#taylor the kzin

[sptoastaddict]

There’s a page for the Kzinti on Federation Space presently

https://wiki.fed-space.com/index.php?title=Kzinti

[doolallymagpie]

thinking about how there’s a Kzin on the Cerritos, and there’s undoubtedly holonovels about the early wars between humans and Kzinti (of varying quality and realism)

and that you could probably simulate hunting humans or other sentients on the holodeck…

and you could replicate human flesh…

[stra-tek]

Kzinti and Star Trek

You don't see many Kzinti in Star Trek, and there's a very good reason for that: They're not actually Star Trek aliens, but a borrow from Larry Niven's Known Space series of books. And so Paramount don't actually own them. "The Slaver Weapon" episode of The Animated Series is an adaptation of Larry's "The Soft Weapon"

TAS' "Slaver Weapon" brought lots of Known Space lore into Trek. 4 Man-Kzin Wars were fought prior to the invention of faster-than-light travel, which really doesn't work in Trek where First Contact established, well, first contact and it was between humans and Vulcans after the first warp flight.

We also saw a Slaver, which have a rich backstory in Known Space where they're known as the Thrint and once ruled over the galaxy with their telepathy.

Some of Niven's backstory fits into Trek but other parts don't.

The Man-Kzin Wars don't. That being said, there have been attempts to bring Kzin back into Trek and several references to them. The Next Gen novel "The Captain's Honor" features the M'dok in the B-plot, a feline species who fought 2 wars with humanity one before the founding of the Federation and one after... sound vaguely familiar? They were originally the Kzin, and had name and details changed to avoid potential legal issues.

The Kzin exist in the Star Fleet Battles tabletop gaming universe (which is like a Trek splinter universe, licensed from TOS, TAS and the Star Fleet Technical Manual but nothing else), but they lack the distinctive bat ears.

Starfleet Command, the videogame adaptation of Star Fleet Battles swaps the Kzinti for the Mirak, again to avoid copyright issues.

But then came Star Trek Picard, where in season one Riker talks about an issue with the Kzinti (apparently permission was sought from Larry Niven and given for the mention) and then Lower Decks gave us Taylor, who is clearly Kzinti but likely will just never have anyone say it out loud just to be on the safe side

Oh, and the 1980 Star Trek Maps were cheeky and called them the K'zinti and hoped the apostrophe would make everything okay.

There have been attempts to bring the Kzinti back to Trek, like a planned Enterprise season 5 episode called "Kilkenny Cats" which was almost resurrected as a New Voyages fan film project. Here's the poster, where they'd replaced the Kzinti with the Kytharri (another Kzin-expy from the DS9 "Prophecy and Change" anthology

The "Kilkenny Cats" story read somewhat like a retread of DS9's "Armageddon Game". There were also attempts to get an animated Star Trek movie made called Lions of the Night, involving Sulu and the Enterprise-B dealing with a Kzinti invasion.

Oh oh, and read Ringworld. It's fantastic. And makes one wonder what the Kzin world is like in the Trek world... because they're unable to stop themselves launching violent wars on neighbours which they have no hope of winning, their world is essentially occupied by humans and that's very un-Trek (which of course makes it 10x more fascinating) indeed. How would Starfleet and the Federation deal with such a threat?

[star-trek-pop-quiz]

Star Trek POP-QUIZ #16

( 20 / 01 / 2024 )

Question 1. What does "mok'tah" mean? a. Pathetic b. Bad Match c. Pandering d. Idealist

Question 2. TRUE OR FALSE Nana Visitor ( Kira Nerys' Actress ) has a cooking YouTube channel.

Bonus Question: If so, what is the name of her channel?

Question 3. What is the name of the Kzin ensign which appears in Lower Decks? a. Ta'Li b. Chuft c. Taylor d. M'Ress

Bonus Question: In which episode of Star Trek do the Kzinti first appear?

Question 4. How long does it take for the Dominion to conquer Betazed in the "Battle of Betazed"? a. 10 hours b. 15 hours c. 2 days d. 1 week

Question 5. Fill-in Question! What was Saavik's original intended species?

Bonus Question: In which movie does Saavik first appear?

Score: __/ 5 + 3 bonus ( Answers under cut )

Question 1. b. Bad Match

Question 2. True.

+ nanavisitor

Question 3. c. Taylor

+ The Animated Series: S1, E14 ( The Slaver Weapon )

Question 4. a. 10 hours

Question 5. Half-Vulcan and Half-Romulan, however this was removed post-production. In many novels and comics, Saavik is still portrayed as Half-Romulan.

+ Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn