Chris Doohan (Jimmy's son) tells a story

Chris has been posting to the LJ group startrek_tos and today he told this story. Note that he says "dressing room", which seems to indicate that they had actual rooms, not trailers. Imagine getting to play in the shuttlecraft!

The Trouble with Tribbles and Twins

My brother and I were 6 or 7 years old when my dad told us that he was going to take us to the Star Trek set for the whole day. We had done this before, so we were VERY excited. He picked us up really early in the morning, in his new Volvo sports car. It was really small so my brother had to sit in the small area behind the seats. Anyway, we got to the studio and went in to my dad's dressing room. We were there less than 20 minutes when my dad was called to the set. He told us to "stay put" and not to go outside of his room. My brother asked him if we could hang out in the space shuttle (shuttle craft) while he was gone. My dad said sure. He took us there and closed the door behind us. For those of you who can't picture it, it was a small, but real looking shuttle craft and the inside couldn't have been more than 8' by 5 '. Both my brother and I played in there many times before and I think my dad liked it because it kept us out of trouble.

We played for a little while, but being 7 year old twin boys, we had to wander. We opened the shuttle craft door and escaped. We knew what studio my dad was in so we avoided it at all costs. If my dad knew we were "out and about", he would have been really mad. We entered one of the studios and started playing in the ships hallways and even sat in the Captains chair on the bridge. We then decided to snoop around to see what was in the nooks and crannies (meaning drawers and cabinets). One of the rooms had these strange looking cabinets that were very high (for a 7 year old) and angled. Of course we had to see what was in there. My brother got on my shoulders and slid it open. Just then, about 200 (or more) Tribbles fell on our heads. It scared the hell out of us! Not only because it freaked us out, but we knew that we would be in a heaping load of tribble trouble if my dad found out. We ran as fast as we could back to the shuttle and closed the door behind us. Not long after that, my dad arrived to find his angelic twins still in the safe little shuttlecraft where we were no tribble at all..

For you non-trek fans, or those who are too young to remember, a Tribble was a small, hairy little ball. They were very prolific alien animals that eventually filled the whole ship.. The cabinet we opened up was the same one that was used in the scene where Captain Kirk did the same thing as we did. They fell on his head too.

Several years ago I told my dad that story, and he said that he would have been really pissed if he had found out. The end.