 Original " Tribbles " creator David Gerrold was contacted by The New York Times , who wanted to interview him about the anniversary and the <unk> " tribbles " episode . When he questioned Berman about the episode , Berman initially denied it . Gerrold responded that he didn 't want to embarrass anyone , but would like to be able to endorse the project . Berman asked what the endorsement would cost , to which Gerrold requested public acknowledgement of his work and to be cast as an extra in the episode . Berman agreed . Gerrold compared inserting new footage into an existing episode to Back to the Future Part II ( 1989 ) and later said that he would have gone in a different direction had he written the story . Nonetheless , he felt the final product ended up being better than anything he would have created . 
