Podcast # 235 - "The Slaver Weapon"

Rico · July 12, 2009, 12:23:22 PM

New podcast is up covering an animated Trek episode, "Warehouse 13", a collectible review, and more. Enjoy the show folks!

http://www.treksinscifi.com/podcasts/TreksInSciFi_235_Slaver_Weapon.mp3

Data · July 13, 2009, 05:17:31 AM

Awesome show Rico thanks for letting me join in.

Rico · July 13, 2009, 06:15:53 AM

No problem. Thanks very much for your comments on the animated series.

X · July 13, 2009, 09:57:46 AM

Loved the podcast Rico! Warehouse 13 was all over the tv this week! It had it's syfy premere and then one on USA then back to syfy for syfy friday.

wraith1701 · July 13, 2009, 06:41:14 PM

Great show! One of these days, I'm gonna have to pick up the animated series. Seems like it might be pretty cool.

moyer777 · July 13, 2009, 08:43:23 PM

I just saw it at Walmart for 14 bucks!

billybob476 · July 14, 2009, 05:05:37 AM

Great show. I reallly need to pick these up as well.

moyer777 · July 16, 2009, 10:11:29 AM

Great show Rico, loved it!

M-5 · July 16, 2009, 02:35:12 PM

Thanks Rico for another great podcast! The Slaver Weapon is my favorite TAS episode. I remember watching it during it's initial run. It's the only episode where someone dies in it. Rumor has it that the art director of the show was color blind and that's why The Kzinti have pink spacesuits. Thanks again Rico!

Ursula · July 19, 2009, 01:10:10 AM

I really enjoyed this podcast (ok I enjoy all of them). Never having seen the animated series before this was a real treat. Thanks Rico, you do a fantastic job.

Meds · July 19, 2009, 07:44:47 AM

I thought i'd made my comment here, blimey i'm slow. I listened to this last week and really enjoyed it, I like the way james Doohan does such a great job doing the other voices, a great voice actor. Great show as usual Rico, looking forward to hearing the Quantum leap show. :)

Feathers · July 19, 2009, 10:31:49 AM

Ouch! I missed commenting too. Listened to this on Monday walking into town from the office for lunch with my wife.

I've never seen the animated series so I always enjoy these. I sometimes wonder if they take a few too many liberties with the tech as it's easy to animate though.

Omra · July 20, 2009, 07:01:22 PM

This is one of my favorite ST Animated stories, because I am a huge Niven fan.

My friends and I all got sooo excited when the show premiered, it was based on his short story 'The Soft Weapon' which was in his Neutron Star anthology book. We felt the addition of Niven to the universe would give Star Trek the true Science Fiction Cred that Start Trek had always been missing. Sadly because of leagal and licencing problems Niven did very little else for Star Trek. Fontana felt most of his story pitches were too 'Science Heavy' phoooey!

True Science Fiction fans love Science and the opportunity to learn about the universe and how science works. Anyways Niven went on to write some Star Trek comic strips for a newscomic publisher. But because of licencing issues the series was scrapped.

Anyways for those who are interested the 'Slavers' were a very powerful Telepathic race known as the Thrintun. And the enslaved race which rose up to combat them were the Tenuctipun. The Tenuctipun were the Engineers and Scientists for the Thrintun Empire, which is why their weapons were so ingenious and devastating.

Niven's writing dates back to 1966 and his Known Space series was a favorite of all my Geek friends back in the 70's. His most famous work is probably 'Ringworld'. If you like the Kzinti there are a total of 13 books out now which are based on Niven's 'Man-Kzin Wars'. They are a popular series, which multiple authors write for. I own a few myself, they are great if you like Military SF. By the way the Kzinti briefly appeared in ST4, so I surmise they are still considered canon, and they are listed in the Start Trek Encyclopedia.

A shame they never really utilized Niven, he would have been a great asset.

cosmonaut · July 24, 2009, 02:11:04 PM

"Fool! Human females are intelligent!"
Me: *cringe*

So I decided to watch the TAS episode. It was far smarter than I expected and better then the He-Man cartoons a decade later I watched as a kid. The information they gave us was a bit redundant, but I liked the chamber-play style with only a few of the main cast and few settings and action scenes.
Yet I have the impression the characters are a bit interchangeable, this could be any shuttle with any away team.

They even made a good effort to make Uhura special, she studied history and was a fast runner - unfortunately she is hit by a phaser not once but twice, not only hindering her escape but also making her a "damsel in distress", in need of saving. And wearing a miniskirt on planet Hoth - seems 23rd century technology is far more reliable than 21st.

What annoyed me most but is rather typical for cartoons are the "dumb enemies", I think main characters only shine with a smart enemy. But I've only seen smart enemies (or the avoidance of a black/white scheme) in cartoons decades later, so I won't blame them.

So thank you, Rico, for reviewing the episode, as always I enjoyed the podcast, and thanks for the opportunity to watch the show, I might be nitpicky but I still enjoyed it. :)

@ Omra
Thanks for the info, I'm writing down "Ringworld" on my list of have-to-read, this really is a gap in my scifi reading I only shamefully admit. :)

Rico · July 24, 2009, 02:15:09 PM

Keep in mind this show is from 1973 - about 36 years old now.