A Star Trek Writer Expected William Shatner To Refuse To Shoot This Now-Classic Scene

Canadian actor William Shatner may be best known for his portrayal of "Star Trek's" Captain James T. Kirk, the dedicated, serious commander of the U.S.S. Enterprise, but he's no stranger to more light-hearted comedic roles. Whether he's parodying "Star Trek" in "Airplane 2: The Sequel," voicing an overdramatic possum in "Over the Hedge," starring in a recurring (and unhinged) guest arc as The Big Giant Head in "3rd Rock from the Sun," playing a flustered beauty pageant host in "Miss Congeniality," or making a cameo appearance as an exaggerated version of himself in "Ted 2" or "Fanboys," Shatner isn't afraid of embracing the absurd–or poking fun at himself.

But Shatner wasn't always a comedic actor. Before landing the role of "Star Trek's" titular hero, he largely portrayed more serious characters, starring as a terrified airplane passenger in an iconic episode of horror anthology series "The Twilight Zone" (which went on to inspire a real airplane feature) and as a minor character in an episode of spy thriller series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." alongside future co-star Leonard Nimoy.

While "Star Trek: The Original Series" included some humorous moments that showed Shatner could be funny, season two's "The Trouble with Tribbles" truly showcased his comedic range. However, while fans now consider it one of the best "Star Trek" episodes, the episode's most memorable scene was considered so silly that writer David Gerrold didn't think Shatner would shoot it.

Broadcast in 1967, "The Trouble with Tribbles" is the fifteenth episode of "Star Trek's" second season and is widely considered one of the funniest (and most memorable) episodes in the franchise. In this iconic episode, the U.S.S. Enterprise crew is summoned to Deep Space Station K-7 to guard a vital grain shipment destined for Sherman's planet, which the Klingons have claimed. Kirk is less than pleased about the mission, but complies, assigning some of the crew to guard the grain and allowing others shore leave at the station.

During her shore leave, Lieutenant Uhura meets interstellar trader Cyrano Jones, who sells her a tribble — an adorable purring fluffball — as a pet. Shortly after taking the new pet onboard the Enterprise, the crew realizes the trouble with tribbles: they reproduce at an alarming rate. It's not long before the Enterprise is overrun with the fluffballs (over a million of them), who proceed to eat the ship's food supply and the valuable grain shipment the crew was meant to guard. Fortunately, the tribbles aren't all bad. Many die after eating the grain, revealing the Klingons — whom the Enterprise crew got into an earlier bar brawl with — had poisoned the supply.

It's an absurd, laugh-out-loud funny episode that delivered memorable scenes like Scotty dumping tribbles onto the Klingon vessel before proclaiming, "they'll be no tribble at all," and, of course, the famous scene where Captain Kirk is buried under an avalanche of tribbles.

"The Trouble with Tribbles" was written by David Gerrold, who had submitted several (rejected) "Star Trek" episode premises before his fifth, which was accepted: "The Fuzzies." With help from producer Gene L. Coon, Gerrold expanded the premise into a full script that went through several rewrites, and the title was eventually changed to "The Trouble with Tribbles."

Speaking to the Official Star Trek Magazine in 2009, Gerrold explained that his original intention was for the episode to show that not necessarily every problem a starship captain encounters will be a big, galaxy-threatening one. "Once in a while, the little problems could be just as annoying," he told the publication.

And annoying the tribbles were. The episode's most famous scene sees Kirk opening an overhead storage compartment and quickly becoming buried chest-deep in tribbles. In reality, the scene was filmed eight times, with 500 tribbles (made from synthetic fur and foam rubber) dumped on Shatner each time. But Gerrold wasn't sure whether Shatner would even agree to do the scene."I had always assumed that at some point, Shatner would say, 'This makes my character look too silly,' and I was prepared to have him step aside just before the tribbles fell," Gerrold told Star Trek Magazine. "But William Shatner has always been the consummate professional and I believe he was eager to show off his comic abilities as well."

Leonard Nimoy and creator Gene Roddenberry reportedly disliked the episode. In a 2003 interview, Shatner said the real trouble with tribbles was "keeping a straight face." "It was just a lot of fun," he said.