This year marks the 30th anniversary of “Trials and Tribble-ations,” the classic Deep Space Nine episode paying tribute to the equally classic episode from The Original Series, “The Trouble with Tribbles.” And while appearing on Trek Talks 5, DS9 showrunner Ira Steven Behr revealed a surprising inspiration for the episode. Behr said (per TrekMovie.com):
“Rene [Echevarria] came up with the idea of going doing an old episode and seeing if we could mix our people in [...] do the Woody Allen movie Zelig and kind of put our people into the old show."
Behr continued by saying:
"And then it was the late, great [VFX supervisor] Gary Hutzel, who showed us a clip from the old show. And we looked at it and said, ‘Okay, that looks good, but what does that have to do with us?’ And he said, ‘Well, you see that guy coming in through the door? That’s not from the 1966 episode or 67 episode. That’s one of our people.'”
For those who don’t know, Zelig was a 1983 movie written and directed by Woody Allen, who also stars as a man mingling among the famous faces of the early 20th century.
The mockumentary was shot in the style of newsreels of the era, in which Allen and other actors were superimposed onto the footage and often interacting with long-dead figures, from Charles Lindbergh to Al Capone.
The movie is often forgotten even among Allen buffs, yet it paved the way for the sort of mix of past and present later utilized by Forrest Gump and, of course, "Trials and Tribble-ations.”
Zelig also had the same showcase for how people can unknowingly alter history. It proves that Trek could draw inspiration from unlikely sources for its tales.
Share your thoughts and comments about Zelig inspiring Deep Space Nine's “Trials and Tribble-ations” on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. And all seven seasons of DS9 are now streaming on Paramount+.
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