David Gerrold - The Trouble with Tribbles - The birth, sale, and final production of one episode

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The Trouble With Tribbles

the birth, sale, and final production of one episode

David Gerrold

Illustrations by Tim Kirk

BenBella Books

Dallas, TX

First BenBella Edition 2004

BenBella Books

6440 N Central Expy

Suite 617

Dallas, TX 75206

Contents

Chapters 1-3 of Blood and Fire 6

the third book in the Star Wolf series, new from BenBella Books

“The Trouble With Tribbles” 20

the birth, sale, and ﬁnal production of one episode

“David Gerrold knows Star Trek better than anyone, and here’s his take

at how it really should have been; the Star Wolf series is Star Trek done

right—moral conundrums, fascinating characters, and pulse-pounding

action. Highly recommended.”

Robert J Sawyer, author of Hominids

Also by David Gerrold

FICTION

The Star Wolf Series

The Voyage of the Star Wolf

The Middle of Nowhere

Blood and Fire

The War Against the Chtorr Series

The Dingilliad Trilogy

The Man Who Folded Himself

The Flying Sorcerers (with Larry Niven)

When HARLIE Was One

The Martian Child

NON-FICTION

The World of Star Trek

The Trouble With Tribbles

Worlds of Wonder

The Trouble With Tribbles

the birth, sale, and final production of one episode

David Gerrold

A Word to the Fore—

This book is the story of a television script, where it came from,

how it was written, how it was eventually ﬁlmed and ﬁnally got

onto the air as an episode of STAR TREK.

It’s a peek into the techniques of writing for television, and

it’s a piece of lore about a popular TV show. But more than that,

it’s the story of how I began my career as a writer. And what I

learned in the process.

And it’s a book about STAR TREK.

The episode was “The Trouble With Tribbles,” and from

the very beginning it was an atypical example of television

production.

But then again—STAR TREK was an atypical TV series.

For example, STAR TREK was the hardest series on the air to

write for. Too many professional TV writers didn’t understand

science ﬁction—they couldn’t handle the format. They didn’t

realize that science ﬁction is more than just a western with ray

guns.

And the science ﬁction writers were almost defeated by the

show too. They knew their science ﬁction, but they had to learn

the exigencies of television production. Some of them couldn’t

handle a medium that kept interrupting itself for commercials,

insisted on exactly—no more, no less—ﬁfty-six minutes worth of

story, and needed three minor climaxes and a major one, no

departures from form please.

These were the voyages of the good ship Enterprise and her

crew: Captain Kirk, the interstellar womanizer; Mr. Spock,

the pointy-eared logician; Dr. McCoy, specialist in sarcasm;

Lieutenant Uhura, a really gorgeous communications ofﬁcer;

and Ensign Chekov, a Russian hotshot at the helm. Each week

this band of intrepids (and four hundred and thirty other

odd crew members) set out to spread truth, justice, and the

American way to the lesser corners of the galaxy. Usually, they

succeeded—once in a while, they deserved to.

22 The Trouble With Tribbles

STAR TREK was never a big hit in numbers—at least not in

the numbers that meant anything to NBC: Nielsen, Arbitron,

etc.—but it has undeniably carved itself a place in American

folklore of the twentieth century.

STAR TREK has become a new mythology, and STAR TREK

fandom has become a Phenomenon, almost a cult. The worldwide

devotion of the show’s followers sometimes borders on the

fanatical.

There must be a reason for it.

I like to think that it’s because STAR TREK was—despite

its faults, and there were many—an imagination-stretcher. It

tickled people’s minds, it made them think—and most of all, it

looked toward the future with a hopeful and optimistic eye.

STAR TREK’S very existence said, “There will be a future! And we

must learn how to make it the best of all possible futures!”

And because of that, STAR TREK was for the young and for

the young-at-heart—the people who would live in the future

and the people who looked forward to it with anticipation and

hope. STAR TREK provided a dream, and the viewers responded

with intensity and enthusiasm.

One of the ways they responded was with story ideas and

script outlines. In just one year, STAR TREK received more than

six thousand scripts, outlines and stories from would-be STAR

TREK writers.

Six thousand!

At best, a television show will buy thirty stories in a season.

On numbers alone, the odds against any new writer

breaking into STAR TREK were 200 to 1. The odds against

any particular new writer selling them a story were 6000 to

1. Or more. Remember, he’s competing with more than

just the other would-bes, he’s also competing with all the

professionals who are trying to sell their stories too. And the

professionals have the edge—after all, it’s their game.

And yet, the hopefuls keep trying.

It must be more than just the money—there are easier ways

to get rich. It must be more than the credit too—who notices a TV

writer? I suspect it’s the desire to share in TV’s special magic—a

desire to be one of the magic-makers themselves. Every season,

year after year, hundreds of amateur writers mail thousands of

The Trouble With Tribbles 23

amateur manuscripts into the Hollywood studios. The process

is continual. But there was something about STAR TREK that

attracted more of them than any other TV show in history.

Maybe it was STAR TREK’S own particular kind of wizardry

that intrigued them, or maybe it was the unlimited scope of

imagination that the show’s format allowed, or maybe it was the

special rapport of the characters and actors who played them—

but it had to be more than just the desire to break into the

promised land of TV writing.

I believe that it was just plain wanting to get closer to your

favorite TV series.

Once a week wasn’t enough—you had to have more of STAR

TREK, more! So you sat down and wrote your own stories—

you acted out your private fantasies and put them on paper.

And then even that wasn’t enough, you had to share them—so

you put them into an envelope and mailed them off to Gene

Roddenberry at Paramount Studios in Hollywood and hoped

that He too would recognize how special this dream of yours

was—and He would reach down from the bridge of the Enterprise

and say, “Yes, this is an ofﬁcial STAR TREK adventure. Yes, we’ll

share it with the rest of the world.” He would anoint you and lift

you up to join the ranks of STAR TREK’S exalted—the special

dreamers! And you would glow forever—because now you too

were one of the people who actually made STAR TREK!

The intensity of those who wanted to make that big leap

was incredible. It still is. (They’re still writing their STAR TREK

stories even though there’s no longer a STAR TREK to sell them to.

But that doesn’t stop them, not at all. To a real Trekkie, STAR

TREK goes on forever.)

The difference between myself and all those other hopefuls

is simple—I was the one who made it. (Hey, who’s that gawky

kid rubbing shoulders with the Vulcan?)

And the reason I made it is that I was training to write

for STAR TREK long before there ever was a STAR TREK to write

for. I had always been a reader of science ﬁction, I had always

wanted to write it; I had wanted to make movies and work in

television as well. And that’s what I studied to do. STAR TREK

provided the opportunity. And this is the story of it.

24 The Trouble With Tribbles

Some of these incidents are fun, some are funny—and several

of them are very special. (And there’s one in particular which

makes me feel very, very good every time I think of it—but I’m

saving the telling of that one for the end.)

So, this book exists for a lot of reasons, but mostly for fun—I

want to answer all of the questions that STAR TREK fans keep

asking me. I want to tell the story of my very ﬁrst sale as a

professional writer. And I hope to bring back some of the sense

of wonder that we all felt the ﬁrst time we saw the Enterprise

hurtling through space.

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TheTroubleWithTribblesthebirth,sale,andfinalproductionofoneepisodeDavidGerroldIllustrationsbyTimKirkBenBellaBooksDallas,TXCopyright©1973byDavidGeroldAllrightsreserved.FirstBenBellaEdition2004BenBellaBooks6440NCentralExpySuite617Dallas,TX75206ContentsChapters1-3ofBloodandFire6thethirdbookintheStarWol...

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