# The trouble with The Trouble With Tribbles - open spoilers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408 "2012-06-07T17:43:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/121 "2013-09-14T23:37:12Z")
Thanks, Trinopus. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Werekoala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7993a0/32.png) [@Werekoala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Werekoala)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/122 "2013-09-15T01:33:16Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Because it’s so damned poetic… > > “Though… I just remembered. There is one Earth man who doesn’t remind me of a Regulan bloodworm. That’s Kirk. A Regulan bloodworm is soft, and shapeless. But Kirk isn’t soft. Kirk may be a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood. But he’s not soft.” High praise from a Klingon, mistaken for an insult. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/123 "2013-09-15T01:46:10Z")
Not having bothered to read the whole thread, I want to ask if anybody else thought it was implausible that Scotty could just beam stuff aboard a Klingon military ship without a problem. Doesn’t that seem like a gaping hole in the ship’s security? What keeps somebody from beaming a bomb inside a ship? Or suppose somebody beaming a bunch of microbes over instead of a bunch of tribbles? Next thing you know, everyone on the ship is infected with the Rigellian Plague. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/124 "2013-09-15T02:11:08Z")
Scotty was just that good. Never under estimate an inebriated Scotsman. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/125 "2013-09-15T02:31:21Z")
They might have been relying too much on the sanctity of truce at an open port. I’ve seen visiting Soviet warships (way back in the day) tied up next to U.S. warships, and, in theory, someone could throw a bottle full of virus-laden goop from one to the other. Or a grenade. Or 1,771,561 Tribbles. I think a nice Organian ought to pay a little visit to Scotty… ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/126 "2013-09-15T08:44:55Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > They might have been relying too much on the sanctity of truce at an open port. > > I’ve seen visiting Soviet warships (way back in the day) tied up next to U.S. warships, and, in theory, someone could throw a bottle full of virus-laden goop from one to the other. Or a grenade. Or 1,771,561 Tribbles. > > I think a nice Organian ought to pay a little visit to Scotty… The Organians consider involving themselves in other people’s affairs to be disgusting. > **[Organian](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Organian)** > > The Organians were a race of powerful incorporeal beings, composed of pure energy and thought; native to the planet Organia. Millions of years ago, proto-Organians - as they were later recognized as by the Federation - existed as humanoids. (TOS:... ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/127 "2013-09-16T01:30:37Z")
But they are the enforcers of the treaty that is alluded to in the episode. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/128 "2013-09-16T02:28:09Z")
I liked how in “Trials and Tribble-ations” (the DS9 episode), Dax was geeking out about being back in the 23rd century the whole time. She was practically engaging in foreplay with her tricorder, and tried a very transparent excuse to get aboard the space station so she could see her old friend Koloth. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/129 "2013-09-16T13:53:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Not having bothered to read the whole thread, I want to ask if anybody else thought it was implausible that Scotty could just beam stuff aboard a Klingon military ship without a problem. Doesn’t that seem like a gaping hole in the ship’s security? He matched the target ship’s own scanner frequencies, and the transporter signals were passed through the shields as a “friendly” return signal. I’m sure some polarity reversals was required, somehow. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408/130 "2013-09-16T14:06:57Z")
That’s how O’Brian learned the trick. He remembered it from an engineering textbook, and used the stunt to transport the Defiant people onto the _Enterprise_ and K-7 while the sensors were in cycle. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trouble-with-the-trouble-with-tribbles-open-spoilers/624408.md?page=6)