David Gerrold was just a college student when he saw the series premiere of "Star Trek" on NBC in September 1966, but he knew he had to be a part of it.

He immediately sent some story ideas to Gene Roddenberry, and call it naivety or just plain overconfidence, Gerrold knew he would end up on the show's writing staff.

One of Gerrold's ideas that caught the eye of both Roddenberry and producer Gene L. Coon was one of a bunch of furry creatures causing problems for the Enterprise crew. Coon was especially fond of it, and decided it would be perfect for an episode.

That episode would become the famous "Trouble With Tribbles" episode that made purring furballs who like to eat and reproduce a true icon.

"I never doubted that I was going to sell it," Gerrold told Michael Hinman during a recent SyFy Radio broadcast. "The only other time I had that level of determination and confidence was when I adopted my son. That was a year-long qualification process, and I never doubted that I was going to end up with a terrific little boy as my son. I think it comes from having such determination and such clarity and vision that I know it's a possibility at some level.

"I'm not going to argue with someone who is committed."

"The Trouble With Tribbles" aired right after Christmas Day in 1967 during "Star Trek's" second season. It featured a return of the Klingons, who by then were becoming a recurring villain in the show. Stanley Adams played Cyrano Jones, the intergalactic trader who first offered the Tribbles on the space station that got out of control.

Adams, however, wasn't Gerrold's first choice.

I had wanted to suggest somebody for Cyrano Jones, but I was too shy," Gerrold said. "I wanted to suggest the actor that I really had in mind when I wrote the character: Boris Karloff. And I think if I had said that, they would've made an effort to get him.

"Stanley Adams did a wonderful job, and Stanley and I were good friends, and I certainly don't fault Stanley's interpretation of the character."

Gerrold's episode would later be used for the 30th anniversary of Star Trek in the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Trials and Tribble-ations." The funny part was, Gerrold was never approached about it ahead of time.

"I called [executive producer Rick Berman] and said there's rumors going around," Gerrold said. "My big fear was they were going to do some kind of cheap ripoff. But I knew they were doing something despite the denials."

Gerrold eventually got Berman on the phone and, using his famous confidence, simply asked what he should tell the reporters at the New York Times when they call to ask about the episode? Should he say the studio never bothered to call him, or that he had already been invited to the set to visit the production?

Berman wisely chose the latter, and Gerrold not only got to visit the set, but he also was an extra. When he arrived, scripts were just being passed out, and Gerrold got to see how the new episode written by Ronald D. Moore and Rene Echevarria based on a story by Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler and Robert Hewitt Wolfe ended up.

"As I was reading it, one of the writers showed up -- I forget which of the writers -- but he was very scared, and asked, 'What do you think?'" Gerrold said. "I said that I thought this is one of the best television scripts I have ever read for any show. This is a brilliant, brilliant script."

Of course, part of the brilliance came directly from his original story, but said the work from the group of writers who would later find their own success in shows such as "The Dead Zone," "The 4400" and "Battlestar Galactica," couldn't be topped by anyone.

"I am so damn jealous because I wish I could've written a script that good," Gerrold said. "Every character, every line, every piece of business, I was so thrilled. I went out of my way to tell them how proud I was of the job they did."

Of course, not all of Gerrold's involvement with Star Trek was so positive. His departure from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1988 was very high profile, and marks one of the low points in his life. Most of the problems stemmed from a promise Roddenberry had made to some Star Trek fans at a convention in Boston in 1986 to include a gay character in the new show.

Gerrold immediately began working on a story that would not only be an allegory to AIDS, but also show that gay people did make it into the 24th century. He was shocked that not only did Roddenberry make that promise, but he continued the discussion into a meeting where initial stories for TNG were being broken.

"I thought it was enormously courageous of Gene," Gerrold said. "It was 1986. We were in the middle of the AIDS epidemic. The President of the United States had never said anything about AIDS. We were still dealing with the ignorance about AIDS."

Gerrold wanted to nail two birds with one stone. He wanted to talk about AIDS, but at the same time, address the blood donorship scare that was taking place at the time because of people's fears they would contract AIDS for donating. Blood donation had always been a major cause of Gerrold's friend, science-fiction legend Robert A. Heinlein, and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to give it some attention in the forum it should be in first: Star Trek.

Decisions, however, were out of Roddenberry's hands. The studio didn't want to have gay characters because TNG was in syndication, and feared children might see the episode.

"In the 1960s, Gene loved the fight. But in the '80s, his health was starting to slip," Gerrold said. "He was in physically fragile condition, and he didn't have the emotional strength to take on those battles."

The decision on whether to run "Blood and Fire" became a litmus test for Gerrold. Either Star Trek was going to continue to tell controversial stories like it did in the 1960s, or they didn't.

"I didn't want to leave Star Trek, but I also didn't want to be on a show that was an imitation of what it once was," Gerrold said. "I didn't want the credentials of being on a second-rate show."

The story never made it on air for TNG, but Gerrold did later include the story in his Star Wolf book series, and it will soon be an episode of the fan-produced "Star Trek: New Voyages."

And about Boris Karloff ... he eventually did make it into Star Trek. His portrayal of Frankenstein appeared in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Horizon" in 2003, some 34 years after his death.

SyFy Radio airs live Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT at BlogTalkRadio.com/SyFyRadio. The guest for June 11 is Jarrod Cooper, a writer for Doctor Who News. Upcoming guests include Patrick Lee of SciFi Wire on June 18 and Daniel Malen of The TV Addict June 25.

Actor George Takei will join SyFy Radio in July.