Anyone got a copy of the script for "The Slaver Weapon" (TAS)?

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

I was wondering if anyone here has a copy of the actual teleplay (not a transcript from the aired episode) for "The Slaver Weapon" (TAS) and would be willing to answer some questions about certain details, or better yet to put it up online? Alternatively, if anyone knows where a copy can be obtained, that would be helpful too. I cannot seem to find any being offered for sale anywhere through internet searches. Thank you all.

 

[GSchnitzer]

I was wondering if anyone here has a copy of the actual teleplay (not a transcript from the aired episode) for "The Slaver Weapon" (TAS) and would be willing to answer some questions about certain details, or better yet to put it up online? Alternatively, if anyone knows where a copy can be obtained, that would be helpful too. I cannot seem to find any being offered for sale anywhere through internet searches. Thank you all.

I have a copy. If memory serves, I have both the First Draft and the Final Draft (but don't quote me on that).

What's your question?

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

I have a copy. If memory serves, I have both the First Draft and the Final Draft (but don't quote me on that).

What's your question?

Thanks! I'll PM you.

 

[1001001]

If you're not going to ask your questions here, is there any reason to keep this thread open?

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

I might post a summary of some points here, depending on what I find out. But I leave it to your discretion, moderator.

 

[1001001]

Hmmm...

Okay we'll leave it open for a little bit and see what develops.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Doubling back on this.

I do indeed have both the First Draft script and the Final Draft script.

The Mighty Monkey of Mim had a couple of questions:

• What is the singular of "Kzinti?" No actual episode dialogue refers to one of these guys in the singular, but perhaps some script direction or excised dialogue clarified the matter. Is the Trek version of this species the same singular as appeared in Niven's book? (Scripted singular is "Kzin"--just as in Niven's books.)
• Any clarity on the "Man-Kzin" wars and howthey relate to the "Treaty of Sirius?) (No further clarity offered.)

 

[Marsden]

If the Kzinti and the Zanti had a war, would the Zentradi feel left out?

 

[Christopher]

• Any clarity on the "Man-Kzin" wars and howthey relate to the "Treaty of Sirius?) (No further clarity offered.)

I don't think "The Soft Weapon" provided any more clarity on that point either. It was only the second Kzinti story, after all, and the first ("The Warriors" the previous year) had depicted the first human-Kzin contact. Niven didn't really do war stories, so he avoided showing the wars themselves and just dealt with them as a historical event. That's why we got the Man-Kzin Wars shared-universe anthologies starting in 1988 -- Niven let other authors do stories set during the wars themselves (although he did contribute a few stories to the anthologies, and the canonicity of the non-Niven MKW stories is disputed, I think). There are something like 14 Man-Kzin Wars volumes by this point, so that's where you'd probably want to look for clarity. The Ringworld novels feature the Kzinti heavily, so there's probably some background fleshed out there. And I think the timeline in Tales of Known Space covered the chronology of the wars, though of course it's completely incompatible with the Trek universe.

 

[GSchnitzer]

As I understand it, The Mighty Monkey of Mim was attempting to update an entry about the Kzinti on the Memory Alpha wiki page. He was getting some push-back from the editors/keepers of that site because he was using "Kzin" as the singular in his article/entry (instead of "Kzinti"). The argument was that "Kzin" was never actually used as a singular in the episode itself--and referring to other non-canonical sources to help resolve the matter (such as by using the copious amount of Niven's books) is not allowed by Memory Alpha policy. So while we can easily determine the singular of one member of this species in Niven's universe, the singular of this species in the Trek universe could be something else I suppose (possibly, "one Kzinti" and "several Kzinti"). The episode dialogue was silent on the matter of the nomenclature for a single member of this species.

But it turns out, Memory Alpha accepts script names and spellings as "canon." So we were looking for a canonical script, not a non-canonical Niven work. Fortunately, there were a couple of times where a script direction in "The Slaver Weapon" offered some clarity ("Chuft-Captain gestures and one Kzin opens the stasis box").

Singular is "Kzin;" plural is "Kzinti;" adjective would appear to be "Kzinti" and the planet name is "Kzin"--in the Trek universe and in Niven's universe.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Here's a line in this transcript, which unfortunately I can't check right now to confirm that it occurs in the episode as transcribed.

SULU: They've got Uhura, and subspace radio. They can call for help from the Kzin planet if they think the weapon's worth it.

Here is the opening log entry of the episode:

First Officer's log, stardate 4187.3. The Enterprise shuttlecraft Copernicus is en route to Starbase Two Five with an important cargo. A Slaver stasis box discovered by archaeologists on the planet Kzin.

So, and as @GSchnitzer says, the name of the planet is "Kzin." Throughout the episode, the inhabitants of Kzin are referred to as Kzinti. But if that's strictly the way it is, then Sulu's line is incorrect. Instead, he should have said one of four things:

1. "They can call for help from the planet Kzin...."
2. "They can call for help from Kzin...."
3. "They can call for help from the Kzinti planet...."
4. "They can call for help from the Kzinti...."

"Kzin planet" would be redundant, basically like "Earth planet" instead of "planet Earth." So, by Sulu's line, it would seem that Kzin can also be used synonymously with Kzinti, at least as Sulu understands things.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Yes, that "the Kzin planet" line is an oddity. (That is exactly how it was scripted, so no mistakes in the line's delivery.) He probably meant "the planet Kzin."

You mentioned "the inhabitants [plural] of Kzin are called Kzinti." The question we were trying to answer is "what do you call one inhabitant of Kzin?" A Kzin, or a Kzinti?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yes, that "the Kzin planet" line is an oddity. (That is exactly how it was scripted, so no mistakes in the line's delivery.) He probably meant "the planet Kzin."

You mentioned "the inhabitants [plural] of Kzin are called Kzinti." The question we were trying to answer is "what do you call one inhabitant of Kzin?" A Kzin, or a Kzinti?

True, it doesn't answer that question one way or another. But I mentioned it, even though it seems likely anomalous, because it might be consistent with "Kzin" being the singular form, if the "Kzin" in "Kzin planet" were a noun adjunct, since the rule for such modifiers is usually to use the singular form. But then again, "Kzinti government," another phrase occurring in the episode, might also appear to be such a construction and thereby consistent with the proposition that "Kzinti" is the singular form. So, it's a wash, really, based on what's available in the episode.

 

[Christopher]

Yes, that "the Kzin planet" line is an oddity. (That is exactly how it was scripted, so no mistakes in the line's delivery.) He probably meant "the planet Kzin."

It seems more that he's using "Kzin" as a possessive, like calling Earth "the human planet." The adjective is usually "kzinti," but looking through Ringworld, I find an example of the usage "kzin years." Although that might be a typo for "Kzin years," as in the planet's years. (The species name is lower-case in Niven's works -- which really should be the case for a species name, e.g. human, elephant, dolphin.)

You mentioned "the inhabitants [plural] of Kzin are called Kzinti." The question we were trying to answer is "what do you call one inhabitant of Kzin?" A Kzin, or a Kzinti?

Definitely a kzin, in Niven. E.g. from Ringworld, "One kzin alone sounded like a catfight. Four kzinti in heated argument sounded like a major feline war, with atomics."

For what it's worth, Alan Dean Foster's "Slaver Weapon" adaptation uses "Kzin" as the singular and "Kzinti" as the plural and adjective -- same as Niven, but capitalized -- but also occasionally uses such phrases as "the Kzin technicians" and "the Kzin commander" (as well as "the Kzinti commander").

 

[GSchnitzer]

So, it's a wash, really, based on what's available in the episode.

That's why TMMoM wanted to know what the script itself said on the issue--since the actual final episode is somewhat ambiguous.

Scene 40 seems to be clear:

"CLOSE ON STASIS BOX AND KZIN: 'The mirror-surface cube flares with light, then becomes an unremarkable metal box. Chuft-Captain gestures and one Kzin opens it.'"

(Also, some noun adjuncts are plural--i.e. "arms race," "media frenzy.")

 

[CorporalCaptain]

(Also, some noun adjuncts are plural--i.e. "arms race," "media frenzy.")

Yes.

 

[Christopher]

(Also, some noun adjuncts are plural--i.e. "arms race," "media frenzy.")

But "kzinti" has always been consistently used as an adjective regardless of number. It's pretty clear that it's both the plural and the possessive/descriptive form.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I'm willing to bet Slaver Weapon is the only time the word "widdershins" has been used in Star Trek.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

True, it doesn't answer that question one way or another. But I mentioned it, even though it seems likely anomalous, because it might be consistent with "Kzin" being the singular form, if the "Kzin" in "Kzin planet" were a noun adjunct, since the rule for such modifiers is usually to use the singular form. But then again, "Kzinti government," another phrase occurring in the episode, might also appear to be such a construction and thereby consistent with the proposition that "Kzinti" is the singular form. So, it's a wash, really, based on what's available in the episode.

Personally, I take it that "the Kzin planet" is merely an alternate phrasing of "the planet Kzin." It seems to me to refer to the planet itself by name, even if it is oddly phrased in context. At the most, it possibly indicates that Kzin can also be used as an adjective like Kzinti (see below).

I do not think that "the Kzinti government" and "a Kzinti spacecraft" should be construed as indicating that the singular term for one individual is "a Kzinti" in strict onscreen canon, even wholly ignoring the clear counter-indications in the production materials. (Not only in this script, but also in that of "The Time Trap" and its related storyboards, where the Kzinti member of the Elysian Council is referred to as a Kzin in clear context of other species names given in the singular form: "...twelve men and women are seated on a dais. Each is a member of a different race: Klingon, Tellarite, Kzin, Orion, Andorian, Vulcan, Human, Gorn and three other alien types we have never seen before. See attached sheet for reference. Their spokesman is XERIUS, a tall Romulan with piercing eyes.")

"The British government" would operate "a British spacecraft," and the people as a whole might be referred to as "the British," but that doesn't mean one of them is referred to as "a British" (full stop).

I think that as a noun Kzinti is used collectively referring to the whole species together ("the Kzinti aren't supposed to have weapons"; "a new war between Man and Kzinti") and in the plural referring to multiple individuals ("it has the Kzinti frightened"). It is also used as an adjective attached to another noun, as in the cases above. Never once in any aired episode is it used to refer to a singular individual. So, to me that seems an entirely unsupported assumption to make based on strict onscreen canon. And the TAS production materials (not to even mention Niven's other works, or real-world examples) clearly show it is a particularly bad assumption to make, because they demonstrate that in spite of the collective/plural/adjectival forms all being the same, the singular form is intended to be different.

For reference, these are all the uses of Kzinti and Kzin in the aired episode:

• SPOCK: ...a Slaver stasis box discovered by archaeologists on the planet Kzin.

• SPOCK: The Kzinti now possess our stasis box.

• SPOCK: A Kzinti spacecraft.

• SULU: Kzinti aren't supposed to have phasers, are they?

• UHURA: I've heard all Kzinti telepaths are unhappy neurotics.

• SPOCK: But the Kzinti are meat eaters.

• SPOCK: In the presence of the Kzinti, do not say anything...

• SPOCK: Are you forgetting Kzinti females are dumb animals? In an emergency the Kzinti may forget a human female is an intelligent creature.

• SPOCK: ...but we may be able to seize an opportunity to escape if the Kzinti believe you have none.

• CHUFT-CAPTAIN: Kzinti archaeologists found both boxes...

• SULU: The Kzinti fought four wars with humankind and lost all of them.

• SULU: Then you're really working for the Kzinti government!

• CHUFT-CAPTAIN: If we are captured, the Highest of Kzin will repudiate us.

• SPOCK: The Kzinti now possess a weapon potentially deadly to the entire galaxy.

• SULU: They can call for help from the Kzin planet if they think the weapon's worth it.

• SULU: As long as you stay free, the Kzinti can't or won't do anything. But they could use Lieutenant Uhura as a bribe.

• SPOCK: Kzinti ribs have some vertical bracing.

• SULU: If the Kzinti had that, the whole galaxy would be their dinner table.

• SULU: It has the Kzinti frightened.

• SPOCK: The Kzinti have legends of weapons haunted by their owners.

• SPOCK: If not the Kzinti, the Klingons or some other species would have tried to possess it.

• SPOCK: That ancient war could have sparked a new war between Man and Kzinti.

• UHURA: Didn't you say the Kzinti have legends of weapons haunted by their dead owners?

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

I'm willing to bet Slaver Weapon is the only time the word "widdershins" has been used in Star Trek.

That reminds me of another question I had for @GSchnitzer: is that line in the script "twist my widdershins" as it is delivered in the episode? I would have thought it would be "twist me widdershins" since widdershins is, in my limited understanding, an adverb that means counter-clockwise.