Star Trek: 10 Story Arcs You Can Binge In A Day
6. The Tribble / Klingon Conflict
The Episodes:
Short Treks: "The Trouble with Edward"
TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles"
The Animated Series: "More Tribbles, More Troubles"
DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"
The Background:
Yep, the tribbles actually have a story beyond just showing up on a ship, being cute, and taking over the place.
While they've made chronologically earlier appearances in Star Trek: Enterprise, the tribbles' story begins in the recent Short Trek "The Trouble with Edward" in which they're unleashed on an unsuspecting population of Klingons. This is followed up on in both TOS' "The Trouble with Tribbles" and TAS's "More Tribbles, More Troubles" in which the Klingon/tribble rivalry is played out. Finally, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine revisited the tribbles (and the events of "The Trouble with Tribbles") in "Trials and Tribble-ations" in which the tribbles' fate is revealed and they are given the victory over the Klingons they so adorably deserved.