Who doesn’t love a crossover? In whatever shape or form, news of an impending crossover is exciting. At SDCC 2022, it was announced that the live-action show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will cross over with the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks. Details are sparing, but we envision some “Scoobynatural” shenanigans for the Enterprise crew, and Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid could be donning cool wigs to bring Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler to life in live-action.
Star Trek, as a franchise, is full of crossovers. Several characters have appeared across films and shows (let’s not even start with the number of actors and behind-the-scenes creators who have multiple Star Trek properties on their resumes). The pilot episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager all featured cameos by a character from a preceding show; Leonard Nimoy appeared in almost every Star Trek series, including the Kelvin timeline reboot, Star Trek (2009); Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis reprised their roles for the finale of Enterprise while Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran voiced their characters in Star Trek: Prodigy. The list goes on. But one of the most memorable — and fun —crossovers remains the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tribble-ations.”
The sixth episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5 was a 30th-anniversary tribute to Star Trek: The Original Series and it was a much-needed moment of levity. The Federation was at war with the Gamma Quadrant’s Founders and their army of Jem'Hadar, who had formed an alliance with the ruthless, power-hungry Cardassians. Despite years of peace with the Klingons, the Federation was now at odds with their former allies. And Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and his crew were at the center of it all. It was a stressful time for the crew, so why not add a visit from Temporal Investigations to the list?
The episode begins with a tense teaser — two Temporal Investigations officers arrive on Deep Space Nine and begin giving Sisko the third degree. They want to know why Sisko had taken the USS Defiant back in time to 2268. Sisko has one amazing story to tell.
The Defiant crew had rescued a human prisoner from Cardassia Prime and retrieved what was purportedly a Bajoran Orb. Unbeknownst to them, they had actually retrieved Arne Darvin (Charlie Brill), a Klingon spy who had been altered to look human. In 2268, Darvin was aboard the original Enterprise attempting to sabotage a Federation mission. He failed and was found out by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Disgraced, Darvin was shunned from Klingon society and spent nearly a century wandering aimlessly before becoming trapped on Cardassia Prime. He heard about the Orb of Time and took the chance to correct his former mistakes. Hence, the Defiant and her crew were stuck in 2268 with a mission to save Kirk.
Darvin’s revenge gives Trekkies the crossover of their dreams. Sisko, Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney), Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), Worf (Michael Dorn) and Odo (Rene Auberjonois) dress up in old-school Starfleet and civilian outfits and transport off the Defiant to board either the Enterprise or the nearby station, K-7. And this is where “Trials and Tribble-ations” turns into a technical marvel. While the Defiant crew investigates, they come in contact with the crew of the original Enterprise. Using numerous techniques, including blue screen, splicing, and editing made famous by Forrest Gump, as well as director Jonathan West’s cinematography choices with lenses, lighting, and film grain, the episode blends the Deep Space Nine actors’ scenes with footage from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles.” Despite being a 1990s production, this episode remains a spectacle that holds up decades later. And lest we forget, Charlie Brill acts as a bridge between the original series episode and Deep Space Nine by reprising his role as Darvin.
Clip shows and recycled footage from older episodes are hardly a novelty in Star Trek — the original series created a memorable two-parter, “The Menagerie,” that reused the unaired pilot, “The Cage.” But Kirk and his crew were mere spectators, unlike in “Trials and Tribble-ations,” where Sisko and team interacted with the era. This episode was a whole new ball game (Sisko would appreciate that baseball metaphor).
Odo is the first to encounter the old crew. While he’s awaiting the return of Darvin to the K-7 bar, he spots Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Chekov (Walter Koenig), and it’s honestly astounding seeing him in the background while Uhura and Chekov are captivated by a tribble.
Later, the bar is the scene of an all-out brawl between Starfleet officers and Klingons, and Odo, Worf, Bashir, and O’Brien are in the thick of it. The scene splices together moments of “The Trouble with Tribbles,” featuring cast members and extras from Star Trek intermingled with the Deep Space Nine actors. It’s impossible to make out where one episode ends and the other begins.
The best moments are, undoubtedly, aboard the Enterprise. The production designers meticulously recreated the interiors of the ship so that the new scenes could blend seamlessly with the old footage. As Bashir and O’Brien wind their way through the corridors of the beloved vessel, it feels like we’re watching the original series again. There’s an unforgettable moment when Kirk attempts to interrogate his crew about the brawl, and Siddig and Meaney are digitally inserted into the scene to look like they’re part of the line-up being interrogated. O’Brien even interacts with Kirk and the creators expertly capture the shadows falling on the new cast as Kirk walks by them.
Sisko and Dax have two significant scenes lurking in the background of the original crew’s scenes, and the mastery is in the film stock used because one cannot make out the difference in eras when old footage is intercut with new scenes. One can easily be forgiven for missing the dialogue and beats as you lift your jaw off the floor.
There are only two major flaws that can be spotted in the episode. One is the lack of Sulu (George Takei), who hadn’t appeared in the original episode, and wasn’t retroactively inserted in “Trials and Tribble-ations” (not to worry, Takei played a large role in the other 30th-anniversary tribute, Star Trek: Voyager episode “Flashback”). The other is the uncanny valley of the interaction between Sisko and Kirk — Avery Brooks is inserted into a scene from “Mirror, Mirror,” but since he takes the place of Marlena Moreau, played by the much shorter Barbara Luna, the sight line is a bit off as Kirk speaks to him. But that is a minor quibble in a moment that reflects every fan’s dream.
But the technical skill at play isn’t the only star of this show. It’s the little moments in the script that act as a tribute to the original series. Based on the story by Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler, and Robert Hewitt Wolfe, the teleplay by Ronald D. Moore and René Echevarria includes several nods to the original series while developing the characters of Deep Space Nine.
Bashir has very little knowledge of the 2200s, and he’s blatant about his ignorance because he’s “a doctor, not a historian.” It’s such an apt throwback to another great doctor in the franchise, Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley), and his brand of repartees from the original series. Bashir is even unaware that the color of the uniforms used to be different, but Sisko kindly enlightens him.
The funniest moments involve Bashir and O’Brien, as they are clueless about working the technology of the time, be it the turbolifts, the tricorder, or the ship’s internal machinery. But even Sisko has a moment of dissonance, when he wacks his chest to activate his non-existent comm badge, only to belatedly remember that he has to use a physical communicator.
Meeting these famed figures from Starfleet comes with its own challenges. O’Brien mistakes a lieutenant to be Kirk but is thankfully spared any blushes by a full-on brawl. Of course, he then has the opportunity to interact with Kirk, which O’Brien can’t help but gloat over. His giddiness is palpable, and the fact that O’Brien lied to the great Kirk himself is a story for the ages.
On K-7, Odo is mesmerized by a little tribble, so much so that he brings one back to the future. While we don’t know how the Deep Space Nine crew cleared the station of the creatures, it’s possible Odo gave the species a new lease on life. The writers maintain the continuity of the Klingons and tribbles’ mutual dislike for each other and also acknowledge the Klingon’s altered appearance in the past. But instead of trying to explain why the TOS-era Klingons looked so different, it’s played off as an uncomfortable moment in Klingon history that Worf refuses to address. A smart move that adds mystery to the Klingons without distracting from the story.
Among the Defiant crew, Dax is the most invested and enamored of this era. Her symbiont has lived through this time, she has memories of it, and we can see her itching to explore and relive it. Sisko has to keep her on the straight and narrow, as Dax lusts after Spock, attempts to chat with Kirk and tries to go off-mission to meet her old Klingon friends. Not only does the episode celebrate the fun friendship these two had, but it paints a grander picture of Dax’s extraordinary life. Who knew that Emony Dax had once had a dalliance with Dr. McCoy?
Credit must also go to episode editor Steve Tucker for adding new context to the original Star Trek episode. When the Defiant crew learns that Darvin has placed a bomb in a tribble to kill Kirk, they split up to find the culprit among the millions of tribbles littered aboard the station and the Enterprise. Viewers are left on tenterhooks as we re-watch Kirk unlocking a storage unit, but now the footage is intercut with Sisko and Dax desperately trying to track down the bomb before it lands on Kirk. They find it in time, but it’s a tense scene brilliantly edited with Sisko and Dax chucking tribbles that conveniently land on Kirk’s head. What perfect timing!
From the era-specific costumes, the accurate set recreations to the jaw-dropping technical feats, this episode remains a special part of the Star Trek canon. It allows viewers to revisit another favorite from the original series, all while watching the Deep Space Nine crew geek out over their idols. It’s meta with a giant side of fun. When it comes to crossovers, “Trials and Tribble-ations” is a reminder that some dreams can come true.