Stardate 4187.3: Spock, Sulu and Uhura are en route to Starbase 25 via shuttlecraft, carrying a valuable cargo – a stasis box, an unimaginably rare artifact of a rase of slavers that ruled the galaxy a billion years prior to the rise of man. As the shuttle passes Beta Lyrae, the stasis box begins to glow – indicating another stasis box in close proximity. Spock orders Sulu to land the shuttle on an ice planet, but the landing party discovers that the sensor readings of a second stasis box are a trap, and all three are captured by the telepathic, carnivorous Kzinti, a felinoid species whose previous conflicts with mankind have proven unsuccessful. Hoping to even the score of centuries of wars, the Kzinti hope to discover a weapon to give them a deadly technological leap ahead of humanity…and the ancient contents of the stasis box may include that weapon.
written by Larry Niven
adapted from the story “The Soft Weapon” by Larry Niven
directed by Hal Sutherland
music by Yvette Blais & Jeff MichaelCast: William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan (Mr. Scott / Lt. Arrex), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel / Lt. M’ress)
Notes: The Slaver Weapon is one of the more interesting experiments with Star Trek continuity, as it blends in Larry Niven’s Man-Kzin Wars books with Roddenberry’s universe. The episode also claims that the artificial gravity field commonly used aboard starships is derived from a flight belt recovered from a previous stasis box, which conflicts with virtually every later series’ assertion that artificial gravity was a human invention.
LogBook entry by Earl Green