Star Trek: 11 Things You Didn’t Know About The Kzinti

Star Trek fans have been repeatedly robbed of any chance of getting to know the iconic Kzinti.

#StarTrek #StarTrekTAS #StarTrekPicard

[lampy]

It's probably worth saying that Niven had the Kzinti as major players in his Known Space series of novels (the Man-Kzin Wars books are shown in the video), of which Ringworld is probably the best known. BALLER series of books!

[JimmyDiggs]

By the way, Larry Niven and Dorothy Fontana are and were very dear friends of mine. Larry read and approved the feature film "Star Trek: The Lions of the Night" and the one hour episode "Kilkenny Cats". He said that my depiction of the Kzinti in "Star Trek" held true to his initial vision of these sentient felinoids. I also gave Manny Coto a 65 page color illustrated treatment (series bible) that totally integrated the "Star Trek" and "Known Universe" timelines.

[josephwisniewski]

What always got me about "The Slaver Weapon" was how well Spock, Uhura, and Sulu just slotted into the places made for Nessus and the Pompendreos. Barely any adaptation needed.

[layla-rose]

The joy in Seán’s voice during the first sentence is amazing!

[rockyetsx]

The sad, hunch backed Kzinti were the telepaths in the Niven Known Space universe, they were always the ones that looked bedraggled. There was a great sketch of the Kzin in the Niven novels showing a barrel bodied cat with the folding ears.

[alanrogers]

A fun fact about why the animated Kzinti wear pink uniforms. The director of the animated shows was color blind. He literally could not tell pink from gray, which is the color he envisioned, and no one thought to ask him about his choices, until after some of the episodes had aired.

[willmfrank]

Fun fact:
Here's another Larry Niven/Star Trek connection:
Niven and co-author Jerry Pournelle wrote "The Mote in God's Eye, " which features the spaceship MacArthur inspired by an AMT model called the "Leif Erickson Galactic Cruiser." Although not a Star Trek kit, it was designed by Matt Jefferies.

[rosehawke]

"Ringworld" series and Speaker-to-Animals is where I was first introduced to the Kzinti.According to that, it wasn't so much that they saw their females as barely above animals, it's that they actually weren't much above animals and were barely sapient.

[Keleigh]

I've been a fan of both Star Trek and Larry Niven since the sixties. Loved this!

[sivaschuh]

I have been a Kzinti fan since the Animated Series. I noticed the Kzin Starfleet officer in Lower Decks. Bring on more! I enjoyed the character "Speaker to Animals", a Kzin who is involved in Niven's novel, "Ringworld".

[matthewbarry]

In Star Fleet Battles, the Kzinti were known for their drone attack space crafts. They would overwhelm their enemies with superior numbers (similar to the US Navy's swarm attacks.)

[lovehawks]

To the point made about the Caitians being seen in live action in the Kelvin movies, there was also a Catian representative at the Camp Khitomer Accords in Star Trek VI.

[simonelgie]

As a collector of the Star Fleet Battles system, and I have an awful lot of the manuals and ship system displays, I need to make two points.

1 : I love using Kzinti, they're fast and close-quarter fighters with a powerful carrier force and drones by the bucketload!
2 : Their primary foes are Lyrans, the game pronounces them 'Leah-un's.'

[gearc]

The Kzinti Wars have been one of my favorite series since the early 90's and I have been watching Star Trek since I was a kid back in the mid 70's. Only found out they had a tie in a year ago. I would love to see a live action series of Star Trek Kzinti Wars or at least a high quality animated series dedicated to it. That would be EPIC!

[palpytine]

More to the point, they also featured in Niven's "Ringworld", which is arguably his best known work. It still holds its own to this day, unlike a lot of other sci fi from the era which now seems dated.

[ErrolJ]

I would say after seeing Zeb make a live action appearance in the Mandolorian it's more than possible for them to be realised.

[philwatkins]

Never hit the Like button so fast, thanks for giving our Kzinti friends the much deserved spotlight!

[dangingerich]

I've been a Larry Niven fan for a long time, and have read about half of what he's written. (Many of his old stuff was no longer available by the time I started reading old school scifi in the early 90s.) The part about the Kzinti fighting humans during their sub-light days was from the Man-Kzin Wars stories, and kind of wedged into the Star Trek universe. In Larry Niven's stories, humans began traveling in sub-light transports without any weapons, but had fusion technology in their ship that utilized high powered lasers, and those lasers, not thought by the Kzinti to be weapons, were able to be used as powerful weapons, and it caught them by surprise. That was how humanity won the first Man-Kzin War.

[OrdinaryDude]

I'm shocked it took you five minutes before mentioning Larry Niven.

[NomenLuni]

Okay. What the hell is 'Kilkenny Cats'? I've never heard of it before, but the concept of the crew of the NX-01 visiting my town is something I really want to see happen, and fills me with absolute joy. 😁