The Slaver Weapon

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"The Slaver Weapon"
Star Trek: The Animated Series episode
Chuft-Captain, a Kzin
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 14
Directed byHal Sutherland
Written byLarry Niven
Story byLarry Niven
Production code22011
Original air dateDecember 8, 1973 (1973-12-08)
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"The Slaver Weapon" is the fourteenth episode of the

first season of the American animated science fiction television series Star Trek: The Animated Series. It first aired on NBC on December 8, 1973, and was written by Larry Niven. It was based on his original short story "The Soft Weapon". This episode was expanded to become the first half of a full-length novel by science-fiction author Alan Dean Foster
as Star Trek Log Ten.

Set in the 23rd century, the series follows the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk (voiced by William Shatner) and the crew of the Starfleet starship Enterprise. In this episode, while traveling by shuttlecraft, several Enterprise crew members are captured and have to use their individual strengths to prevent a powerful alien weapon from falling into the wrong hands.

Plot

On

Slaver culture. The now-extinct Slavers used these objects to carry weapons, valuables, scientific instruments and data. The boxes can detect each other and evidence shows that another device is located near Beta Lyrae
.

Following the signal, the shuttle lands on an ice planet where the crew is captured by the hostile, catlike Kzinti. The Kzinti had an empty stasis box of their own, and were using it to lure in passing starships. They are trying to steal the boxes in the hopes of finding a super weapon that will return their empire to its former greatness. The Kzinti open the box that the Enterprise had been transporting, finding inside some fresh meat, a picture of a Slaver, and a powerful (but unfamiliar) alien device, which the Kzinti immediately suspect is a weapon.

The weapon passes hands several times between the Federation and Kzinti crews, during which time Sulu discovers a total-conversion beam setting. The Kzinti recapture all three Federation personnel and the weapon. As the Kzinti explore the device's many settings, they discover a war computer that starts talking to them. After the Kzinti fail to provide several code words and ask about the total-conversion beam setting, the weapon concludes that they are enemies and directs them to what it claims is the setting that they want but which is actually a self-destruct setting. When the Kzinti activate that setting it turns out to be a disruptor field that destroys the weapon and kills the Kzinti.

Production

Producer

quantum black hole to disable passing ships drives' in order to pirate them. Fontana advised him that the original version wouldn't work as an episode, and his second attempt proved to be "too bloody."[5]

While Niven visited

Nessus
. Nessus has a stasis box in his possession, and a routine scan reveals that another stasis box is located somewhere in the Beta Lyrae system, much to their surprise. When they attempt to retrieve the second box, they are captured by a group of Kzinti pirates. The Kzinti are in possession of an empty stasis box, and are using it to lure in passing starships. The three outwit the Kzinti and escape.

For the adaptation into the Star Trek universe, Niven changed the identity of the characters in the original to their analogs in Star Trek. Nessus, a highly intelligent normally pacifist herbivore, fitted neatly onto the character of Spock. The original male and female starship crew were replaced by Sulu and Uhura, while the small spacecraft became the newly introduced long-range shuttlecraft. The characters from the Kzinti ship remained unchanged.

There were minor changes to simplify the storytelling, but only one major change. In "The Soft Weapon" the artifacts were built by the

Thrintun
, the eponymous "Slavers". They had built many weapons in secret like this one as part of a long-planned revolt. This backstory is outside the scope of "The Slaver Weapon", and in this version the box and weapon are presumed to be of Slaver origin.

That the Kzinti's clothing and ships were depicted in shades of pink was long rumored to be due to director Hal Sutherland suffering colorblindness,[6][7][8] but this was contradicted by Bob Kline, Filmation designer and layout artist, who stated in a podcast interview that the color choices were the work of color stylist Irv Kaplan.[9] An apology was offered to Larry Niven for this oversight.[6]

This is the first Star Trek story broadcast (in either its live-action or animated incarnations) in which James T. Kirk (William Shatner) does not appear, although his voice is heard in the standard opening credits. (Kirk also did not appear in the live-action pilot "The Cage", but that was not broadcast in its original form until 1988.) As well, in another first, the starship Enterprise does not appear, except in the standard opening credits.

Reception

The episode was reviewed by Mark Altman and Edward Gross in their book, Trek Navigator, where they called it "by far one of the best and most literate of the animated episodes."[10] They described the Kzinti as a "fascinating" new enemy,[10] and praised the introduction of the Slaver boxes. The voice work was said to be "surprisingly good", but the animation was criticised with the pink ship and uniforms of the aliens "somewhat negates their menace."[10]

Legacy

The Kzinti Dark Stalker vessel as designed by Josh Finney

Following production of "The Slaver Weapon", Niven returned to his Known Space concept and began to expand it. "

newspaper comic strip entitled "The Wristwatch Plantation", which re-introduced the Kzinti to that universe once more.[13]

While production was under way on the

show runner for Enterprise, had been pursuing the idea of including the Kzinti into the series for the fifth season called "Kilkenny Cats" based on the Diggs idea.[16] However, the series was cancelled at the end of the fourth and the episode was never made.[17] Josh Finney had been commissioned by Diggs to design a Kzinti vessel for the possible inclusion in the Enterprise episode.[18]

In the

Nepenthe", William Riker references "The Slaver Weapon" by saying, "We've had a little trouble around here lately with the Kzinti
."

A Kzin Starfleet officer appears in Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Notes

  1. ^ Lambert, David (July 26, 2004). "David Gerrold Interview - Part 1". TVShowsonDVD.com. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  2. ^ "1971 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. July 26, 2007. Archived from the original on January 13, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  3. Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Archived from the original
    on January 31, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  4. ^ "Locus Awards 1971". Science Fiction Awards Database. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Niven[full citation needed]
  6. ^ a b Bill Reed, "Draw to the Final Frontier: The making of Star Trek the Animated Series", DVD documentary
  7. ^ The Slaver Weapon
  8. ^ Mangels, Andy (Summer 2018). "Star Trek: The Animated Series". RetroFan (1). TwoMorrows Publishing: 25–37.
  9. ^ "Saturday Morning Trek 26: It is Green...and Purple and Pink". Trek.fm. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
  10. ^ a b c Altman & Gross (1998): p. 215
  11. ^ Niven (1975): p. vi
  12. ^ "Niven, Larry 1938–". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. HighBeam Research. January 1, 2007. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016.
  13. ^ Rasmus, Daniel (July 10, 2014). "Reanimated the Dallies: Star Trek: The Newspaper Comics". PopMatters. Archived from the original on May 8, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  14. ^ a b "What About the Kzinti?". Star Trek Communicator: 49. April 2004.
  15. ^ Harvey, Sven (September 18, 2015). "18 Star Trek Screen Projects That Never Happened". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  16. ^ Robb (2012): p. 222
  17. CBS Interactive. February 3, 2005. Archived from the original
    on February 7, 2005. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  18. ^ "Josh Finney". Archaia Entertainment. Archived from the original on June 7, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2016.

References
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