10 Star Trek Scenes Even More Impressive When You Know The Truth

One of the most memorable and well-received episodes of The Original Series introduced us to everyone’s favourite rapidly-reproducing, Klingon-detecting, pesky purring fur-ball – concept names for which included 'The Fuzzies,' 'The Pufflies,' and even 'The Shaggies'. Try testing that last one to a UK audience as a name for the asexual little proliferators!

The episode makes an impression for its comedic timing and witty puns. The scene in which Kirk opens a hatch only to be buried in a mountain of 'gorged' Tribbles stands out in this sense.

For this, and for the entire episode, hundreds of Tribbles were made from sewn-together rolls of carpet, and the odd mechanical toy to make some of them move. The Kirk inundation scene took an astounding eight takes, and the reason the Tribbles keep tumbling is because the crew had no direct line-of-sight with the actor, so continued to throw the creatures one-by-one to make sure there were enough. In the scene, Shatner can be seen looking somewhat befuddled and bemused as Tribbles continue to rain down on him. The in-universe explanation for this was later revealed – in DS9 – to be the handiwork of Sisko and Jadzia, who were throwing Tribbles down the hatch whilst looking for future Darvin’s bomb.