Sometimes known as TAS, Star Trek the animated series debuted on NBC, Sat. Sept. 8, 1973. Creator Gene Roddenberry's animated version of Star Trek featured the voices of nearly the entire cast of the original live-action series, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett, as well as many of the original series writers, and guest stars. It was executive produced by Gene Roddenberry, and produced by D.C. Fontana, who has been with Star Trek from it's very beginnings. Being animated, the series could boldly go where the original series could not. It was able to show more exotic aliens, spaceships, and planetscapes then possible in live action. It broke new ground, won an Emmy award, and it left a lasting impression on the Star Trek universe. It also kept Star Trek alive in it's lean years, between the original series and the movies.
In the shuttlecraft Copernicus, Spock, Uhura, and Sulu are en-route to Starbase 25 to deliver a stasis box -- a rare artifact of the Slaver culture. The now-extinct Slavers used these objects to carry weapons, valuables, and other scientific instruments and data. The boxes can detect each other and evidence shows that another device is located nearby. The shuttle lands on an ice planet where hostile Kzinti lie in ambush. Written by Larry Niven, and based on his short story "The Soft Weapon", it crosses Trek into his 'KnownSpace'.