# Which ST:TOS episodes have aged most poorly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [December 29, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282 "2022-12-29T15:00:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**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:** [January 12, 2023, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/141 "2023-01-12T15:53:54Z")
Still consistent - spacing the tribbles would be inhuman. Klingons aren’t human. Therefore… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/142 "2023-01-12T15:55:29Z")
Well, I don’t think Spock would have went along with it. He HAD to know what would happen. Bloodthirsty humans! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/143 "2023-01-12T16:05:10Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You can’t both think transporting them into space is inhuman while in the next breath thinking a ship full of Klingons are going to treat the (at least) one million seven hundred seventy one thousand five hundred sixty one tribbles as anything more than trash. Just because Scotty didn’t inhumanely space them, he made it possible for the klingons to do just that. Or worse. - What Scotty should have done was transport them into various storage bins, cupboards, cabinets, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/144 "2023-01-12T16:13:42Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > What Scotty should have done was transport them into various storage bins, cupboards, cabinets, etc. Were I the Klingon Kommander, I’d order everyone into space suits and open the doors. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/145 "2023-01-12T16:15:24Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@running\_coach](#): > > > > What Scotty should have done was transport them into various storage bins, cupboards, cabinets, etc. > > Were I the Klingon Kommander, I’d order everyone into space suits and open the doors. - How can you put on space suits when they’re full of tribbles? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/146 "2023-01-12T16:21:44Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The one with the black/white guy and white/black guy trying to kill each other? I’m going to be the contrarian and say that one has aged well. It makes racism look ridiculous by having the characters be both black and white (but which side matters!) The destructiveness of racism with the entire civilization wiped out. The irrationality of racism with the pursuit continuing even when there is no purpose. And Kirk is perfect as the surrogate for us the viewer explaining how ludicrous their hatred is. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/147 "2023-01-12T16:30:16Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I’m going to be the contrarian and say that one has aged well. I love the subtlety of the scene when Bele explains the “obvious inferiority”. I remember it being Uhura, Sulu and Spock, at least he was lecturing to. Diversity on Full, captain! I also liked the way Bele says “humans have descended from aaa-ppp-ssss”. He’s learned a lot about race bating in his long life. But I have to say, pointing out that Cheron is in the “southern part of the galaxy” was a bit much! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/148 "2023-01-12T16:57:14Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I blame David Gerrold, who was never half as clever as he thought he was. IIRC, Gerrold mentioned that point in [his book](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/77101.The_Trouble_with_Tribbles) about the process of writing the episode – quoting that line and attaching a footnote something like “What do you suppose the Klingons did with all those tribbles? I’ll be they didn’t let any concerns about inhumanity bother them…”. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/149 "2023-01-12T17:02:33Z")
We should also point out that Gerrold stole the Tribbles idea from Robert Heinlein’s ‘flat cats’. Heinlein was a good sport about it, saying he likely lifted the idea from an earlier story himself (“Pigs is Pigs”). Heinlein wrote to Gerrold, “we both owe something to Ellis Parker Butler…and possibly to Noah." ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/150 "2023-01-12T17:39:33Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You can’t both think transporting them into space is inhuman while in the next breath thinking a ship full of Klingons are going to treat the (at least) one million seven hundred seventy one thousand five hundred sixty one tribbles as anything more than trash. That was the number of tribbles that Cyrano Jones was tasked with picking up on the star base, not the number given for the infestation on the Enterprise, which surely would have been not as many due to the lack of quadrotriticale. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/151 "2023-01-12T17:53:46Z")
But they got into the food processors via the air vents. Who knows how many managed to breed in the Jeffries tubes! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/152 "2023-01-12T17:56:48Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Indeed! In about ten minutes, there literally will _be_ “no tribble at all.” Has anyone conjectured that the Klingons eat tribbles? Seems like they’d be a great source of protein on long-duration space flights. > [@silenus](#): > > But they got into the food processors via the air vents. Who knows how many managed to breed in the Jeffries tubes! They would breed prodigiously, eh? There will be much food, and little to do. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/153 "2023-01-12T18:16:08Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > “Space Seed” and its portrayal of a heaving-bosom romantic pushover of a Starfleet scientist being effortlessly seduced by Khan It’s even worse in my view. The way I interpret that “Open your heart to me” scene is that it’s seduction by rape. They obviously weren’t going to show an actual rape on screen, but the way it’s depicted, I see it as Khan forcibly raped McGivers and as a result, she fell in love with him. There’s an idea or fantasy that some men have that they can “convert” a woman through rape. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/154 "2023-01-12T19:47:39Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > They would breed prodigiously, eh? There will be much food, and little to do. Ah, but you forget the Jeffries Tube gap! ---
**Author:** ![TheTooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/919ad9/32.png) [@TheTooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTooth)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/155 "2023-01-12T19:55:47Z")
There’s a whole Dom/sub thing between Khan and Lt. McGivers that you don’t often see outside the holodeck programs we all know take up countless kiloquads of storage space on the Enterprise-D. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/156 "2023-01-12T23:00:50Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Has anyone conjectured that the Klingons eat tribbles? Riker: “Uhhh… it’s still\* moving.” Klag: “Tribble is always best when served live.” > [@Acsenray](#): > > There’s an idea or fantasy that some men have that they can “convert” a woman through rape. Bond movies, too. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/157 "2023-01-12T23:14:59Z")
[I didn’t see any mention of Space Nazis?](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708442/) > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Indeed! In about ten minutes, there literally will _be_ “no tribble at all.” > > You can’t both think transporting them into space is inhuman while in the next breath thinking a ship full of Klingons are going to treat the (at least) one million seven hundred seventy one thousand five hundred sixty one tribbles as anything more than trash. Just because Scotty didn’t inhumanely space them, he made it possible for the klingons to do just that. Or worse. I was under the impression that the tribbles, although cute, were actually pretty dangerous as they were reproducing exponentially and consuming all the food? I don’t think being “inhumane” was really a consideration as they had to get them off the station one way or another and was really just an F-you to the Klingons. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/158 "2023-01-12T23:15:55Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@Acsenray](#): > > > > There’s an idea or fantasy that some men have that they can “convert” a woman through rape. > > Bond movies, too. Oh yes. But just to be clear, I don’t mean converting a woman from lesbianism—or at least not only that. It’s the idea that you can subdue and make a woman devoted to you by raping her. That she will realize her true bliss and see you as her sun and moon and stars. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/159 "2023-01-12T23:21:59Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It’s the idea that you can subdue and make a woman devoted to you by raping her. Technically, in the movies she wasn’t lesbian. More or less. But I see your point. I revise my answer to: Luke and Laura. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/160 "2023-01-12T23:52:47Z")
More Gor and less Bond. Tribbles were a menace and had to be Dealt With. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282.md?page=9)