The Soft Weapon - also known as

Script by Larry Niven

This page has grown from numerous requests for information about the Kzinti featured in this episode.  I hope that this episode has "converted" many a star trek fan to the writings of Larry Niven when they happened upon it by chance.

The Kzin have been immortalized as part of cartoon history in the Animated Version of Star Trek which was released in the seventies.  If this series is currently re-running in your area - it is worth checking this episode out if only to laugh at the pink-spacesuit clad kzinti.

If the series isn't running in your area, or you can't wait to see this little gem, Amazon do stock the title. ---> click the video cover right.

The script of course was modified by Larry to incorporate the Star Trek characters and instead of Jason and Anne-Marie Papandreou we have Lt. Sulu and Lt. Uhura, and instead of the puppeteer, Nessus we have Mr Spock taking the part.  

Strange as it sounds, this does actually work out quite well.  The episode also features a wonderful piece of Federation Technology which even by the time of the latest TNG films, Starfleet have not adopted: a belt that puts out its own force field doubling as a spacesuit.. 

Here are some Kzin screenshots from the episode obtained from:

The Guide to Animated Star Trek.

A Kzin	Kzin Telepath	The Slaver Box	Kzin bearing teeth
Slaver Weapon in one form	Slaver Weapon in another form	Kzinti Pirate Ship	The Star Trek Crew

Star Trek Role Playing

Star Fleet Battles is a wargame that was made by Task Force Games and is based on the "original" and "animated" versions of Star Trek.

Task force designed several Kzin ships for the game and released fiction and background information on the Kzinti in the publications Nexus and Captain's Log (back issues are still available), which were two periodicals Task Force Published.

Task Force produced minatures of the Kzin ships for use with the game, these can still be ordered from this web site.

Further Information

Dragon Magazine printed two past articles about the Kzinti and one on Known Space Dolphins. These articles were:

Kzinti, by Robert Plamondon in Issue #50.

This article delt with addapting the Kzinti to a Dungeons and Dragons environment.

Kzinti Have Landed!: A new race for Star Trek: The Role-Playing Game, by Jom Slobins in Issue #104.

This article delt with adding the Kzinti to the old Fasa Star Trek RPG.

The Dolphins of Known Space: A new race for the Ringworld Game, by Sherman Kahn in Issue #95.

This article expanded on the information giving for Dolphins in the Ringworld RPG and adds rules so players can create Dolphin Explorers.

Thank you to Jay W for supplying the above information.