The Slaver Weapon (episode)

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"The Slaver Weapon"
Star Trek: The Animated Series episode
Kzinti-attack-in-the-slaver-weapon.jpg
The Kzinti attack in "The Slaver Weapon"
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 14
Directed byHal Sutherland
Written byLarry Niven
Story byLarry Niven
Production code22011
Stardate4187.3 (2269)
Original air dateDecember 15, 1973 (1973-12-15)
Episode chronology
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List of Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes

"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 15, 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[edit | edit source]

On stardate 4187.3 (2269 Terran date), the Enterprise shuttlecraft Copernicus, carrying Science Officer Spock, Communications Officer Lt. Uhura and Helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu are en route to Starbase 25 to deliver a stasis box, a rare artifact of the Slaver culture. The now-extinct Slavers used these objects to carry weapons, valuables, scientific instruments and data. The boxes can detect each other by exhibiting a luminous glow and while passing the Beta Lyrae star system, the box shows that another device is located on a nearby ice planet in the system.

Following the signal, the shuttle lands on the planet where the crew exit the shuttlecraft wearing life support belts to try and locate the second stasis box. While nearing the location where they believe the second box is buried below the ice surface, they are captured by the hostile feline species, the Kzinti. The Kzinti had an empty stasis box of their own, and were using it to lure in passing starships. The team are captured in a police web by a group of Kzinti and taken aboard their vessel.

Their captors are led by Chuft-Captain, who commands the Traitor's Claw. Their archaeologists had found an empty stasis box, but discovered it was a good way to draw others there. They are trying to steal the boxes in the hopes of finding a super weapon that will return their empire to its former greatness. While being held in a police web, the Kzinti open the box that the Enterprise crew members 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 Kzinti return to the surface to test the weapon. They run through settings similar or inferior to current Federation technology. One setting disengages the police web, giving the team a chance to flee; in the process, Spock kicks Chuft-Captain in his ribs, recovers the weapon from him and runs away, but Uhura is stunned and recaptured by the Kzinti.

Sulu and Spock regroup some distance from the ship, in the shadow of an outcropping of rock and ice. Spock explains that his striking Chuft-Captain was a calculated move, dishonoring the Kzin and preventing him from calling for help. Sulu tells Spock he believes the weapon belonged to a spy. Spock is initially skeptical that even someone with Sulu's knowledge of weaponry could make such a determination so quickly, but agrees upon hearing his explanation – only one of the various settings, a relatively weak laser, would be of any real use to a common soldier – and concludes that, therefore, it should also have a self-destruct setting.

Before he can find it, Chuft-Captain hails them wanting to trade Uhura's life for the weapon. He also wants to engage in combat with Spock to regain his honor. Spock estimates his chances of defeating the Kzin are low, and Sulu refuses on Spock's behalf through his communicator.

As Spock tries another setting, the weapon releases a giant energy beam creating an enormous explosion far away. Discovering this total conversion beam setting, concludes that if it were to fall back into Kzin hands, the Kzinti would pose a threat to the whole galaxy. The shock wave from the explosion finally reaches Spock and Sulu, knocking them both off their feet, allowing the Kzinti quickly recapture them and the weapon.

While further examining the weapon, the Kzinti find another mode for the weapon, a "reasoning computer", a remarkable achievement for hand-held equipment. It gives few details of its origin and abilities, alluding to long-ago war. The weapon says that unless it is supplied with "certain code words" it will answer no further questions. Chuft-Captain demands the total-conversion beam, but Spock observes that the setting the computer gives him is not the same as the one he and Sulu observed earlier.

As the Kzinti go outside to test the weapon, leaving the prisoners alone on the web, Spock explains his reasoning to Uhura. Awakened after an indeterminate time and surrounded by beings that do not know its proper protocols, it has decided to self-destruct to keep vital tactical information from falling into enemy hands.

Believing they have found the total conversion setting, the Slaver weapon detonates when they attempt to test fire the weapon. The Kzinti are killed in a large (but conventional) explosion. Standing on the rim of the crater left in the ice, Sulu laments the loss of a fine museum piece, but Spock observes that it would have been far too dangerous to place the weapon in a museum as it would become a target for species hostel to the Federation, such as the Klingons and Romulans.

The Enterprise crew members resume their journey in the Copernicus. Spock observes how an artifact of an ancient war almost ignited a new one for possession of it, and Uhura jokes that the Kzinti might never get over their superstition about "haunted" weapons.

Production[edit | edit source]

Producer D. C. Fontana approached Larry Niven in 1973 to see if he would write an episode for The Animated Series, suggesting that he might adapt one of his existing stories.[1] At the time Niven was a major up-and-coming force in the science fiction world; in 1971 his novel Ringworld was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel,[2] the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Novel.[3][4] Niven's first attempt to write a teleplay introduced his Known Space setting into the Star Trek universe. The story involved a group of Outsiders who were using a 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 Gene Roddenberry's house one afternoon, Roddenberry suggested that he use his short story "The Soft Weapon" as the basis for an episode.[5] This story opens with a small spacecraft making a quick side-trip to view Beta Lyrae. On board are the human couple who crew the spacecraft, and their passenger, a Pierson's Puppeteer named 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 Tnuctip, a technologically advanced species that had been enslaved by the Thrint, 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 the 1990s.) As well, in another first, the starship Enterprise does not appear, except in the standard opening credits.

Reception[edit | edit source]

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[edit | edit source]

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. "The Borderland of Sol" was developed from his original pitch for The Animated Series and was first published in Analog magazine in January 1975, and republished in the collection Tales of Known Space in the same year.[11] It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1976,[12] and republished as part of the novel Crashlander in 1994.[citation needed] Niven later wrote a storyline in the syndicated Star Trek 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 fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise, Niven commented that he was aware of efforts to re-introduce the Kzinti into the Star Trek franchise, and had "always hoped [they] could make it work."[14] At the same time, the Kzinti were featured in the Star Trek Communicator magazine as one of the alien races representing the seven deadly sins, with the Kzinti being specifically related to lust. This was because of the Kzinti's need to feed on the flesh of others being "gastronomic instead of carnal" which meant that they are seen as "sensual, without being overtly sexual."[14] A CGI animated film called Star Trek: Lions of the Night was in development by writer Jimmy Diggs at the time, which would have had Captain Hikaru Sulu attempting to prevent a Kzinti invasion of the Federation using the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B).[15] Manny Coto, 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]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  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. Archived from the original on January 13, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2016. 
  3. ^ "Nebula Award Winners: 1965 – 2011". 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
  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. TwoMorrows Publishing (1): 25–37. 
  9. ^ "Saturday Morning Trek 26: It is Green...and Purple and Pink". Trek.fm. Retrieved 2019-03-12. 
  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 originalPaid subscription required 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. ^ "Star Trek: Enterprise Cancelled!". StarTrek.com. 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[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]