Best of Star Trek: Deep Space 9---Trials and Tribble-ations

"Trials and Tribble-ations" is the 6th episode of the 5th season and was written by Ronald D. Moore and Rene Echevarria.

It begins with two investigators from Temporal Investigations entering the office of Captain Sisko. The story is told in flashback style by Sisko describing how the Defiant was returning from Cardassian space with one of the orbs belonging to the Bajorans---the orb of time.

Also picked up by the Defiant was a merchant trapped on Cardassia during its invasion by the Klingons. He called himself Barry Waddle. Turns out, he was actually a Klingon spy named Darvin who used the orb to rewrite history---plant a bomb in a tribble to kill Captain Kirk before his plot to poison the grain and kill all the inhabitants of a colony was discovered.

Now the Defiant crew must go back to that point in time before the bomb goes off  in order to reset time to its proper lineage.

What ensues is a mixture of suspense and hilarity. The show incorporates scenes from the original series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" with the modern crew. There's a discussion involving the color of the shirts according to rank then and now. "Don't you know anything about history?" O'Brien asks Bashir. "I'm a doctor, not an historian" (taking a page from McCoy's famous line). As Sisko explains to Bashir, red was worn by operations and gold was worn by command officers and, as Dax points out, women wore less.

In the bar fight scene, Worf explains the altered appearance of the Klingons simply as "we do not discuss it with outsiders."

There's also a funny scene where Sisko forgets the insignias on the uniforms are merely just that and not com badges when he tries to communicate with the Defiant during a battle stations alert.

Kira figures how to get the Defiant and the crew back to present time using the orb (although that isn't explained in detail). And history is returned to its normal linear time.

This episode was a tribute to the original series, giving fans a dose of nostalgia and fun. In a way, the series franchise pokes fun at itself and allows us to see how Captain Kirk would look to those in the future--as both a menace and a legend.