Tribbles Finally Make Their Appearance On Picard

Contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard" Season 3, Episode 6

"Star Trek: Picard" Season 3 is an ode to "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the popular 1987–1994 series that finds Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) at the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Many people have been excited to see Picard, Worf (Michael Dorn), Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and Data (Brent Spiner) all working together once again.

But that doesn't mean that the series can't pay tribute to the original "Star Trek" that started it all. And Season 3, Episode 6, "The Bounty," has an easy-to-spot Easter egg of an adorable yet feisty animal that once puzzled Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) himself.

When thinking about the original "Star Trek" series, many will recall Season 2, Episode 15, "The Trouble with Tribbles." A peddler brings the fuzzy animals aboard Deep Space Station K-7 while Captain Kirk has been assigned to protect a grain shipment that's being stored there. Due to their quick reproduction, both the space station and the Enterprise are in danger of becoming overrun with tribbles, but a tribble overload is not the case on "Star Trek: Picard."

In "Star Trek: Picard," Season 3, Episode 6, "The Bounty," Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), Worf, and Riker venture into the Daystrom Institute's Daystrom Station to retrieve a project manifest. While there, they come across plenty of "Star Trek" Easter eggs, including a panel showing Captain Kirk's skeleton and a glass case housing a tribble. The creature coos as Worf approaches, but as he gets closer, the tribble attacks, sticking itself to the glass. Worf is startled, and Riker teases him by saying, "A mighty Klingon taken aback by the even mightier attack tribble." Tribbles and Klingons are known for their hostility toward each other, as first depicted in "The Trouble with Tribbles."

In an interview on "The Rich Eisen Show," William Shatner explained what it was like filming the scene that finds him surrounded by tribbles. "There was a guy in the flies ... throwing tribbles at me in one of the scenes. And finally, I thought, 'Well, that's enough,' and then he hit me again with the tribble, which made it funny," he said. While the original tribbles were made of synthetic fur and rubber, the new version in "Star Trek: Picard" appears to be the work of computer animation given its quick movement and cartoon-like features.