Star Trek Kids Hero Wants To Eradicate Fan-Favorite Race
For a franchise as progressive as Star Trek, its heroes can sometimes be a little bit too comfortable with genocidal tendencies. One example of this just sprang up in perhaps the most surprising corner of Trek–in the Season 2 premiere of Star Trek: Prodigy, we very abruptly learn that one of its teenage heroes has developed a way to sterilize Tribbles.
Into The Breach
Early in “Into the Breach, Part I,” we find Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) giving a lecture. It isn’t clear at first what she’s talking about, until after she gets an alert from Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew).
Too excited about the alert to continue, Rok-Tahk abruptly ends the lecture. Right before rushing away, she rattles off a lot of dense science stuff and ends with, “…so basically I figured out how to stop Tribbles from multiplying.”
Her audience is left stunned while Rok-Tahk heads to her next adventure.
More Trouble With Tribbles?
The notion that someone could figure out a way to stop Tribbles from multiplying is no small thing. Ever since they were introduced to the franchise in the Original Series episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles,” the critters have been known as one of the most elusively problematic beasts in the galaxy.
They’re small, furry, make pleasant trills so soothing that the purr of a cat sounds like an exploding dump truck in comparison, and are friendly to just about everyone–with the sole exception of Klingons.
The problem is that Tribbles are born pregnant and reproduce almost as soon as they’re fed. Within a matter of days or even hours, a single Tribble can overtake a space station or vessel.
Is It Genocide?
Most consider Tribbles to be unintelligent animals, meaning that attempts to sterilize them or even wipe them out wouldn’t be akin to genocide. In fact, if you Google, “are tribbles intelligent,” you’ll get a definitive “no.” But the source material doesn’t necessarily bear this out.
We learn in the Star Trek: Short Treks episode “The Trouble with Edward,” that the furry little guys started off being known for reproducing very slowly. That’s until the Starfleet scientist Edward Larkin (H. Jon Benjamin) genetically modifies them–a move that causes the Tribbles to reproduce so quickly they fill up and destroy the USS Cabot.
Larkin’s initial research in modifying the Tribbles is made in the hopes of using them as a food source for civilizations suffering food shortages. When Larkin’s commanding officer tries to assess the moral implications of eating the creatures by asking him if they’re intelligent, Larkin says he has no idea.
Star Trek has shown everything from creatures who resemble formless piles of lava to machines the size of footballs to have the capacity to be intelligent, self-aware individuals.
So to simply assume Tribbles are different doesn’t really track.
The Glommers
Whether it’s technically genocide or not, Rok-Tahk’s innovation isn’t the first time Trek characters have developed ways to cull the Tribbles’ numbers. In the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “More Trouble, More Tribbles,” we learn that Klingons have genetically engineered creatures called Glommers to hunt Tribbles.
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s “Trials and Tribble-ations,” it’s revealed that the Klingons actually succeeded in wiping out the furry creatures by finding their homeworld and decimating it Thanos-style.
Tribbles: The Return
It is only because of “Trials and Tribble-ations” that there are any of the furry beasts left for Rok-Tahk or anyone else to potentially sterilize.
“Trials and Tribble-ations” sees the heroes of Deep Space Nine go back in time to the events of the Original Series‘ “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode. The DS9 story ends with the reveal that the heroes brought at least one Tribble back with them from the past, and that the furry things are busy doing what they do best–multiply in a way that makes rabbits and Gremlins look lazy.
