Tribbles for Ichneumon

Tribbles for Ichneumon.

"Tribbles for Ichneumon" is one of the Forbidden Episodes of Star Trek.

Plot

The Ichneumon, an alien ambassador from the "Spock's Bug" parallel universe, is sterile, and will soon die without progeny, threatening the intra-universe treaty between Insects and Humans.

In a desperate effort to save both universes from extinction, Doctor McCoy synthesizes an experimental fertility drug using compounds isolated from living tribbles, but The Ichneumon refuses to take the drug unless it can first sting its eggs into a living host, naming McCoy as its host of choice.

McCoy is ready to sacrifice himself, but is knocked unconscious by a stunt double playing Kirk, who is in turn neck-pinched by the actual Leonard Nimoy (who narrates the episode).

During this human-on-human action, The Ichneumon grows increasingly impatient, finally stinging itself in a tantrum of alien petulance.

Thus does The Ichneumon bear its own young, which eat their progenitor and then sting themselves, sub specie aeternitatis.

Comparative literature

• Flowers for Algernon @ Wikipedia
• Ouroboros @ Wikipedia
• The Trouble with Tribbles

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles
• Spock's Bug
• Star Trek: Forbidden Episodes
• Weaponizing Spirograph - documentary film which has short interview with The Ichneumon discussing the inherent menace of recursion

External links

• Flowers for Algernon @ Wikipedia
• The Trouble with Tribbles @ Wikipedia