David Gerrold is an American science fiction screenwriter and novelist. He wrote the script for the original Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", created the Sleestak race on the TV series Land of the Lost, and wrote the novelette "The Martian Child", which won both Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was adapted into a 2007 film starring John Cusack.
Gerrold in 2016
The Trouble with Tribbles
"The Trouble with Tribbles" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by David Gerrold and directed by Joseph Pevney, it was first broadcast on December 29, 1967. In this comic episode, the starship Enterprise visits a space station that soon becomes overwhelmed by rapidly reproducing small furry creatures called "tribbles."
Captain Kirk, up to his chest in tribbles
"The Trouble with Tribbles" was the first sale of writer David Gerrold (photographed in 2010).
Nichelle Nichols said that she had never seen a script changed so much but stay the same.
During the course of filming, William Shatner was covered with five hundred tribbles on eight occasions.