The Tribble Code.

Random Tribble parody we found on the Internet.

A while back, we examined Bill Shatner toupee-related pop-culture imagery (such as the above picture) spawned by the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".

This then led us to an obvious question: did the episode's writer David Gerrold in some way intend this toupological metaphor when he wrote the episode? We wrote to Gerrold, who told us:

"At the time 'The Trouble With Tribbles' was written, I didn't even know that Shatner wore a rug. While the fans have had a great time speculating about subtext in the decades since then, there was no deliberate intention to mock him in any way when the show was in production."


Gerrold was apparently an innocent bystander; perhaps the metaphor was accentuated by (re)writer/producer Gene Coon or the designers or it's all just a huge coincidence or it's all just in our heads! But there is yet another chapter in this saga! We've found a photograph (below) of Bill Shatner and David Gerrold together from the Tribble writer's book on the making of this episode. Once again, as with the famous scene in the episode pictured at the top of this page (in which Captain Kirk is buried in Tribbles), there is considerable room for seeing things that may or may not be there!

David Gerrold with William Shatner

More unintended irony? As part of our analysis, we asked our "Department of Toupological Symbolism, Artistic Criticism and Metaphorical Subtextual Interpretation" for their take on the image. The Da Vinci Code? More like the Shatner Code!:


In terms of layers of meaning and room for interpretation both overt and covert, this may well be one of the richest images since the era of Renaissance art. Where to begin? Is Bill Shatner placing the Tribble on David Gerrold's head or is he taking it off? Is this because he is saying "I get the joke and I appreciate it. Welcome to the club!". Or is he saying "This is mine! Give it back!"

Or is the interplay not overt at all? Would anyone else have held the Tribble in their arms for such a photo, because of the creature's resemblance to a domestic pet? Was Bill Shatner locating the Tribble on Gerrold's head a subconscious (or a conscious) action, indicative of his own association of the Tribble with a toupee?


And is Bill Shatner somehow saying: "You don't need this yet, I'm taking it as I always welcome a toupee!"

And what of Gerrold? He is looking up. Is he looking at his own still thick hair, noting that the Tribble is redundant and unnecessary? Or is he looking beyond to the heavens, smiling at the gods for giving him a story that offered crucial parallels to important subject Shatner's toupee.


The juxtaposition of the watch in the image, symbolizing the passage of time and the loss of hair is also crucial. It is placed in-between Bill Shatner, David Gerrold and the Tribble as if to suggest that only time separates these three items. Bill Shatner, meanwhile, is looking straight at us. He too is smiling. He may be sensitive about overt toup discussions, but is he actually enjoying the symbolism? Is the joke on us?

The full 273 volume detailed study of this image will be published shortly by the WSSTS.

One other potential point of interest - assuming the picture is from 1967, which it may not be - Bill Shatner apparently isn't wearing his "Jim Kirk lace" in the picture, but rather appears to be wearing his personal "ratty" toup from this time. Though if the image is from the early 1970s, then it's a typical "Lost Years" toup.

Famous statue outside the archives of the William Shatner School of Toupological Studies.

On a completely different note, our researchers recently discovered something rather unusual. We'd always assumed that Bill Shatner's performances in the late 1950s play The World of Suzie Wong went unrecorded. Not so. Turns out he and France Nuyen actually appeared together on The Ed Sullivan Show in November 1958 and performed several scenes from the play. We'd love to track this (likely very hard to find) footage down! Any tips, we're always grateful...


BREAKING: Walter Koenig is to appear on Shatner's Raw Nerve, according to Bill Shatner's Twitter page. Will he talk toup? If he does, how will Bill Shatner react? Must see TV, we think!

David Gerrold lays to rest the Tribble-as-toupee theory...

A while back, we examined the potential toupee-related subtext of the Tribble creatures from the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". In one of the most famous images from the episode, Captain Kirk is buried deep in a pile of Tribbles. Ever since that episode aired back in December 1967, many fans have wondered whether the seemingly inescapable toupee imagery (Bill Shatner buried in a pile of his own toupees) was in some way intentional. As we also pointed out, the aforementioned image has been comically exploited to that effect over and over again on the Internet...


So, in an effort to determine whether this subtext was consciously intended or exists merely in the minds of numerous (warped?) Star Trek fans, we decided to contact the writer of "The Trouble with Tribbles" David Gerrold and ask him directly.

David Gerrold

Gerrold insisted to Shatner's Toupee that as far as the writing was concerned, no such dual meaning was ever intended by him when he came up with the fluffy Tribbles:

"At the time 'The Trouble With Tribbles' was written, I didn't even know that Shatner wore a rug. While the fans have had a great time speculating about subtext in the decades since then, there was no deliberate intention to mock him in any way when the show was in production."

Mock? Poke fun? Jest? Our sincere thanks to David Gerrold for that clarification. Will that stop all those photoshoppers? Somehow, we doubt it!

***

David Gerrold wrote the Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", the Star Trek: Animated Series episodes "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "Bem" as well as several other Star Trek-related books and scripts.

He has also written numerous non-Trek works, including the semi-autobiographical and Hugo Award-winning novelette (later expanded into both a novel and a movie) The Martian Child. Gerrold's science-fiction novels include "The Man Who Folded Himself" (1973) and also "The War Against the Chtorr" and "Star Wolf" series.

David Gerrold's website is www.gerrold.com.

From Tribbles to Toupees.

The 2006 book Boarding the Enterprise: Transporters, Tribbles and the Vulcan Death Grip in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, co-edited by "The Trouble with Tribbles" writer David Gerrold contains a small reference to Bill Shatner's toupee use. On page 36, we have:

"Hair was also a pain at times. Bill Shatner, whose hair was thinning, had to resort to a toupee on every show."

We also have the tantalizing line, albeit not specifically related to Shats: "Wigs came off during stunt fights." During all of Captain Kirk's fisticuffs on Star Trek, one wonders if there were any out-takes in which the toupee was violently disconnected from its host. Of course, adding that to a blooper reel would have likely cost an editor his or her job.

You can buy the book here. Read more about Tribbles and toupees here.

The Trouble with Toupees...

It is perhaps ironic that the image related to Shats' toup that has most transcended into popular culture actually has nothing to do with Bill Shatner's toup at all - or does it? We are of course referring to a famous still of Captain Kirk buried in Tribbles in the second season Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". This is an image that just begs to have a funny caption attached, and if you do a Google image search for "Shatner toupee" you'll find that many people have indeed done just that. Below (and the above image) are just a few examples we pulled of the net (some with a few spelling mistakes):

So if the public easily caught on to the apparent underlying toupee-related vibes of the image, then surely the Star Trek crew did too back when they made the episode.

Indeed, if we look closely at "The Trouble with Tribbles", we see that there is a great deal of subtle fun apparently being poked at Shats. James Doohan (Scotty) almost salivates with glee as he recounts to Kirk (Shatner) how a Klingon called him a "tin-plated, overbearing, swaggering dictator with delusions of godhood". And he appears even happier to tell the captain that he only started a fight with the Klingons after they insulted the Enterprise and not its captain. James Doohan was perhaps Bill Shatner's biggest ever detractor, so a chance to be mean to Bill probably made him feel like he was letting off a little steam.

This episode was written by David Gerrold and directed by Trek regular Joseph Pevney. Both men were already very familiar with the internal dynamics of the Star Trek cast and crew. Gerrold's earliest outline of the story (sourced here), then entitled "The Fuzzies" contains the basic premise of the later Tribble storage compartment scene:

"Kirk and Spock stare at the empty bins, both think the same thing at the same time... 'The warehouse of grain!' Kirk pries the granary doors open. Fuzzies roll out. The worst has happened. They have devoured the grain. Spock quotes the number of fuzzies exactly, and Kirk issues an order. 'First, close that door! Second, capture Cyrano Smith!' "

But let's take a step back. What exactly are the underlying vibes of the famous image beyond the obvious "toupee cupboard" type stuff? In the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, producer Bob Justman relayed a story about how Shats' toups had a tendency to go missing:

"We had always planned to have two Shatner pieces at the start of each season, and we expected to have the same two when the season ended. Somehow, there was only one left when Fred Phillips, our makeup man, took inventory after the last episode [of the first season] was filmed.

"The hairpieces were made for Bill; he was the only one they fit. The missing toupee had been left in the makeup room. It didn't just get up and walk out by itself. I was sure the cleaning lady wasn't guilty; she already had a wig. Who could have taken it? And why?

"I couldn't resist: 'Ever find that missing toup, Bill?'

" 'Who, me? Nope. It was in the makeup room when I left that night. I told you, ask Fred. Surely you don't think that I...?' He was the very soul of innocence. But I had made my point. He knew that I knew."

So one possible interpretation for the Tribbles scene is that it is a subtle inside reference to Shats being forced to open the locker of his dressing-room and being caught red-handed in possession of an entire mountain of missing toupees. Notice the staging and notice that the director has put one Tribble in Bill Shatner's hand:

Roddenberry, Justman and Solow confronting Bill Shatner in his dressing room?

Of course, this is just a theory and it could indeed be that the apparent toupee metaphors are only in the minds of certain viewers (and blogs) and that the producers really did not intend any similarities to Shats' toup at all. We may never know. But whether intended or not, a great deal of viewers think about one thing when they see that scene, and it isn't Tribbles!

Image sourced here.