[5.5/10] An acquaintance of mine described this episode as “the one that explains why The Animated Series was declared non-canon,” and I understand why. The episode is pretty expositional about the origins of the Star Trek universe, and I can completely understand why Roddenberry, Fontana & Co. wouldn’t want to tie themselves down to that for the foreseeable future. I’m not familiar with Larry Niven’s Ringworld universe, but my understanding is that, as the writer for this episode, he injected a lot his own sci-fi world’s backstory into this one.
That said (a.) Star Trek disregards its own continuity all the time (ever notice how we never see the cloaking device from “The Enterprise Incident” again?) and (b.) the episode is pretty middling on its own merits, entirely apart from its connection to Niven’s works.
For one thing, the expositional style isn’t limited to explaining the billion-year old history of the universe. While it’s nice to have an adventure that’s essentially just Spock, Uhura, and Sulu (which feels like a nod to the fact that Nimoy insisted Takei and Nichols be a part of the show), “The Slaver Weapon” is full of Spock dialogue where he basically explains to the audience what’s happening.
The Kzinti are fine as the standard war-like race aliens, but business doesn’t really pick up until the second act, and even then, a lot of time is spent just describing what the titular weapon is and what it can do. There’s a nice irony to the Kzinti trying so hard to find a weapon of war they can use to conquer the galaxy and being felled by a defense measure from the very thing they’re trying to use but it’s generally a lot of talk and stalling and not much story progression.
There’s some interesting texture to the episode, from the design and characteristics of the Kzinti, to the abilities of the weapon, but it feels more like an instructional video on lore than an exciting or intriguing story. “The Slaver Weapon” has its moments, but overall, it’s a bit dull and spends more time telling the audience the significance of what’s happening than having more interesting things happen.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-07-26T02:40:46Z
[5.5/10] An acquaintance of mine described this episode as “the one that explains why The Animated Series was declared non-canon,” and I understand why. The episode is pretty expositional about the origins of the Star Trek universe, and I can completely understand why Roddenberry, Fontana & Co. wouldn’t want to tie themselves down to that for the foreseeable future. I’m not familiar with Larry Niven’s Ringworld universe, but my understanding is that, as the writer for this episode, he injected a lot his own sci-fi world’s backstory into this one.
That said (a.) Star Trek disregards its own continuity all the time (ever notice how we never see the cloaking device from “The Enterprise Incident” again?) and (b.) the episode is pretty middling on its own merits, entirely apart from its connection to Niven’s works.
For one thing, the expositional style isn’t limited to explaining the billion-year old history of the universe. While it’s nice to have an adventure that’s essentially just Spock, Uhura, and Sulu (which feels like a nod to the fact that Nimoy insisted Takei and Nichols be a part of the show), “The Slaver Weapon” is full of Spock dialogue where he basically explains to the audience what’s happening.
The Kzinti are fine as the standard war-like race aliens, but business doesn’t really pick up until the second act, and even then, a lot of time is spent just describing what the titular weapon is and what it can do. There’s a nice irony to the Kzinti trying so hard to find a weapon of war they can use to conquer the galaxy and being felled by a defense measure from the very thing they’re trying to use but it’s generally a lot of talk and stalling and not much story progression.
There’s some interesting texture to the episode, from the design and characteristics of the Kzinti, to the abilities of the weapon, but it feels more like an instructional video on lore than an exciting or intriguing story. “The Slaver Weapon” has its moments, but overall, it’s a bit dull and spends more time telling the audience the significance of what’s happening than having more interesting things happen.