will be meeting for the first time may be kept separate prior to filming in order to evoke a more genuine reaction (a good example is William Petersen and Tom Noonan in Michael Mann's 1986 film Manhunter – they didn't actually meet one another until principal photography wrapped). Director Winrich Kolbe employed this technique during the shooting of the sixth season episode " The Sound of Her Voice ", where he did not allow Debra Wilson to meet any of the recurring cast until after the shoot was completed.
  • The scene in which Dax is on the bridge of the Enterprise took twelve takes because of the complexity involved in the timing of the shot.
  • Reportedly, the DS9 stunt crew had both a challenge and a "good time", adjusting to the 'old-school' brawling style used in this episode's fight scenes.
  • The film elements from the original "Trouble With Tribbles" episode were used and transferred digitally, instead of using the 1980s analog flying-spot scanned transfers that were on professional format 1 inch Type C open reel videotape , so that there wouldn't be a difference in quality between the original scenes and the new Deep Space Nine scenes, especially for scenes where the characters from both shows were in the same shot. ( DS9 Season 5 DVD )

Reception [ ]

  • Ira Steven Behr commented, " The episode was just an amazing, amazing amount of work. The crew, the technical people, the actors – they just threw themselves into it. They were all having fun. Just sitting on those sets, being on that bridge. It was a hoot, a real hoot. Everyone who worked on it should be credited. The enthusiasm was like a little virus that just kept spreading. It's very rare in television, where you're fighting the clock and you have to produce so much in a limited amount of time, to really lavish the care on an episode the way we did on this. The only regret I have is that we can't lavish that time and attention on every single episode. " ( The Magic of Tribbles: The Making of Trials and Tribble-ations )
  • Although he was thrilled with how the episode turned out, with the high ratings it received, and with the critical plaudits it garnered, there was one thing Ira Steven Behr wasn't completely happy about; " The only thing that bugs me about it is that it feeds off the myth of the franchise, and the fact that it's so popular saddens me in a way, in the sense that I wish a show that is Deep Space Nine intensive didn't have to lean on the history. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. ? ))
  • Alexander Siddig commented that he found "Trials and Tribble-ations" " a particularly fun show, like the Bond show . I felt like I'd taken on another character. Bashir wasn't the usual Bashir. And it was wonderfully strange to see myself acting with William Shatner . The technology is amazing isn't it? " ("A Truly Model Doctor", Star Trek Monthly  issue 30 )
  • Mary Chieffo selected this as one of her favorite Star Trek episodes. " I really did like 'Trials and Tribble-ations' because that was such a great homage to what had come [before] . I just feel like it's the essence of Trek , " she enthused. " We know what came before, we loved it. Here's this new show, and then all the tech and attention to detail, which reminds me so much of what our crew does [on Star Trek: Discovery ] , infusing what they love about the franchise and sticking true to what was. And it's a fun episode, because it just does so many fun things, and I think that they did such an amazing job visually; the CGI and everything really looks great. So, I have a lot of favorites, but that one just feels like essence of Trek." [1]
  • Bo Yeon Kim commented: " Time travel! Tribbles! Kirk! Spock! Tribbles! Jadzia Dax in a TOS red miniskirt! Tribbles! What more could you possibly want? Just a superbly, seamlessly executed homage to The Original Series, yet equally a quintessential DS9 story. And this episode includes one of my favorite writing "cheats" with Worf's line, in reference to the Klingons' lack of cranial ridges in TOS: "We do not discuss it with outsiders." F***ing brilliant ". [2]
  • Mary P. Taylor wrote: " The Trouble with Tribbles was so unforgettable that, with the aid of 1990s technology, it was made into the even funnier DS9 episode “Trials and Tribble-ations.” I can never think of the Bureau of Temporal Investigations without laughing ". ( Adventures in Time and Space p. 465)
  • Cinefantastique ranked "Trials and Tribble-ations" as the sixth best episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 32, No. 4/5, p. 99)
  • When Sisko , O'Brien , and Bashir appear in the hallway of the USS Defiant in their 23rd century uniforms, Bashir thinks that Sisko and O'Brien have put on the wrong shirts because of the color, noticing that in the 23rd century, the command and engineering colors were reversed. O'Brien replies, " Don't you know anything about this period in time? " to which Bashir responded " I'm a doctor, not an historian! "
  • Odo makes a comment to Worf about humanoids liking small furry animals, especially if they make a pleasing sound. A similar line was used by Leonard McCoy in the original episode.
  • When Dulmur references the date of the original incident and Lucsly adds that it was a Friday , it is a reference to the fact that " The Trouble with Tribbles " originally aired on a Friday.
  • According to Dulmur and Lucsly, this episode takes place " one hundred and five years, one month, and twelve days " after the events of "The Trouble with Tribbles".
  • Quark appeared in this episode (as an homage to the similarly tribble-covered bartender in the original episode) but Armin Shimerman has no spoken lines. This is the only episode of DS9 where Quark appears but has no dialogue.
  • George Takei ( Hikaru Sulu ) does not appear in this episode (he hadn't appeared in "The Trouble With Tribbles" to begin with); this was, however, remedied by his appearance in Star Trek: Voyager 's 30th Anniversary episode " Flashback ".
  • The names of the temporal investigators, Dulmur and Lucsly, are anagrams of "Mulder" and "Scully", the paranormal investigators of The X-Files (or, in the former case, a near-anagram). Indeed, when meeting Sisko in his office Dulmur tells him he wants "the truth", while Lucsly is mostly skeptical about elements of Sisko's story. The writers considered having one of the characters deliver the line " The truth is out there ". ( The Magic of Tribbles: The Making of Trials and Tribble-ations )
  • The term " D7 ", in reference to the original Klingon battle cruiser , started out as an inside joke between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy . It eventually became a reference to this style of battleship, but it wasn't "official" until this episode. The designation had been used since 1979 in the game Star Fleet Battles for that particular class of ship.
  • As Dax tells Sisko about how much more handsome Spock was in the flesh, the Kirk-Baris dialogue in the background is actually taken from their later confrontation aboard the station after Cyrano Jones had been detained.
  • When Julian Bashir suspects he is experiencing a predestination paradox and is destined to fall in love with Lieutenant Watley and become his own ancestor, he remarks to Chief O'Brien that surely he has attended Elementary Temporal Mechanics at Starfleet Academy . However, as an enlisted crewman , O'Brien has never been to the Academy.
  • O'Brien believes that Lieutenant Freeman is Captain Kirk ; the actor in that scene, Paul Baxley , was a regular stunt double for William Shatner in the original series .
  • The number of tribbles that Dax calculates is the same number that Spock determined in the original episode.
  • Darvin , posing as Barry Waddle, claims he deals in (among other things) kevas and trillium , the two materials Spock claimed he dealt in while posing as a Vulcan trader in TOS : " Errand of Mercy ".
  • Worf (slightly younger than he is here) met an older Scotty 101 years later , while serving aboard the USS Enterprise -D in TNG : " Relics ". O'Brien was also serving aboard that Enterprise at the time, though it's not known if he and Scotty ever actually met.
  • Sisko states that if he could (without causing harm to the timeline), he would ask Kirk about his confrontation with the Gorn on Cestus III , referencing the battlefield conflict against the Gorn on that planet in which Kirk participated in TOS : " Arena " (the later hand-to-hand fight in that episode took place on another planet ).
  • The boots worn by Terry Farrell in the past were later reused in ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly ".
  • The USS Defiant crew bringing some tribbles back to the 24th century (and thus, repopulating the species) is reminiscent of the original Enterprise crew bringing two humpback whales with them from the 20th century into the future to repopulate the species ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ) (though that case was intentional). This is the second time that a previously eradicated species is re-populated with specimens brought back as a result of time travel, the first being humpback whales George and Gracie in 2286 .
  • Dax claims that Koloth once told Curzon that he regretted not facing Captain Kirk in battle. However, in the Star Trek: The Animated Series first season episode " More Tribbles, More Troubles ", Koloth fought the Enterprise several times. This may be due to the fact that TAS was officially declared "non-canon" by Paramount despite TAS references being worked into the series, including the Edosian orchid in DS9 : " Broken Link ". A more charitable interpretation could be that Koloth and Kirk in the TAS episode never had a real battle, just skirmishes and tricks. Koloth might also have been indicating a face-to-face, physical combat, rather than a clash of starships, or possibly, that he didn't fight Kirk on this occasion.
  • Sisko's line of " Storage compartments. Storage compartments. " in the episode is the same as Kirk's line from " The Trouble with Tribbles ".
  • Agent Lucsly mentions that James T. Kirk has made "seventeen temporal violations". Kirk went back in time on at least seven separate occasions ( TOS : " The Naked Time ", " Tomorrow is Yesterday ", " The City on the Edge of Forever ", " Assignment: Earth ", " All Our Yesterdays ", Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , and Star Trek Generations ).
  • This is the first episode of Star Trek since TAS : " The Counter-Clock Incident " in 1974 to feature any scenes set in the 23rd century .
  • This episode marks the first mention of the Enterprise -E , which would be formally introduced just over two weeks later in Star Trek: First Contact .
  • The end credits say the episode is "Based on the original STAR TREK episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" by David Gerrold."
  • Watley's remark that Bashir's "flap's open" could be taken as a reference to one's fly (pants zipper) being open.

Cast trivia [ ]

  • David Gerrold , writer of " The Trouble with Tribbles ", can be seen in two scenes, playing an Enterprise crewman (he is the gray-haired man who passes Sisko and Dax when the Enterprise goes to red alert). Bashir and O'Brien later see him petting a tribble in the corridor (which, in actuality, is an original tribble used in " The Trouble with Tribbles "). Gerrold thought the episode was " one of the cleverest Star Trek scripts I've ever read ."
  • The permission of the TOS actors had to be sought to use their performances in the various episodes the archive footage was taken from. It took the producers three months to negotiate for the use of the footage. Walter Koenig remarked he was paid "eight times more" for the use of his likeness than he was for the original episode.
  • Stanley Adams ( Cyrano Jones ) and Whit Bissell ( Lurry ) had passed away by the time that this episode was produced, making them the two "posthumous" performers in the archive footage.
  • Koenig himself visited the sets and showed Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig how to properly interact with the set pieces.
  • Cirroc Lofton ( Jake Sisko ) does not appear in this episode.
  • After Michael Ansara ( Kang ), John Colicos ( Kor ), and William Campbell ( Koloth ), Charlie Brill (Arne Darvin) is the fourth and final actor to reprise a role which he had originally played on The Original Series in one or more episodes of Deep Space Nine . All four actors played Klingons.

The Enterprise [ ]

  • This is the first appearance of the original USS Enterprise since its destruction was shown by the Klingon Ambassador as he addressed the Federation President in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ; though the bridge of the Enterprise did appear in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Relics ", it was merely a holodeck recreation.
  • It is also the first of only seven appearances of an original Constitution -class in a live action Star Trek series since The Original Series (the second one was as the USS Defiant in ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly " and ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II " the third was in Enterprise 's final episode " These Are the Voyages... ", although the latter was a montage sequence) discounting appearances as graphic display ( VOY : " In the Flesh ") or tabletop model ( TNG : " The First Duty "; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ), the fourth was in Episode 15 of Star Trek: Discovery (" Will You Take My Hand? "), the fifth in " Brother ", and sixth and seventh in " Such Sweet Sorrow " and DIS : " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ".
  • This episode also contains the first reference to the new Sovereign -class USS Enterprise -E , as the film Star Trek: First Contact hadn't premiered yet. After Sisko mentions the USS Defiant was in front of the Enterprise , Dulmur tells him to be more specific, as there had been five. Lucsly corrects him and says there had been six. ( Enterprise NX-01 was never in Federation service, and Star Trek: Enterprise didn't exist as a series until 2001, five years after this episode was released.)

Cinefantastique cover 134

A Cinefantastique cover honoring the episode.

  • This episode was adapted by Diane Carey in the novelization Trials and Tribble-ations .
  • Cinefantastique detailed the making of "Trials and Tribble-ations" in 1996. The cover of the issue featured Sisko and Kirk. Anna Kaplan commented: " Only in CFQ could I have written complete coverage of 'Trials and Tribble-ations' Deep Space Nine 's homage to classic Trek on its 30th anniversary. I talked to all the writer-producers and many of the people behind and in front of the camera who contributed to that remarkable episode. David Hines also interviewed David Gerrold , who wrote the original series episode " The Trouble with Tribbles ". The November 1997 CFQ issue devoted 18 pages to that one episode. None of the other genre publications, not even official Star Trek magazines, provided that kind of coverage. " [3]
  • The making of "Trials and Tribble-ations" was examined in The Magic of Tribbles: The Making of Trials and Tribble-ations , an eBook released in 2001.
  • A comic book was released by Marvel Comics as a direct sequel to this episode, DS9 #14: " Nobody Knows the Tribbles I've Seen ".
  • The episode was mentioned in an episode of The Big Bang Theory and referred to as a "classic".

Award nominations [ ]

  • This episode was nominated for the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. It was also nominated for three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects, Outstanding Art Direction for a Series, and Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series (which was won by VOY : " Fair Trade ").

Remastered information [ ]

  • Paramount announced the HD remastered version of this episode would be included on the TOS Season 2 Blu-ray collection. [4] The episode was presented in a 16:9 matte preserving its 4:3 ratio with 480i video, but encoded in VC-1.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

  • UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 5.3, 24 February 1997
  • As part of the US VHS collection, Star Trek - Tribbles Gift Set
  • As part of the DS9 Season 5 DVD collection
  • As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Time Travel and Star Trek: Fan Collective - Klingon collections
  • As a special feature of the TOS-R Season 2 DVD collection
  • As a special feature of the TOS Season 2 Blu-ray collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

  • Avery Brooks as Captain Sisko

Also Starring [ ]

  • Rene Auberjonois as Odo
  • Michael Dorn as Lt. Commander Worf
  • Terry Farrell as Lt. Commander Dax
  • Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko
  • Colm Meaney as Chief O'Brien
  • Armin Shimerman as Quark
  • Alexander Siddig as Doctor Bashir
  • Nana Visitor as Major Kira

Guest stars [ ]

  • Jack Blessing as Dulmur
  • James W. Jansen as Lucsly
  • Charlie Brill as " Arne Darvin "

Co-stars [ ]

  • Leslie Ackerman as Waitress
  • Charles S. Chun as Engineer
  • Deirdre L. Imershein as Lieutenant Watley

Actors appearing in the original Star Trek episode [ ]

  • William Shatner as James T. Kirk
  • Leonard Nimoy as Spock
  • DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy
  • James Doohan as Montgomery Scott
  • Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
  • Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov
  • Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones
  • Paul Baxley as Freeman
  • Whit Bissell as Lurry
  • Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin
  • Michael Pataki as Korax
  • Guy Raymond as Bartender
  • David Ross as Galloway
  • William Schallert as Nilz Baris

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

  • B.J. Davis as a Klingon brawler #4
  • Cathy DeBuono as Starfleet science officer
  • Brian Demonbreun as a Starfleet science officer
  • Chris Doyle as a Klingon brawler #5
  • David Gerrold as an Enterprise crewman
  • Jim Hart as Starfleet captain
  • Randy James as Jones
  • Pete Johnson as a Starfleet officer
  • Andrew Lerner as a Starfleet officer
  • Dan Magee as a Bajoran officer
  • Karlotta Nelson as Bajoran woman
  • Spiro Razatos as a Klingon brawler #6
  • Chuck Shanks as a Bajoran officer
  • Mark Allen Shepherd as Morn
  • James Lee Stanley as a Bajoran security deputy
  • Enterprise security lieutenant 1
  • Enterprise security lieutenant 2
  • Pink-skinned alien

Uncredited co-stars appearing in the original Star Trek episode [ ]

  • William Blackburn as Hadley
  • Dick Crockett as Klingon brawler #1
  • Steve Hershon as security officer
  • Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli
  • Starfleet officer 1
  • Enterprise yeoman
  • Bob Miles as Klingon brawler #2
  • Bob Orrison as Klingon brawler #3
  • Eddie Paskey as Leslie
  • Command lieutenant 1
  • Command lieutenant 2
  • Sciences lieutenant
  • Security guard 1
  • Security guard 2
  • Human civilian
  • Human colonist
  • Human waitresses #1 & #2
  • Human workers #1 & #2
  • Starfleet cadets 1 & #2
  • Starfleet officers #2 , #3 , & #4

Stunt doubles [ ]

  • Brennan Dyson as stunt double for Michael Dorn
  • Dennis Madalone as stunt double for B.J. Davis

Stunt doubles appearing in the original Star Trek episode [ ]

  • Phil Adams as stunt double for Michael Pataki
  • Jay Jones as stunt double for James Doohan
  • Jerry Summers as stunt double for Walter Koenig

References [ ]

23rd century ; 2268 ; air vent ; Alpha Quadrant ; altered ; alternate timeline ; Antarean glow water ; aroma ; auxiliary communications juncture ; Bajor ; Bajorans ; barbarian ; Bashir's great-grandfather ; battle cruiser ; battle stations ; black ; body odor ; breeding ; Cardassia Prime ; Cardassians ; Cardassian space ; career ; Cestus III ; chicken sandwich ; chroniton radiation ; cloaking device ; coffee ; color ; command division ; confined to quarters ; Constable ; Constitution -class ; Constitution class decks ; D-7 battlecruiser ; Dax, Curzon ; Dax, Emony ; Deep Space Station K-7 ; Denebian slime devil ; Department of Temporal Investigations ; Defiant , USS ; duotronics ; Earth ; Elementary Temporal Mechanics ; ensign ; Enterprise , USS ; Enterprise -E, USS ; Federation-Klingon border ; fish juice ; food processor ; Friday ; generation ; GNDN ; gold ; Gorn ; Gr'oth , IKS ; Hall of Warriors ; historian ; industrial fabrication facility ; internal sensors ; Koloth ; Klingons ; Klingon beverages ; Klingon Empire ; Klingon Intelligence ; Klingon Imperial Fleet ; kevas ; letter of reprimand ; Lexington , USS ; lieutenant ; lilac ; litter ; medical tricorder ; Milky Way Galaxy ; milliwatt ; mistaken identity ; Nash , USS ; navigational computer ; NCC-K7 ; operations division ; O'Brien, Keiko ; " Old Man "; Ol' Miss ; Orb of Prophecy ; Orb of Time ; Orb of Wisdom ; peat ; poison ; predestination paradox ; Promenade ; quadrotriticale ; Quark's ; raktajino ; red ; red alert ; sabotage ; San Francisco Fleet Yards ; scan cycle ; security officer ; sensor array ; Sherman's Planet ; shore leave ; silver ; Spacematic ; Spican flame gem ; Starfleet Academy ; Starship-class ; statue ; station manager ; stress ; stripes ; swarm ; Tarkalean tea ; temporal violation ; touch ; transporter ; transporter log ; transtator ; tri-cobalt device ; tricorder ; trident scanner ; Trills ; trillium ; tribbles ; Tribbles' homeworld ; Waddle, Barry ; Watley

External links [ ]

  • "Trials and Tribble-ations" at StarTrek.com
  • " Trials and Tribble-ations " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
  • " Trials and Tribble-ations " at Wikipedia
  • " Trials and Tribble-ations " at the Internet Movie Database
  • " "Trials and Tribble-ations" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
  • "Trials and Tribble-ations" script  at Star Trek Minutiae
  • 1 Star Trek: Discovery

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Episode Guide - Season 6

Right, so if you’re living in the 21st century and going through the entire Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series but you’re not binge-watching season 6, well … you’re either Vulcan or well more strong-willed than your typical non-Augment.

This season starts the viewer on seat’s edge: Dominion ships have been creeping into the Alpha Quadrant, prompting Sisko to mine the wormhole, and ultimately for war to be declared. The result is probably the single darkest of all ST seasons (though Enterprise season 3 is in the running), 26 episodes of tense ‘n’ compelling stuff that further pushed forward the notion of heavy continuity on American television.

Also of note: “In the Pale Moonlight” and “Far Beyond the Stars” are both in this season of DS(, and both are among the greatest ST episodes ever – all hail the mighty acting skills of Avery Brooks, too.

1. A Time to Stand – Three months later. Deep Space Nine is controlled by the Dominion. While Odo remains chief of security now under his third (fourth?) distinct chain of command, Jake has gotten an assignment with the Federation News Service, what with his proximity the front line and all. Sisko et al, increasingly resembling their mirror-universe counterparts, meanwhile take a Jem’Hadar ship to destroy a key manufacturing facility. ***

2. Rocks and Shoals – Sisko, Dax, Bashir, O’Brien and Nog crash-land their stolen Jem’Hadar ship on an alien planet … not far from a like-crashed Jem’hadar ship with a crew dangerously low on White. Meanwhile, Kira feels angst and that maybe she shouldn’t be working under the Dominion anymore. (Duh.) ***

3. Sons and Daughters – Worf’s son Alexander (Remember him? Worf blew him off for a good long while, didn’t he?) returns, as he seeks to join General Martok’s ship along with Worf in the fight against the Dominion. In a subplot, Kira, Odo and even Dukat (!) work in establishing a resistance to Dominion control. ***

4. Behind the Lines – Exactly what the title says: Sisko looks to take out some key Dominion technology, while most of the rest of the former Deep Space Nine bridge crew work on subverting Cardassian/Dominion relations from aboard the station. ***

5. Favor the Bold – As Martok’s ship and Dax’s Defiant play cat-and-mouse with Jem’Hadar ships, Siksko rallies them to retake Deep Space Nine. ***

6. Sacrifice of Angels – Holy Fek'lhr, this one includes the mother of all Star Trek space battles: Six hundred Federation ships take on 1,200 Jem’Hadar and Cardassian ships in the effort to keep the wormhole mined and to retake Deep Space Nine. ****

7. You are Cordially Invited … -- Worf wants to marry Dax, but must answer to the matriarch of Martok’s family, as he’s been initiated into that Klingon house. ***

8. Resurrection – Okay, this is officially the point at which the Star Trek franchise stretched the mirror universe concept beyond its breaking point, giving us the counterpart of a DS9 fourth banana. Said banana takes Kira hostage and … ah, whatever. **

9. Statistical Probabilities – Bashir is tasked with helping four genetically altered peers of his better adapt to greater society. ***

10. The Magnificent Ferengi – When the Dominion captures Quark’s mother, the Grand Nagus offers a sizeable reward – 50 bars of gold-pressed latinum – for her safe return. Quark thus sets out to rescue here with a crew made up of essentially every other key Ferengi character on DS9. ***

11. Waltz  - Sisko meets with the former Cardassian leader Gul Dukat, now a prisoner, as he awaits a war crimes investigation.***

12. Who Mourns for Morn? – A funny in-joke becomes a hilarious and suspenseful episode. The station is informed that Morn, DS9’s resident barfly, has died. On top of this, Morn’s will calls for his incredibly large estate to be bequeathed unto Quark. This in turn leads to several interested parties, including two fish-looking dudes doing Jack Nicholson impressions, coming out of the woodwork to try and bag part of Morn’s massive stash of latinum. ****

13. Far Beyond the Stars – A just gut-wrenching out-of-continuity story (okay, so there’s the bookended intro and coda involving Sisko, but this makes up maybe 10% of the screen time) telling of a science-fiction writer with grandiose ideas for a story set on a far-off space station called “Deep Space Nine.” Problems ensue when the editor insists that the commander aboard the station be, likesay, White. *****

14. One Little Ship – A runabout with Dax, Bashir and O’Brien aboard runs afoul of a subspace phenomenon which shrinks the ship to four inches in length. The usual shrinkage-related hijinks ensue. Silly stuff. **

15. Honor Among Thieves – The Orion Syndicate, a band so often name-dropped on DS9, finally gets some quality screen time, as O’Brien goes undercover to investigate a Starfleet turncoat. ***

16. Change of Heart – Worf and Dax undertake an undercover away mission while Bashir and O’Brien train to beat Quark in a game of tongo. Things end badly for both mission and game, and somehow only afterward does it occur to Sisko that sending betrotheds alone on an away mission was a good idea… ***

17. Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night – A terrible title leads to the question, “Why does everything involving Kira turn into soap opera?” In this one, Dukat comes up to her and says, basically, “Oh yeah, your mother and I used to be reeeeeeeeeal close.” This leads to panicky time travel. Bleagh. *

18. Inquisition – Head trip for Bashir: One his way off to an interplanetary medical conference, Bahsir is instead arrested and interrogated by Federation law enforcement officials accusing him of spying for the Dominion. With a fairly major plot twist before every break, this one definitely keeps the viewer in suspense. ****

19. In the Pale Moonlight – Lest ye forget, Avery Brooks is a classically-trained actor. Watch him flex those thespian muscles in this frame story about political intrigue framed within a Shakespearean-style monologue. Sisko shoves ethical considerations aside as he teams with Garak to trick the Romulans into breaking their non-aggression pact with the Dominion. Nearly as brilliant as Brooks here is Andrew J. Robinson, whose Garak gets some nifty dialogue and monologues of his own. A highlight of the entire ST universe. *****

20. His Way – Introducing Bahir’s latest holosuite program, a 1960s Las Vegas lounge complete with lounge lizard Vic Damone, who, get this, consoles Odo on his love life. Bleagh. *

21. The Reckoning – An ancient tablet is discovered on Bajor; upon translation, it tells an apocalyptic story of doom to come. By episode’s end, the Pah-wraiths haunt the station for a bit, but the prospective bagging of Vulcan by the Dominion is far more distressing… ***

22. Valiant – While on a mission to Ferenginar, the Defiatn occupied by Jake and Nog is attacked by a Jem-Hadar ship which is in return destroyed by cadets manning a starship due to the war effort. These cadets naturally seek to be of further assistance. ***

23. Profit and Lace – Beguiled by Quark’s progressive-thinking mother, the Grand Nagus is under fire on Ferenginar for advancing the notion of equal rights for females. He comes to Quark, who really should be getting quite a bit more financial recompense than he does for assisting in these sorts of situations, for help.***

24. Time’s Orphan – Don’t get too invested in this episode, or you’ll end up as tormented as O’Brien. Little Molly O’Brien gets hit by the dreaded temporal anomaly. She then spends about 12 or 13 years living by herself on a hellish planet. When given a chance to reverse the effect of the anomaly, thereby preventing the incident in the first place, O’Brien must face an ethical dilemma. Lots of tear-jerky moments in this one. ****

25. The Sound of Her Voice – Captain Cusack of the doomed ship Olympia contacts the station, and several members of the bridge crew task themselves with keeping her spirits up, informing her about the war, etc., via com link. Except.. there’s a twist. ****

26. Tears of the Prophets – Some serious haranguing between Romulans and Klingons ultimately leads to these two plus Federation forces getting into a helluva space war with Dominion ships. Despite the victory, however, Sisko has a crisis of conscious and a cliffhanger of sorts has him firmly planted back in New Orleans. ****

star trek deep space nine season 5 episode 6

How Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Connects to a Major TNG Mystery

Quick links, how star trek: discovery sets up its final season, how star trek: discovery ties into tng's 'the chase' episode, why the next generation never followed up on the progenitor story, how star trek: discovery can build on tng's 'roddenberry-esque' concept.

The following contains spoilers from Star Trek: Discovery , Season 5, Episodes 1 and 2, "Red Directive" and "Under the Twin Moons," now streaming on Paramount+.

In a universe with nearly 60 years of narrative history, ongoing series face a unique difficulty that's both a blessing and a curse. They have to tell a new, inventive story that fits into the established canon and builds upon it. Done well, it can take a decades-old story and expand on it in a way that makes the result feel inevitable. The way Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 connects to a dangling Star Trek: The Next Generation story thread has that potential. Discovery connected to Star Trek: TNG before , showing footage from the series of Leonard Nimoy's Spock as the "personal files" of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The character played by Patrick Stewart is mentioned again in the Season 5 premiere, this time by David Cronenberg's Doctor Kovich.

Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) unravels the titular "Red Directive" mystery with the help of Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman). Meant to be kept a closely-held secret, the USS Discovery crew learns a Star Trek canon fact fans have known for 30 years. Ironically, it's a sci-fi detail meant to address a nitpicky Trekker quibble that doubled as an almost-saccharine moral message in a Season 6 The Next Generation episode. Star Trek: Discovery takes this idea and expands upon it in a way that poses its own relevant social question and presents an interesting narrative problem. Discovery Season 5 is a race and a treasure-hunt that promises lighthearted Star Trek fun. However, its connection to "The Chase" on The Next Generation is more than just a fun Easter egg for fans.

Section 31: First Image of Michelle Yeoh in New Star Trek Movie Released

The final season debut for Star Trek: Discovery came later than expected. In fact, the opening bit of space adventure has been out since it debuted at Comic Con in 2023. However, fans now have context about why Captain Burnham was riding atop a ship traveling at warp speed. While at a reception at Starfleet's space-based headquarters, the USS Discovery is ordered to a ship graveyard after the receipt of an 800-year-old signal. Naturally, two space-pirates -- Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) -- get there first.

Kovich is very cagey about the details of this mission, and Burnham pulls her risky stunt without even knowing what she's chasing down. Oded Fehr's Admiral Vance doesn't even know the mission details. After Moll and L'ak almost destroy a village full of people trying to escape, they learn the truth. A Romulan scientist named Vellek found some ancient alien technology that is more powerful than anything Starfleet, the Dominion or even the millennia-old Borg have ever seen.

Thanks to a Soong-type android who speed-read the Romulan's journal, the crew is working with the same information as Moll and L'ak. Like any good archaeologist who keeps a journal, Vellek left a list of clues and riddles pointing towards his discovery. Burnham and Saru (Doug Jones) track one down. There will be plenty more to find over Discovery 's final mission , and there's no telling if the "X" on their galactic treasure map is anything more than information. The most interesting conflict in Season 5 is how people react to the existence of the alien race known only as the "Progenitors."

Star Trek: Discovery's Kenneth Mitchell Was Heroic On and Off Screen

In Season 6, Episode 20 of Star Trek: The Next Generation "The Chase," there is another race across the stars for a big alien secret. Captain Picard's friend and archaeology teacher Galen (Norman Lloyd) visits and asks him to leave the USS Enterprise-D . He's discovered information about the Progenitors, but he doesn't get to reveal it before he is killed. Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians all try to track down this secret, leading to a standoff on a planet called Vilmor III.

Picard and his crew solve Galen's mystery first, which leads to the appearance of a humanoid alien via advanced hologram. This representative of the Progenitor, played by Salome Jens (who also played the Dominion leader on Deep Space Nine ), makes a revelation that shocks everyone there. When her people first explored the galaxy billions of years ago, no advanced life had evolved. Her people used their technology to encourage the evolution of intelligent, advanced life like themselves, meaning two arms, two legs and so on.

A group of four Romulan scientists witnessed this, and the commander even implies to Picard this news could bring peace between the Empire and the Federation. Vellek was one of the Romulans on Vilmor III, and he continued to study this revelation. When his ship was incapacitated, he sent a message so that someone could retrieve his work and carry on the mission. This was what Kovich wanted the USS Discovery to do, but Moll and L'ak got there first.

'We Broke Barriers': Star Trek: Discovery Star Celebrates Show's Diversity

Unlike Star Trek: Discovery and other third-wave series, The Next Generation mostly avoided serialized storytelling . By the sixth season, the series hit its stride tackling big ideas in character-focused stories. This episode was controversial among the producers, according to Captains' Logs The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman. Executive producer Rick Berman said the story had been "around forever," and writers Joe Menosky and Ronald D. Moore tackled this script.

They, along with fellow writer Naren Shankar and director Jonathan Frakes said it was the "most Roddenberry-esque" idea The Next Generation tackled, even when the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself was alive. Instead of all these different beings being "created" by a divine god of some sort, they were genetically related to an advanced alien species that had long since died out. The four big Star Trek enemies were all related. This was not a keystone of world-building, but rather a "message" show.

The premise also served to address a common quibble from overly-critical Star Trek fans. If there is supposed to be "infinite diversity in infinite combinations," why do all the aliens on Star Trek look like humans? The answer, of course, is because human actors need to play them. However, this provides some sci-fi reasoning: there are so many humanoid species in the galaxy because billions of years ago, some humanoid race put their opposable thumb on the evolutionary scale of thousands of planets .

Star Trek: Discovery Cast Reveals the Mementos They Kept From the Set

Discovery Season 5 wasn't the final one initially , though producers were able to add an extended coda to the series finale to wrap up the show. Still, as concepts to drive a Star Trek series' swan song, it's perfect. Part of the reason The Next Generation's writers never returned to the concept is that if everyone learns the "lesson," there is not much in the way of conflict for future stories. It was something for the audience to learn, not the wider universe. However, Discovery 's present-day galaxy is already fairly integrated.

Vulcans and Romulans reunified and joined the Federation. President Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) is Cardassian and Bajoran. The Klingons haven't been heard from in the 32nd Century, but they're not picking fights, either. Whatever technology is at the other end of the treasure hunt may or may not be dangerous. What's more interesting in the Star Trek universe is the information itself. With the galactic society already so integrated, the news they share a common genetic ancestor billions of years in the past will probably only bring them closer together.

When Picard and the Romulan Commander spoke at the end of "The Chase," the latter said the information they discovered might "one day" bring them together. Discovery showed the galaxy united without that knowledge. In Season 5, this series can pay off that notion in the perfect way. They can introduce this information to the galaxy at large, without future seasons' conflict undermining it. It's the kind of ending Gene Roddenberry would be proud of because the truth that all life is in this together is what he created Star Trek to tell the world.

Star Trek: Discovery debuts new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

The fifth and final season of the American television series Star Trek: Discovery follows the crew of the starship Discovery in the 32nd century, more than 900 years after Star Trek: The Original Series , on a galactic adventure to find a mysterious power that has been hidden for centuries and which other dangerous groups are also searching for.

Release Date September 24, 2017

Cast Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Rating TV-14

How Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Connects to a Major TNG Mystery

TrekMovie.com

  • April 5, 2024 | Roddenberry Archive Expands With Virtual Tours Of Deep Space 9 Station And The USS Discovery
  • April 5, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Reviews The First Two Episodes Of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5
  • April 4, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Embraces Second Chances In “Under The Twin Moons”
  • April 4, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Returns With New Vitality And A Lore-Fueled Quest In “Red Directive”
  • April 4, 2024 | Watch The ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Premiere For Free On YouTube In USA

Pluto TV Adds Dedicated ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ Channel

star trek deep space nine season 5 episode 6

| April 2, 2024 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 25 comments so far

PlutoTV is part of the Paramount Global portfolio of services, and as we’ve reported before , the ad-supported free streaming service has multiple Star Trek series that run on their “Star Trek” and “More Star Trek” channels. PlutoTV has been streaming Star Trek: The Original Series , The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager on those two live Star Trek channels. This week, PlutoTV launched a third channel in the USA, solely dedicated to a Deep Space Nine . This is a first for Trek on PlutoTV.

3 live Trek channels

Adding a channel just for DS9 is part of Pluto’s 10th anniversary celebration:

In April, we’re celebrating our 10th anniversary in a big way, welcoming a dedicated Deep Space Nine channel to our growing Star Trek lineup and more.

The Deep Space Nine channel is already up and running next to the two other Trek channels…

star trek deep space nine season 5 episode 6

Pluto now has 3 Trek channels

Pluto’s original Star Trek channel is now dedicated to streaming episodes of TOS and TNG. For now the More Star Trek channel is streaming episodes of  Voyager .

Trek on demand

In addition to episodes being shown on live-streaming channels, select seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series ,  Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , and Star Trek: Voyager are also available on demand.

Star Trek plays a big part for Paramount’s free streamer. Periodically Pluto has Star Trek movies streaming live and on demand. And when new seasons of Paramount+ original Star Trek shows arrive they often use their “Paramount+ Picks” channel to stream season premiere episodes for free.

Pluto TV’s advertisements often feature Trek in some manner. This includes their most recent “Couch Potato” advert which aired during the Super Bowl.

And back in October, Pluto TV had this TNG-inspired advertisement

Pluto TV is available on the web at pluto.tv , and via apps for smart TVs, consoles, and mobile devices.

Keep up with the  Star Trek Universe on TV here at TrekMovie.com .

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As a kid, I used to tell my friends if there was a 24/7 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine channel, I would absolutely tune in regularly.

I think my kid self just called my bluff.

I watch Star Trek on Pluto TV nearly everyday.

Same here. It’s great to have on ‘in the background’ while making dinner, etc.

Someone can dedicate an entire channel to Deep Space Nine, but the owners of Deep Space Nine can’t convert it to HD? To quote a droid from another franchise, “This is madness!”

I feel you but like hear me out

I think one of these things is far more expensive than the other

There’s an old adage about gratitude that goes something to the effect of, “If you find yourself having to walk for miles because your car broke down, try to remember how many people would be thrilled to be able to take that walk.” In this case, if your vision is good enough to make a real distinction between standard-def and HD, be happy you can see that well. Many others can’t, myself included.

Damn, that really sucks, Michael. Is it cataract-related or something less treatable? I’m always worried about vision myself, given the connection between diabetes and blindness.

The Pluto news is pretty good, as I still haven’t gotten season 5 on dvd, which is where my favorite Eddington show appears, plus the baseball card episode.

My vision has been terrible for my entire life, with myopia so severe that it lands me in the top 95th percentile. The good news is that it’s been correctable, so while I was never going to fly the space shuttle (or anything else) I’ve been able to wear contacts that allow me to drive and do just about everything a person with normal vision can do. It’s gotten somewhat worse lately, where I’ll now be in the ridiculous position of having to wear glasses on top of my contacts to see things up close, but that’s my particular burden to bear and I’ll deal with it while still indulging my passion for photography. I’m 65, am in mostly good health, still have the greater percentage of my hair and can press 200+, for all of which I’m grateful. Don’t cry for me, Argentina. 😊

I actually got a doctor’s excuse to get out of swimming in high school owing to what he described as my 20/500 vision (I think it was a bit less than that), saying I’d keep colliding with the pool walls unless the school wanted to make me prescription scuba masks (oddly enough, I met up with my dad later that same year and found out he actually did have a prescription scuba mask for snorkeling, which I guess makes sense given he lived in Hawaii and was probably as nearsighted as I was.)

Wow, my long-lost nearsighted brother. (My actual brother’s eyesight is even worse than my own.) After losing an expensive pair of glasses — there’s no other kind with my prescription — I came to understand that swimming in the ocean would always be problematic for me.

In Canada Pluto has one Star Trek channel and the play TOS and TNG on it. They’ll play roughly 4 or 5 TOS episodes then same amount of TNG episodes and keep rotating.

Yeah, I am envious of those in the US because they not only have two channels plus the new DS9 channel, they also have TOS, TNG and DS9 on demand. To top it off, Pluto US also has a Stargate channel showing episodes of SG1 and Atlantis. Up here we have one live only channel of TOS and TNG.

That said, I guess I should not complain because CTV Sci-Fi channel does show multiple episodes of TOS, TNG, Voyager, DS9 and Enterprise along with SG1 throughout the week and weekend mornings.

Here in Australia our pluto.tv doesn’t have any Star Trek

Thanks for keeping things in perspective. Hopefully sometime soon, Pluto adds a Trek channel to their lineup down under.

Wow great news! I’m amazed how popular DS9 has become the last few decades.

Yup pretty cool. IMHO DS9 is perhaps my favorite series competing head to head with TNG followed by TOS. SNW is also up there too, but not quite in the league with the top 3!

I recently fully rewatched the series (first time since it aired and I was a wee child glued to it) and I can’t honestly say I know what I think of it. Season four and five were almost exclusively excellent and the rest was ups and downs, save for season seven which was almost complete garbage. I loved the best of it and couldn’t stand a lot of it. Do I love the show?? I don’t even know. It left a bad taste but when I look a bit further back I remember how much I loved some of it…and I’m glad it’s getting some love b/c I think the best of it is among the best of Trek. But I can’t say I want to go back to this style of making a season of television. 🫠 I’d love to see some of the available characters again, though, some kind of follow up that did away with the worst flaws. (I do need to read the comics.) (And in case anyone wants to do the toxic nostalgia song n dance, I only did that rewatch b/c modern Trek star Tawny Newsome talks DS9 up at every opportunity. And overall it left me so grateful for the modern era and newly appreciative of the work done in the past. And pleased that I’ll get more of the references in Lower Decks now I’m refreshed, lol)

I agree, for the most part. Season 7 is not garbage and had some of the best episodes, but the final 10 were rough. But I think that is what left that “bad taste.”

If were to rank the 7 seasons of DS9 from best to worst:

4 5 6 3 7 2 1

That is how I feel now, but that could change after another re-watch.

Nothing wrong with liking what you like. I happen to think that the best of DS9 was as good a Star Trek as we’re ever likely to get, but that doesn’t mean the series as a whole was anything like perfect.

I still haven’t seen several trill-oriented eps because the whole subject doesn’t speak to me. Doesn’t stop me from being blown away by a number of great and good eps, though.

am thinking by season, it would probably be, top to bottom: 4 6 3 5 7 2 1

Looks like the “More Star Trek” channel is now the Star Trek: Voyager channel. So DS9 and Voyager both have their own “new” channels.

I would imagine Pluto’s unpausable live streaming format probably doesn’t work the best for DS9’s serialized nature. But definitely can cater to the fan wanting o drop in and “trek channel surf”

Pluto needs the ability to pause live content . Even if it’s a max of 15 mins. You can do that with current cable.

Right now it’s literally like watching over the air TV before VCRs were created. No ability to pause or even ” record ” what your seeing.

I disagree. I actually like the lack of ability to pause to mimic the “before-time.”

Also, if you have Paramount + or the shows on disc, then you can pause them that way.

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season 6, Episode 5

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Watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — Season 6, Episode 5 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Avery Brooks

Capt. Benjamin Sisko

Rene Auberjonois

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Star trek: discovery season 5, episode 1 ending & tng treasure explained.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere dropped a bombshell that ties all the way back to Star Trek: The Next Generation. We break it down.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 1 - "Red Directive"

  • Star Trek: Discovery season 5 reveals a bombshell treasure hunt that ties back to Star Trek: TNG "The Chase."
  • Mysterious villains Moll and L'ak create chaos, leaving behind a trail of destruction on Kumal.
  • Captain Saru to become a Federation Ambassador, leading to the first Kelpien-Vulcan wedding in Star Trek history.

The ending of Star Trek: Discovery 's exhilarating season 5 premiere dropped a jaw-dropping bombshell that the treasure Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is hunting for comes from Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, "The Chase." Written by Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, Discovery 's season 5 premiere, "Red Directive," introduces three new major characters, the villains Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis), and Starfleet Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), and sets up Discovery season 5 as a sequel to the classic TNG episode about who created humanoid life in the galaxy - and how .

Moll and L'ak escaped the clutches of Captain Burnham, Captain Rayner, and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) on the desert world of Q'Mau. After a synthetic merchant named Fred (J. Adam Brown) opened a Romulan puzzle box Moll and L'ak stole from an 800-year-old Romulan starship , Fred double-crossed Moll and L'ak and was killed by the renegade lovers. L'ak and Moll then detonated an explosive in the mountains, creating an avalanche. The combined shields of the USS Discovery and the USS Antares protected the people of Kumal, but Moll and L'ak escaped with the Romulans' journal. However, Captain Burnham knows more than the rogues do about the treasure thanks to Discovery's crew. And, as Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) said, the answers are wild.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 - Everything We Know

Star trek: discovery season 5's treasure & progenitors explained, who were the progenitors in star trek: tng's "the chase".

"The greatest treasure in the known galaxy" in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is the technology Ancient Humanoids used to create sentient humanoid life. A hologram of an Ancient Humanoid (Salome Jens) was encountered by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), members of the USS Enterprise-D crew, as well as a group of Romulans, Klingons, and Cardassians in Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "The Chase". The Ancient Humanoid revealed that her long-dead race seeded the galaxy billions of years ago to create humanoid life forms in their image, and that the humanoid species in Star Trek 's galaxy share a common ancestry.

"The Chase" was Star Trek: The Next Generation 's attempt to explain why so many aliens in Star Trek are essentially humans with bumpy foreheads and physical variations.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere reveals that the United Federation of Planets and Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) dubbed the Ancient Humanoids "The Progenitors". 800 years ago, a Romulan scientist named Dr. Vellek (Michael Copeman) found and hid the Progenitors' technology, which can literally create life and would be catastrophic if it fell into the wrong hands . However, Moll and L'ak (and, logically, whoever hired them) learned about the Progenitors' technology. The ability to create, and possibly destroy, humanoid species is an existential threat to the galaxy, which is why the Federation needs Captain Burnham to find it first.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere, President T'Rina (Tara Rosling) said the Tholian Republic and the Breen Imperium are rising, and they could be looking for the Progenitors' technology.

Moll & L'ak Keep Escaping, But Who Are They?

Star trek: discovery's new villains are a mystery..

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's version of Bonnie and Clyde, the villainous Moll and L'ak are mysterious former couriers who have had several past encounters with Captain Rayner of the USS Antares. Moll is human but L'ak is an unknown species with no known information in the Federation database. They are also hired guns, so they must have an employer yet to be revealed.

While little is revealed about Moll and L'ak, what is clear is they are lovers with deep affection for each other. Cleveland Booker doesn't know Moll and L'ak from his years as a courier, but he could tell by the way they escaped from the USS Discovery and USS Antares that L'ak and Moll are in love and are having fun together. In a way, Moll and L'ak are an echo of what Book and Michael Burnham were like when they were couriers traveling the galaxy together in the year before the USS Discovery arrived in the 32nd century.

Saru Will Become A Federation Ambassador & Marry T'Rina

Wedding bells are coming to star trek: discovery..

Captain Saru accepts Federation President Laira Rillak's (Chelah Horsdal) offer to become a Federation Ambassador. Saru has been serving as First Officer of the USS Discovery despite his higher rank since Star Trek: Discovery season 4, but being Captain Burnham's Number One is not really a role that utilizes the Kelpien's skills and potential. Saru also chose to leave Discovery and become an Ambassador to be closer to his love, President T'Rina.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 will soon have the first Kelpien-Vulcan wedding and the first wedding between 2 major Star Trek characters in 22 years.

Originally, T'Rina told Saru not to factor her into his decision to take the Ambassador position, but she actually wanted Saru to leave Discovery, which would allow them to spend more time together. And T'rina went a step further and proposed to Saru in a very Vulcan-like fashion, suggesting they "codify our mutual agreement in a more official capacity". Saru seemed to say yes, which means Star Trek: Discovery season 5 will soon have the first Kelpien-Vulcan wedding and the first wedding between 2 major Star Trek characters in 22 years since Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) married Deanna Tro i (Marina Sirtis) in Star Trek: Nemesis.

Burnham & Book Are Still Broken Up

They should have called each other..

Star Trek: Discovery 's top love story, Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker , didn't quite heat up in season 5's premiere. Burnham and Book have been separated (but with no hard feelings) ever since Book commenced his penance for the Federation after breaking multiple laws to destroy the Dark Matter Anomaly in Star Trek: Discovery season 4. Burnham turned to Book for his courier expertise to help her catch Moll and L'ak , and if she's honest, because she wanted to see Book again.

Michael and Book agreed not to restart their relationship.

Book remains penitent and is committed to righting his wrongs with the Federation and with Michael, but there is now an understandable awkwardness between them. Book has a role to play on the USS Discovery as long as Moll and L'ak are at large , but on Kumal, Michael and Book agreed not to restart their relationship. However, this isn't the end of Burnham and Booker's love story, and it's hard to imagine they won't get back together at some point in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

Captain Rayner Is No Fan Of Burnham

What is rayner's problem.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 introduced Callum Keith Rennie's Captain Rayner of the USS Antares as a new series regular character, and he brings a new dynamic to the show. Gruff, impatient, and no-nonsense, Rayner evokes previous hardliner Star Trek Captains like Captain Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox) in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Rayner is also resentful of Captain Burnham for some reason , and he finds humor in mocking Michael, asserting his command authority, and countermanding her orders.

Rayner seems jealous of the USS Discovery's spore drive, and he mentions his displeasure that he doesn't have a Pathway Drive on the USS Antares.

Although it wasn't mentioned or factored into Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere, Captain Rayner is a Kellerun , a species first introduced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2's "Armageddon Game". Rayner's interest in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is fulfilling his Red Directive mission objective, which is retrieving the treasure, as well as capturing Moll and L'ak, whom he has tangled with before. There is plenty more to learn about Captain Rayner in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

Star Trek: Discovery Now Has Their Own Data

Fred could be good for commander paul stamets..

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere introduced Fred, a Soong-type synthetic who is a merchant and fence on the planet Q'Mau. Fred obviously evokes the most famous Soong android, Data (Brent Spiner), which is another link between Star Trek: Discovery season 5 and Star Trek: The Next Generation , L'ak and Moll killed Fred after he double-crossed them, but after Fred's body was beamed onto the USS Discovery's medical bay, Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) determined from his serial number, AS-7502Y, that Fred was built from the design of Dr. Altan Inigo Soong (Brent Spiner) from Star Trek: Picard .

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere, Stamets lamented the Federation's scuttling the spore drive program in favor of the Pathway Drive . Although Fred was "killed", it's possible Stamets and his husband, Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), can reactivate Fred. The 600-plus-year-old android may contain other secrets and answer many questions about events between Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Discovery 's era. There are intriguing possibilities for Fred in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 , and it would be odd if Fred really is dead after his lone appearance.

The USS Discovery is now "one of a kind" since it has the only working spore drive in existence.

The Next Clue In Discovery's Treasure Hunt

Discovery is going to a planet with twin moons..

The USS Discovery's next stop on the treasure hunt in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2, "Under the Twin Moons," is Lyrek, a planet in the Vileen system, on the outer sector of the Beta Quadrant, that has 3 moons, 2 of which move in perfect sync. Captain Burnham figured this out after seeing images of Dr. Vellek's Romulan diary pages retrieved from Fred's database. One of the pages had a circular image which could be a literal treasure map, and the clues point to the Vileen system and the planet with twin moons . What Burnham will find on Lyrek remains to be seen in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2, but the chase is on to answer one of the biggest questions left behind by Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is streaming on Paramount+

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Star Trek: Discovery’s Season 5 Premiere Easter Egg Explained: Who Are the [Spoiler]?

Keisha hatchett, staff editor.

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Star Trek: Discovery co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman previously told TVLine that the sci-fi drama’s fifth and final season was dependent on a “very significant” Star Trek Easter egg , and we finally know what he meant by that.

The season’s first two episodes, which are now streaming on Paramount+, sent the Discovery crew on one last adventure to find the missing clues spread throughout the galaxy that will lead them to the ancient device used by an ancient species, known as the Progenitors, to create life as we know it.

That Easter egg came into play in the premiere , as outlaws Moll ( Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Eve Harlow) and L’ak ( Shadowhunters ’ Elias Toufexis) stole a tan zhekran — a traditional Romulan puzzle box; Narek (Harry Treadaway) used one as a thinking aid in Star Trek: Picard Season 1 — from an 800-year-old Romulan science vessel.

The Federation was also heavily invested in finding this mystery box, and Dr. Kovich and Admiral Vance remained tightlipped while briefing Burnham on a secretive mission to retrieve it. Captain Burnham nearly caught Moll and L’ak aboard the science vessel but they escaped to the Dune -like planet Q’mau.

There, the fugitive duo convinced a Synth dealer named Fred to open the box under the guise of selling it along with other timeless treasures, including a self-sealing stem bolt (frequently mentioned throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , though their specific use is unclear) and an old tricorder (a hand-held sensor issued by Starfleet that can be used for scanning, recording and analyzing data). 

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

Dr. Vellek found the ancient humanoids’ life-creating device and recorded everything he knew about it in that diary. He then hid the device sometime before disappearing 800 years ago, and the diary contains important clues — such as the drawing of two moons — to find it.

Book and Burnham tracked Moll and L’ak to Q’mau, where they came upon Fred’s lifeless body. As they continued pursuing the outlaws, Culber, Stamets and Saru examined Fred aboard Discover y and realized that he was built from one of Dr. Soong’s designs.

Dr. Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner) created several android prototypes, including Data, Lore and B-4 — all portrayed by Spiner throughout TNG’s seven-season run.

L’ak and Mall again evaded Burnham & Co., but not before starting a catastrophic avalanche that forced the Discovery captain and a frustratingly aggressive Captain Raynor ( The Umbrella Academy’s Callum Keith Rennie) to refocus their efforts on saving a nearby settlement.

When the dust settled, Saru, who’d been thinking over an offer to leave Discovery and become a Federation ambassador, accepted the new position to stay close to President T’Rina. That was met with a surprising proposal from T’Rina, who politely suggested they codify their mutual commitment in a more official capacity.

While the Federation mulled his future, Discovery embarked on a trip to Lyrek in search of another clue. The uninhabited planet was used by the Promellians as a burial ground before the species went extinct. (In the TNG episode “Booby Trap,” we learned that early Federation starships were influenced by their design.)

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

In their exploration of the forest-heavy planet, Burnham and Saru accidentally tripped a complex security system which launched droids that immediately opened fire. Saru leaped into action, though, drawing the killer bots away and buying Tilly enough time to disarm them. He and Burnham then reached their target location, where they uncovered a Romulan revlav, aka a message in a poem.

While all of that was happening, Book reached out to Moll and L’ak about buying the diary, which he knew would be a hot commodity in the galaxy. But his conversation with the fugitives revealed something else. Studying Moll’s image later on, Book figured out why Moll seemed so familiar. Her real name was Malinne and she was the daughter of his mentor Cleveland Book IV, making her the closest thing to family he has left.

But first, Burnham needed to secure a new Number One. She turned to Raynor, who’d been asked by Vance to retire. In offering him Saru’s old role, she was giving him a second chance — one that had been granted to her back in Season 1.

What did you think of the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery’s final season? Grade them below, and share your thoughts about the overarching mystery in the comments.

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I like Discovery, a lot, but this was a deep cut for anyone not a big fan of the entire Trekverse. Thanks for the recap and the thorough explanation, I know I needed it

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Episode list

Star trek: deep space nine.

Jeffrey Combs and Marc Alaimo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E1 ∙ A Time to Stand

Phil Morris in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E2 ∙ Rocks and Shoals

Nana Visitor, Marc Alaimo, and Melanie Smith in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E3 ∙ Sons and Daughters

Rene Auberjonois and Salome Jens in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E4 ∙ Behind the Lines

Nana Visitor and Jeffrey Combs in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E5 ∙ Favor the Bold

Marc Alaimo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E6 ∙ Sacrifice of Angels

Shannon Cochran in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E7 ∙ You Are Cordially Invited

Nana Visitor and Philip Anglim in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E8 ∙ Resurrection

Hilary Shepard, Tim Ransom, Faith Salie, and Alexander Siddig in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E9 ∙ Statistical Probabilities

Armin Shimerman in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E10 ∙ The Magnificent Ferengi

Marc Alaimo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E11 ∙ Waltz

Armin Shimerman and Bridget White in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E12 ∙ Who Mourns for Morn?

Nana Visitor in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E13 ∙ Far Beyond the Stars

Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E14 ∙ One Little Ship

Brad Blaisdell in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E15 ∙ Honor Among Thieves

Armin Shimerman in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E16 ∙ Change of Heart

Nana Visitor and Leslie Hope in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E17 ∙ Wrongs Darker than Death or Night

William Sadler in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E18 ∙ Inquisition

Jeffrey Combs, Casey Biggs, and Andrew Robinson in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E19 ∙ In the Pale Moonlight

Rene Auberjonois in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E20 ∙ His Way

Terry Farrell and Avery Brooks in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E21 ∙ The Reckoning

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E22 ∙ Valiant

Wallace Shawn, Armin Shimerman, Chase Masterson, Max Grodénchik, and Tiny Ron in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E23 ∙ Profit and Lace

Michelle Krusiec in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E24 ∙ Time's Orphan

Avery Brooks in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E25 ∙ The Sound of Her Voice

Michael Dorn, Avery Brooks, David Birney, J.G. Hertzler, and Barry Jenner in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

S6.E26 ∙ Tears of the Prophets

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  1. Trials and Tribble-ations

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    S5.E22 ∙ Children of Time. Mon, May 5, 1997. The DS9 crew discovers a small colony on a remote world that was originally populated by them 200 years earlier due to a time-travel accident with the Defiant. The current colonists lives depend on making sure that accident happens again, even though they've now forwarned the crew that it will happen.

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    The ending of Star Trek: Discovery's exhilarating season 5 premiere dropped a jaw-dropping bombshell that the treasure Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is hunting for comes from Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, "The Chase." Written by Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, Discovery's season 5 premiere, "Red Directive ...

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    A scan of the object then unlocked a hidden message from the Progenitors, who revealed that they were responsible for all life in the Alpha Quadrant. That Easter egg came into play in the premiere ...

  26. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series 1993-1999)

    Mon, Oct 6, 1997. Sisko and his crew crash on a barren world when their commandeered Jem'Hadar ship is shot down. They encounter Jem'Hadar who crashed there earlier, and have taken Nog and Garak hostage in exchange for medical aid for their Vorta overseer. 8.5/10 (2.3K) Rate. Watch options.