UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TAS ep14 - The Slaver Weapon
Added 2023-07-08 21:18:09 +0000 UTCThis episode is historic!
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This is one of those TAS episodes that just can't work in canon. Having a Trek version of Kzinti is fine, but Niven basically just copy pasted his story into Trek with no adaptation. Saying the LAST war they fought with the Kzinti was 200 years ago puts that war somewhere around the time Zefram Cochrane discovered warp, per Metamorphosis. So going by that, the other 3 wars would have happened some time earlier, presumably with years or decades between them or they would simply be classified as the same war. Hard to say more without spoilers, but it just can't work. Still, it's an alright episode beside that. Spock, despite absolutely falling for the initial trap, displayed much better leadership skills than in Galileo Seven. He didn't make the same mistake of assuming that everyone else thinks and operates on rigid logic like he does. My favourite scene was probably Sulu "out logicing" Spock in figuring out it was a spy's weapon. Sulu definitely should have been the one with an aversion to ice planets. This episode is something of a prototype for later trek shows that are willing to have episodes where the focus is on 1 or a few of the characters doing something off on their own from time to time.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-05-25 20:58:22 +0000 UTCThe TOS first season episode "Arena" was based on a story of the same name by Golden Age sci-fi author Fredrick Brown. The alien 'Roller' that fought the protagonist was changed to the lizard-like Gorn. The rest of the story played out roughly similar to how the ST episode did. This Larry Niven story follows this established Star Trek tradition but with one major difference. He uses his own intellectual property in Star Trek which I found interesting on a couple of levels. At the time The Slaver Weapon aired I was 14 years old. I had already read Niven's Tales of Known Space series of books. So using the Kizinti and the Slavers backstory, referencing the Man-Kizin War I found rather surprising. I know it made/makes canon purists go absolutely nuts, since the Kizini and the Man-Kizin War can't actually fit in the ST universe. Those wars were spread out over a millennium, not a couple of hundred years. But blah blah blah. So WHAT? To 14 year old me it was the coolest thing ever. In my head it was like, these aren't the Known Space Kizinti, they are the Star Trek Kizinti. Problem solved. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ---------------------------- Also: Guys, If you are truly going in release order, you still have four Star Trek movies to watch before you can start The Next Generation. The Motion Picture (1979), Wrath of Khan (1982), The Search for Spock (1984), The Voyage Home (1986) / Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
StealthMomo
2023-07-13 07:47:39 +0000 UTCI really enjoyed this episode. I didn't remember that it was based on a Larry Niven story. He wrote one of the first adult science fiction novels I read, Ringwood. I don't remember much about it (I read it in the early 80's), but I liked it and it got me to read more sci-fi.
Gary Leyh
2023-07-13 04:06:52 +0000 UTCThis was historic for another reason. First episode where Spock is without Kirk while not being a total dick to everybody lol.
Andreas Schmitt
2023-07-12 21:20:01 +0000 UTCThanks for the clarification.
Collin Freeman
2023-07-10 01:49:51 +0000 UTCThe Lower Decks doctor (T'Ana) is a Caitian, the same species as M'Ress. They are related to the Kzinit much like the Vulcans are related the Romulans.
Tristan Rose
2023-07-10 00:20:06 +0000 UTCYes! "Pigs is pigs" is the one I'm thinking of. Its the story of guinea pigs breeding on a train while the staff are trying to figure out what a guinea pig is.
Steven Johnson
2023-07-09 13:42:54 +0000 UTCIf I'm remembering correctly, "A Fuzzy Thing Happened to Me" was David Gerrold's early working title for "The Trouble with Tribbles," when he was still calling them "fuzzies." But Gerrold has admitted his story might have been subconsciously influenced by a 1952 Robert Heinlein novel called The Rolling Stones, which included an alien animal species called "flat cats" with similar "multiplicative proclivities" to tribbles. (Heinlein, for his part, credited Ellis Parker Butler's 1905 story "Pigs Is Pigs" as his inspiration for the flat cats.)
James H
2023-07-09 13:26:46 +0000 UTCSeason five of Star Trek Enterprise was to have an episode with the Kzinti, but sadly the show wasn't renewed for the fifth season.
Dan Krantz
2023-07-09 04:25:58 +0000 UTCThis to me is one of the episodes that make this show not canon. Larry Niven just put Trek into part of one of his novels. the mashing of the 2 universes doesn't work nor does it make sense If the Slavers existed & these stasis boxes are sought after treasures, why have they never been seen or mentioned before hand or afterwards?
Retro Tom
2023-07-09 00:48:43 +0000 UTCAnother episode that would have fit nicely in the live action format. A real winner.
Mark Chrisco
2023-07-08 22:46:14 +0000 UTCThe K'Zinti are an interesting bunch. We don't really see them again in Star Trek, because they're property of Larry Niven who wrote some books on them. You want to save money? Don't have Shatner in the episode. Interesting thing about Phase 2, they were going to, after the first 13 planned episodes, that Shatner might become a "recurring guest" instead of the leading man. This episode feels strangely like a TNG episode. They do stuff like this in TNG where we break off with other characters that aren't the "big names." It's not something the OG team got to do much. To say George Takei's name, you gotta watch the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner. He corrects Bill right off: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1183580272198360 There were a few TOS stories that were adapted from other material, usually quietly. For example Balance of Terror was based on "The Enemy Below" a submarine war movie. The Trouble With Tribbles was based on a story called "A Fuzzy Thing Happened." There may have been one or two others that were based on stories from else where.
Steven Johnson
2023-07-08 22:16:41 +0000 UTCDC Fontana was a big fan of the science fiction author Larry Niven and so he was invited to write an episode of TAS. After two undeveloped ideas, Gene Roddenberry suggested that Larry Niven adapt one of his short stories, "The Soft Weapon" from his Known Space series of short stories and novels which featured the Kzinti. Therefore, the Kzinti are an alien race actually created for this other fictional universe. That said, Trek and Known Space are not canon to each other but it is a little bit of a crossover. Oh and apparently Kzinti in the Known Universe are supposed to have stripes but they couldn't animate them for TAS lol They've been foreshadowing the Kzinti coming in previous episodes, such as the Kzinti on the Council in "The Time Trap" and the brief mention of them by Stavos Keniclius in "The Infinite Vulcan"
Dion James Pitman
2023-07-08 22:15:14 +0000 UTCDefinitely one of the better entries in Star Trek TAS. Larry Niven adapted one of his stories after being recruited by DC Fontana. He was a hot, up-and-coming sci-fi writer at the time. Gene Roddenberry made the suggestion to adapt Niven's story, which is why we have this new enemy race, the Kzinti, which came from the Niven story. I think there have been attempts to bring the Kzinti into the live Star Trek universe. I think the ship's chief surgeon in Star Trek: Lower Decks is meant to be Kzinti.
Collin Freeman
2023-07-08 21:58:05 +0000 UTCThis is one of the stronger TAS episodes. The Kzinti are actually from a different Sci Fi universe - Known Space. They're a cool addition to Trek :-)
Bret Kay
2023-07-08 21:47:40 +0000 UTC
