Star Trek: Trials and Tribble-ations

Episode: "Trials and Tribble-ations"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 6

Original Air Date: November 4, 1996

via Wikipedia

Our heroes go back in time to Kirk's Enterprise in order to prevent an attempted assassination on old James T.  Captain Sisko, Dax, Bashir and O'Brien all don the old uniforms and wander about a set we all know and love.  Meanwhile, Odo and Worf hang out at a space station bar to learn what they can about the scheme.

For the nostalgia nerds - and I proudly count myself as one - there is no more satisfying episode than "Trials and Tribbile-ations."  Using Zemekis-style special effects, the DS9 characters were edited seamlessly into the action from TOS's classic "The Trouble with Tribbles."  Kirk's and Spock's first appearance is a genuine wow moment for audience and characters alike.  O'Brien being interrogated with Scotty and the others after a bar brawl is serious fun as are the revelations from Dax regarding a sexual past with Doctor McCoy.  Overall, the story's awfully goofy - even compared to the original.  But the bells and whistles more than make up for any narrative shortcomings.  

Without a doubt, it's one of DS9's best.

LEGO

One of the gift sets included with our Enterprise-D order was a Hot Chocolate Stand...

The completed set

Obviously, there are Star Trek possibilities here...

Alaskan Will Riker takes Deanna Troi for a ski date on the holodeck.  The Child offered an explanation for the mis-colored hands: yellow gloves.

Worf is invited and, of course, he shows up in full uniform.

Poor Wesley is upset he wasn't invited, too.

Acting Notes

DS9 appearance via Memory Alpha 

Charlie Brill played the role of Arne Darvin - a Klingon spy disguised as a human - in both the TOS and DS9 eras.  Darvin is, in fact, the catalyst for sending Sisko and friends back in time to begin with.  Brill was born in Brooklyn, January 13, 1938.  In an astonishing coincidence, he and his wife Mitzi McCall happened to be dining in the same restaurant as show runner Ira Steven Behr and a couple of writers when the latter group were discussing the casting of the episode.

Original series appearance via Memory Alpha

In addition to being married, Brill and McCall were a long-running comedy team, appearing on such programs as The Ed Sullivan Show and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.  They were on Sullivan the same night the Beatles made their world-altering debut in 1964.  The two were also on the long-running crime drama series Silk Stalkings.  In all, they were married for 64 years until her death in 2024.

Brill's films include The Beast of Budapest, Blackbeard's Ghost and The Amazing Dobermans.