"How do we get this thing to work for us and not constantly kick our asses?"
Uhura, Sulu and Spock go on a mission to retrieve an extremely powerful weapon.
A re-skin of Larry Niven's short story The Soft Weapon, with Sulu and Uhura standing in for the Papeandrous and Spock for Nessus. The part of the Kzinti is played by... the Kzinti, who join the Trekverse because why not? As in the original story, the Kzinti capture the protagonists and confiscate the mysterious Ancient Artifact, set about trying to find out its secrets, and discover that the shape-shifting device has the devastating power to convert matter directly to energy. However, when the leader of the Kzinti, Chuft-Captain, tries to get the weapon to reveal the energy-converting setting again after it has been switched into intelligent-computer mode, the weapon, which was intended to be used by a special agent in a particularly merciless war, naturally concludes that it has fallen into enemy hands and instead configures itself for self-destruct. The Enterprise trio survive, the Kzinti are rather less fortunate.
This is the only episode of the animated series in which any characters are killed onscreen, and the only episode of the Original Series era (besides original pilot "The Cage") in which James Kirk does not appear.
Tropes found in this episode include:
- Abusive Precursors: The Slavers, who existed and died a billion years ago, leaving behind stasis boxes and one supremely powerful weapon, but no user manual.
- Ascended Extra: Because they were borrowed from Larry Niven (who loaned them to this episode as a lark), the Kzinti never appeared again in a Star Trek film or television episode (until Star Trek: Lower Decks' second season) due to licensing restrictions. However, they were still authorized to appear in the Star Fleet Battles gaming universe. In that universe they are one of the major interstellar races and an ally of the Federation (though more of convenience and political expediency than actual friendship like the Gorns). They have their own warships and spend most of their time fighting against the Klingons and the Lyrans. Star Trek Online also has an expy of the Kzinti in the form of the Ferasan race, mentioned to be an offshoot of Caitians who allied with the Klingon Empire (and whose females are fully sentient). Star Trek: Picard would later formally introduce them into canon, with Riker mentioning some trouble with them. note
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Kzinti have different rib arrangements than humans. Also, their females apparently aren't even sentient. They also have telepaths, who are twitchy and neurotic.
- Butt-Monkey: The Kzinti get their butts kicked by the weapon.
- Cat Folk: The Kzinti.
- Damsel in Distress: When the weapon disables their prison, Sulu and Spock manage to escape, but Uhura gets zapped (again) and taken hostage.
- Dolled-Up Installment:
- As mentioned above, it's "The Soft Weapon" relocated from Known Space to the Trekverse.
- An early rejected script for this episode became the Known Space story, The Borderland of Sol.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The timeline of the Star Trek universe wasn't yet fully developed, or even given much thought at the time this series aired. The idea that the Federation and the Kzinti were at war for over two centuries seems patently absurd now that we have set dates for the discovery of warp drive, first contact and the founding of the Federation.
- False Flag Operation: The Kzinti claim to be pirates, but are really operating on their government's behalf. They just claim to be pirates to maintain Plausible Deniability.
- Fantastic Racism: The Kzinti hate vegetarians, and their telepaths get a case of the screaming oojahs having to read their minds. Apparently even thinking about eating veggies makes them miserable.
- Game Changer: The Kzinti are seeking a weapon that will enable them to defeat the Federation. It's the mass conversion setting on the weapon that gives them this possibility.
- Great Offscreen War: The Federation and the Kzinti have had four wars since they first met. The furballs were on the losing side every time. According to the peace treaties they're not even allowed guns now.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Slavers, who ruled the Milky Way with an iron fist billions of years ago and whom the titular weapon was used to fight against.
- Hidden Weapons: To a degree, although the Enterprise crew notices that other than total conversion beam and the laser, there are no other settings particularly useful as a weapon (and they already have better lasers).
- Morph Weapon: The eponymous Slaver Weapon, which is controlled by a little sliding switch on the side. Not everything it turns into is a weapon, though.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
- The Slaver box detects another Slaver box nearby. Spock orders them to investigate and they fall into a trap, as the Kzinti have an empty Slaver box. He reprimands himself in the Captain's Log for having fallen for this Schmuck Bait.
- Our heroes knock themselves out testing the mass conversion weapon and are captured while unconscious. Fortunately the Kzinti go off to test the weapon themselves and get blown up.
- No Man Should Have This Power: Spock decides that it's for the best that the weapon self-destructed, as someone else would have tried to claim it otherwise.
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Spock mentions that some Kzinti believe that ancient weapons are haunted. Uhura has a good laugh at the idea, mentioning that the events that they just went through will probably reinforce the idea.
- Plot Armor: The Slaver Weapon blows itself up, taking all the Kzinti with it, leaving a massive crater and a huge hole in their ship, but Spock, Sulu and Uhura are all unharmed.note
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Kzinti. Spock banks on it when he escapes, knowing that Chuft-Captain won't phone home for backup to deal with a pacifist vegetarian kicking his behind, but try to kill Spock himself.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: This episode puts the Kzinti and Slavers from the Known Space series into the Star Trek universe.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Having been placed in stasis during a war, the Slaver Weapon is reactivated by unfamiliar aliens who don't have the correct passwords. It's sentient enough to conclude that it's been captured by the enemy and self-destructs, taking the Kzinti with it.
- Series Continuity Error: Sulu claims that humans and Kzinti have been fighting wars for the last two hundred years... which would be one hundred years before mankind even got off Earth, even according to early Star Trek's spotty chronology.note
- Swiss-Army Weapon: The Slaver Weapon has many settings, with only one or two useful as offensive weapons. The other settings are more utility functions, to the disappointment of the Kzinti. However (as in the original story), Sulu hypothesizes that this weapon was not a common combat soldier's weapon, but rather like a multipurpose device for an alien counterpart to James Bond.
- Telepathic Spacemen: Some Kzinti are telepathic.
