CBS/ParamountStar Trek: Strange New Worlds recently ran a wacky episode where a transporter accident transformed everyone but Spock into puppets. It was funny, inventive, and lovingly made… and people were pissed.Okay, people on the internet were pissed, which is a bar so low you’ll trip over it daily. Still, words like “awful,” “unwatchable,” and “a new low” were thrown around fan communities, and those were some of the nicer reactions. Multiple viewers claimed they stopped watching, even stormed out of the room in anger, because “Level-Five Transporter Accident” made a “mockery” of Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry’s vision.Putting aside the image of grown adults stomping away from their televisions at the sight of puppets, all this ire needs some context. Once, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and TV seasons contained 26 episodes, two or three light-hearted installments were a fun change of pace. Today, when we’re lucky to see a sci-fi show get 10 episodes before it vanishes for 18 months, burning a couple of hours on hijinks can feel wasteful. That’s a shame, because Star Trek has a long history of doing wacky ones, and its best example aired 30 years ago today.The DS9 crew goes retro. | CBS/ParamountThe comic “Trouble with Tribbles” is one of The Original Series’ most fondly remembered adventures, so when it came time to celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary in 1996, Deep Space Nine chose to riff on it. Thanks to time travel, “Trials and Tribble-ations” sees the cast thrown into the events of “Trouble,” where they must stop a saboteur from changing history.“Trouble,” as a refresher, sees the Enterprise visit a space station to guard a grain shipment and enjoy some shore leave. Unfortunately, some Klingons are getting R&R too, and tensions inevitably boil over. Meanwhile, a dodgy salesman is selling tribbles, which are essentially cooing balls of fur. They’re cute, but they reproduce at an alarming rate, and their attempt to devour all that grain uncovers a plot by a Klingon agent (Charlie Brill) to poison it.Brill gamely returned for “Tribble-ations,” now disguised as a human merchant who sneaks back to the past to murder Kirk with an explosive tribble before his original scheme is uncovered. Our heroes must foil him, which meant that DS9’s production team had to painstakingly recreate ToS sets and digitally insert Captain Sisko and his crew into key scenes.Kirk gets buried under tribbles. | Paramount Television/Kobal/ShutterstockRecreating the look of The Original Series was no small (or cheap) feat, as everything from the costumes to the chairs required careful study of “Trouble,” deep delves into studio archives, and more than a little luck. “Trials and Tribble-ations” treats the props and costumes of The Original Series with an almost fetishistic reverence, and the montage of DS9’s crew going retro looks like a cosplay sizzle reel. Crucially, though, the episode avoids pure hagiography by admitting that this is all rather silly; adults just need to be a little silly sometimes.Calling your work a love letter to a classic franchise is an easy way to soften incoming reviews, but “Trials and Tribble-ations” does function as an episode in its own right. Obviously, there’s no real tension, but it finds significant charm and humor in having its cast react to the past — the normally professional Sisko geeks out at the chance to meet the legendary Captain Kirk, the icy Odo can’t help but nuzzle a fuzzy tribble, and Bashir frets over whether he has to become his own great-grandfather the moment he finds a 23rd-century woman attractive.Sisko and Dax sneak into the background of a ToS shot. | CBS/ParamountThe episode even, in true Trek spirit, explains a nitpicky plot point only the real dweebs would notice or care about, answering the question of why, during one ToS scene, tribbles keep falling on Captain Kirk’s head. Larger canon questions are acknowledged, but left unanswered — Worf refuses to explain why he looks so different from yesteryear’s Klingons, because there’s no in-universe way to communicate that the franchise eventually got a much larger makeup and effects budget. One look at ToS’ shiny, soot-faced Klingons certainly shows you how far the franchise had come.“Trials” was actually one of two episodes made to celebrate Trek’s pearl anniversary; Voyager produced the more dramatic “Flashback,” which saw Tuvok explore memories of serving under Captain Sulu. Like Voyager itself, it’s fine, but forgettable, suggesting that loving goofiness was the way to go for this assignment. Star Trek, no matter how much we enjoy it, is a fundamentally ridiculous venture.Fittingly, then, “Trials and Tribble-ations” is now considered one of the best episodes the franchise has produced, and no one, as far as we know, walked out halfway through it. So think whatever you will of strange new puppets, but it’s hard to buy that “Level-Five Transporter Accident” betrayed the vision of the man who gave us tribbles in the first place. Modern Trek could certainly benefit from more drama, but sometimes the best way to express your love is to be brave enough to get ridiculous.Star Trek: Deep Space Nine streams on Paramount+.