The animated series loves to call back to TOS and this is by far the most extreme example so far. This episode is a pretty much direct continuation of The Trouble With Tribbles and while it isn't as successful, it does have both the humor and adventure elements that made the original so successful. I guess that Sherman's planet is an important (and hungry!) place since they are again trying to get super grain there to solve their crisis of hunger. Getting the actor who played Cyrano Jones was a big boost to the quality of this episode.
The episode opens with the Enterprise escorting two robot ships of quintotriticale bound for Sherman's planet (I hear there is a nice lagoon there). The Enterprise breaks off to investigate a Klingon warship following a small Federation type scouting vessel. They are particularly interested in a new weapon the Klingons are rumored to have. As they approach the Klingons open fire on the scout ship and Scotty barely has time to beam the single occupant over before his ship is destroyed. However the pilot is caught in the beam since... The Klingons fire their new weapon at the Enterprise. It is a stasis field of some sort that knocks out the Enterprise engines and weapons. The Klingon captain calls to the Enterprise and demands the pilot of the scout be given to them. Kirk naturally refuses and uses the two robot ships to try and ram the Klingons. Fortunately it turns out the Klingons can only stasis one ship at a time and when they try to get all three the beam goes down and they flee after knocking out the engines on one of the robot ships.
Kirk then heads to the transporter room to see who they have. When he finally materializes it is Cyrano Jones and a several piles of tribbles. Cyrano explains he had them genetically modified to not reproduce and even found predator that eats them. Kirk agrees to take Cyrano to a starbase but first they have to beam over the grain from the disabled vessel. As soon as they do the Klingons show up again and the fight is on. Kirk manages to chase off the Klingons but not before they knock out the engines on the other transport vessel and spill grain all over the halls of the Enterprise making for a tribble feast. We then learn that these new tribbles don't reproduce, they instead just keep growing. Spock correctly guesses that the Klingons knocked out the transport ship to make the Enterprise slower forcing it to tow the ship. The Klingons reappear and use their stasis beam again, but not before Scotty can beam the giant tribbles all over their ship.
The Klingon captain again demands that Kirk surrender, but is very diheartened when he learns his ship is full of tribbles. He then explains that what the really want is the tribble predator, a Klingon genetic project designed to save them from the tribbles. Kirk agrees to give it back knowing it has no chance to eat the now giant tribbles.
Review: Not as good as the original, but that was a pretty high bar. For an episode that aims to have both action and comedy this one is largely a success. The short format again helps keep this fairly simple story from ballooning into really craziness.
7 out of 10
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