Book Review: “Trials and Tribble-ations (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)” by Diane Carey

This was a lot of fun. The characters of Deep Space Nine mixing via video and literary trickery with the crew of the Original Series.

The book starts with an introduction by David Gerrold creator of the original Star Trek 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.

O’Brien and Bashir of Deep Space Nine join the line up as Kirk tries to find out who started the fight on the space station.

This is the second Star Trek book I read for Book Trek 2021 (#booktrek2021) a project initiated by Vin @ Revenant Reads Booktube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydXTWyR4Q04&list=PLbWuIA5TXrwQP2vI8U5vdjvc5fJ_hl1Ad

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.

This story starts with Sisko being interviewed by the temporal investigators. The names of the investigators Dulmur and Lucsly are almost 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’Brien 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

Sisko and Dax pretend to be fixing something, Dax clad in the thigh high red tunic of a female services officer of the time. As Kirk and Spock go past.

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 do with the series 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 with details about the concept of the original Tribbles episode.

My rating 4 out of 5