Strait-laced time cops arrive on the station to demand “just the truth, Captain.”
Sisko’s voice-over informs us that on a trip to recover a Bajoran Plot Contrivance Orb, the Defiant picks up a passenger who would be strangely familiar to anyone who had seen any of Paramount’s extensive promotion for this episode, scheduled to honor the 30th anniversary of the original Star Trek TV series. Just before the opening credits roll, we realize that the gimmick of this episode is that the producers are using the digital editing techniques popularized by the then-recent movie “Forrest Gump” in order to insert the DS9 characters into iconic scenes from the 1960s “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
Watching this episode after having seen the remastered TOS episodes (where most of the dated visual effects have been replaced with CGI), after having seen the Chris Pine “Kelvin” reboot movies, and after seeing all the lovingly reimagined sets and props from “Discovery” and “Strange New Worlds,” and all the fan-produced shows and CGI recreations, it’s easy to forget just what a thrill it was 30 years ago to revisit the world of the original series.
An adorably over-serious “suiting up montage” features closeups of the costumes and props. Dax, who carries the memories of previous hosts who lived through the era, fangirls almost as much over the chrome accents of the tricorder props as she does over the chance to meet Kirk and Spock in person. But even more hilarious is how Bashir and O’Brien play the “fish out of water” role, end up participating in the big bar fight, and digitally added into the iconic lineup of extras lined for Kirk to chew out.
Some of the best moments come from old-fashioned editing tricks, such as when Kirk, holding a tribble and looking around the fuzz-infested bridge in general WTF bewilderment, appears to be exchanging a look with Dax.
And I remember hooting with laughter at the new on-screen explanation for why, in the original series, random tribbles kept dropping out of the overhead cargo door while the station commander is trying to chew Kirk out.
Of course the good guy save the day, and we stick around just long enough to see how the original story ends, then we return to the station to wrap up the framing narrative, and Quark gets a final 20-second wordless cameo (with a tracking shot) that wraps the episode up in a bow.
When seen in high-resolution on my computer screen, the new physical models of the Enterprise and Space Station K-7 look kind of hollow and lifeless, compared to what’s possible these days in CGI.
Still, this was 30 years ago.
As Dax says to Sisko, ” I lived in this time and it’s hard to not want to be part of it again.”
