SPECIES
Kzinti
Planet of origin:	Kzin
Affiliation:	The Patriarchy
Warp capable:	Unknown date
Biology
Classification:	feline humanoid
Environmental requirements:	Class M conditions
Sexes:	Male and Female
Telepathic abilities:	In some members
Distinctive Features: Cat-like features; bat-wing ears; naked tail

The Kzinti are a felinoid race which fought a few minor wars with Earth in the late-21st or early-22nd century. Their political state is known as The Patriarchy, a name which reflects the sexist culture of the species.

PhysiologyEdit

The Kzinti are a large, carnivorous cat-like species. They typically feature orange/brown fur with prominent fangs and tufted ears.

Some Kzinti possess telepathic abilities allowing them to read other beings' minds. However, one can deter them from doing so by disgusting them thinking about vegetables. (TAS episode: "The Slaver Weapon")

CultureEdit

The Kzinti culture is a violent one and highly prejudiced, they pay no respect to females or herbivores of any race. (TAS episode: "The Slaver Weapon")

HistoryEdit

The Kzinti have had some capacity for space travel for some time. Their "Chuft" is the equivalent of "Captain" for these space-capable vessels. It is thought the Caitians of the planet Cait are descended from an ancient, Kzinti colony. (ST reference: The Worlds of the Federation)

Not long after the planet Earth developed warp drive the Kzinti fought a series of minor wars with the planet. The conflicts came to an end with the Treaty of Sirius which disarmed the Kzinti and limited their space force to a collection of police vessels.

Exactly when the Earth-Kzin Wars took place is unknown. Hikaru Sulu stated they took place 200 years prior to 2270, however this was presumably an approximation. The wars taking place nearer to the end of the 21st century, or even the early 22nd century would be more likely as this would give Earth time to build a space force capable of fighting a war so soon after the devastation of World War III and the recent development of warp drive in 2063. Although Stavos Keniclius 5 had knowledge of the Kzin in TAS episode: "The Infinite Vulcan", it isn't known if this was inherited from the original's memory, or learned about through Spock 2's.

In the 23rd century Kzinti archaeologists discovered a pair of Slaver stasis boxes, they turned one over to Starfleet but kept the other in the hope of profiting from a valuable content typical of Slaver boxes. Unfortunately the box was empty so instead the Kzin opted to use it to as bait to capture another box. They were successful in luring the shuttlecraft carrying the box to a landing site on Beta Lyrae, and in the other box found a slaver weapon, after a period of experimentation the weapon self destructed, killing the Kzinti who possessed it. (TAS episode: "The Slaver Weapon")

The Kzinti return when Kirk and crew are investigating the fate of a Bebebebeque colony. (Comic strip: "The Wristwatch Plantation")

This section is written from the Real World point of view.

BackgroundEdit

The Kzinti were created by Larry Niven, making their first appearance in the short story "The Warriors", part of his "Known Space" series. When he wrote an episode for Star Trek: The Animated Series he based it on one of his Known Space stories "The Soft Weapon", in the process putting the Kzinti into the Star Trek universe.

The Los Angeles Times syndicated comic strip storyline of "The Wristwatch Plantation", by Sharman DiVono and Larry Niven, almost became a novelization. (See Playgrounds of the Mind chapter.)

Jimmy Diggs, a writer for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager has on a number of occasions attempted to tell more stories of the Kzinti. First with a proposal for a feature length animation "Star Trek: The Lions of the Night". Material developed for that project was later worked into an article for the "Star Trek Communicator" in which he put forth the Kzinti would make excellent Star Trek villains. His most recent attempt would have seen the Kzinti appear in a season five episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. However the series was cancelled before this came to fruition.

MirakEdit

Due to licensing problems, the Kzinti race was renamed to Mirak in some Star Trek products.

External linkEdit

• Kzinti article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.