kevin@voder.UUCP (The Last Bugfighter) (05/09/85)
> A question : In one of the animated ST episodes, I dimly remember > Kirk & co coming across a "Slaver stasis box" on a frozen planet > which contains various interesting and destructive devices > which Kirk trys to keep from the Klingons. Does anyone know > of any connection between this and Larry Niven's Slaver stasis > boxes in his Known Space series? > > Andrew Folkins ihnp4!alberta!andrew At home in the Great White North. In article <263@osiris.UUCP> rob@osiris.UUCP (Robert St. Amant) writes: > That episode was a direct steal from "The Soft Weapon," in Niven's > _Neutron Star_ collection. How can it be stolen when the episode was written by Niven? In Star Trek Log 10 by Alan Dean Foster the copyright page states `This book is based in part on the short story ``The Soft Weapon'' by Larry Niven'. The title page states `SLAVER WEAPON (Adapted from a script by Larry Niven)', so I don't think anyone stole anything. > I think screenplays that draw on real science fiction in this way are > sort of interesting. The only other example I can think of is "Arena", > originally a story by Frederick Brown. Yes. I remember my delight in seeing the sandworm skeleton in Star Wars, and hearing Capt. Cristopher Pike being paged in a Buck Rogers space port. The interesting thing about the Slaver Weapon episode is that it gave the viewer a glimpse of what appears to be a totally different aspect of the Star Trek universe, co-existing within it (of course the original story was not written for Star Trek). > One last thought: In this cartoon, they showed Kirk and co. on the > planet, which had no atmosphere. Instead of putting them in space suits, > each crew man was surrounded by a shimmering shield, generated by a little > box on the belt. Kind of a whole body halo. I thought that was a pretty > clean way of doing things. Better than the bee keeper suits the TV Trek > crew had to wear in one episode. I agree! If there is anything I can't stand it's those stupid space suits they use in the Star Trek movies. They look like a cross between the next-generation space shuttle suit and a suit of armor. Surely by the 23rd century they'll have something better than that! Especially what with their being such wizards with anti-gravity, anti-matter, force-fields, transporters, etc... --- Kevin Thompson {ucbvax,ihnp4!nsc}!voder!kevin "It's sort of a threat, you see. I've never been very good at them myself but I'm told they can be very effective."