When I first watched Trouble with Tribbles, I thought it was just great. It was so good I started in on my very own Mother Tribble’s Nursery Rhymes, but there were only so many ways to say — in rhyme — they’re born pregnant and they eat and they multiply in litters of ten.
In this new installment of tribble lessons, we find (in addition to the Klingons genetically engineering a creature that preys on tribbles) that genetically modifying tribbles not to give birth means that eating makes them larger and larger, but on the inside they’re really just colonies of tribbles . A terrifying thought, but enough fodder to maybe write some new nursery rhymes before TAS hits its own 50th anniversary in a couple of years.
For now, enjoy The Real Mother Tribble, a Star Trek fan publication, unofficial, unauthorized, forever free.