Laurence van Cott Niven is an American science fiction writer who wrote the Animated Series episode “The Slaver Weapon” and co-authored the Star Trek comic strip story arc “The Wristwatch Plantation”. Niven is best known as the creator of the Known Space universe, for which he has written many novels and short stories. Ringworld is the most famous of these novels, winning the 1970 Hugo and Nebula Awards awards.