Original "Tribbles" creator David Gerrold was contacted by "The New York Times", who wanted to interview him about the anniversary and the rumored "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 said the final product ended up being better than anything he would have created.