Trials and Tribble-Ations

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

by David Gerrold, Diane Carey, Ronald D. Moore

Almost a century ago, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise first encountered the irresistible (and astonishingly prolific) lifeform known as the tribbles, resulting in one of the most unusual adventures in the annals of Starfleet. Now Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the USS Defiant are transported back in time to that historic occasion, where Darvin, a devious Klingon spy, plots revenge against Captain Kirk. Using the seemingly harmless tribbles, Darvin attempts to destroy Kirk – but for the misplaced residents of Deep Space 9, saving the original Enterprise will be nothing but "tribble."

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Fiction, Space, Adventure, Media Tie In

180 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1996

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was even better then the DS-9 episode it was based upon because the book includes more of the TOS episode along with the whole DS 9 storyline. Trouble With Tribbles is still my favorite ST episode because it shows that a genre that I absolutely love doesn't have to take itself so seriously.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I managed to sneak in this little slip of a book before the end of 2021...and discovered that Diane Carey channeled the great Terrance Dicks. This is the "Star Trek" equivalent of one of Mr. Dicks' classic "Doctor Who" novelizations: crisp, concise, yet managing to add extra detail and embellishment without over-extending the story. A marvelous little work.

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This title is only for the die hard Star Trek fan, who knows the Tribbles episode backwards and forwards. I don't qualify. While I caught some of the jokes, I am positive many went straight over my head. I won't be keeping this but I think tribble fans would love this. Out this copy goes.

[Jesse Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun to revisit

I remember loving this episode of DS9 and reading the novelization brought me back to that happy memory. It was great to read David Gerrold introduction and Ron Moore’s afterword.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun! I love time travel done in this way, and the book is based on my favorite original Star Trek episode. What’s not to like?

[Steve Matthewman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read

[Mayaj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally everything it says on the tin.

[Amy G · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like The Original Star Trek, and hopefully DS9, this book is a good read. It was written straight off of the episode, which I don't think I realized when I bought it. But I had read the book before ever watching the episode, and it adds a lot of humor that the episode itself didn't provide. Definitely worth reading even if you've seen the episode.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun novel based on the episode of Deep Space Nine that put members of DS9 on board the original Enterprise during the time of the Tribbles episode. They melded it all seamlessly into a nice little story.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. The characters of Deep Space Nine mixing with the crew of the Original Series.
The book starts with an introduction by David Gerrold creator of the original Star Trek Episode talking about the concept and filming of the original episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”

If I had known I was going to be “the guy who created the tribbles” for the rest of my life, I might have thought twice about it.

DAVID GERROLD

The story largely reproduces what was written for the TV series Deep Space Nine (Season 5 Episode 6) with a few embellishments from the author Diane Carey, so the Deep Space Nine characters could have slightly more interaction with the Original Series characters than the digital trickery of the episode would allow.

This is the second Star Trek book I read for Book Trek 2021 (#booktrek2021) a project initiated by Vin @ Revenant Reads Booktube channel Book Trek 2021

The first book was A Contest of Principles by Greg Cox, which just used the characters from the Original Series of Star Trek in a completely new story.

The story starts with Sisko being interviewed by the temporal investigators. The names of the investigators Dulmur and Lucsly are anagrams of Mulder and Scully from the X-Files.

“The beginning,” Dulmur said drably. “If there is such a thing,” Lucsly added. Sisko started to grin, but then realized this guy wasn’t being funny.

Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the Defiant (from Deep Space Nine) are transported back in time to that historic occasion when Kirk and his crew encountered the Tribbles and where Darvin, a devious Klingon spy, plots revenge against Captain Kirk. Sisko and his crew must blend in with the Enterprise crew to find Darvin. The pairing of the Defiant crew members Dax with Sisko, O’Reilly with Dr. Bashir and Odo with Worf is comedic gold.

“In the old days, operations officers wore red, command officers wore gold, and—” “And women wore less.”

chipped in Dax.

There is a lot of in-joke style humor like when Sisko touches his badge to communicate with the Defiant only to realise the communicators of the time were hand held devices.

There is much humor, too from the original series episode The Trouble with Tribbles. Kirk sees Scotty reading an engineering journal:

“Another technical journal, Scotty?” he asked. “Don’t you ever relax?” The engineer blinked up at him, confused. “I am relaxing!”

The concept of the story was proposed as something special to celebrate he 30th anniversary of Star Trek. The book adds little to the TV episode, following the scenes and dialogue quite closely. Diane Carey adds some interior thoughts like Sisko reflecting on the responsibilities of command.

This is a great book if you want a nostalgia buzz for the original Star Trek crew and the classic USS Enterprise with an ample helping of humor . The introduction will also please ardent Trekkies about the concept of the original Tribbles episode.

my blog review

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie. My only criticism of this novel lies in the numbering system that Pocket Books employed to keep track of the Star Trek novels. Sometimes they numbered these and sometimes they didn't. They sometimes included episode novelizations and sometimes they didn't. There were longer novels that they excluded from the numbering, but others that they did not. Very confusing and arbitrary, which drives an obsessive personality like me to drink.

I'm not going to lie. My only criticism of this novel lies in the numbering system that Pocket Books employed to keep track of the Star Trek novels. Sometimes they numbered similar books and sometimes they didn't. They sometimes included episode novelizations and sometimes they didn't. There were longer novels that they excluded from the numbering, but others that they did not. Very confusing and arbitrary, which drives an obsessive personality like me to drink.

In Trials and Tribulations (#23 in the ST: DS9 Pocket Books) there is a Star Trek crossover of The Original Series (TOS) crew and the Deep Space Nine crew, riffing on one of the favorite episodes from the original show, "The Trouble with Tribbles." Written by David Gerrold, the story includes aliens that were guests in that episode and this one.

Here, Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the Defiant and DS9 go back in time to when a sleazy Klingon spy returns to a place where he was embarrassed by the Enterprise crew and its captain. The original episode was a romp, and although this time the stakes are higher and more grievous, the newer episode continues to amuse and entertain.

Diane Carey knows story. Diane Carey recognizes humor. Diane Carey is a veteran Star Trek writer with credits in various shows. In this novelization, she showcases every aspect of what I just stated. She didn't want to make me a liar.

[Joe Pranaitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Diane Carey brings us the novelization of one of the two 30th anniversary episodes for Star Trek. Taking place in the early fifth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Defiant under the command of Captain Sisko is tasked with taking one of the Bajorian orbs back to DS9 and Bajor. But 80 years ago Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are called to Deep Space Station K-7 because one Federation bureaucrat wants them to protect the grain that he has there. That grain under the peace treaty would make sure that the Federation not the Klingon Empire controls Sherman's Planet. But as the Defiant is on it's way home it is thrown back in time and come face to face with history. The person that sent them back escaped and whipped the transporter records so the crew of the Defiant has to search both the Enterprise and K-7. This is a great retelling of the episode and I highly recommend it for all Star Trek fans.

[Lois Merritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely don't remember the last time I read this, been so long already, but I wanted something to read that was new but familiar. Well, it's obviously not really new to me, but since it's been years since the last reread, it practically is now, but still very familiar since I love this episode and have seen it plenty of times. The book is almost an exact replica of the episode, just filling in a little here and there, particularly with more of the events done by the original Enterprise crew. So no nasty surprises or changes - just the DS9 crew trying to save Kirk while dogging tribbles. :)

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't think Carey's writing actually added anything to the story. Trials and Tribble-Ations is a GREAT Star Trek episode so my rating has nothing to do with that. I appreciated that it was short and that Carey didn't throw too much of her own crap in there to clog up what was already a good story. I like the intro from Gerrold and Ron D. Moore's little bit at the end. Other than that the story was pretty much the same as the episode other than some dumb stuff added by Carey.

[Andy Stjohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

DS9: Trials and Tribble-ations novelization by Diane Carey

Now this was a fun little quick read! Not too much to be said about it as it was fairly short and had basically the same plot as the episode. But it was nice to get more of Kirk and crew’s POV, and I particularly enjoyed seeing Bashir and McCoy interact and Odo’s reaction and thoughts about Kirk was an interesting tidbit. Overall, a pretty good novelization of a fun episode.

7.5/10

[Nabil Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scintillating and Brilliant story!!

This is a wonderful story of Deep Space Nine meets Star Trek The Original Series. It was original and well composed. It was quite humorous and entertaining. The episode is worth watching on DVD and the novelization is simply great!! Diana Carey writes in her ubiquitous style and is very pleasurable to read.

[Gene Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decidedly for fans of the show, both TOS and DS9. I found the lenthy introduction almost as enjoyable as the novel itself. I also really enjoyed the parts where we got some looks at the thoughts of the characters, deepening their character. Sisko's thoughts on command just made me like him even more.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The episode itself is already a delight. This added little things here and there, like the reason Kirk and Scott don’t mention the DS9 peeps in their report after the bar fight. The biggest highlight though was the introduction by David Gerrold, who recounts what it was like returning to the set decades after writing “The Trouble with Tribbles.”

[lucien alexander “sasha” · Rating 3 out of 5]

some weird sketchy raced and gendered comments, and presumably unintended repetitiveness, but this is like one of my favorite DS9 episodes (spliced with one of my favorite TOS episodes!) so it got an extra star for that.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

What fun!

Enjoyable for anyone who loves TOS and DS9. The opening by Gerrold and the afterword by Moore are welcome bookends to the story. I did notice what think are some minor editing errors but they didn't impact the flow of the story.

[Liv]

i love star trek books so much, where else am i gonna find sentences like "across the room the scottish officer was engaged in a slow burn" and "kirk felt his tensions untwist a little as he embarrassed spock with a quirky gaze"

[Cheryl Sinclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, brings back memories. Such a great mixing of Star Trek's tribbles and Deep Space Nine.

[David Hibberd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun book. The intro by David Gerrold gave some interesting behind-the-scenes looks into the making of the DS9 episode.

[Michaelann Dahlman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it was every bit as delightful as the TV show. I highly recommend this book.

[nx74defiant · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite fun episodes. Jadzia was the fan girl for us. The book included a nice introduction by David Gerrold on how the episode came to be.

[Doris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a lifelong Star Trek fan, so I am amazed that I hadn't previously read this book. It has hovered in the space of the bookshelf, occasionally falling over to get my attention, but there was always a different book to read first.

The first thing I did on reading Mr Gerrold's book was to read the introduction. I knew he had been on the TNG show, but did not know how close he was to missing out on reprising his TOS role, or even missing out altogether. I like trivia of that sort, so it was with a feeling camaraderie for the author and a hint of the unexpected that prompted me to read his work.

I loved it! There were places where the characters were in the "current" world, then again we saw them in the "past" world. Both of course fictitious, but had a strong vibe of reality, aided of course by familiarity. I loved the confusion based on uniform colors, and the feeling of deja vu when Commander Scott is restricted to quarters for his part in the bar fight - followed by chuckles as he famously says thank you for giving me time to devour my TBR pile.

Perhaps not a win for the casual fan, but for those who love the casual heckling of the characters in their little group, this book was a win for me.

[Debbie is on Storygraph · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is with some shame that I never actually saw the episode. I dabble as a Star Trek fan, enjoying some of the shows while never really going out of my way to watch the others. DS9 was one that I did watch, though in reruns, and I never did catch Trials and Tribble-Ations. I had heard good things about it so I picked up the novelization. It was amusing, and well written. One day, I may even experience the story as it was meant to have been experienced.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very hard to engage deeply with characters in this sort of book, as it's basically a marketing piece for the franchise. I enjoyed the introduction and info about the sets, characters and crew as much as the story. it was great to see this on screen, and it's nice that it has been novelised, but as with many adaptations of screenplays it falls flat as a literary enjoyment.

[Chris Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was fantastic. When I was a kid, I imagined what it would be like to visit the USS Enterprise and meet Captain James T. Kirk and crew. Through Diane Carey's writing, I could feel the awe and joy the DS9 crew felt when they traveled back in time to fulfill my childhood dream.

Now I need to re-watch The Trouble with Tribbles and Trails and Tribble-ations.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

HAHA, one of THE best original episodes ever, now one of the funniest Deep Space Nine episodes. :)

To prevent the assassination of Kirk early in his career, the Deep Space Nine crew travels back to save him. But how to save one person with the entire enterprise on alert, from the Klingons?