YMMV / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S05 E06 "Trials and Tribble-ations"

• Fridge Logic:
  • The Klingons wiped out all Tribbles? They were sold as pets (it's highly doubtful Uhura was the only person to ever get one), they'd infested a space station that ships from both the Federation and non-Federation planets visited, and they not only reproduce insanely fast, but also don't even need to find a mate for that, which means one single Tribble is enough to keep the species alive. In order to exterminate Tribbles completely, Klingons had to first get rid of every last one on Qo'noS (Hard, but probably doable considering the general antipathy Klingons and Tribbles have for one another), probably obliterating everything on the Tribbles' homeworld to get rid of all of them (doable, though one hopes no sapient species lived there), and then they would've had to search every house, sewer, and garbage can on countless planets and starships all over the quadrant. And all that without starting a war, which meant they had to break into a lot of Federation houses unseen, even if all they did was release a Glommer and then recollect it a bit later.
    • Recall that Worf was raised by humans and much of what he knows about Klingons is from reading or other sources. Worf is a "textbook" Klingon; contrast him to Martok, who is a much more authentic Klingon. Also, Worf is kind of gullible. One might take that entire tale with a large shaker of salt.
    • Considering how uncontained tribbles could easily become an ecological disaster (some Expanded Universe materials have mentioned transporting them was made a crime in the Federation), it's not impossible the Federation took steps to eradicate populations on their own planets, so the Klingons likely wouldn't have to do so.
    • We do see tribbles in later episodes and movies, so obviously the Klingons didn't get all of them.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: In the episode, Dax mentions that she finds Spock to be more attractive than Kirk. In 2018, Terry Farrell married Leonard Nimoy's son, Adam.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The episode mocks the appearance of 1960s Trek, quite explicitly when Dax comments on the original tricorder. However, since this episode, handheld devices like phones have become quite ubiquitous and aren't covered in blinking LEDs like TNG era tricorders. TOS tricorders, while dated from a fashion perspective, now look far more believable than TNG's.
  • During the bar fight Bashir takes down a Klingon, then waits a second before suddenly acting like he hurt his arm. While clearly it was written to say the pain took a second to set in, from what we know in later episodes it can also be interpreted as him faking being "normal" around the others so they don't catch on to his genetically-enhanced strength.
  • When speculating why Klingons in this time period look different, O'Brien guesses it was a genetic experiment while Bashir suggests a viral mutation. Star Trek: Enterprise would prove them both right when it explained the ridge difference as a result of integrating the augment experiments that created Khan into Klingon DNA and then spreading after the DNA merged with a virus.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The mixing of TOS and Deep Space Nine. What got the episode approved was a test shot involving the scene of Kirk walking onto the bridge. When the visual effects team showed the producers that scene, the producers didn't realize one of the crewmembers was a member of the Deep Space Nine visual effects team who had been digitally inserted into the scene.

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