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Food cubes in TOS

Discussion in ' Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series ' started by Jedi_Master , Aug 1, 2014 .

Jedi_Master Admiral Admiral

As suggested by Melakon. What real world ingrediants were used to make the little green yellow and red food cubes seen in several episodes of TOS? What do you think they tasted like "in universe" and what would prompt Starfleet of that era to serve food in cube form?  

Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

They probably taste like crap, like actual products like Tang and Space Food Sticks, based on food made for astronauts during the 1960s.  

Is there ever an episode where a character actually eats one of the cubes?  

In "By Any Other Name", Tomar ingests something before Scotty invites him to have a drink. I suspect they used melon, or cheese, and food coloring. I guess even Play-Doh is possible.  

1001001 Serial Canon Violator Moderator

Melakon said: ↑ They probably taste like crap, like actual products like Tang and Space Food Sticks, based on food made for astronauts during the 1960s. Click to expand...

Melakon said: ↑ In "By Any Other Name", Tomar ingests something before Scotty invites him to have a drink. I suspect they used melon, or cheese, and food coloring. I guess even Play-Doh is possible. Click to expand...

Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

I thought they were meant to look alien/futuristic rather than be the "protein pill" trope of some SF writers.  

Nerys Myk said: ↑ I thought they were meant to look alien/futuristic rather than be the "protein pill" trope of some SF writers. Click to expand...

CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

The food synthesizers produced ice cream in "And the Children Shall Lead". So, they could make more than just colored cubes.  

Jedi_Master said: ↑ Nerys Myk said: ↑ I thought they were meant to look alien/futuristic rather than be the "protein pill" trope of some SF writers. Click to expand...

1001001 said: ↑ Those Space Food Sticks were awesome! We used to love those. Click to expand...

Nebusj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

Nerys Myk said: ↑ Jedi_Master said: ↑ Well they match the color scheme of those square disks that were fed into the computer and the Lite-Brite control panels. Seems primary colors were big with Starfleet interior decorators. I wonder what the "in-universe" explanation for their color and shape is... Click to expand...

Nebusj said: ↑ Nerys Myk said: ↑ Jedi_Master said: ↑ Well they match the color scheme of those square disks that were fed into the computer and the Lite-Brite control panels. Seems primary colors were big with Starfleet interior decorators. I wonder what the "in-universe" explanation for their color and shape is... Click to expand...

Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

In-universe, those cubes are an Andorian food called gristhera . It's said to be popular with lots of different alien races and so is often served at Federation diplomatic functions.  

Mr. Laser Beam said: ↑ In-universe, those cubes are an Andorian food called gristhera . It's said to be popular with lots of different alien races and so is often served at Federation diplomatic functions. Click to expand...

His source is non-canon Memory Beta, so it was a book or comic book.  

scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

Pondwater Vice Admiral Admiral

I think they would taste like MREs.  

Jedi_Master said: ↑ His source is non-canon Memory Beta, so it was a book or comic book. Click to expand...

Mr. Laser Beam said: ↑ Jedi_Master said: ↑ His source is non-canon Memory Beta, so it was a book or comic book. Click to expand...

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A Primer to 'Star Trek' Food and Drink

To seek out strange new worlds ... and eat their foods.

The J. J. Abrams–helmed Star Trek movie opens tomorrow. As I was reading up on the new installment, I came across this line in the Wikipedia entry : "Another reference to Abrams' previous works is Slusho, which Uhura orders at the bar she meets Kirk at."

That reminded me that food and drink is depicted routinely in the Star Trek franchise—across ten movies and six TV shows. There's no doubt—or at least, I hope —that there will be food references in the 11th movie, which will feature Romulans, Vulcans, Orions. As a refresher, I thought I'd take a look at what passes for serious eats in these alien cultures. Join me on this mission, won't you?

Romulans: Huge Drunks Fond of Tart Candy

The biological cousins of the Vulcans, Romulans are devious, paranoid, and militant.

The Romulan Star Empire has been at odds with the United Federation of Planets since before the Federation's inception in 2161, and was in fact the catalyst for the Federation's formation. By 2379, however, relations between the Romulans and the Federation had warmed somewhat.

A Romulan named Nero is the villain in the new movie, traveling from the future to destroy the Federation before it gets off the ground.

Romulan Ale

Any Trek fan worth his or her salt (included in Starfleet emergency rations , by the way) knows that Romulan ale is one of the most widely referenced food-and-beverage items in the franchise. It's an ultrapotent blue drink that reportedly results in instant drunkeness. [ After the jump, recipes for Romulan ale, Klingon bloodwine, and why Vulcans hate barbecue. ]

Science fiction often holds a mirror up to contemporary culture, critiquing its practices, politics, and mores. So, too, with Romulan ale. Because of the United Federation of Planets' standoff with the Romulan Empire, the drink is illegal within the Federation—much like Cuban cigars are in the U.S. But like the captains of industry of today, captains of starships indulge in this vice. As Kirk said in The Undiscovered Country, the routine violation of the embargo is "one of the advantages of being a thousand light years from Federation headquarters."

Its proper Romulan name may be kali-fal .

Recipes: There are several recipes out there for Earth-bound Romulan ale .

Romulan Foods

• Jumbo Romulan mollusk : a delicacy that appears to be served over rice, with perhaps scrambled egg
• Osol twist : A very tart candy first mentioned in Deep Space 9 episode "Image in the Sand"
• Viinerine : A military staple, it first appears in TNG episode "Face of the Enemy"

Vulcans: They Don't Like Barbecue

You know what the Vulcans are all about--ultra logical, emotionless, intellectual, cool under pressure. Their food seems equally bland, too, and from what I can remember in all my years of watching Trek shows and movies, there hasn't really been a standout dish that's mentioned again and again in the way Romulan ale is.

Most Vulcans are vegetarians, and while it would be easy for other folks to take a swipe at the veg lifestyle, I've had pretty damn good meatless meals--so there's no excuse for lame food in the Vulcan repertoire.

A little digging shows that Vulcans are absolutely prissy when it comes to food and drink. First of all, alcohol reportedly has no effect on them (even though they do produce spirits on the planet Vulcan). And this doesn't sound very appealing--according to Memory Alpha, "Vulcans have a superior metabolism to Humans. Caffeine and sapotoxins have little effect on them. They are also capable of surviving for long durations without food or sleep."

Oh, and they don't touch food with bare hands , unless using special gloves. This means that Vulcans would hate (if they could hate--emotionless, remember?) Buffalo wings, pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, and sandwiches of all kinds. And barbecue would make them spaz--again, if they could spaz.

Anyway, let's engage...

Vulcan Foods

• Brandy : Alcohol supposedly does not affect Vulcans, so Vulcan brandy may be used for ceremonial purposes or for export only
• Gespar : Some sort of breakfast food
• Jumbo mollusk : Related to the Romulan jumbo mollusk
• Mocha : You'd never guess that this was a coffeelike beverage, would you?
• Plomeek soup (Plomeek broth) : A bland breakfast soup. In the original series (TOS), Spock threw a bowl of it at Nurse Chapel while he was going through his pon farr (crazy, horny mating period)
• Plomeek tea
• Vulcan port : Again, Vulcans are supposedly immune to the effects of alcohol... You know, I really love Memory Alpha. It's so geeky and thorough. Its entry on Vulcan port goes into AOC/DOC territory, noting that a port wine is techinally from the Douro Valley in Portugal and hence Vulcan port probably "is a colloquialism, which suggests that the production of Vulcan port, and the production of Vulcan alcoholic beverages in general, are an imported practice not native to Vulcan culture"
• Redspice : Helped make a dish so tasty that Chief Miles O'Brien (DS9) asked for the recipe
• Vulcan spice tea : Seems like it was Captain Janeway's (Voyager) version of Earl Grey

Orions: Watch Out, Boy, She'll Chew You Up

You know when casual Star Trek fans refer to Captain Kirk getting with green alien women? Well, he only encountered one such alien. She was an Orion , a race little seen in the franchise.

As Wikipedia notes , "Not much has been revealed of Orion culture. Orion pirates often harassed and attacked early Earth cargo ships. Stock for the Orion slave trade is obtained mostly through kidnapping of other species. If slaves don't command a high enough price at auction, they can be sold as food."

Sadly, Klingons Are Not Part of This Movie

J. J. Abrams reportedly wanted to focus on Romulans as the bad guys instead of Klingons, since Romulans are less well-known.

And, because Klingons eventually ally with the Federation and became heroes later on in the Trek universe, Abrams didn't want to show them in their earlier incarnation as Federation enemies.

Still, while in the rabbit hole of Memory Alpha, I couldn't help look at their cuisine, since it appeared regularly in TNG and DS9. Here are some of my favorites.

Klingon Bloodwine

Along with gagh , this is probably one of the best known Klingon foodstuffs. Served warm, it's an alcoholic beverage that you probably don't have the conjones (or whatever they call them in Klingon) to consume. Jonathan Archer (Enterprise) was the first human to give it a go. According to Memory Alpha , Lieutenant Commander Worf "liked his young and sweet," which sounds kinda dirty. Also according to Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Cookbook seems to suggest it's made with fermented blood and sugar.

Recipes: If you want to go really nuts and make an Earth-bound version, here's a recipe for fermenting your own Klingon bloodwine that uses 10 to 15 packs of unsweetened Cherry Kool-Aid. Wow. Sounds almost as potent as the actual stuff from Qo'noS . If you're too much of a bIHnuch for brewing your own, the Klingon Imperial Diplomatic Corps has a number of cocktail-based Bloodwine recipes.

Update: Eugen Beer of Coldmud points out that buy' ngop , which would translate to "That's good news!" literally means "The plates are full" in Klingon.

Other Klingon Food and Drink

• Bahgol : A warm tealike beverage. Well, not too different from humans ...
• Bregit lung : Spoke too soon. Bregit lung is not actually a respiratory organ but a dish of reptilian animals. Commander Riker (TNG) professes to like it. (Of course, Riker would--didn't he try to impress a Klingon female in one episode with his love of gagh?) Bregit lung is often eaten with grapok sauce
• Gagh : A Klingon delicacy--live serpent worms. "Allegedly, the actual taste of gagh is revolting and it is eaten solely for the unique sensation of the gagh spasming in one's mouth and stomach in their death throes." But the real question is, Would Andrew Zimmern eat it?
• Gladst : Finally, some vegetable matter. I was beginning to get worried about Klingons' regularity
• Klingon martini : Neat. It's a bit of cultural fusion--vermouth, gin, and a dash of bloodwine
• Pipius claw : Looks like chicken feet. I doubt it tastes like chicken, though
• Racht : A big bowl of live worms
• Raktajino : The rare Klingon foodstuff that humans enjoy. Probably because it's a coffeelike beverage
• Rokeg blood pie
• Targ : A type of Klingon herding animal. Eating heart of targ is believed to instill courage in a warrior, and the milk of the creature is apparently consumed as well
• Zilm'kach : Some fruit to round things out

Video: Klingon Food Critic

This really weird fan video of a mock Klingon newscast has the anchors tossing it to a Klingon food critic who reviews popular Earth foods. I think it's supposed to be funny. It's not, really, but it is oddly compelling and--what's the word?--oh, yeah, warped.

Star Trek Cookbooks

Lastly, there are a couple of Star Trek cookbooks, if you really want to replicate the food of the universe here on Earth.

There's the prosaically named Star Trek Cookbook , by William J. Birnes and Ethan Phillips, whose character, Neelix , could often be found cooking in Star Trek: Voyager (his feragoit goulash is known across 12 star systems, after all).

And the Official Star Trek Cooking Manual has a cool spin on things, written as if it's Nurse Christine Chapel's recipe book that was somehow transported to the present time. As Memory Alpha notes, "The introduction includes what is purportedly a food synthesizer algorithm for Dr. McCoy's favorite dish; in fact, it is FORTRAN source code for a program that prints the message, 'CHICKEN 3.14159 SKEPTIC.'" Whatever that means.

Close the Channel

When I started poking around for info for this post, I thought it would be a quick one. But, crap, I've pretty much spent all day tooling around various Star Trek sites, with Memory Alpha being a huge help and awesome resource. I think I now know more about Star Trek food than anyone should. Tomorrow night, though, I think I'll skip the osol twists and get a big bucket of popcorn--it's a Terran snack made from dried corn kernels that are heated until they burst, commonly eaten slathered with butter at movie theaters during the 20th and 21st centuries.

Live long and prosper.

10:41 a.m., 5/8/2009: Jason Kottke linked to this today , saying, "Oddly, my only complaint is that (somehow) his piece isn't long enough. Adam, you didn't even get in to 'Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.'"

I know, Jason. I would have loved to have included Picard's iconic food-replicator order, but I had to limit the scope of this post somewhat or I could have spent weeks in the food quadrant of the Trekiverse. I figured focusing on the aliens encountered in the Trek reboot was a fine way to do that.

As it is, I'm relying heavily on Memory Alpha. Going any deeper into ST food, I'd just basically be aping what they've done on their awesomely extensive database of food and drink across the entire franchise.

More Serious Eats Recipes

The Bizarre Food On Star Trek Explained

Star Trek has existed in one form or another for more than 50 years. In pop culture terms, that's infinity — many people have literally never known a world without Star Trek . So far, there have been ten television series, 13 theatrical films, and countless novels, comic books, games, and other media. That's a lot of material and world-building. At this point, Star Trek may be the most finely detailed fictional universe ever created.

Many of those details are in the service of creating convincing alien cultures. Star Trek  contains alien civilizations at just about every level of technological and cultural advancement, and it's unusual in that humanity isn't presented as the center of everything. Earth culture is very much just one of many and is often presented as being a bit backward in some ways, a bit advanced in others — for example, food.

Food plays a surprisingly important role in the Star Trek universe. Several stories pivot on shared meals, characters bond over their favorite dishes and reveal themselves in how they react to unfamiliar dishes, and alien cultures are illuminated by what they eat and how they treat the rituals of food preparation and consumption. Since a lot of this is alien food, it can get a little crazy, of course. Here are some of the more extreme examples of the bizarre food on Star Trek explained.

Klingon g agh is one of the most famous dishes in the Star Trek cookbook, in part because Klingon culture is such a big and fascinating part of the universe and in part because gagh is, frankly, disgusting. There's no easy way to say this: It's worms. Specifically, fictional serpent worms — preferably eaten alive and wriggling — which makes sense since the Klingons are a warlike, aggressive race of people who value individual courage and honor. You can see where making every meal a predatory victory would appeal to them.

According to the Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha , the Klingon dish comes in about 51 varieties (in large part because the many, many writers on the many, many series and films weren't particularly consistent with how gagh was described or presented). Luckily for the human characters, some of these involve stewing or chilling the worms, meaning it's a slightly less horrifying eating experience. This might explain why so many Star Trek fans are obsessed with actually preparing  gagh and eating it, despite the fact that serpent worms don't actually exist.

As reported by  Vice , there's significant interest and energy put into trying to create something vaguely resembling gagh in real life. Unsurprisingly, most of these efforts don't actually involve living worms but use worm-like stuff like pasta, noodles, or overcooked veggies to approximate the experience. Of eating worms. Because that's an experience you want to approximate, apparently.

Romulan ale

One of the most famous consumables ever mentioned in the Star Trek universe is Romulan ale, an incredibly powerful intoxicant with an iconic blue color. (It sometimes appears to be phosphorescent as well.) As the Romulans are usually Federation enemies, Romulan ale is usually illegal. Serious Eats  notes that this is often presented as a parallel to real-world Cuban cigars: something highly prized and considered extremely high-quality that is illegal for purely political reasons. Though, to be fair, it is sometimes implied that Romulan ale is also illegal because of its potency — for many, it apparently results in instantaneous inebriation, followed quickly by incapacitation. As  Memory Alpha  notes, even Worf, who enjoys a Klingon's robust constitution, is affected powerfully by the stuff.

Naturally, the combination of extreme intoxication and bright blue color makes it a common example of Star Trek fare that people try to create in real life. The good news is that Romulan ale has never been described in great detail, so all you need to do is make a really, really strong drink that has a really, really blue color to it. There are several recipes on the Internet for cocktails you can reasonably call Romulan ale, most of which involve everyone's go-to blue liqueur, blue curaçao, and everybody's go-to alcoholic dynamite, Everclear. This one packs a punch, for example.

Plomeek soup

The Vulcans are just as important to Star Trek as the Klingons in terms of alien races. Spock , portrayed by the late Leonard Nimoy and later by Zachary Quinto, remains one of the most popular characters in the show's universe. And the Vulcans are at the center of many of Star Trek 's most important storylines.

But Vulcan cooking isn't given as much attention on the show as the Klingons' or even some other, less important alien races. That's largely because the Vulcans, being ultra-rational beings, don't treat their meals like violent deathmatches as the Klingons do, and they also embrace a vegetarian lifestyle that simply isn't particularly exciting. But one Vulcan dish does get a lot of attention: plomeek  soup.

As  Westword  explains, plomeek soup is a traditional breakfast meal for Vulcans and is basically a very bland vegetable broth. Its most famous moment of screen time comes in the classic Original Series episode "Amok Time," when Spock goes through the Vulcan mating cycle known as pon farr . Nurse Chapel prepares some plomeek soup in an attempt to comfort and calm Spock. It does not go well and represents one of the rare times Spock (or any Vulcan) displays an emotional reaction.

If you're hankering for some tasteless veggie broth (and who isn't), Buzzfeed offers a simple recipe for something approximating the fictional version.

Heart of targ

A lot of the food mentioned during Star Trek 's five-plus decades of existence is recognizably traditional human fare jazzed up with some funny names and food dyes. Sometimes you can imagine the writers just taking any earthbound meal and tacking the name of an alien race at the beginning, like Talaxian omelettes or Ktarian beer (which looks a lot like regular beer).

Klingon food, however, is reliably weird. The Klingons are a sneering, violent race, after all — but a sneering, violent race with a rich culture. Even when their culinary achievements can be traced back to relatively normal human equivalents in the real world, there's usually a violent and terrifying twist to them. Such is the case with heart of targ .

As  Memory Alpha  explains, a targ is essentially a boar, except with spikes on its back and a tendency to destroy everything in its path. Naturally, the Klingons keep targs as pets and enjoy eating them in a dish called heart of targ which, you guessed it, involves the heart torn from a targ . The Klingons believe eating it confers courage, so they naturally eat it a lot . Horrifyingly, Buzzfeed reports that Food Replicator, a food blogger, has actually created this dish in the real world using lamb's hearts.

Rokeg blood pie

The Klingons in Star Trek have a rich legacy of poetry, art, and aggressively violent interactions with everyone, including themselves. They're also all about their food. But the Klingons can't just make a delicious, nutritious meal. They generally have to work some kind of off-puttingly violent imagery into it ... or simply make it kind of gross, food that requires courage just to eat.

As a result, an unsurprising number of Klingon foods include the word "blood." In fact, when the Klingons aren't eating stuff like live worms , their food seems to have a disturbingly high blood content. Case in point: Rokeg blood pie. Because who doesn't want their daily recommended serving of blood served in pie form?

To be fair, human beings have a fair number of blood puddings and the like, so it's not like the Klingons invented eating the coagulated blood of other beings. Star Trek does a great job of making the food in its stories meaningful, however, and as  Memory Alpha  notes, Rokeg  blood pie is notable as being a comfort food for the Klingon character Worf. It's also traditionally consumed on the Klingon Day of Honor, when warriors looks back on their deeds and judge their honor.

Recipes exist, but be warned: Most use more palatable stuff like raspberry puree. If you want to make the real stuff,  Food Replicator has a recipe that uses real blood. You have a blood guy, right?

Pipius claw

When the subject of weird alien food on Star Trek comes up, it usually centers on Klingon dishes. This makes sense because the Klingons are both a fantastic creation, equal parts violence and poetry, and a collection of bizarre, off-putting cultural details. Their food reflects this. Most of the Klingon dishes mentioned in the show sound revolting or like the sort of prank dish kids are forced to eat when rushing a particularly cruel fraternity.

Take pipius  claw, which the ever-adventurous Commander Riker ate in the TNG episode "A Matter of Honor." Riker was being temporarily assigned to a Klingon ship and wanted to acquaint himself with the culture via a traditional meal.

If you're wondering how awful something called pipius claw would be in real life, Memory Alpha notes that Alan Sims, the guy who created the food prop for the episode, used chicken feet with one of the toes cut off. The legs were then placed in a liquid broth of some sort and garnished with some colorful vegetable matter. While it's true that people do actually eat chicken feet in real life, we maintain that when the best thing you can say about dinner is that it resembles chicken legs, you've already lost.

If you're planning some sort of Star Trek -themed dinner party, you might look into meals that can be approximated by real-life recipes, if only to avoid serving a bowl of wriggling worms to your impressed but horrified guests. That makes hasperat an ideal choice, because, as  Memory Alpha  notes, all we really know about this Bajoran food is that it resembles a burrito and is so hot and spicy it makes the eyes water and literally burns the tongue. That means that all you need to do is make something vaguely burrito-like and make it spicy AF. In fact, the prop food used in the series was as basic as it comes: flour tortillas, cream cheese, and red and green peppers.

That simplicity makes it ideal for themed party food because it's easy, and attaining a level of verisimilitude is easy enough — they're just space wraps, after all. The challenge lies in the heat level. If you want an authentic Star Trek   hasperat experience, those babies have to be hot, hot, hot. Recipes found at places like Food.com or The Geeky Chef both call for hot sauce but leave it up to you for the level of fire (and the choice of sauce). Whether you make them mildly spicy or thermonuclear, hasperat remains one of the few Star Trek meals you can replicate in your kitchen with a reasonable resemblance to the real (fictional) food.

Stewed Bok-Rat Liver

Ah, those kooky Klingons and their aggressively terrible food. The persistently unappetizing nature of Klingon dishes is one reason their food is the most memorable on the show — and why it's always the Klingon meals  that fans try to make in real life.

A prime example is stewed bok-rat liver. You might think no one in their right mind would want to eat any part of a rat, but as  Practical Self Reliance  points out, rats and mice have been considered delicacies in many cultures throughout history. According to  Food Replicator , this dish is a staple of Klingon warships and is best enjoyed fresh.

Unfortunately, as with most Klingon meals, it's not meant to be appetizing to us regular humans. As  Memory Alpha  notes, in the script of the Deep Space Nine  episode "Soldiers of the Empire," the dish is described as "vile and slimy," which might be exactly what a bunch of Klingon warriors serving in a crowded, stuffy warship for years on end look for in a comfort food but doesn't work so well with human beings. Or at least not normal human beings.

Luckily, the recipe that Food Replicator offers (using lamb's liver) actually sounds delicious — assuming you like liver to begin with.

Alfarian hair pasta

At first glance, Alfarian hair pasta sounds like the classic sci-fi technique of taking something perfectly normal and mundane and adding a sci-fi word in front of it, like "space madness." In this case, take some (angel) hair pasta, attribute it to the Alfarians, and call it a day.

But Alfarian hair pasta is actually a lot more interesting and a lot weirder than you might think at first glance, mainly because the word "hair" isn't so much a descriptive adjective as it is literally what you're eating. Have you ever considered eating the wool from a sheep? If not, it's possibly (probably) because of your provincial human outlook on life. As  Memory Alpha  explains, the hair of the Alfarians is edible, and every year when they begin to shed, their hair is gathered up, cooked, and eaten.

Luckily, Alfarian hair pasta looks more or less like traditional human pasta (thank goodness for the traditionally low budgets of Star Trek TV shows), so recipes like the one offered at Food Replicator are pretty easy to make — although whether or not your obsession extends to actually making your pasta from scratch is entirely up to you.

Because the Star Trek writers traditionally understand the cultural power and importance of food, the Klingon culinary arts get a surprising amount of attention in the various TV shows and films. While sometimes, these mentions of food and drink are just set dressing or provided for shock value, they can also provide a great deal of depth to the fictional cultures of the universe. Klingon bloodwine is a great example of this.

As  Memory Alpha  explains, bloodwine is a staple alcoholic beverage for the Klingons. It's powerful stuff, considered much stronger than whiskey — in fact, most non-Klingons can't tolerate it. At the same time, it has vintages like our wines, so it's a varied experience. Klingons often have favorite vintages and will stock up on a particular year to drink on special occasions. Served warm and very strong, like most Klingon food and drink it's almost certainly disgusting unless you're drinking one of humanity's many versions of it.

Interestingly, there's no official proof that bloodwine actually contains blood, though there are non-canonical sources that suggest it's made from blood and sugar (yum). Most of the recipes created to approximate bloodwine don't actually call for blood –  Cook Fiction's  recipe, for example, uses grenadine and cranberry juice to give the cocktail that bloody look.

Jumja sticks

One of the more subtle and effective bits of world-building employed by the writers of Star Trek is the varied reactions to the alien foodstuffs mentioned in the stories. Having some characters love a dish while others react in horror is a small detail, but it really helps to sell a universe with real depth. In real life, there are plenty of food items that divide people.

That's what makes jumja sticks so interesting. These typically huge treats are made by Bajorans from the sap of the jumja tree. According to  Memory Alpha , jumja sticks are really, really sweet. And like many sweet treats, jumja sticks can be flavored in various ways. As a result, creatures with a sweet tooth tend to love them, while many others find them to be cloying and kind of gross. They're kind of the  Peeps of the Star Trek world, in other words. In fact, behind the scenes, jumja sticks were referred to as "glop-on-a-stick," which gives you some idea of just how appetizing they were intended to be.

If you're wondering what a jumja stick might taste like, some have suggested that maple syrup sugar candy could be used to approximate them. Food Replicator  suggests treacle, which seems like a better match in terms of sweetness and how quickly you'll get very, very tired of eating them.

Klingon skull stew

The Klingon diet is not for the faint of heart. Just about every dish has words like "blood" or "heart" in the name, and these should be taken very, very literally. They also tend to be pretty accurately described — no foodie poetry for the Klingons. So if you glance at your menu and see that you're being served Klingon skull stew, you know a skull is going to be involved. The only question is whether it'll be a Klingon skull or ... something else.

According to  Memory Alpha , Klingon skull stew appeared in one and perhaps two episodes of different Star Trek series. In Deep Space 9 , Klingon skull stew is offered by the Replimat, along with a blurry photo depicting it. In Enterprise , an unnamed stew-like dish is shown being prepared on a Klingon ship with an obvious skull floating in it.

The Star Trek Cookbook –  which isn't considered canon but is still fun to read – includes a recipe for Klingon skull stew using a calf's skull (naturally) and honeycomb tripe (also naturally). Which means that skull stew may be the only Star Trek meal that is actually more horrifying in its real-world approximation than its fictional version.

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Published May 19, 2022

Edible Star Trek: How Food and Drink Tell Our Starship Stories

Even in a universe with replicators, nothing beats a homemade meal.

StarTrek.com

As a food writer and Star Trek enthusiast, I always take note whenever our favorite starship - and space station - bound characters interact with each other in the midst of “edible Star Trek ” scenes. The writer and director's decision to include a meal or a drink in many episodes is always deliberate. It’s a familiar way to tell an unfamiliar space story that remains accessible to modern viewers. While we don’t all work on starships, all of us eat and drink. Gastronomic scenes also do robust narrative work that add depth to these starship stories and characters. Across various shows in the Star Trek universe, food and drink-focused scenes work on a deeper metaphorical level for building—and rebuilding—interpersonal connections, wielding power, and embracing both internal and external journeys of exploration.

Food as Connection

Like Counselor Troi and chocolate, once you start to consider Star Trek through the lens of food and drink, it’s hard to stop. Of course, we begin with Sisko. In addition to his roles as captain and Emissary on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Captain Benjamin Sisko also serves as one of the best cooks in the greater Star Trek universe (sorry Neelix). In a future with food replicators, a home-cooked meal demonstrates deep affection, which is key to Sisko’s character especially as he faces down the challenges of the Dominion War. Sans kitchen, he creates delicious meals in his quarters, constructing dishes like a jazz musician improvises a tune. Not surprisingly, Sisko’s father still runs a replicator-free Creole restaurant in New Orleans, Earth. For the Siskos, real food means love:  it helps us to connect and stay connected.

The newest Star Trek shows continue to link food and affection. In season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery , President of Ni’Var T’Rina has salt tea from Kaminar delivered to Saru during a meeting about expanding the Federation. Saru is both delighted and intrigued.

He responds later with a gift of his own:  a specimen of Fredalia from his planet, who’s flower provides the unique flavor to a floral tea of Kaminar. These food-focused opening moves on the chessboard of feelings leads to a satisfying relationship arc for these characters. T’Rina and Saru’s relationship develops slowly but surely for the remainder of the season, including the careful, deliberate decision over whether or not to accept a dinner invitation - awkwardly adorable.

When time is of the essence, however, as in the first season of Star Trek: Picard , edible Star Trek scenes function both as powerful “narrative propellant” for the story as well as connective tissue between characters. When “JL” walks out of the past and up toward Raffi Musiker’s desert trailer, she only lowers her weapon when she confirms he brought her favorite vintage. Clearly, they have shared Château Picard wines in the past; a flashback is unnecessary. Only through his wine peace offering was she even willing to listen to him. Picard hoped that this apology gift would soften her righteous anger and begin to repair their relationship because he needed her brilliant help. His effort to reconnect with her through a special bottle makes it emotionally visible how this wine links these two characters in the past and the present. Picard’s wine bottle gamble works: he has begun to repair his relationship with Raffi, and in turn she agrees to help him on his mission. And, we’re off!

Edible Star Trek scenes even connect terrestrial fans to famous foods that starship travelers will encounter in the future. Beginning with Ensign Ro in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Colonel Kira in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and then jumping 930+ years into the future with Adira Tal in Star Trek: Discovery , consistent references to spicy Bajoran hasperat across space and time in the Star Trek universe satisfy fans’ taste for canonical consistency and continuity.

Food as Power

In addition to establishing and re-establishing interpersonal connections between characters, scenes featuring food and drink also serve as metaphors for aggressive power plays, especially with Klingons and Terrans. In Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s “A Matter of Honor,” Commander Riker prepares for his officer exchange with a Klingon vessel by consuming a wide range of Klingon fare, but replicator-generated gagh is not the same as the writhing dish of serpent worms on offer in the I.K.S. Pagh dining hall. When First Officer Riker sighs and notes that his food is still moving, Second Officer Klag declares, “Gagh is always best when served live.”

Riker’s hesitation inspires hearty Klingon laughter, but it is soon followed by some surprisingly vulnerable conversation about feelings and family where Klag says that Klingons do not express feeling the way humans do and, frankly, “We would not know how.” Riker impresses his Klingon fellow officers by saying, “Yesterday, I did not know how to eat gagh,” while dramatically chewing and swallowing a large bite. This food fearlessness helps his Klingon crew mates to see him in a new way. Riker survives the Klingon cuisine hazing and earns some respect from his skeptical Klingon crew.

Star Trek: Discovery also presents food as a way to wield power, especially in the violent Terran Mirror Universe. Fans likely know about Earth-based luxury foods such as black truffles, oysters, and caviar. Therefore, we recognize how Mirror Universe Emperor Georgiou’s luxury cannibalistic diet of Kelpian flesh channels the Terran values of cultivating fear, exerting power, and performing violence constantly, from the throne room to the plate.

Making polite dinner conversation with the deadly Terran Emperor, undercover Prime Universe Michael Burnham says, “The food is delicious, as always.” “No one prepares Kelpian like the imperial chef,” remarks Emperor Georgiou as Burnham freezes. “Here…have my ganglia,” says the Emperor, “You deserve a treat.” As she swallows the Kelpian threat ganglia from the chopsticks of Emperor Georgiou, horrified Burnham plays this table very carefully. It’s a testament to Emperor Georgiou’s growth arc across her time in our Prime Universe that, upon her return to the Terran universe during her “weighing” via the Guardian of Forever, she takes Kelpian off the menu.

Food as Exploration

Many of us explore new cuisines while traveling to unfamiliar places. What if you’ve been trapped in a space prison for as long as you remember and have only eaten the same prison rations since forever? How do you order something new from the replicator if you only know one dish? On Star Trek: Prodigy , Rok-Tahk doesn’t yet know how to request new foods from the replicator on the Protostar because the only type of food she knows are the rations she grew up eating - a brown, indistinct goo served in a bowl. The younger target audience instinctively understands that knowing only one kind of food indicates limited life experience.

New Tastes and Experiences Help Us Grow

One of the most beloved Star Trek scenes that uses an openness to new food and drink as a signal of personal growth and internal exploration occurs in Star Trek: The Next Generation when Guinan introduces Lieutenant Worf to a warrior’s drink one fateful day in 10 Forward. After dismissing her suggestions about getting to know other members of the crew on a personal level, Worf skeptically tries Guinan’s offer of a human beverage called “prune juice.” The look of surprise and pleasure on his face suggests that he realizes he might have more to learn from human culture than he may have initially thought. Perhaps today is a good day to open one’s Klingon mind.

Ten Forward, Quark’s, and Edible Star Trek Watering Holes: An Appreciation

Without the space of 10 Forward, Guinan would have encountered more barriers to teaching Worf about open mindedness through a glass of prune juice. Indeed, the casual eating and drinking spaces of 10 Forward, Quark’s, the lounge on Discovery , and all the Star Trek social spaces allow for interpersonal connection that happens more easily than in work areas like Engineering or the bridge. Guinan joined Star Trek: The Next Generation in the show’s second season, and the rest is edible Star Trek history. Can you imagine seven TNG seasons without the connecting space of the ship’s bar? Where would Scotty have secured the green Aldebaran whiskey in “Relics?” 10 Forward is key to edible Star Trek storytelling.

Quark’s in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has more of a profit motive than the starship-based bars that offer free synthehol and replicated food, which makes Quark's the perfect non-Federation bar in this, the grittiest of all the Star Trek shows. With a dart board, gaming tables, and a Ferengi behind the bar, it’s the perfect hub for socializing on a reclaimed Cardassian mining outpost. In the premiere episode of DS9, Sisko clearly understands how important social spaces will be for making the Cardassian outpost Terok Nor into a welcoming space station run by Starfleet. With a bit of manipulation, Sisko “helps" a reluctant, fearful Quark understand how vital Quark’s will be to the success of their DS9 project. Sisko knows how important connecting with others will be to building community on this space station. Ergo, Quark’s.

Edible Star Trek scenes across the Starfleet universe help tell our favorite starship stories and serve as a flavorful shorthand for moving the characters and stories forward, particularly by signaling the importance of strengthening interpersonal connections, wielding power, and embracing journeys of exploration. Current Star Trek creatives understand how much narrative mileage they can get from food and drink-focused vignettes so they keep inventing ways to incorporate fresh edible Star Trek scenes, including the addition of a bar on the U.S.S. Cerritos in Star Trek: Lower Decks . With a couple of olives on a toothpick jauntily tucked into a Starfleet delta shield, the logo for this newest social space promises that the Star Trek universe will continue to prioritize gastronomic scenes and locations that help tell great stories.

Writer R. A. Duchak (she/her) was in utero when Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon, and she’s been a space nerd ever since. She has worked as a radio host and producer, university writing instructor, webmaster, editor, and Outward Bound instructor. You can find her on Twitter @ccfoodie.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Distribution Group on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

Star Trek: Discovery currently streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. Internationally, the series is available on Paramount+ in Australia, Latin America and the Nordics, and on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Discovery is distributed by Paramount Global Distribution Group.

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Star Trek: What Eating On The Enterprise Would Really Be Like

"Star Trek" depicts a future where humanity has finally achieved a utopian society — one where different races, genders, and species all exist harmoniously together. And while some might claim Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell), the inventor of the warp drive, ushered in this new age when his ship made contact with alien life and helped unite everyone on Earth, the truth is humanity owes a greater debt to a different piece of future technology — the food replicator.

Made popular on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ("TNG"), food replicators are found on every starship and most Federation planets, and they can convert energy into virtually any type of food or drink. Thanks to this invention, food insecurity and starvation are truly problems of the past, and everyone who lives on Earth or serves aboard a ship like the U.S.S. Enterprise can go about their business with a full stomach — which plays a key part in maintaining the peaceful society humanity thrives in.

That said, there are a few downsides to living in a society where computers let you try cuisines from hundreds of different worlds. Due to replicator malfunctions or alien food allergies, dining aboard a starship can be an adventure in and of itself. But if you've ever wondered what sort of dishes you might try in the world of "Star Trek," read on. From getting drunk on Romulan ale to teasing your stomach with Klingon gagh, here's what eating on the Enterprise would really be like.

You can order anything you want on the Enterprise

Foodies who enjoy broadening their palates by sampling exotic dishes will feel like they're in paradise aboard the Enterprise. Not only does the ship's database contain a library of recipes from hundreds of different alien worlds, you can sample practically all of them thanks to the food replicators located in your quarters or in the ship's recreation lounge, Ten Forward.

The next generation model of the "food synthesizer" made popular in the original "Star Trek" series, the food replicators in "TNG" use the same  matter-energy conversion technology used by transporters to transform molecules into anything you want — including a five-course meal. All you need to do is ask the computer for a bowl of Ratamba stew or a Bolian souffle, and the replicator will manifest it for you immediately using the ship's replicator reserves.

There are a few limitations — the Enterprise won't let you replicate anything poisonous or dangerous — but otherwise, you and your fellow gourmets could spend many happy hours hanging out in Ten Forward and indulging in Bajoran, Ktarian, or Betazoid cuisine. And best of all? Since money isn't used among  Federation citizens , everything is free! Sure, it might get attacked by the Borg or thrown back in time every other week, but when it comes to food, the Enterprise is the ultimate cruise ship.

Doing the dishes is ridiculously easy

Automatic dishwashers may have revolutionized sanitation in the modern age, but people in "Star Trek" have an even better way of doing the dishes — just let the replicator dematerialize your used plates, uneaten food, and utensils. This eliminates the need to store drinking glasses or waste water, saving both space and resources. This also explains how a ship like the Enterprise always seems to have more than enough of everything. Thanks to the replicators' ability to recycle anything, spare molecules can be rearranged into any number of useful items like engineering equipment, medical supplies, or even clothes.

Of course, since food replicators are capable of creating anything from the ship's replicator reserves, that also means your next meal could be constructed out of atoms that used to be part of a champagne glass or a chafing dish. So, if your next replicated meatloaf tastes like it was made out of your old gym socks ... that's probably because it was.

Replicated junk food is good for you

Unsurprisingly, being able to order anything you want from a food replicator causes a lot of people to indulge, and many of the Enterprise's crewmembers like to replicate junk food. However, "junk food" in the 24th century isn't anywhere near as unhealthy as it is in our time.

By default, the Enterprise's replicators are designed to manifest food and drink with nutritional value. So when Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) orders chocolate ice cream or caviar from the replicators, she's actually eating healthy. At one point in the "TNG" Season 3 episode "The Price," Troi says she can tell the difference between real and replicated ice cream when she asks for a chocolate sundae with real whipped cream. In response, the computer indicates it's programmed to provide foods of acceptable nutritional value and Troi would have to override its program to manifest actual junk food.

Oddly enough, this means that if the  alien trickster Q (John de Lancie) had eaten the 10 replicated chocolate sundaes he ordered shortly after becoming human in the Season 3 episode "Deja Q," he might've ended up with better muscle tone and stronger bones. One can only dream that future miracle diets will include such replicator rations.

Bar-hopping won't get you drunk

Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) may be the Enterprise's bartender, but the truth is most of the beverages served at Ten Forward are non-alcoholic. By the 24th century, synthehol is the drink of choice for many Starfleet officers. According to Data (Brent Spiner) in the "TNG" Season 6 episode "Relics," synthehol is an alcohol substitute that "simulates the appearance, taste, and smell of alcohol." However, the intoxicating effects of synthehol drinks are easily ignored.

On one hand, this makes sense. Starfleet doesn't want their officers to show up at their duty stations hungover, so synthehol appears to be an acceptable compromise for bar-hoppers. However, this revelation horrifies Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), who knows immediately that the "scotch" he's served at Ten Forward is definitely not scotch.

Amusingly, it's later revealed in the "Star Trek: Voyager" Season 5 episode "Timeless" that the one alien species that can get hammered from synthehol is ... the Borg. That's right, Starfleet's most dangerous enemy is incapable of holding their liquor, as seen when  Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) gets drunk from just one glass of non-alcoholic champagne. A few years later, however, Seven shows the Borg nanoprobes in her blood apparently adapted to her low tolerance when she chugs back multiple shots of real bourbon in "Star Trek: Picard." That, or she's become a full-blown alcoholic.

There are plenty of ways to get wasted on the Enterprise

"Star Trek" may depict a future where humanity has risen above the bad habits of its ancestors, but apparently, humans still haven't conquered their self-destructive tendency to get completely plastered. Although synthehol may keep most crewmen sober, there are still plenty of alcoholic beverages on the Enterprise that are far more intoxicating than anything you can encounter in the 21st century.

Shortly after Scotty shows his displeasure at being served synthehol drinks in "Relics," Data reveals that Guinan keeps a limited supply of real alcoholic beverages and serves him from a very potent bottle of "Aldebaran whiskey." Other episodes reveal aliens consuming kanar, a thick Cardassian liquor, as well as Romulan ale, a blue drink that's so intoxicating it's been made illegal by Starfleet. Despite this, practically everyone from Kirk to Riker has smuggled in and shared Romulan ale at parties and even state dinners, showing that Starfleet officers aren't just explorers — they're bootleggers.

Okay, but surely Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) wouldn't approve of all this alcohol floating around his ship, right? Not quite. Turns out, he's the one who gave Guinan the bottle of Aldebaran whiskey that Scotty enjoyed, and he's more than capable of holding his liquor alongside Mr. Scott. Considering that Picard's family has owned a French vineyard for several centuries, it's not surprising that the captain has an appreciation for fine wine and alcoholic beverages.

Cooking is a lost art

Technology does tend to strip a society of some basic skills, and in the case of food replicators, that skill happens to be cooking. When all you need to do to make lunch is ask your replicator for a hamburger and fries, learning how to chop your own meat or use a stove seems unnecessary. This has led many people to learn how to "cook" by programming replication patterns — essentially replacing cooking skills with coding skills.

Which can lead to some big problems. After all, replicators can get damaged, leaving you unable to synthesize your dinner or midnight snack. A few people, like Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales), dabble in cooking by trying to make chocolate chip cookies the old-fashioned way in the "Picard" Season 1 episode "Stardust City Rag." However, he still has to use the food replicator to create the flour, butter, eggs, sugar, baking soda, and chocolate chips to prepare the cookies, making his girlfriend, Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill), question the logic behind his actions.

Those who can cook are very passionate

Luckily, human society in the 24th century emphasizes finding personal fulfillment by honing skills, and some people are still very passionate about cooking. In the prequel series "Star Trek: Enterprise," the crew applauded the culinary skills of their cook, Chef. In the final episode, Chef was played by Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) in a holodeck simulation. Riker, who loves cooking, once invited his crew mates for an Owon omelette in the Season 2 episode "Time Squared." However, most of the crew hated his meal — except  Worf (Michael Dorn) , who described it as "delicious."

Riker's cooking skills improve by "Picard," when he makes a pizza from scratch for his family and some unexpected dinner guests. And while we're off the Enterprise, let's head over to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," where Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) also enjoys cooking and learned his skills from his father, Joseph Sisko (Brock Peters), the master chef of a popular restaurant in New Orleans.

However, the most enthusiastic (and essential) cook in "Star Trek” is Neelix (Ethan Phillips), the Talaxian chef/morale officer in "Voyager." Since Voyager is stranded in the Delta Quadrant , replicator rations need to be limited, making Neelix responsible for most of the crew's meals. Although his early attempts do create several cases of food poisoning, some of his later attempts are more edible, and he proves very creative with the various ingredients the crew harvest from other planets.

People still raise their own food in the future

Replicators may be able to make food out of "simulated protein molecules," but most people agree that naturally grown food still produces the tastiest dishes. The Enterprise NX-01 has a hydroponic greenhouse where they grow fruits and vegetables for their meals, and the Enterprise-D has a hydroponic laboratory that can presumably do the same thing.

Many of the strange new worlds that Starfleet visits are also veritable Gardens of Eden. "Picard" finds William Riker living on the alien planet Nepenthe, where the soil has regenerative properties, allowing the Riker family to grow very rich tomatoes, basil, and other vegetables. After sampling a tomato, the android Soji Asha (Isa Briones) can immediately taste how "real" naturally grown food is compared to replicated meals.

But the one starship that truly got to appreciate home-grown food was the Voyager. After being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the crew had to ration their supplies, which meant harvesting plants and other foods from alien planets and cooking them aboard their ship. One of the more unusual dishes was seen in the "Voyager" Season 2 episode "Parturition" when Lieutenant Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) eats some Alfarian hair pasta. Turns out, this pasta is made from the actual hair follicles of mature Alfarian animals that shed them every year in early fall.

Klingon cuisine is very strong

Klingons constantly like to prove how tough they are — including at the dinner table, where most of the dishes look like they were created on a dare. William Riker got to sample several types of Klingon food during a cultural exchange in the "TNG” Season 2 episode "A Matter of Honor." While he claimed to enjoy the bregit lung and rokeg blood pie, even he got squeamish when he was offered a dish of gagh – aka live serpent worms. A Klingon delicacy, there are at least 51 types of gagh, including varieties that squirm, jump, or wiggle as they make their way into your stomach.

Surprisingly,  many "Star Trek" fans really want to try Klingon food , leading to the creation of several Klingon cooking blogs that instruct you on how to cook broiled krada legs ( actually spider crab legs and Moreton Bay bugs ), as well as multiple varieties of gagh (including one made of Japanese soba noodles).

And while genuine Klingon food may prove too strong for some palates, most people love Klingon beverages. Klingon bloodwine was frequently consumed on "Deep Space Nine," and many Starfleet officers found themselves hooked on raktajino, the Klingon version of coffee that could be served hot, iced, or with whipped cream. The drink was so popular, one wonders why some enterprising Klingon baristas didn't open up a whole chain of raktajino houses and become the 24th-century version of Starbucks.

Vulcan dishes tend to be bland

Where warrior races like the Klingons may prefer to eat meals rich in meat, the logical Vulcan race favors a more ... dispassionate cuisine. Many Vulcans, including the Enterprise's Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are vegetarians who prefer eating Vulcan fruits like gespar or various types of broth. Vulcans also don't like touching their food with their bare hands, making even a vegan barbeque out of the question.

In terms of popular dishes, Nurse Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett) once made a bowl of plomeek soup for Spock in the "Star Trek" Season 2 episode "Amok Time." Considered a traditional morning meal on Vulcan, plomeek soup is usually a bland broth (although there are spicier versions). Unfortunately, Spock was suffering from the Vulcan pon farr mating drive at the time and angrily threw the soup back at Nurse Chapel. He later apologized and requested that she make him another bowl.

Strangely, in the "Deep Space Nine" Season 2 episode "Melora," the Ferengi bartender Quark (Armin Shimerman) serves a dish of "jumbo Vulcan mollusks" to a diner. Since mollusks are meat, this has led to some speculation among fans over how strict the Vulcan vegetarian diet really is. Of course, if the mollusks were replicated, this could serve as a loophole for any Vulcans who chose to partake in such a meal.

Ferengi meal preparation is an ... intimate affair

There are some meals that even replicators can't fully prepare. Take Ferengi cuisine, for example. While a replicator may be able to produce a fair facsimile of beetle puree, slug liver, or Slug-o-Cola, within Ferengi culture, Ferengi women are required to cut up the meals and chew it to make it softer for the male members of the household. Some females, notably Quark's mother, Ishka (played by both Cecily Adams and Andrea Martin), refused to do this, leading other boys to ridicule Quark and his brother, Rom (Max Grodénchik).

Quark himself ran a popular recreational facility known as "Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House, and Holosuite Arcade" (or just "Quark's") on Deep Space Nine and served many alien foods and drinks. Most of his offerings were replicated, but he did have certain fresh wines and delicacies shipped in and indicated some of his meals were made from scratch.

Despite displaying traditional Ferengi greed, Quark was an excellent host, leading many "Star Trek" fans to want to go to Quark's — which they got to do at the Star Trek-themed attraction "Star Trek: The Experience" at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel from 1998 to 2008 . The  real-life bar served several Ferengi dishes , including "Moogie's Famous Ferengi Flat Bread" and "Moogie's Choice Pasta."

Future food allergies can be ... weird

The 24th century has done a lot for medical science. In "TNG," Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) states that the common cold has finally been cured. Human life spans have been vastly extended, and many illnesses can be immediately alleviated with just a single hypospray injection.

That being said, in a universe where people visit alien worlds every week, the chances of discovering a new food allergy are pretty high. Luckily, many of these allergies tend to be more weird than deadly. In the "Deep Space Nine” Season 5 episode "Let He Who Is Without Sin ..." Lieutenant Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) admits she's allergic to icoberry juice (it makes her spots itch), but she likes it so much that she drinks it anyway. Other episodes show that the entire Talarian species can become intoxicated by Klingon raktajino.

On "Voyager," some people react so violently to Neelix's cooking that the  Doctor (Robert Picardo) once compared Neelix's Bolian souffle to a bio-weapon in Season 7's "Body and Soul." Tom Paris once had a severe allergic reaction to the water in Neelix's coffee in Season 2's "Threshold" (although to be fair, Paris' body was already mutating into a salamander after he broke the transwarp barrier and was developing new allergies).

Even starships can have food allergies

With all the different alien species aboard Federation starships, it was perhaps inevitable that many people would have unique food allergies — but that's nothing compared to the time a starship developed a food allergy.

In the "Voyager" episode "Learning Curve," one crewmember requests that Neelix make some macaroni and cheese, leading the Talaxian to culture some brill cheese from the schplict milk he acquired from an alien grakel . Unfortunately, the bacterial spores inside the cheese contain an alien virus that infect the bio-neural gel packs on Voyager. This causes every system aboard Voyager to become "sick," and the holographic Doctor is forced to kill the virus by raising the temperature aboard the entire ship, causing multiple crewmembers to pass out from heat stroke. 

So, while making meals may have gotten simpler in the future, major dinner party disasters are still very much a thing.

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The Trouble With Trek Food

The best cookbooks help us learn and think about their subjects. The new Star Trek cookbook, sadly, only reaches for the food coloring.

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When I was a kid I used a Fisher Price recorder to tape the opening scenes of Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the VHS played on our big TV, so that alone in my room I could listen back to Kirk and Scotty’s terse exchange and ambient but excessively long shuttle trip to the retrofitted USS Enterprise. Aside from Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic swelling score, I’m not sure that as a child, I really liked this movie, or even that scene. More so it was a distraction, or like hanging out with friends who didn’t demand anything. Looking back now, the gesture of making and listening to a low-quality audio recording of the oft-cited most boring Star Trek film is just completely over-the-top, yet emblematic of the emotional intensity I felt toward Star Trek at the time, and occasionally still muster. This extreme intensity, however, couldn’t get me to want to cook from a Star Trek cookbook.

The food on Star Trek fundamentally looks terrible, from the vaunted live worms that comprise Klingon gagh to the gelatinous cubes wobbling around the original Enterprise mess hall. Slime on a stick on the Deep Space Nine station promenade? Those omelets Will Riker made that everyone thought were awful? No level of fandom could possibly make me want to eat these things, let alone make them.

My aversion, however, may put me in the minority. Because everyone eats, and because eating is a social activity, food is a key component of worldbuilding. This is especially true of stories and franchises set elsewhere: in the past, in the future, in places that don’t actually exist. And as rights holders have expanded their methods for getting fans to spend money, pop culture cookbooks became their own cottage industry . Into this trend comes Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s Star Trek Cookbook: Culinary Adventures in the Final Frontier , which hit shelves on September 21. Monroe-Cassel, a progenitor of the franchise recipe golden age, began the Inn at the Crossroads blog in 2011 to share recipes for the foods referenced in George R. R. Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into the TV show Game of Thrones that year. The blog expanded to cover foods from other fictional properties, spurring numerous cookbook projects from Monroe-Cassel, including those inspired by the video game Overwatch , doomed 2000s Joss Whedon sci-fi show Firefly , and Star Wars .

The Star Trek Cookbook is lightly bound by the conceit that Monroe-Cassel is a “gastrodiplomat” lecturing Starfleet cadets about how to further the Federation’s exploratory and expansionist goals through sharing a meal with representatives of other planets. The dishes themselves are all references I could ID from a lifetime of consuming Star Trek, but each dish’s franchise origin is noted. The book is organized by dish type, and not Star Trek series, era, or culture. In theory this makes it more usable for its intended purpose, that is, making and eating the food. This is (ugh) logical for a cookbook, and some of the recipes in here are good. Cardassian Regova eggs , for example: I boiled them, cracked the shells, and submerged them in dye diluted in water until they emerged a pretty, webby green. Spiked with some frilly bits of lettuce they looked striking; maybe I’d serve them at a Halloween party. They were also okay devilled eggs, and I learned a new trick: that you can slice off the tops and prepare them vertically.

But they’re also just devilled hen eggs, and nothing in the filling (yogurt, red pepper, garlic) makes them anything other than superficially a little weird. Everything about how the food looks — the plating, the reliance on dyes, the lightly modernist approach — broadcasts alienness, in a sci-fi aesthetic way. But making a traditionally structured cookbook with solid recipes for kinda odd-seeming food falls short of this project’s full potential, since nobody is going to a Star Trek cookbook first and foremost because it’s a cookbook.

What the best cookbooks do is help us learn and think about their subjects. For example, what could the shifting presentation of food on Star Trek through 12 series and 13 films, along with comic books, novels, action figures, games, and a Vegas attraction that closed in 2008, tell us about the growth and evolution of the franchise? Or, what can we understand about Klingons, Vulcans, Cardassians, Bajorans, Romulans, or Ferengi by putting their foods into dialogue? Aside from being the nerdiest sentence I personally have ever written, and that’s saying a lot, cookbooks are perfect venues for exploring these kinds of questions. But the Star Trek cookbook is just trying to give fans the opportunity to pretend they’re eating foods seen and mentioned on Star Trek. Aside from nailing the look of the eggs, which Monroe-Cassel does, this is all a polite fiction, because Regovas and their eggs do not exist.

For properties like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones , which are based on our world, with food references derived from a well-preserved history of English cookery, recreating dishes will be almost literal by default. In contrast, Star Trek at its most infamous and arguably successful offers parables for real life’s moral, ethical, and political dilemmas. Often the basic Trek setup is that the Federation and some alien other must learn to accommodate and understand one another, that both their positions have value. Food and dining have long been tools of real-life diplomacy ; look at elaborate White House state dinners, and so on. The imagined gastrodiplomat premise of Monroe-Cassel’s book is acting out this pantomime — but in the world of Star Trek, where the food on 24th-century starships is replicated and not cooked. It’s impossible to know, exactly, what the human foods of this period will be like, the same way the Victorians can’t have predicted Charms Blue Razz Berry Blow Pops. The technology just wasn’t there, and nor was the inclination.

Also, most of the food in this fictional world is literally alien. It’s grown and manufactured on planets no one alive today will ever reach, produced by cultures with biologies and political, moral, ethical, and economic systems that are shaped by factors we can only guess at — badly, probably, given how unlikely it is they’d resemble our own. The most fictional idea on Star Trek is that “new life and new civilizations” from outer space are incredibly compatible with Earth’s human society, even in how they are different. Just the idea that these alien races have food items and food cultures in the ways that are recognizable to us is a bit of a fancy. Who says aliens would name the things they eat, or prepare them, or have preferences?

All of this would be nothing more than the basic science fictional buy-in, but here the premise of Star Trek ’ s food comes to us as a cookbook, which is a form that reproduces a certain kind of knowledge . The book is bound by those conventions, and Monroe-Cassel is bound by further, practical parameters: what’s available to readers right now, on Earth.

Let’s take gagh, the Klingon dish of live worms. Gagh is textually, in Star Trek, disgusting to the human characters. In its first appearance, the second-season Next Generation episode “A Matter of Honor,” Riker (of the gross omelets) does an exchange program on a Klingon ship, and everyone makes fun of him for having to eat gagh . Even the Klingons he meets are like, “Oooh, human, are you going to eat gagh?” And Riker, having bravado, earns their respect by eating gagh with gusto.

There’s a political reading to be made here. Star Trek depicts a multicultural world that mirrors our own in a lot of ways, and back on our actual Earth, foods from distant places have a long history as tools of cultural diplomacy and exploitation . One of the constant thematic tensions in all eras of Star Trek is the extent to which Starfleet is an exploratory and diplomatic endeavor, and to what degree it is a military outfit. Often the takeaway is that it’s a gray area; Starfleet is either, or both, when it suits them (meaning both in canon and in production). Riker earning respect on the Klingon ship by eating their gross foods feels a little T. E. Lawrence , where the latter’s appreciation for Arabian cultures (and boys ) was a byproduct of and adjunct to establishing an early-20th-century British presence around the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In Star Trek, Klingons are depicted as the ultimate other. Jean-Luc Picard quipping (in Patrick Stewart ’s RP ) as the camera pans over the awful-looking Klingon foods, “We know so little about them. There really is so much to learn,” reinforces the comparison.

While Riker isn’t making a direct effort to colonize the Klingon homeworld or undermine their empire, he is part of a cultural diplomacy to draw allies and member planets further into the Federation. In “A Matter of Honor,” nothing sinister is canonically happening via the crew exchange itself. But to a viewer in 1989, or now, the subtext of Riker being dropped into the Klingon ship’s mess hall is going to evoke a memory of the orientalist trope of a traveler to a distant land becoming enmeshed in the cultural milieu while drawing this place and its people into the visitor’s sphere.

So there’s a lot to unpack around gagh that could actually reveal much about Star Trek, and because Star Trek is a product of our culture, therefore, ourselves. But of course, no cookbook produced in the U.S. is going to share recipes for live worms. Instead, Monroe-Cassel recreates gagh out of udon. These long, thick noodles look, yes, a little wormy, and they can have a slimy texture when dressed correctly. If you’re looking at a still image of a plate of gagh from Star Trek, they passingly resemble long noodles, slickly coated. But gagh isn’t noodles — it’s worms. The project hinges on simply replicating the look of gagh, and something is lost in this translation.

Even as I was dyeing my Regova eggs, the new Star Trek cookbook felt off to me. It does feel weird to be excited to eat Cardassian food at all, in light of their arc as imperialists whose occupation of the planet Bajor led to a system of slave labor camps and, ultimately, genocide — I mean, it’s all pretend, this didn’t happen. But sci-fi generally, and Star Trek perhaps especially, is often firmly allegorical. It would be difficult to cover the breadth of its alien cuisines and not run into ethical questions, even if Monroe-Cassel chose to skirt them. After all, the book’s major selling point is in some ways its posture of authority — so what wasn’t clicking?

I found the answer in the Star Trek Cookbook — another one, from 1999, co-authored by Ethan Phillips and William J. Birnes. This book embodies what struck me nearly two decades ago as an embarrassing variety of camp: There’s a simpering alien with airbrushed spot makeup and orange Nehru collar on the jacket, badly edited against a sculptural tablescape that’s giving late-’90s b’nai mitzvah buffet that’s badly pasted against a starry-sky background. Also, the recipes have always struck me as attempts to “ normalize the absurd .” In my memory, this felt awkward.

The alien on the cover — wearing a costume that looks like it’s made of the moquette they use to upholster the seating on the London Underground — is Neelix, a character portrayed on Voyager (1995-2001) by co-author Phillips. Neelix, the shipboard cook on USS Voyager, is one of the more annoying characters in Star Trek, and maybe the most annoying depending on one’s tolerance for peppy boy geniuses and floppy-vigged cosmonauts, keptin. The book’s premise is that Neelix is writing down his recipes and recollections from serving on Voyager, along with some archival information he dug up about the dining preferences of the crews of the original Enterprise from TOS, The Next Generation ’s Enterprise-D, and Deep Space Nine. A running joke on Voyager is that Neelix is an awful chef and the crew hates his cooking. But, maybe that’s not the point. “As a chef,” he writes, “I could surprise them with a taste of home tucked away inside some alien morsel.” Yet “as morale officer, I now know a little bit more about them, which would help me reach out in a personal way when they needed support and kindness.”

Contained within this frame, Phillips and Birnes’s effort is basically a Star Trek food sourcebook, in-universe and out. Because Phillips is a cast member, he has access to other Trek cast members and crew. So the book contains not just recipes referring to Star Trek shows, but also sections from Voyager props master Alan Sims and Deep Space Nine props master Joe Longo , and recipes from various Trek cast members. For example, Leonard Nimoy provides a “Kasha Varnishkas à la Vulcan.” “My favorite dish,” he writes, “handed down by my mother, who brought it from her village in the Ukraine, which is a small town in Western Vulcan.” Ha ha — but also, Nimoy is one of the most beloved figures in the history of Star Trek, behind arguably the most beloved of its many beloved characters, the one that set the blueprint for Star Trek’s approach to communicating alienness: a mostly human-looking man whose style and tone marked him, for the audience, as different.

Behind the joke about Western Vulcan is Nimoy’s biography as the son of Ukrainian immigrants who were Orthodox Jews. He famously brought aspects of Jewish ritual into his performance as Spock, and the recipe attests to just how inseparable this identity was from the formation of the character: Kasha varnishkes is a totem of Ashkenazi heritage . Likewise, the mannerisms and affect Nimoy brought to Spock, a character who is a minority nearly everywhere he goes, and never allowed to forget it, feel truer for his personal history. The inclusion of a recipe like this — one of many from various cast members, although I can’t say I’m as charmed by James Doohan’s “Scotty’s Lemon Chicken” — shows that Star Trek is more than the sum of its parts. This book is not merely about the foods on Star Trek; it is about the foods of Star Trek, and I now find the earnestness of this moving, whereas I once found it, like, kinda cringe.

Still, this book is weird and unpolished. It looks pretty bad and is functionally useless as a cookbook. It is organized by series, and then subdivided into characters; the recipes in each section loosely relate to that character, sometimes in a drawn-out way. There are no pictures, only fuzzy grayscale stills from various series and a few complementary settings from the props department. It’s almost as if you’re not supposed to make the food at all, and aside from me at my next themed dinner party, it would be unshocking if relatively few people have.

Monroe-Cassel’s book, on the other hand, looks and reads like a contemporary cookbook. It’s clean and white in its overall presentation, with hyper-compartmentalized recipe pages where the formatting does a lot of heavy lifting. The photography is bold, colorful, and a little abstract , focusing on the textures of the foods, with a few top-down shots, such as you’d see in 2010s Bon Appétit or on Instagram . Both volumes are distinctly of their time both in their treatment of Star Trek, and as cookbooks.

The contrast is clearest in a recipe for quadrotriticale salad, a dish Monroe-Cassel teased on Twitter in 2021. It’s a food first referenced in “The Trouble With Tribbles,” one of the most iconic original series episodes. “Tribbles” is a good place to start if you’ve never seen any Star Trek, TOS or otherwise, and if you’re writing a Star Trek cookbook, you can’t not have a quadrotriticale recipe.

In the show, quadrotriticale is a fictional hardy modification of the real-life triticale wheat-rye hybrid grain, and so Phillips and Birnes provide a recipe for quadrotriticale bread, joking that if you can’t find quadrotriticale at your Earth supermarket, blending whole-wheat and rye flour is a fine approximation. Monroe-Cassel’s take is a salad that uses honey and beet juice to transform carrots into wormy tendrils, and butterfly pea flower powder or food coloring to make the quadrotriticale blue. Monroe-Cassel also says you can “add the grain of whatever hue you choose to this recipe,” which must be a whimsical Star Trek way to say you can use something other than the recommended couscous. I used pearled barley and gel food coloring. I did not get the delicate look from the photo, but a garish blue that felt almost violent.

This salad is easy if time-consuming to make, and as Monroe-Cassel writes, its components (carrots, quadrotriticale, dressing, optional decor) can be prepared in advance. With honey in the dressing and the carrots I found it pretty sweet, and went back and added mustard to balance it. Even still I didn’t enjoy it, but that’s personal preference. Either sweet blue food is for you, or it isn’t. Regardless, the dish’s point isn’t how it tastes, but dinner theater. Its plating is pulled from the modernist era of 10 to 15 years ago, with its scientific sheen and laboratory exactitude complemented by a winky playfulness: Looks like this, but it’s really that. Looks like futuristic blue grain from the outskirts of the quadrant, but it’s just dyed couscous.

It is wild, and says very much about fandom’s recent trajectory, that the 1990s book written by a Star Trek cast member with loads of institutional support and input feels somehow precarious and messy with unbridled wonder and enthusiasm, while the one written by a fan in 2022 is an orderly, rational, respectable attempt to make Star Trek feel contained and palatable.

What I don’t think it says much about is Star Trek: Something that’s been with us for decades, in so many iterations, shaped by so many people, can’t be any one thing , and it would be foolish to insist on essentialist readings of what Star Trek is, or does. These are both Star Trek cookbooks, after all — but perhaps the Star Trek cookbooks appropriate for their eras.

Monroe-Cassel’s book will be embraced by some type of fan. It gives Star Trek, forever shorthand for loserdom, a socially acceptable veneer in its clarity, its straightforwardness, and its conventional approach and organization. None of the recipes I made were bad: They weren’t for me, but somebody’s going to like them. (Into grains on a salad; wish they weren’t blue.) But the book from 1999 feels so much weirder, so much fuller of pleasure at the expansiveness of the Star Trek franchise and the specificity of its details. This is what I have always loved about Star Trek, too. Which is probably why I was so embarrassed by that book: its implications. Please don’t let them know I listen to crackly audio of that long-ass nearly pornographic shuttle sequence alone in my bedroom.

And yet both books are parafictions, per art historian Carrie Lambert-Beatty, where “real and/or imaginary personages and stories intersect with the world as it is being lived,” and presented as fact. Parafictions, Lambert-Beatty writes , “prepare us to be better, more critical information consumers.” No Star Trek cookbook requiring the approval of its rights holders would go there. That makes these projects, especially Monroe-Cassel’s, exegetical. They collapse the fiction of the canon and the facts of its artifice for the purpose of knowing the material on some deeper level. This is only one of several ways of being a fan, but it certainly is the most profitable.

Inevitably, when I consider how I feel about fannish tie-ins, and just what being a fan means to me, I think of a particular scene from Star Trek. In the 1994 film Generations , the android Data, who’s spent his series arc on a quest to achieve humanity, has just developed emotions, and goes to the shipboard bar to test out this new ability.

The bartender, Guinan, sets down a tray with decanter, and asks, “Something new from Forcas III ?”

Data gags on the drink and cries, “I hate this! It is revolting.”

Guinan asks him if he wants more, and Data, who seems delighted, sets his glass back on the table: “Please.”

Looking forward to the next Star Trek cookbook.

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In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets. In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets. In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

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• Alternate versions In 2006, CBS went back to the archives and created HD prints of every episode of the show. In addition to the new video transfer, they re-did all of the model shots and some matte paintings using CGI effects, and re-recorded the original theme song to clean it up. These "Enhanced" versions of the episodes aired on syndication and have been released on DVD and Blu-Ray.
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Review: Make The Final Frontier Come Alive In Your Kitchen With ‘The Star Trek Cookbook’

| September 19, 2022 | By: Laurie Ulster 29 comments so far

The Star Trek Cookbook Written by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel Hardcover | $35.00 E-book | $16.99 Published by Gallery Books | 192 Pages

Cookbook author and food stylist Chelsea Monroe-Cassel has done cookbooks for other big franchises (most notably Game of Thrones ), but when she got the call to do a Star Trek cookbook, she was overjoyed—as a longtime fan who grew up watching The Next Generation (and eventually every show in the franchise), it had been on her bucket list for years. (And yes, she’s also a fan of the 1999 cookbook of the same name written by Ethan Phillips and William J. Birnes, and makes it clear that despite some crossover, her recipes are all-new.)

She does her fandom proud with this gorgeous, in-canon, beautifully written collection of Starfleet-sponsored recipes featuring everything from the familiar (Hasperat, Plomeek Soup, Raktajino, Yamok Sauce) to the not-so-familiar (Andorian Spice Bread,  Tarvokian Powder Cake). The book not only groups them into appropriate sections—starters, breads, mains, desserts, drinks, etc.—it also ends with a Menu Suggestions section so you’ll know just what to serve with those Denobulan Sausages.

Excerpted from The Star Trek Cookbook  by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel. Copyright © ​2022 by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

From The Original Series to Lower Decks

Monroe-Cassel was able to include everything up to and including Picard and Lower Decks , which means there was no time to mine Prodigy and Strange New Worlds for dishes. The book still encompasses a huge variety of food seen, heard about, or read about, with recipes meticulously photographed, taste-tasted, and chronicled in stunning glossy pages, where you’ll find everything from Rigelian Chocolate Truffles and First Contact Day Salmon to Pizza with Bunnicorn Sausage.

“One of the challenges is always sort of the battle between making it weird enough, but also making it approachable,” the author told TrekMovie. “I want to have ingredients that are not that hard to source, so that people really can make it without having to drive three hours to a grocery store.” In keeping with the book’s in-canon write-ups, she adds, “And if your replicator is down, you want to be able to make it with whatever you’ve got.” She made a point of using the occasional unconventional ingredient more than once, to keep things practical both for herself and for her readers.

Excerpted from The Star Trek Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel. Copyright © ​2022 by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

One pip or four?

The book begins with a welcome to food-curious cadets, and each recipe has a 1-4 pips difficulty rating, with 4 being the most challenging. For nervous beginners, Monroe-Cassel recommends starting with the drinks—either the Romulan Ale or the Red Leaf Tea. The Ale is “a very straightforward, very easy, tasty drink” and the Tea is “really nice with breakfast” and “playful with flavors.”

Playful is the right word: The veteran cookbook writer strove to use real food to create delicious dishes, but keep things true to Star Trek, which meant spreading her culinary and photography wings a bit. “My usual comfort zone is sort of dim lighting medieval on a slab of wood kind of thing,” she told us, so incorporating Star Trek’s bright colors was a new experience. She mentions that it took a long time to get the Starfleet Food Rations—those colored blobs seen in The Original Series —to her satisfaction. “One of my rules is you can’t just—if you’re doing Star Wars, blue milk, you can’t just put food dye in milk and call it blue milk like that is literally blue milk, but it’s not a recipe. And so likewise, you can’t just sort of paint some food coloring on melon and call it you know, whatever the up-for-debate name is, which I hope I’ve maybe settled a little bit with my head notes.”

Excerpted from  The Star Trek Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel. Copyright © ​2022 by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel. Reprinted by permission of Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The ones that got away: Jumja sticks and Captain Pike

Her big regret? Jumja sticks, seen on Deep Space Nine ’s Promenade. “It’s such a disappointing thing because I made one batch of these, and they were perfect. And I apparently did not write down what I did. And I could never replicate them again, pun intended. It devastated me, I was right down to the submission deadline wire, I was still trying to remake these. And so that’s the one that got away from me.”

Not much else did, except for all the delicacies that have been coming out of Captain Pike’s quarters in season 1 of Strange New Worlds . Monroe-Cassel could probably do a whole book of Pike’s recipes—especially the episode where “there’s a plate of canapés going around, and they looked incredible”—and loves the idea of, say, doing a side-by-side cooking demo with Anson Mount on the Star Trek Cruise one day.

Captain Pike cooking up a storm on the Enterprise

The trouble with… spatchcocking

But while we wait for that, we still have her cookbook, which sometimes takes risks by combining old Trek with new, like the Quadrotriticale Salad, inspired by The Original Series “The Trouble With Tribbles” but enhanced with a tentacle look as seen on season 1 of Discovery . There’s another tribble-related dish that Monroe-Cassel considers one of her prouder accomplishments: Spatchcocked Tribble.

“One of my favorite Star Trek things is the Short Trek about the tribbles [“The Trouble With Edward”] and the origin story of the Tribbles, basically,” she says. “And it makes me laugh every time I think about it, that there’s this poor well-meaning but absolutely bonkers scientist trying to solve hunger problems on a planet just takes over the entire ship and it’s just tribbles are a problem forever then, right? But I actually built a replicator for that photo, Original Series -era because I just really wanted it to look the part.” She said it took forever to get the lighting just right. “It’s like crazy person stuff, but oh my god, it’s really fun and worth it in the end.”

From “The Trouble With Edward”

Over 70 recipes from across the franchise

With over 70 brand-new recipes from across all of Star Trek—and yes, Monroe-Cassel includes food from novels and video games—this book is both a fun read and a great addition to your kitchen shelf as well as a collection of Star Trek art books. Star Trek is “just a nice world, it’s a nice place to dwell,” she says. “I think one of the interesting things is it shows us the promise of the best that humanity could achieve. It’s a hopeful future.” This upbeat, life-affirming sentiment is present on every page of her book, whether you’re there as a chef or just a bystander. Happy cooking!

Visit Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s website or her page about  The Star Trek Cookbook .

On sale Tuesday

The Star Trek Cookbook will be released on Tuesday, September 20. You can pick it up at Amazon in hardcover for $35.00 and Kindle eBook for $31.50 .

Find more news and reviews of  Star Trek books at TrekMovie.com .

DISCLAIMER: We may link to products to buy on Amazon in our articles; these are customized affiliate links that support TrekMovie by earning a small commission when you purchase through them.

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I don’t usually buy into these themed cookbooks. But this was a really good interview and write up, enough to have me seriously consider it. Thank you!

Remember, it ain’t real gagh if it’s not moving.

ST:TNG: “Lonely Among Us”: Riker: “We no longer enslave animals for food purposes. [Humans eat] something as fresh and tasty as meat, but inorganically materialized out of patterns used by our transporters.”

ST:PIC: “Nepenthe”: Riker [preparing dinner, and speaking to his daughter whom he sent out to hunt for bunnicorns (a rabbit-like animal)]: “You cut out the venom sacs? … Pizza, with tomato, basil, and nonvenomous bunnicorn sausage.”

I don’t think he was saying hunting was illegal or went away in itself, it sounds like he was saying that entities like farming methods that is meant to breed animals for food is gone by the 24th century. Hunting is obviously still done today worldwide, but it’s not done to feed the masses either.

I remember having this conversation on this site before and I think hunting would still be around in the 24th century, but probably a lot less so compared to today. I’m guessing the overwhelming amount of people who eat meat in the 24th century are eating a processed version of it via replicators, but some people could still hunt.

So nothing was contradicted. It sounds like farms no longer exist in the Star Trek universe because they no longer have to. They now have technology that can process the taste of meat through other means. But I don’t think it means people don’t eat real meat from time to time either.

That’s exactly how I took it. We know for a fact that other aliens hunt. We heard about it on DS9 and other shows so it’s more of an earth thing – getting rid of mass farming for the sake of meat when replicators exist. It’s also fair to state that Star Trek characters before this new modern era of Trek always talked about how replicators are never quite as good as the real thing. Picard in TNG even said he kept a jar of caviar for special occasions so humans still eat actual animals. Riker even had a picture of fishing with his dad when he was a boy on one of the TNG episodes.

They better have the multicoloured cubes they ate on TOS.

They’re in there.

Blue ones too?

Blue ones too.

Now I’m tempted to buy!

I’m sorry. Hot dogs instead of real lemur meat? This book is not canon and I will not stand for it. How dare the producers of Star Trek foist this trash on us? They have totally lost my support and I will not be watching upcoming seasons of SNW and PICARD.

I’ve always wanted to try Hasperat!

I have always thought hasperat is probably similar to Ethiopian injera, based on its description as “briny” in “Preemptive Strike.”

I’d forgotten about jumja sticks and probably wouldn’t noticed have they were missing…and now I am disappoint ;)

IT’S A COOKBOOK!!! IT’S A COOKBOOK!!! (someone had to make this reference :)))

Deep cut…”To serve mankind”

“how to cook for forty humans”

But does it have Tranya?

That looks intriguing but the Romulan Ale recipe seems to lack anything that would knock you on your a$$ the way the original is supposed to. Energy drink? Lemon lime soda? That’s for a weak knockoff…

I was thinking the same plus it comes across more like a cocktail than an ale. If they were to mix some random 8% IPA with a generous amount of spirits and blue food dye it would probably come across as more authentic but they might have to brace themselves for a few law suits…

Thank you Laurie, I always wanted to know what Romulan ale was made of, though I doubt that was the actual concoction that was used in the series and movies (because of the alcohol). I do wonder what they were using…

contrary to the premise of a cookbook (and like her blue milk example) – probably just blue colored water was all they bothered to make for filming

Romulan ale is just coloured water? Next you’ll tell me there’s no Santa Claus!

But does it have gumbo and Jambalaya?

I wondered that as well.

Are any of the Sisko family recipes like Aubergine stew in there?

No one’s mentioning the OG Star Trek Cooking manual? Or did I miss it? Grits McCoy? It had a great lasagna recipe sourced from James Doohan.

I had it! You mean the one “written by” Christine Chapel? I used to read it over & over as a kid! I wish I still had it.

I’ve been wanting one of these since I saw a Star Wars cookbook. A lot of great Trek books in time for the winter holiday season!

The Trouble with Tribbles (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Story and script
• 4.2 Cast and characters
• 4.3 Production
• 4.4 Effects
• 4.6 Continuity
• 4.7 Apocrypha
• 4.8 Reception
• 4.9 Remastered information
• 4.10 Production timeline
• 4.11 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Co-starring
• 5.4 Featuring
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 Stunt doubles
• 5.7 References
• 5.8 External links

Summary [ ]

The USS Enterprise is en route to Deep Space Station K-7 for assistance with an important assignment regarding a disputed planet . One parsec from the nearest Klingon outpost (" Close enough to smell them ," as Chekov puts it), the post is near Sherman's Planet , which is claimed by both sides.

In the Enterprise 's briefing room , Captain James T. Kirk , Commander Spock , and Ensign Pavel Chekov review the area's history: twenty-three years after the inconclusive Battle of Donatu V , the Organian Peace Treaty is set to grant control of Sherman's Planet to the party that can demonstrate it can develop the planet's resources most efficiently.

Lieutenant Uhura reports from the bridge that K-7 has issued a Code One alert , which signals that it is under attack. Kirk orders a speed increase to warp factor 6, while Uhura initiates a red alert .

Act One [ ]

The Enterprise arrives at maximum warp, ready for a fight, only to find no battle. Beaming over with Spock, Kirk demands an explanation from station manager Lurry , but is told he was ordered to do so by Nilz Baris , a Federation undersecretary in charge of the Sherman's Planet development project.

Baris and his aide, Arne Darvin , fear that the Klingons might try to sabotage the Federation's best hope to win control of the planet – a high-yield grain known as quadrotriticale , the only Earth grain that will grow on the planet. Tons of the grain are stored at the station, and Baris demands from Kirk security and protection. Kirk still believes they have misused the Priority One designation, but assigns only two guards to the station, and allows shore leave for the Enterprise crew.

On leave, Uhura and Chekov meet a dealer named Cyrano Jones , who is trying to wholesale to the skeptical bartender various rare galactic items, among them, spican flame gems and furry little creatures that Jones calls tribbles . While they bicker over the price, Chekov notices a tribble has eaten a quadrotriticale sample left on the bar and Uhura is enchanted by it. Jones gives the tribble to Uhura, a move the bartender claims will ruin the market but Jones claims will help spur more sales.

Back on the Enterprise , Kirk receives an order from Starfleet Admiral Fitzpatrick to render any and or all aid that Baris may require. The admiral informs Kirk that the safety of the grain – as well as the project – is the captain's responsibility. Kirk is exasperated, and just then learns from Uhura that a Klingon battle cruiser has arrived within a hundred kilometers of K-7. Kirk orders the ship to go to red alert and for Lurry to be notified. Lurry, however, discounts a possible attack, as the Klingon ship 's captain , Koloth , and first officer, Korax , are sitting in his office. Kirk orders the red alert canceled.

Act Two [ ]

Koloth's ship orbiting Deep Space K-7

Kirk beams over with Spock and the Klingons assert their rights to shore leave under the terms of the Organian treaty. Kirk reluctantly accedes, but sets limits of twelve at a time, with one guard from the Enterprise for each Klingon soldier.

In the recreation room aboard the Enterprise , Uhura's tribble gives birth to a litter. The sounds the tribbles make seem to have a soothing effect on Humans . Dr. McCoy takes one of the offspring to study it. Meanwhile, Kirk argues with Baris about the adequacy of the security Kirk is providing, until Kirk claims he is getting a headache . Going to sickbay for treatment, Kirk sees that McCoy's tribble has also produced a litter. McCoy reports that almost 50% of their metabolism is geared towards reproduction.

Kirk tells crewmembers beaming over to shore leave on K-7 to avoid trouble with the Klingons. Montgomery Scott declines shore leave, but Kirk, concerned for him getting too wrapped up in his technical journals , orders him over to keep an eye on the others and to enjoy himself.

At the bar aboard K-7, Jones tries to sell more tribbles. The Enterprise crew aren't interested, and the tribbles and the Klingons react to one another with loud hostility. The bartender is uninterested in more tribbles either – the one he acquired earlier is already multiplying. Korax starts insulting the Enterprise crew, first by comparing the Humans to Regulan bloodworms . He then tries to provoke Chekov by repeatedly insulting Kirk, but Scott restrains Chekov. Korax then turns his attention to Scott by insulting the Enterprise itself, first calling it a garbage scow , then just garbage, provoking Scott to punch Korax in the face and start a brawl between the two groups. The barman retreats and Jones dispenses himself some drinks in his absence. Security officers from the Enterprise arrest the brawlers and restore order, and shore leave for both ships is canceled.

Act Three [ ]

Kirk interrogates his men on who started the fight

Kirk interrogates the crew involved in the brawl, but none are forthcoming about who started it. Kirk orders that they are all confined to quarters until he determines who started the brawl. After Kirk dismisses his officers, Scott confesses to Kirk in private that he started the fight after Korax insulted them, recalling some of the more colorful examples. Kirk presses further and is perplexed to find that Scott didn't start fighting until Korax insulted the Enterprise but realizes it was due to an engineer's sensitivities. Kirk restricts Scott to quarters, to which Scott happily complies, anticipating time off to catch up on his journals.

In sickbay, Spock and McCoy have a characteristic debate on the aesthetics and utility of tribbles, Spock in particular, notes to McCoy their one redeeming characteristic – they do not talk too much. The question soon attracts Kirk's attention. There are tribbles all over the bridge, including one in his chair . McCoy reports this is because they are "born pregnant" and are swamping the ship with their rampant reproduction. Kirk orders Uhura to call for Jones to be detained on K-7 – and to " get these tribbles off the bridge. "

On K-7, Spock berates Jones for removing tribbles from their natural predators and letting them over-breed. Jones counters with excuses and insists that, at six credits each, they're making him money. Then Baris confronts Kirk on the insufficient security detail for the quadrotriticale. Baris claims Jones is " quite probably a Klingon agent ," but Kirk is unconvinced by the evidence and finds that Jones has done no worse than disrupt activities on K-7, which is not unprecedented. " Sometimes, all they need is a title, Mr. Baris ", Kirk pointedly concludes, and he and Spock return to the Enterprise .

" This is my chicken sandwich and coffee. "

Back on board, the tribble problem has worsened. Kirk can't even get a meal, as tribbles have gotten into the food synthesizers . Scott reports that the tribbles are circulating through the Enterprise 's ventilation ducts , ending up in machinery all throughout the ship. Spock points out that there are comparable ducts aboard K-7 that lead to the grain storage tanks. Realizing the implication, Kirk orders all the tribbles removed from the Enterprise and rushes to K-7, gaining access to one of the storage compartments, but when he opens the overhead door, an avalanche of tribbles buries him.

Act Four [ ]

" First, find Cyrano Jones, and second… close that door. "

Kirk finally climbs out from the pile of tribbles – a population Spock estimates at 1,771,561 – and Spock discovers that they are gorged on the grain. Baris claims Kirk's orders have turned the project into a disaster and that he will call for a Starfleet board of inquiry against Kirk.

Koloth and Korax

But Spock and McCoy notice that many of the tribbles in the pile are dead or dying. Kirk orders McCoy to find out why they died, though McCoy protests that he doesn't yet know what keeps them alive.

Kirk assembles all the principals in Lurry's office. Koloth demands that Kirk issue an official apology to the Klingon High Command , though Baris says that would give the Klingons the wedge they need to claim Sherman's Planet. Koloth also asks that the tribbles be removed from the room. The guards do so, but they pass Darvin, at which point the tribbles shriek just as they did around the Klingons. With his medical tricorder , McCoy reveals Darvin to be a Klingon. He poisoned the grain with a virus that prevents its victim from absorbing nutrients, which is how the tribbles died. " They starved to death. In a storage compartment full of grain, they starved to death! " Kirk summarizes. Darvin is arrested, the Klingons are ordered out of Federation territory within the next six hours, and Kirk says he could learn to like tribbles.

The Enterprise crew gets the last laugh when Scott tells Kirk where he placed the tribbles

In K-7's bar, Kirk and Spock then give Jones a choice: twenty years in a rehabilitation colony for transporting a harmful species, or pick up every tribble on the station (which Spock calculates would take 17.9 years). Jones accepts the latter. Back aboard the Enterprise , Kirk is happy to find the ship has been swept clean of tribbles, and asks Spock, McCoy, and Scott how they did it. They all deflect Kirk's questions until Scott reluctantly replies that before the Klingons went into warp, he beamed all of them into their engine room, " where they'll be no tribble at all. " The crew share a good, long laugh at this.

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2268

Memorable quotes [ ]

" One parsec, sir. Close enough to smell them. " " That is illogical, Ensign. Odors cannot travel through the vacuum of space. " " I was making a little joke, sir. " " Extremely little, ensign. "

" Wheat. So what? "

" I have never questioned the orders or the intelligence of any representative of the Federation. Until now. "

" Is that an offer or a joke? " " That's my offer. " " That's a joke. "

" Once this lovely little lady starts to show this precious little darling around, you won't be able to keep up with them. "

" Its trilling seems to have a tranquilizing effect on the Human nervous system. Fortunately, of course … I am immune … to its effect. "

" Kirk, this station is swarming with Klingons! " " I was not aware, Mr. Baris, that twelve Klingons constitutes a swarm. "

" Do you know what you get if you feed a tribble too much? " " A fat tribble. " " No. You get a bunch of hungry little tribbles. "

" When are you going to get off that milk diet, lad? " " This is vodka. " " Where I come from, that's soda pop. Now this is a drink for a man. " " Scotch? " " Aye. " " It was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad . "

" Oh…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. "

" Of course, I'd say that Captain Kirk deserves his ship. We like the Enterprise . We, we really do. That sagging old rust bucket is designed like a garbage scow. Half the quadrant knows it. That's why they're learning to speak Klingonese . " " Mr. Scott! " " Laddie… don't you think you should… rephrase that? " (Mocking Scott's accent) " You're right. I should. " (Normal voice) " I didn't mean to say that the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should be hauled away as garbage. "

" What's the matter, Spock? " " There's something disquieting about these creatures. " " Oh? Don't tell me you've got a feeling. " " Don't be insulting, Doctor. "

"I see no practical use for them." "Does everything have to have a practical use for you? They're nice, they're soft, they're furry, and they make a pleasant sound." "So would an ermine violin , Doctor, yet I see no advantage to having one."

" They do indeed have one redeeming characteristic. " " What's that? " " They do not talk too much. "

" Too much of anything, Lieutenant, even love, isn't necessarily a good thing. "

" In my opinion, you have taken this important project far too lightly. " " On the contrary, sir. I think of this project as very important. It is you I take lightly. "

" My chicken sandwich and coffee . This is my chicken sandwich and coffee. " " Fascinating. "

" I want these things off my ship! I don't care if it takes every man we've got – I want them off the ship! "

" Well, until that board of inquiry, I'm still the captain. And as captain, I want two things done. First, find Cyrano Jones. And second … " (A tribble lands on Kirk's head) " … close that door. "

" They don't like Klingons. But they do like Vulcans. Well, Mr. Spock, I didn't know you had it in you. " " Obviously tribbles are very perceptive creatures, Captain. " " Obviously. " (Carrying tribbles, Kirk walks over to Baris) " Mister Baris, they like you. Well, there's no accounting for taste. "

" I gave them to the Klingons, sir. " " You gave them to the Klingons? " "Aye, sir. Before they went into warp I transported the whole kit and kaboodle into their engine room, where they'll be no tribble at all. "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• This script, one of Star Trek 's most popular, was David Gerrold 's first professional sale ever. His working title for the episode was "A Fuzzy Thing Happened to Me…". Writer/producer Gene L. Coon did heavy rewrites on the final version of the script. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , p 333)
• The tribbles were originally to have been called 'fuzzies', but the name was felt to be too close to a book called Little Fuzzy . Other names considered by David Gerrold were 'shaggies', 'goonies' and 'pufflies' as well a dozen other unknown names. ( Star Trek - A Celebration , page 215)
• While the episode was in production, Gene Roddenberry noticed that the story was similar to Robert Heinlein 's novel, The Rolling Stones , which featured the "Martian Flat Cats". Too late, he called Heinlein to apologize and avoid a possible lawsuit. Heinlein was very understanding, and was satisfied with a simple "mea culpa" by Roddenberry. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp 333–334)
• According to Bjo Trimble , the story for this episode is based upon the short story, Pigs Is Pigs . ( "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• There is a popular story about a line Spock delivers in this episode, "he heard you, he simply could not believe his ears," being placed in the episode as a tribute to Mad Magazine's then-recent Star Trek parody. The December 1967 issue of Mad Magazine (released around October 1967) featured the magazine's first spoof of Star Trek (titled Star Blecch ). It featured a similar line as a joke about Spock's ears (Spock: "…I don't believe my ears!" Kirk: "I don't believe your ears either, Mr. Spook"). As this episode was filmed in August 1967, it was likely just a coincidence since the magazine had not been published yet at the time of filming. The cast did see and appreciate the Mad Magazine spoof when it came out, but a [[StarTrek.com] article stated they likely saw it during the filming of "A Private Little War," in October. [1] There is no record of the cast or writers seeing the spoof before the magazine was released.
• Chekov quips that Scotch whisky "was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad ." That Russian city, originally St. Petersburg, had its name changed to honor Vladimir Lenin , leader of the Communist revolution in 1917. The name St. Petersburg was restored in 1991, after the breakup of the USSR. Some versions that summarize this episode claim Chekov drinks whisky; in fact after Chekov drinks his Vodka, Scott then gives Chekov the full glass of their companion Freeman while Scott drinks his whiskey.
• When Scott is confined to quarters after fighting the Klingons he remarks that he'll be able to study technical manuels; in Star Trek:The Next Generation Relics (episode) Picard offers the 147 year old Montgomery Scott a change to study technical manuels; Scott declines because as he put it "Im not 18 anymore and I cant start out like a raw cadet."

Cast and characters [ ]

• George Takei ( Hikaru Sulu ) does not appear in this episode. For much of the second season, he was filming The Green Berets . Many scenes written for Takei were switched over to Walter Koenig. ( "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• William Shatner recalled the great enjoyment all the cast had filming this episode. He noted, " The trouble we had with 'Tribbles' was [to] keep your straight face. It was just a lot of fun. " ( "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• Guy Raymond (the bartender ) also played a bartender in beer commercials during the '60s, in which he commented on the strange occurrences in his bar.
• Michael Pataki is another actor who guested in two series of Star Trek , appearing as Karnas in TNG : " Too Short A Season ".
• Some of the extras in the bar are wearing turtleneck uniforms from " The Cage " and " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", another couple of extras are wearing colonist jumpsuits from " The Devil in the Dark ". The gentleman who seems to be enjoying watching the fight and another man are wearing Finnegan 's and his stunt double's uniforms from " Shore Leave ", another one is wearing a uniform of the Antares worn by Ramart or Tom Nellis in " Charlie X ". A woman is wearing Aurelan Kirk 's costume from " Operation -- Annihilate! ".
• Ed Reimers, who plays Admiral Fitzpatrick , was the TV spokesman for Allstate Insurance in the 1960s. In a funny sequence from the blooper reel, he catches a tribble thrown at him from offstage and, proffering it to the camera, says, " Oh, and Captain: you're in good hands with tribbles " (a play on the Allstate motto, "You're in good hands with Allstate.")
• William Schallert later guest starred as Varani in DS9 : " Sanctuary ".
• James Doohan insisted on doing his own stunts in the barroom brawl. Jay Jones only doubled for him in a few brief fight sequences.
• This is one of the few episodes in which Doohan's missing right middle finger (lost due to injuries sustained during the invasion of Normandy in World War Two) is apparent. It can also be noticed as he carries a large bundle of tribbles to Captain Kirk, complaining that they've infested Engineering.
• This is one of the few times in the series that Scott and Chekov have a conversation with one another. (However, in " Friday's Child ", when Scott remarks, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me," Chekov quips that the saying was invented in Russia.) Along with Kirk , they would be featured together in Star Trek Generations .
• Paul Baxley is credited as "Ensign Freeman," but is wearing lieutenant's stripes, as pointed out in DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " when Miles O'Brien mistakes Freeman for Captain Kirk and Julian Bashir questions his rank insignia.
• William Campbell ( Koloth ) and Charlie Brill ( Arne Darvin ) both reprised their roles in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine more than 25 years later: Campbell in " Blood Oath " and Brill in " Trials and Tribble-ations ".

Production [ ]

• Wah Chang designed the original tribbles. Hundreds were sewn together during production, using pieces of extra-long rolls of carpet. Some of them had mechanical toys placed in them so they could walk around. ( "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features) The original tribbles became sought-after collector's items, and quickly disappeared from the prop department. According to Gerrold, 500 tribbles were constructed for the episode and the tribble-maker, Jacqueline Cumere, was paid US$350.
• In a 2016 interview, Christopher Doohan recalls being on set during the production of this episode: " My father would often bring my brother and I along with him to the set when the show was shooting, " Chris recalled. […] " He would park us in the shuttle craft and tell us to stay put." " Of course "staying put" is a difficult assignment for seven year-old twin boys… and one day they couldn't resist leaving the confines of the shuttle… and going where no child had gone before. As it happened, the day they chose coincided with the shooting of "The Trouble With Tribbles", one of the series' stranger – and enduringly popular – episodes… Chris and his brother, Montgomery, crept around the set, keeping away from the active shooting, until they came to three tall cabinets with doors just out of reach. " " We were curious to know what was INSIDE, " Chris recalls. " So my brother got on my shoulders and slid the cabinet open. Instantly, more than 200 tribbles came tumbling out, nearly burying us. Not only did it scare us, but we knew we would be in big trouble if Dad – or anyone else – found out. So we rushed back to the shuttle. Five minutes later Dad appeared… and praised us for being so well-behaved! " Thirty years later Chris mustered up the courage to tell his dad the real story. " And he got mad at me, " Chris said with a bemused shake of the head. " It was like it had just happened yesterday! " [2]
• During production of the "buried in tribbles" scene, it took up to eight takes (a considerable number) to get the avalanche of tribbles to fall just right. Gerrold wrote in The Trouble with Tribbles , " If Captain Kirk looks just a little harried in that shot, it's not accidental. Having… tribbles dropped on you, eight times in one day, is NOT a happy experience. " DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " later established that the continuously falling tribbles hitting Kirk were in fact thrown by Benjamin Sisko and Jadzia Dax , frantically searching for the bomb placed by the future Darvin. In reality, the tribbles kept falling out of the hatch because members of the production crew had no direct line of sight with William Shatner during the filming of the scene and could not tell when there were "enough" tribbles; a barrier in the set separated them from the storage compartment, which was filled with prop tribbles. In order to set up the avalanche scene, crew members kept throwing tribbles over the wall to ensure that the bin remained as "full" as possible; when the compartment was empty, these tribbles then fell onto Shatner's head as the crew tossed them one by one. Near the end of the scene, a perplexed Shatner – already chest-deep in tribbles – can clearly be seen turning his head toward the wall behind him, wondering when the prop men will stop. ( The Trouble with Tribbles ; "To Boldly Go…": Season 2 , TOS Season 2 DVD special features)
• Spock's estimate of how many tribbles there are in three days, dead or alive, starting with one tribble producing a litter of ten every twelve hours is exactly correct, assuming that every tribble always has a litter of ten. Tribble reproduction is exponential, starting when one tribble makes ten. In twelve hours the total number is eleven. twelve hours later, each of the eleven tribbles produce ten, making the count 110 babies. Include the original eleven tribbles, and the total is 121. The formula for tribble reproduction is x=11 n/12 , where x is the total, and n is the number of hours. Given three days (72 hours), the final result becomes 11 6 , which equals exactly 1,771,561.
• According to David Gerrold 's The World of Star Trek , tribble props were misplaced about the set and were being found for several months after the production of the episode.
• William Campbell ( Koloth ) took some of the 500 tribbles home, throwing about 40 of them into a plastic bag and giving them away to neighborhood kids. ( Star Trek - A Celebration , page 215)

Effects [ ]

• Sound effects editor Douglas Grindstaff combined altered dove coos, screech owl cries, and emptying balloons to create the tribble sounds.
• The Enterprise miniature seen out of Lurry's window doesn't move, but if it was orbiting at the same speed the station was rotating, this would make sense.
• The miniature is actually one of the plastic model kits that AMT was selling at the time. In the 1970s, AMT produced a model of the K-7 space station itself, complete with a tiny Enterprise . SCTV blew up a Klingon ship with phaser blasts from some of these K-7 model kits in a low-budget effects spoof of The Empire Strikes Back in 1981.
• Footage of K-7 was recycled in " The Ultimate Computer ".
• According to Michael and Denise Okuda's text commentary on this episode for the second season DVD set, the last fresh footage of the Enterprise was done for this episode. In every episode to follow, the shots of the ship were all stock footage. It is possible that the last of the footage of the Enterprise was filmed during this production of this episode as it is true that they did not film any shots of the Enterprise after season two. But there will be five more episodes going by production order that have previously unseen shots of the Enterprise . " Journey to Babel ", " The Gamesters of Triskelion ", " The Immunity Syndrome ", " The Ultimate Computer ", and " That Which Survives " all have new shots of the Enterprise . [3]
• The bar set, including the bartender's costume, is recycled from " Court Martial ", with slight modifications, mostly in decoration.

Continuity [ ]

• Star Trek returned to the events of this episode in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Trials and Tribble-ations " to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary .
• " More Tribbles, More Troubles " is the TAS sequel to this episode.
• Tribbles were seen in the bar scene (wherein McCoy is apprehended by "Federation security") being petted by a couple patronizing the establishment, on an adjacent table in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .
• Mr. Scott is glad to be confined to quarters-it would give him time to catch up on enginerring technical manuals; later in " Relics " Scott admits that he can't catch up with current technology.
• Bantam Books published a series of novelizations called "foto-novels," in which took photographic stills from actual episodes and arranged word balloons and text over them, to create a comic book formatted story. The third installment was an adaptation of this episode.
• The Organian Peace Treaty mentioned by Chekov in the teaser is a reference back to the first season episode " Errand of Mercy ".
• Despite McCoy and the Enterprise crew being ignorant of tribbles, later productions indicated that they were already known to Starfleet by this time, having been used as a food source for lab animals, as pets, and even at one point being considered as a possible food source for an entire colony (" The Breach ", " The Trouble with Edward ", and Capt. Gabriel Lorca kept a tribble in his ready room aboard USS Discovery ).

Apocrypha [ ]

• Although Kirk comments in the episode on the irony of tribbles in a grain storage bin dying of starvation, in James Blish 's novelization of the episode, Spock also remarks on the elegant symmetry of the respective misdeeds: the poisoning of the grain eliminated the tribble infestation before it exhausted the cargo, whereas the tribbles disclosed the poisoning with no loss of Human life.
• In the Star Trek: Myriad Universes story The Chimes at Midnight , which explores the timeline from TAS : " Yesteryear ", the Enterprise 's first officer Thelin discovered Darvin's role in poisoning the quadrotriticale. Darvin remained a Federation prisoner for several months until a prisoner exchange was arranged with the Klingons.
• In the Star Trek: Myriad Universes story " Honor in the Night ", Cyrano Jones and his tribbles were all killed by an explosion on board his vessel while it was docked at K-7 in 2267. The explosion was caused by an accidental overload in the ship's impulse drive . Consequently, Arne Darvin's sabotage of the quadrotriticale was never discovered (since there were no tribbles left alive to expose him), and the poisoned grain was shipped to Sherman's Planet, where it cost the lives of thousands of colonists. Baris assumed leadership of the remnants of the Human colonies there. He used his considerable expertise in dealing with Klingons (including Darvin, who revealed his true identity to Baris, whom Darvin had grown to respect) to deal with the situation, and eventually became President of the United Federation of Planets . While he had a long and distinguished presidential career and was fondly remembered by the citizens of the Federation (including Leonard McCoy , a lifelong friend), Baris never got over his long-standing feud with Darvin.
• A cat version of "The Trouble with Tribbles" was featured in Jenny Parks ' 2017 book Star Trek Cats .

Reception [ ]

• This episode was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1968 as "Best Dramatic Presentation", but lost to the version of " The City on the Edge of Forever " that was actually shown on-air.
• In a 1985 interview, director Joseph Pevney named "The Trouble with Tribbles" as the best episode he directed. He added that they couldn't do an episode like that anymore, because the franchise has become "deadly serious" (interestingly enough, one year after the interview took place, the light-hearted, comedic Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home premiered in theaters, and in 2019 the tribbles would be featured in the comedic mini-episode " The Trouble with Edward "). [4]
• Pevney also commented that he " Fell in love with that show. I really enjoyed doing it, and I enjoyed working with Leonard and Shatner to make them think in terms of typically farce comedy. The show was successful and I was happy about that. I was proven right that you can do a comedy if you don't kid the script, and if you don't kid Star Trek . If you stay in character, you can have wonderful fun with Star Trek , and the kinds of things you can do with it are endless – if you don't lose the whole flavor of Enterprise discipline. " ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two )
• Despite the broad popularity of this episode among fans, series Co-Producer Robert H. Justman wrote in his book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story that he never liked this episode, as he felt the characters parodied themselves, and that the episode's over-the-top humor lacked believability.
• Third season producer Fred Freiberger also disliked the show. David Gerrold recalled that when he pitched a sequel for the episode, Freiberger replied that he didn't like the original because "Star Trek is not a comedy. " Gerrold's pitch later evolved into the Animated Series episode " More Tribbles, More Troubles ". ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 97)
• Writer Samuel A. Peeples was another individual who worked on the original series but found this episode to be problematic. " I thought that the one with the fuzzy little creatures wasn't my idea of what the show should be, " he remarked. " It was awfully cute and awfully nice, but it covered an area that I felt was unnecessary for that particular type of series. " ( The Star Trek Interview Book , p. 120)
• Gene Roddenberry also disliked "Tribbles" and the overall tendency for more comedy-oriented episodes, which became prominent under Gene Coon 's tenure as producer, feeling that it deviated from his image of the show, opting for the much more serious approach which dominated Star Trek during his time as line producer in the first half of season 1 . As Pevney put it, " This was the first out-and-out comedy we had done on the series, and Roddenberry was not in favor of it too much. He didn't cotton the idea of making fun on this show. " Eventually these disagreements between Roddenberry and Coon became one of the major reasons why the latter left the series mid-season 2. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two )
• Roddenberry's opinion of the episode seemed to have changed over the years as he later picked it as one of his ten favorite episodes for the franchise's 25th anniversary. ( TV Guide August 31, 1991)
• William Campbell ( Koloth ) recalled that, after this episode was aired, his neighbor's son consequently addressed his wife as "Mrs. Klingon". ( The World of Star Trek )
• This was voted the best episode of Star Trek by viewers of Sci-Fi Channel's Star Trek 40th Anniversary Celebrations.
• It was also voted the best episode by Empire magazine when they ranked the series #43 on their list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time." [5]
• The book Star Trek 101 (p. 18), by Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block , lists this episode as one of "Ten Essential Episodes" from the original Star Trek series.
• Having been a big fan of the original Star Trek series during her youth, Diane Warren – the songwriter who wrote Star Trek: Enterprise 's theme tune, " Where My Heart Will Take Me " – cited this installment as her favorite episode of TOS, upon being interviewed shortly after the start of Enterprise . She went on to say, " That's one of the episodes that, even after all these years has stayed in my mind. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , p. 57)
• Doug Jones , who avidly watched Star Trek: The Original Series as a child along with his family, also selected this as one of his favorite Star Trek episodes. " As a youngster, that was a fun episode […] I like happy endings, I like low-stakes stories myself, and so that was kinda like, 'Oh, there's the fun episode.' " [6]

Remastered information [ ]

• "The Trouble with Tribbles" was the ninth episode of the remastered version of The Original Series to air. It premiered in syndication on the weekend of 4 November 2006 and featured significantly enhanced shots of the K-7 space station, now including the orbiting D7-class IKS Gr'oth . The Enterprise can now be seen more often from Lurry's office, moving toward the left side of the window as it orbits K-7. The remastered episode is marked by the introduction of a revised digital model of the Enterprise , allowing for more detailed and accurate shots of the ship to be created.
• None of the special shots from the DS9 tribute episode was included in the remastered version. Furthermore, the Gr'oth 's design is different from the Greg Jein model seen in the Deep Space Nine episode. That ship is greener, with an avian pattern on it, where this version of the Klingon ship is grey and does not bear that pattern, bringing it more in line with TOS counterparts.
• Coincidentally, the episode that aired after this was " Mirror, Mirror ". Scenes from both episodes were used in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's " Trials and Tribble-ations ".

Production timeline [ ]

• Treatment "The Fuzzies" by David Gerrold : February 1967
• Story outline "A Fuzzy Thing Happened to Me": 13 June 1967
• Revised story outline: 23 June 1967
• Second revised story outline: 26 June 1967
• First draft teleplay "The Trouble with Tribbles": 30 June 1967
• Second draft teleplay: 19 July 1967
• Revised draft by Gene L. Coon : 21 July 1967
• Final draft teleplay by Coon: 25 July 1967
• Revised final draft: 1 August 1967
• Additional page revisions: 15 August 1967 , 16 August 1967 , 18 August 1967 , 21 August 1967
• Day 1 – 22 August 1967 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge , Sickbay
• Day 2 – 23 August 1967 , Wednesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Briefing room , Transporter room , Admiral Fitzpatrick's office (redress of a wall in Transporter room)
• Day 3 – 24 August 1967 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Recreation room (redress of Briefing room); Desilu Stage 10 : Lurry's office
• Day 4 – 25 August 1967 , Friday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Lurry's office , Storage corridor
• Day 5 – 28 August 1967 , Monday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Storage corridor , K-7 Bar
• Day 6 – 29 August 1967 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. K-7 Bar
• Score recorded: 5 October 1967
• Original airdate: 29 December 1967
• Rerun airdate: 21 June 1968
• First UK airdate: 1 June 1970
• Star Trek Fotonovel #3: 1973 - ISBN 055312689X
• The Trouble with Tribbles : The Birth, Sale and Final Production of One Episode paperback: 1973
• The Trouble with Tribbles: The Birth, Sale and Final Production of One Episode paperback: 1976
• The Trouble with Tribbles: The Birth, Sale and Final Production of One Episode paperback reissue: 12 April 1987 - ISBN 0345347889
• " Trials and Tribble-ations ", incorporating "Trouble" footage: 4 November 1996
• Remastered airdate: 4 November 2006

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• US RCA CED Videodisc release: 1 April 1982
• Original US Betamax release: 1986
• US LaserDisc release: 11 October 1986
• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 22 , catalog number VHR 2357, 2 April 1990
• Japan LaserDisc release: 25 March 1993
• US VHS release: 15 April 1994
• As part of the UK VHS Star Trek: The Original Series - Tricorder Pack collection: catalog number VHR 4373, 3 June 1996
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.5, 5 May 1997
• UK LaserDisc release: 11 August 1997
• As part of the US VHS Star Trek - Tribbles Gift Set : 6 October 1998
• Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 21, 24 April 2001
• As part of the TOS Season 2 DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Klingon DVD collection
• As part of the TOS-R Season 2 DVD collection
• As part of The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: The Original Series - Origins Blu-ray collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• William Shatner as Capt. Kirk

Also starring [ ]

• Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
• DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Co-starring [ ]

• William Schallert as Nilz Baris
• William Campbell as Koloth
• Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones
• Whit Bissell as Lurry

Featuring [ ]

• James Doohan as Scott
• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
• Michael Pataki as Korax
• Ed Reimers as Admiral Fitzpatrick
• Walter Koenig as Chekov
• Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin
• Paul Baxley as Ensign Freeman
• David L. Ross as Guard
• Guy Raymond as Trader

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• William Blackburn as Hadley
• Dick Crockett as Klingon brawler 1
• Frank da Vinci as Vinci
• Steve Hershon as security officer
• Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli
• William Knight as Moody
• Starfleet officer 1
• Bob Miles as Klingon brawler 2
• Bob Orrison as Klingon brawler 3
• Eddie Paskey as Leslie
• Gary Wright as DSK-7 officer
• Human civilian
• Human colonist
• Human waitresses 1 and 2
• Human workers 1 and 2
• Starfleet cadets 1 and 2
• Human DSK-7 officer 3 and 4
• Command lieutenant 1
• Command lieutenant 2
• Command crew woman
• Crew woman 1
• Crew woman 2
• Crew woman 3
• Operations crewman
• Sciences crew woman
• Sciences lieutenant
• Sciences lieutenant 1
• Sciences lieutenant 2
• Security guard 1
• Security guard 3

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Phil Adams as stunt double for Michael Pataki
• Richard Antoni as Klingon (stunts; unconfirmed )
• Jay Jones as stunt double for James Doohan
• Jerry Summers as stunt double for Walter Koenig

References [ ]

20th century ; 2067 ; 2245 ; 2261 ; 2285 ; agent ; agriculture ; air vent ; all hands ; amount ; analysis ; ancestry ; animal ; Antarean glow water ; apology ; area ; assistant ; assumption ; asteroid ; asteroid locator ; astronomer ; attraction ; authority ; average ; baby ; background check ; bar ; bargain ; battle ; battle stations ; Bible ; bisexual ; bloodstream ; board of inquiry ; body ; body temperature ; " Bones "; bottle ; breeding ; bucket ; Burke, John ; Burkoff, Ivan ; Canada ; chance ; Channel E ; charge : chicken sandwich ; code 1 emergency ; coffee ; commander ; communication channel ; computation ; computer analysis ; confined to quarters ; contact ; cork ; Cossack ; course ; creature ; credit ; criminal ; D7 class (aka Klingon battle cruiser , Klingon warship ); day ; deal (aka transaction ); death ; declaration of hostilities ; Deep Space Station K-7 ; defense alert ; delusion ; Denebian slime devil ; development project ; dictator ; diet ; diplomatic incident ; disaster ; disaster call ; dissection ; Donatu V ; door ; ear ; Earth ; effect ; emergency ; engineering ; environment ; ermine violin ; evidence ; experience ; Federation ; Federation law ; Federation territory ; feeling ; field ; figure ; French language ; friend ; food processor ; garbage ; garbage scow ; genie ; general quarters ; generation ; government ; grain ; Gr'oth , IKS ; habitat ; hair ; harassment ; headache ; heartbeat ; hip ; history ; home ; honesty ; hour ; Human (aka Earther , Earthman ); Human characteristic ; hybrid ; inert material ; initial contact ; instruction manual ; insult ; intelligence ; intention ; invention ; irons ; job security ; joke ; Jones' spaceship ; kilometer ; Klingon ; Klingon Empire ; Klingonese ; Klingon High Command ; Klingon agent ; Klingon outpost ; knowledge ; lab ; Leningrad ; lily ; litter ; " little old lady from Leningrad "; lobe ; logic ; love ; machinery ; maintenance crew ; maintenance manual ; market ; markup ; maternity ward ; metabolism ; milk ; Milky Way Galaxy ; million ; minute ; money ; month ; morning ; mutual admiration society ; mutual understanding ; national ; nature ; nervous system ; nourishment ; nursery ; observation ; odor ; offense ; offer ; " off the record "; Old Britain ; opinion ; order ; Organian Peace Treaty ; organism ; parasite ; parsec ; penalty ; Peter the Great ; percent ; perennial ; persecution ; plan ; planet ; poison ; polishing ; pouch ; practicality ; predator ; pregnancy ; price ; pride ; priority 1 distress call ; priority A-1 channel ; profit ; proof ; prospector ; pun ; punch ; purr ; quadrant ; quadrotriticale ; question ; rate of reproduction ; recreation ; red alert ; Regulan blood worm ; rehabilitation colony ; relationship ; representative ; reproduction ; result ; robber ; Royal Academy ; Russian ; rust bucket ; rye ; sabotage ; sample ; Scotch whisky ; Scots language ; scout ; search ; security guard ; sensor ; shape ( shapeless ); Sherman's Planet ; Sherman's Planet freighter ; shipment ; shopping ; shore leave ; sitting ; soda pop ; solar year ; soldier ; space ; Spacematic ; space station ; sphere of influence ; Spican flame gem ; spy ; Starfleet Command ; starship ; starvation ; station manager ( manager ); station manager's office ; stock ; stone ; storage compartment ; subspace distress call ; subspace silence ; surveillance ; technical journal ; teeth ; thief ; thing ; thousand ; tin ; title ; ton ; tone of voice ; transporter room ; treatment ; tribble ; tribble homeworld ; triticale ; Undersecretary in Charge of Agricultural Affairs ; vacuum ; virus ; vodka ; volume ; Vulcan ; week ; wheat ; " whole kit and caboodle, the "; year

External links [ ]

• "The Trouble with Tribbles" at StarTrek.com
• " The Trouble with Tribbles " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " The Trouble with Tribbles " at Wikipedia
• " The Trouble with Tribbles " at the Internet Movie Database
• " The Trouble with Tribbles " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast