User:Kobi/Kzinti

This page is about Kzinti in non canon Trek. As with other pages it is to be considered a work in process. Anyone who has further input or wants to comment, may do so on the talk page. – Kobi 16:33, 11 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Current project status
 * Stage 1 – Data collection – mostly done
 * Stage 2 – Data formatting and distribution – in process
 * Stage 3 – adding information from "The Soft Weapon" – on hold
 * Stage 4 – adding information supplied by Jimmy Diggs - in process


 * Pending stages
 * reading further original Kzinti novels (currently up to MKW III)

Star Trek Animated
The first canonical appearance of the Kzinti can be found in the episode. Within this episode several facts about the Niven Kzinti are introduced:
 * Naming Procedures: The leader of the renegade Kzinti bears the half name Chuft Captain, among his crew are Telepath, Flyer, and Slaverstudent (plus a fifth member as per animation error).
 * Female Kzin semi-sentient: The Kzinti don't care for Uhura, forgetting that Human females are capable of thinking of other things than eating and mating.
 * Disarmed Species: Kzinti not allowed to carry weapons as per the Treaty of Sirius.
 * Carnivores: It is mentioned that none of Chuft Captain's crew has ever tasted Human meat.
 * Physical appearance: Kzinti resemble the ones from Known Space with batwing like ears, four digits and vertical ribs.

Also a dating for the Kzinti wars is given: 200 years before the episode. Problems arise, because even though this would place the first four invasions from the Niven universe close to the discovery of FTL travel, it is impossible to incorporate other aspects of the Niven universe, namely the almost 200-year-old colony on Alpha Centauri. Maybe Niven was in the belief Star Trek would be as far in the future as his stories. If he only knew or  this would be possible. Furthermore it is interesting to note that original short story The Soft Weapon reveals the Kzinti set up the trap just 40 years before the incident on Beta Lyrae.

Kzinti are also mentioned as a side note in when Stavos Keniclius 5 argues for the need of genetically engineered Humans. Kirk replys there was peace for the last 100 years. A Kzin is also part of the Elysian Council in. The novelisation by Alan Dean Foster calls the councillor "Berikazin" (but also adds an Edosian), while the Star Trek Concordance explicitly speaks of Kzinti.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Another possible appearence of a Kzinti could be the felinoid dancer on Nimbus III in. Some sources call her Kzinretti. However it is entirely possible she was supposed to be a Caitian.

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Kzinti appeared once more in a background note in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Several stars on the chart in were labelled with planets from TOS and TAS, including Kzin, the homeworld, and Beta Lyrae, where Spock, Sulu, and Uhura met the Kzinti.
 * In the Known Space Universe homeworld orbits a star called "Father Sun" by Kzinti and known as 61 Ursae Majoris by Earth astronomers.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Several sites reported that the Tzenkethi which first appeared in are replacement species for the Kzinti. This is most likely related to a rumour being first confirmed on The TrekBBS forums and additionally fed by reference as "feliform" in "Infinite Bureaucracy" one of the fan submitted stories of Strange New Worlds VII.

Recently the rumour could be refuted, when author Christopher L. Bennett asked episode writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe about his intentions: "[...] I suspect I did my usual and combined a couple things. Probably Kzinti and Tsankth. But when I picture them in my head, they weren't big cat people."

Star Trek: The Lions of the Night
Around Star Trek: The Lions of the Night was the concept by writer Jimmy Diggs to produce a movie era CGI animated Star Trek adventure. He described the plot the following way: "... Captain Sulu takes command of the Enterprise-B and must stop a Kzinti invasion of Federation Space." Artist Court Jones created several sketches to depict a new concept of Kzinti that were looking more dangerous as well as a concept of how the Kzinti assault fleet would look like. The project was turned down, but parts were recycled for Star Trek: Enterprise, also see entry for Magazines.

Star Trek: Enterprise
Kzinti were to re-appear in Star Trek: Enterprise Season 5 as the main villains of the fifth year. An introducing story "Kilkanny Cats" was written by Star Trek veteran writer Jimmy Diggs who previously tried to pitch Kzinti-themed stories for Deep Space Nine and Voyager. The story was based on works of Neal and Jana Hallford, and edited by D.C. Fontana and André Bormanis.

Jimmy Diggs revealed about the script that "... Captain Archer encounters the Kzinti after an 80 year period of no contact with the Federation. Larry Niven loved it, D.C. Fontana and André Bormanis both story edited the script and signed on the final draft."

Glitchwerk Studios presents the concept CGI model of the Kzinti cruiser Dark Stalker. The design for the Dark Stalker is based on Court Jones' sketches created around 2003 for Star Trek: Lions of the Night, a movie era episode in feature length by Jimmy Diggs. Both designs were created after the specifications of Jimmy Diggs and were part of an essay about using Kzinti in Star Trek. The design is losely based on the shape of vessels from the Star Fleet Battles game (hence three nacelles), but with more emphasise on creating a believable warship. The 2150s version combines aircrafts and submarines of World War II.

The artist, Josh Finney, said that he was "... commissioned by writer Jimmy Diggs to design an 'Enterprise' era Kzinti cruiser as part of an overall pitch to Paramount." He further said "As for my ship design, truth be told, Paramounts people would've probably re-designed it a billion times before it hit the screen. But, still, I would've at least provided the starting point for the concept."

Novels and Reference Manuals
The to  comic strip series "The Wristwatch Plantation" by Sharman DiVono and Larry Niven with art by Ron Harris featured 2270s Kzinti. The authors considered to publish the story as a novel or comic book, but this did not happen.

Famous book "Star Trek Maps" by Geoffrey Mandel depics an image of a "Kznti Marker Buoy" (sic!) and gives a summary of the Treaty of Sirius: Geoffrey Mandel's Starfleet Handbook Volume 11 published in, focuses on the Kzinti too, the basic history plot from Known Space is transferred into the Star Trek Universe.
 * The Kzinti Patriarchy is restricted to a spherical volume of 50 light years in diameter, marker buoys are located at the perimeter broadcasting warning messages in the Hero's Tongue.

Further hints to the Kzinti can be found in "Star Trek: Star Charts" by Geoffrey Mandel: One of the empires is labelled "The Patriarchy" on request of Paramount authorites.

Star Trek Log 5 by Alan Dean Foster begins with a flashback scene of M'Ress' career in Starfleet. Among one of the events is her time as a junior communications officer aboard the USS Hood (NCC-1703): The starship was attacked by a Kzinti cruiser killing all of the bridge crew including the chief engineer and crippling several systems including engines and communications. M'Ress who speaks little Kzinti volunteers to beam over to the cruiser which was disabled in the counter attack. The Kzinti are sending a distress call to their homebase which needs to be cut off and M'Ress' further plan is to recode it to send an own distress to a Federation starbase. Her actions resulted in a promotion to lieutenant after just two years of service and the transfer to the Enterprise. The battle was establishen in M'Ress' biography by Lincoln Enterprises where it is stated she entered Starfleet just three years ago, placing the event in 2266.

The novelisation of (in Star Trek Log 4), too mentiones Kzinti, when Kirk ponders about the Edosians' ongoing neutrality despite the warlike Klingons, Romulans and Kzinti.

In "The Worlds of the Federation" by Shane Johnson, Kzinti are mentioned in the Caitian entry: It is speculated that Caitians are the decendents of an old Kzinti colony. Caitians are described as peaceful in nature contrary to their assumed cousins. These data points reflect the information first published in M'Ress' biography by Lincoln Enterprises.

The Pocket TNG novel "The Captains' Honor" by David and Daniel Dvorkin features carnivourous felinoids called M'Dok. An early publication notice called the race Kzinti and within the novel are references to M'Dok having fought several wars with Earth and once ruled a vast empire.

The Pocket TOS novel "Ishmael" by Barbara Hambly contains a throw away line to the Kzinti: The Starbase's commanding officer, Maria Kellogg, served as chief engineer of the Republic before in her career. She was one of six Human crewmembers, the rest were Orions, Kzinti and Trisk. (Revealed in Chapter 7.) Later Kellogg and Kirk pass two Kzinti in the corridors of the station. Kellogg greats them in their native tounge. (Revealed in Chapter 13.)
 * Dating of the novel is complicated, Spock's uniform is described as being blue, Sulu and Uhura are addressed as lieutenants indicating setting during FYM; however there are references to Starfleet crew wearing belts and one of the boxes containing top-secret material is labelled with a warning of containing live Ceti eels. Side note: Species created by Man-Kzin War author Poul Anderson, the Hoka, are also mentioned.

The Pocket TOS novel "Battlestations!" by Diane Carey also mentiones Kzinti as one of the hostile races that might want to buy the stolen transwarp technology.

Magazines
Jimmy Diggs wrote an article for issue #149 of the Star Trek Communicator in which he describes seven Star Trek villains. As number 7 lust he proposes Kzinti could fulfil that role. The article is illustrated with one of the images created by Court Jones.

A timeline by Geoffrey Mandel published in the article "A History of the Federation" from the Star Trek Giant Poster Book #14 includes two dates regarding the Kzinti:
 * 2050: Kzinti, a race of cat-like warriors, discover Earth and immediately begin the first of five Man-Kzin wars.
 * 2051: Zefram Cochrane discovers warp drive, enabling Earth vessels to defeat the Kzinti.

Games
Kzinti are part of the Star Fleet Universe aka. Star Fleet Battles. In the SFU, the Kzin singular/Kzinti plural becomes Kzinti/Kzintis, the species has sentient females, cat ears and no tails. Their empire, the Kzinti Hegemony, fought several wars.
 * the Kzinti develop warp drive in Y11 (&#8776;2121)
 * the First Lyran-Kzinti War from Y48 to Y56 (&#8776;2158 - 2166)
 * the First Klingo-Kzinti War from Y50 to Y82 (&#8776;2160 - 2192); Klingons win the war and take three planets
 * the Kzinti started the First Federation-Kzinti War lasting from Y88 to Y92 (&#8776;2198 - 2202); several Starfleet vessels had Klingon military advisors aboard (Klingons were contacted three years before the start of war)
 * the Second Klingo-Kzinti War from Y103 to Y106 (&#8776;2213 - 2216); the three planets lost to the Klingons in Y82 (&#8776;2192) are reconquered
 * the Second Lyran-Kzinti War from Y109 to Y114 (&#8776;2219 - 2224)
 * a Civil War in Y116 (&#8776;2226)
 * the Third Klingo-Kzinti War from Y123 to Y131 (&#8776;2233 - 2241)
 * the Third Lyran-Kzinti War from Y125 to Y131 (&#8776;2235 - 2241)
 * the Second Federation-Kzinti War from Y136 to Y142 (&#8776;2246 - 2252)
 * allied with the Federation in Y166 (&#8776;2276) and fought during the General War (Y168 - 185 [&#8776;2278 - 2295], originally started as Fourth Lyran-Kzinti War) against the Klingons and Lyrans.
 * Reference date for Y0 was 2110, to align the FYM set Y155-160 with 2265-70; Y154 corresponds with (2266), Y156 with  (2267), Y157 with  (2267), and Y159 with  (2268); for more information see, where 2108 is used as reference date

In the Starfleet Command computer games the Kzinti are renamed Mirak, and are based on the alternate take of the species seen in the SFU. See the at the. Compared to Kzinti from Star Trek and even Star Fleet Universe, they don't look much Kzinti: Mirak portrait

In both the Star Fleet Universe and its computer game version, the Kzinti share a border with the Federation to the east, the Klingons to the south and the Lyrans to the west. They don't share a common border with their allies the Hydrans.

The Dragon Magazine published two different approaches for Kzinti to be used with FASA RPG specifications. One published in 1981 was for Dungeons & Dragons set in the medieval times. The second was The Kzinti have landed! by Jon Slobins published in edition #104 (December 1985). It recited the background information given in The Slaver Weapon and furthermore adds character values for male Kzin, Kzin captain, Kzin warrior, Kzin telepath, and Kzin females, with an additional combat table for a Kzinti Police Ship.

RPG system Memory: ICON published the LUG Trek Netbook (PDF, 4.2 MB) at their website which supports players with Kzinti specifications and background information for the TNG era who were playing with the Last Unicorn Games role-play books. The most basic informations are also given in HTML format; A Hungry Season, one of their adventures, has Kzinti as the main theme.

Kzinti in Fandom

 * Note: Everything in this section should be regarded as fan fiction. It is included here for the sake of completeness.

A six-week Kzinti incursion is mentioned in "Ships of the Star Fleet" taking place from August to September 2272.
 * Note that the book sets TMP in 2267 and TWOK in 2287, so the given date needs to be modified. A linear shift with 2273 and 2285 as reference dates would result in the incursion to be set in 2276. (This might be the invasion described in .)

The authors of above mentioned book have developed online resource Federation Reference Series Online (FRS) building on their earlier works and expanding it. In their revised chronology (which is based on Geoffrey Mandel's version) the following entries relate to Kzinti:
 * 2056: DY-500 Woden Class Freighter is commissioned into service. The first of four Earth-Kzin Wars begin.
 * 2082: The Earth-Kzin Wars are resolved with the Treaty of Sirius. The Kzin Patriarchy is confined to a "controlled" area of space and it's military complex dismantled down to a handful of patrol cruiser spacecraft.

Masao Okazaki's Starfleet Museum has the following entries for Kzinti:
 * 2208: Six Kzinti vessels destroyed by Lancester-class cruiser USS Wolfe (NCC-1217) under command of Commodore Antonio Saxon in Korrok system.
 * April 2226: Skrimishes with Kzinti raiders in Little Crescent sector: USS Caudiptyrex (NCC-1411) and USS Goshawk (NCC-1423) (both Kestrel class light cruisers) discovered six Chak-Chuf class heavy cruisers, engaged the enemy and delayed their travel to Federation colony on Slavin H-3. After five hours of continued attacks Starfleet re-enforcements from Starbase 55 arrived; semi-dreadnought USS Marduk (NCC-1281) and heavy cruiser Pearson (NCC-1220) could destroy five of the six heavy damaged intruders.
 * 2231/32: Penguin squadrons stationed on Al-Burak-class carriers are assigned to Eighth Fleet along Klingon border and Twelfth Fleet along Kzinti border.
 * January 2233: Vessels of Al-Burak-class carrier group USS Tiamat destroy Kzinti fleet in Monaba sector.

Online comic Tigers of Heaven by Charles Kelso and Kail Tescar feature a story about a meeting with a Kzinti ambassador at stardate 6842.1 (at least half a year after ). A Federation inquiry board meets aboard the Enterprise in Dramian space in order to discuss weapons inspections in the Kzinti territory, after Orion vessels have been sighted near Kzinti space.

In the Orion Press Fan Fiction Universe Kzinti are used from time to time in the stories. The Kzinti are said to be native to Sirius IX. In the following stories Kzinti are the main theme:
 * In 2271 Scotty is ordered to watch over seven children of high ranking Starfleet members. When he goes on a camping trip to Tellar, one of the boys is abducted by Kzinti (Scotty's Vacation by Mark C. Henrie)
 * In 2275 they invaded Amerind and enslaved its inhabitants, but were driven out by a team lead by Sulu the USS Cooper's executive officer (The Beggar's Tooth by Randall Landers).
 * In 2279 the plasma plague breaks out on Kzin. Only with medical help from the Federation the world is saved. Following this event the Kzinti join the Federation. Commander Uhura – captain of the Anwar Sadat which delivers the medicine – becomes some sort of hero in the Empire. Ensign Riit rembers this event in 2285 (In Harm's Way by D. William Roberts).

One issue by Richard E. Mandel's revised Federation Spaceflight Chronology focuses on the Earth-Kzin Wars 2049-2065. It establishes Kzinti aquired warp drive from the Tellarites and the fourth war was ended by Earth Forces dropping an asteroid on the Kzinti homeworld. Volume 4 can be downloaded from the FSC section.

Kobi's Kzinti
Beside this article I also created some original work regarding the Kzinti. Most recently I made fourth place in the TrekArt Contest at TrekBBS with my entry The Slaver Weapon. I also came up with the following timeline about Kzinti in Star Trek the outline was first created in the late 1990s. I plan to change a few facts in the months to come using several of the above mentioned informations from various sources:
 * 2056: A Kzinti scout discovers Earth with its pouplation decimated and sick of war.
 * 2065: Kzinti invade the Sol System.
 * 2069/70: Kzinti invade the Sol System for a second time.
 * 2074: Third attempt to conquer the Sol System.
 * 2080: Fourth and last attempt to invade the Sol System, the Kzinti fleet is destroyed in the Battle of Ceres.
 * 2085: A fifth Kzinti fleet is destroyed by the Earth vessel Yamamoto.
 * 2065-2085 will be known as the First Man-Kzin War.
 * 2111-2124 will be known as the Second Man-Kzin War.
 * 2144-2162 will be known as the Third Man-Kzin War.
 * 2191-2198 will be known as the Fourth Man-Kzin War.
 * 2223-2232 will be known as the Fifth Man-Kzin War.

Known Space Timeline
Presented on the right is the timeline as presented in the original works written by Larry Niven and others involved in the Man-Kzin Wars novels. It is based on Russel Martin's research with additional input from Marc Carlson's Known Space Chronology.


 * First Encounters
 * In outer space, lightyears away from the nearest star the earth vessel Angel's Pencil and an Kzinti vessel meet.
 * The Kzinti are able to probe the Humans with their telepath learning that they have no weapons at all. They begin to heat the Earth ship with microwaves.
 * ''The event of first contact is described in the short story "The Warriors" written by Larry Niven in 1966. The story was reprinted in the first volume of Man-Kzin Wars.
 * On Earth the event is kept secret even more than ten years after news of the event was received by the asteroid belt's listening posts.
 * Three Humans with connections to the peace-keeping agency Amalgamation of Regional Militia (ARM) develop counter measures without the knowledge of ARM.
 * The first wave of invading vessels is (partially?) repelled by the thrust lasers on Mercury.
 * ''The story "Madness Has Its Place" decribes the above events, it was written by Larry Niven and reprinted in "Man-Kzin Wars III". It starts in 2375 and spans several years.


 * Notes on First War
 * Before the First War was a era of peace that lasted 300 years; governmental agency ARM controlled any harmful technology: all kinds of weapons needed to be rediscovered.
 * Human colony on Alpha Centauri ("Wunderland") was occupied by Kzinti and used as launch base for four fleets; Humans bred as slaves; prisoner's punishment is public hunt.
 * Death of Kzinti governor Chuut-Riit and Outsider's hyperdrive changed tide of war in favour for Men:
 * construction of fifth fleet delayed,
 * Wunderland liberated by Hyperfleet Armada,
 * and theatre of war brought to other Kzinti bases.


 * Ancient Kzinti
 * Roughly 40,000 years in the past, the Kzinti culture was not developed as during the space age.
 * Females were sentient and Kzinti did eat other things than just meat.
 * The language has not changed all that much, just a few words were contracted.
 * Ancient Kzinti are encountered by Human Carroll Locklear on the planet Zoo in MKWI: "Cathouse" and MKWII: "Briar Patch" both by Dean Ing.

The Soft Weapon
The story was originally named "The Soft Weapon". Larry Niven wanted to use the opportunity of animation and introduce non-human characters when he was asked to write for TAS. The Kzinti were actually his third choice only, the first two stories were rejected because they weren't suited for Kid's television. (His first submission "The Borderland of Sol" later was expanded to a novella and won a Hugo Award.) The following is a comparison between the animated episode and the short story.

The basic changes are of course the introduction of characters from the Animated Series. The lead characters Jason Papandreou and his wife Anne-Marie were replaced by the lieutenants Sulu and Uhura. Jason and Anne own the Court Jester a passenger ship, which was chartered by Nessus, a Puppeteer, to transport him to the rim of Known Space and back to Jinx (Sirius). Nessus was replaced by Spock, since both are pacifists.

"The Soft Weapon" was Niven's 16th story. It was included in the following printed books:
 * "Neutron Star". Ballentine, April 1968. ISBN 0345336941
 * "Playgrounds of the Mind". Tor Books, October 1991. ISBN 0812516958

Links

 * The semi-official homepage of Kzinti creator Larry Niven has an extensive collection and description of Kzinti culture
 * Court Jones' webpage features drawings of a teaser poster for Star Trek: The Lions of the Night an animated feature set in the late movie era. It shows an approaching Kzinti fleet facing the Enterprise-B with Chekov, Sulu and Uhura in the front. Also available is the image from the April 2004 issue (#149) of the Star Trek Communicator at his homepage. Furthermore he shows other commissioned work produced for Star Trek: The Lions of the Night, a project of Jimmy Diggs'.
 * Star Trek at Glitchwerk Studios presents the concept CGI model of the Kzinti cruiser Dark Stalker which was based on the vessel designed for above mentioned animated series and retro-designed to be used for Season 5 of Star Trek: Enterprise.
 * Destiny's Forge homepage of most recent Man-Kzin Wars novel by Paul Chafe with five excerpts.
 * Encyclopedia of Known Space
 * rec.arts.startrek.misc newsgroup article (?) KZINTI (Inclusionary Data for the Star Trek Universe)
 * Misc Star Trek (Animated) Links
 * Star Trek: The Animated Series by Kail Tescar
 * Guide to Animated Star Trek by Court Danhauser
 * Starfleet Museum by Masao Okazaki
 * Urban Myth: Legal Issues Behind the "The Slaver Weapon" by Greg Tyler – Interview with Larry Niven about "The Slaver Weapon" and Ballantine Books

Man–Kzin War Books
The following list is primarily a list for me, because everytime I want to buy a book at ebay I freak out which novel is meant (and I want to read them in order).


 * German specials: These are really annoying when searching for Kzin books at eBay.de, because the story arcs are collected in them. Though Eisen'' got me into the entire topic at first:
 * Eisen (Poul Anderson)
 * Eisen (MKW Ib)
 * Höllenfeuer (MKW IIIc)
 * Tal der Katzen (Dean Ing)
 * Katzenhaus (MKW Ic)
 * Neandertaler (MKW IIa)
 * Eine dunkle Geometrie (Gregory Benford & Mark O. Martin)
 * Die trojanische Katze (MKW VIb)
 * Eine dunkle Geometrie (MKW VIIb)

Acknowledgements

 * Jörg Hillebrand for information from novels
 * User:Nerroth for his Star Fleet Battles contributions and corrections
 * Writer cox.net/houseofdiggs/HOD.htm Jimmy Diggs for his input on Star Trek: The Lions of the Night and explaining the events around "Kilkenny Cats".
 * User:Capt Christopher Donovan for being so bold to upload the CGI Dark Stalker (2150s)
 * User:Bp for the new Kzinti image from DVD and the cool brokenlink template.
 * The guys (especially Therin of Andor, Timo, and Starscape) at TrekBBS for multiple input.