Star Trek: Voyager
"The Killing Game"
Part I: Part II:
Air date: 3/4/1998
Written by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Part I directed by David Livingston
Part II directed by Victor Lobl
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
"One day the Borg will assimilate your species, despite your arrogance. When that day arrives, remember me." — Seven to Hirogen "number two"
Nutshell: "Excessive" barely begins to describe it. This is overblown anarchy. And the story ultimately has nothing to show for it.
There's a part of me—the part that goes to see movies like Independence Day merely to witness entertainingly large-scaled destruction and mayhem—that enjoyed portions of "The Killing Game." Unfortunately, this is not the part of me that I consider my most socially responsible part, nor is it the part of me that typically writes these reviews week after week.
"The Killing Game," particularly its second half, is one of the most anarchic episodes of Star Trek ever created. It's not just anarchy in the sense that there's war and violence running amuck everywhere on board the starship Voyager; it's also anarchy in the sense that the plot is composed of what seems like thousands if not millions of disconnected little pieces trying to come together to make some sort of sense.
It's futile.
I'm rating the first part higher than the second because it doesn't push so hard as it unfolds and because it proves to be an adequate (if hardly compelling) setup for the premise. Its easygoing pace is refreshing and movie-like. And David Livingston seems to enjoy taking his time to focus on the little details of the French Resistance/World War II holodeck setting.
As for the second part ... well, that's when most of the anarchy sets in, turning the net result into a far-too-extreme two-part Voyager "event." Part two is, frankly, off its rocker—aimless and ill-conceived, yet somehow still moderately watchable and not completely horrid.
I'm not going to explain the plot in any sort of chronologically ordered detail, because there isn't really much "plot," per se, beyond the rudimentary frame for the action. As the episode opens we learn the Hirogen have taken over Voyager. Suffice it to say that the Hirogen leader (Danny Goldring) wants to learn some things about his "prey" by putting them into violent holodeck settings to see how they react. Furthermore, everyone involved is at the mercy of a neural device that makes them believe they're whomever the Hirogen program them to be. Therefore, everybody actually thinks they're the characters that they're playing.
This strikes me as a canned plot method for role-playing in a 20th-century setting, almost as if the Voyager writers decided they wanted to do "Far Beyond the Stars" for themselves. Unfortunately, the setting is put to very little dramatic use; instead, it merely becomes a wind-up toy. Most of the characters play various people in the French Resistance, residents of a town occupied by a Nazi presence. The town is on the verge of invasion by the Americans. You'd think with a premise like this there'd be room for some social relevance. But this story instead turns into a collection of bright ideas, with the crew members' identities changing on a moment's notice (under circumstances that would take far too long to explain), holodeck safeties being disabled, and, finally, the notion that WWII actually spills onto the decks of Voyager when the Hirogen lose control of their controlled situation. (They had installed holo-emitters on various decks of the ship—although why is never quite clear.)
Of course, there's also the bright idea of making Neelix a Klingon for his bout of role-playing in a second holodeck setting. I have no comment other than, "uh ... no." (Conversely, I thought Janeway's brief turn as a Klingon in the opening minute of the show was quite a bit of fun. I didn't even realize that it was Kate Mulgrew until after the Hirogen said, "Janeway requires medical attention.")
Meanwhile, the episode goes on to lay waste to half the ship for no other reason, I'm guessing, than because the creators felt they could. Only in "The Killing Game" will you see the holodeck wall blown apart, exposing multiple decks of the ship to the people inside the holodeck. Only in "The Killing Game" will you see Janeway blow up sickbay with a holographic bomb based on WWII technology. And only in "The Killing Game" will a group of holographic Klingons save the day by charging across from another holodeck simulation to slaughter the simulated German army.
Is this interesting to watch? Well, maybe for a while, but not for the length that it continues. Talking about it is kind of fun, just because it's so bizarre, absurd, and overlarge—or perhaps it's interesting to discuss for the same reasons I might be excited as I explain to my friends a car wreck I had just witnessed.
The fact of the matter is that watching this becomes tiring and eventually quite boring. By the time the latter stages of the second episode were rolling around, I was sick of the bloodless, pointless gunfights between the fictional armies. The whole exercise became ludicrous. Why was it happening? For some sort of dramatic purpose or storytelling point? No. It was happening because the contrivances of the plot made the holodeck break down so that it couldn't be stopped. Why couldn't the simulation simply be turned off? Because the commands were off-line, that's why. The fact that "the plug can't be pulled" is a very flimsy device to base the a story around, but that's exactly what "The Killing Game" does.
This is merely more fourth-season Voyager "fun." And it's shallow and inept. There really isn't much of a story here. It's just set piece after set piece, with a half-finished theme about Hirogen existence shoehorned in between the plot advances. The tragedy of it all is that the Hirogen theme was the only part of the show that really had any sort of emotional resonance. I found the Hirogen leader to be the story's sole interesting character. His methods were brutal and exploitative, but he had an urgent purpose for what he was doing. He was fascinated by the fantasy realm of the holodeck and what it could mean for his people, who are threatened with extinction as a result of their inability to change. Unfortunately, he goes the way of Ensign Suder—frustratingly knocked off by the writers to give rise to a "tragic" moment, abandoning all potential for him to teach his fellow Hirogen anything that would make them more interesting to us as viewers. He's killed by one of his own men, a casualty of his unconventional thinking. I guess it works in the sense that he's a victim of his own society's problems, but that doesn't change the fact that his death is based on plotting by the numbers.
There are also moments when this episode tries to thematically connect the Hirogen to the Nazis (both are groups who prey on others, but for different reasons), but it's unfortunately lost in a sea of madness, and relevant only for its obvious plot value: to turn the Hirogen number two (Mark Deakins) against his commander.
For good measure, the finale has Janeway being hunted through the Voyager corridors by the evil Hirogen number two. I thought the way she gained the upper hand on him was kind of clever, though part of me wishes Janeway had unloaded four or five shells into the evil Hirogen rather than just one. But that's probably the same part of me that revels in seeing New York City incinerated by a flaming alien fireball (see Independence Day example above).
So what happens when the moment of crisis is over and the holodeck armies vanish? Chakotay says, rather unceremoniously, "It's over. Let's go." I couldn't help but laugh at the anticlimax. Half the ship was lying in ruins, yet the characters just log it as another day at the office. And speaking of days at the office, raise your hand if you think the fact that "the damage to Voyager is extreme" will mean a damn thing beyond the one sentence that was used to acknowledge the fact. (You, in the back—put your hand down. You obviously weren't listening to a word I just said.)
Lastly, the truce at the story's end between the Voyager crew and the Hirogen isn't believable. It comes out of nowhere, half-explained in Janeway's log narration that the standstill in the fighting has provided the Hirogen with no other option. This strikes me as inconsistent with everything about the Hirogen we've learned. With the Hirogen leader dead, there's no dramatic basis for the truce to even happen, so the fact that the remaining Hirogen accept Janeway's peaceful resolution is nothing more than arbitrary.
As brain dead as "The Killing Game" (particularly part two) is, I didn't quite loathe it. I certainly didn't like it, but as an elaborate two hours of "fun" it manages to work in stretches, even though it's hopelessly nonsensical if you stop to think about it.
Ultimately, "The Killing Game" is a Holodeck Runs Awry paradigm—an oft-dreaded TNG cliché reconceived and ante-upped by Voyager. But because Braga and Menosky didn't seem content with only one cliché, they had to throw in a change in time periods, lots of crew members behaving as other people, an alien takeover premise, lots and lots of holodeck gags, gunfire, Jeri Ryan singing, explosions, double-crosses, Hirogen politics, more gunfire, and plenty of general mayhem. It's ... just ... too ... much.
The result is a disjointed, nearly incoherent mess. A mess that doesn't add up to mean much of anything. The more I think about my ratings, the more generous they seem. But I'm not going to change them, because this is an episode that demands to simply be viewed and then not thought of the slightest bit afterward. The technical credits are impressive, if that's any consolation.
So, goodbye, Hirogen. You're another Trekkian alien race for the books, and you won't be particularly missed. You got to appear in five episodes, but you're still nothing more than another entry into the log of Stock Delta Quadrant Aliens.
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Next episode: Vis A Vis
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119 comments on this post
Tue, Jan 1, 2008, 5:33am (UTC -5)
Fri, Jan 11, 2008, 3:24pm (UTC -5)
Fri, May 2, 2008, 5:43am (UTC -5)
Sun, May 4, 2008, 11:07pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Jul 17, 2008, 3:25pm (UTC -5)
Fri, May 8, 2009, 2:04pm (UTC -5)
Wed, May 20, 2009, 9:32pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Aug 1, 2009, 11:25pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Sep 23, 2009, 9:30am (UTC -5)
I think the problems with this episode are the same problems that were present in "Our Man Bashir": that the plot is so OBVIOUSLY just a contrived means to get our characters to do things they wouldn't normally do. And While "Our Man Bashir" was a copy/parody of James Bond, this wasn't really a copy of anything, which really made it quite refreshing. Plus, Jeri Ryan sings! Isn't that worth an extra star?
And I'm so sick of people complaining about the damage to Voyager being too easy to repair. DS9 was attacked by an entire fleet of Klingon ships in "The Way of the Warrior" and never looked worse for wear, nor was it ever mentioned that they needed outisde help.
Fri, Nov 13, 2009, 11:58am (UTC -5)
In "The Way of the Warrior," we saw Starfleet ships dock at DS9 after that battle, so we can assume they were able to offer any repair work that was needed (even if it wasn't mentioned on screen). TOS & TNG often did repair work to their Enterprises off-screen as well, because, like DS9, the audience knew they had access to Federation supplies.
Voyager did not, so that's what makes it a series-wide plot hole.
Sat, Jun 19, 2010, 4:57am (UTC -5)
OMG, a WW2 setting. How convenient. Not the 100-year war, not the Crusades, not some ancient battle between the Egyptians and whoever, not some fray on Vulcan... And Paris, of course, knows AAAAAAALL about WW2. How many of us would be able to know WTF is going on in the Crimean War if we were transported there? And Seven, when her neuro-whatever implant is removed, has no idea who the Nazis were, despite her encyclopedic knowledge of all assimilated facta. A Klingon Neelix. An Allied "captain" Chakotey. I guess we should be grateful that this time he didn't bust out his mat and rocks, and started doing that "acushla moya, we're far from the spirits of our buffalo" bullshit.
Forget the plot and the premise and all; the bottom line is: WTF is a sci-fi series doing even mentioning, let alone basing TWO episodes on, the World War Two?!? I want Star Trek to be about the future technology and exploration, not repackaged conflicts from centuries previously (Civil War and the Q, anyone?) or flirtatious games between Paris and Torres or Neelix/Seven/Kim/The Doctor "finding" themselves.
Speaking of the Doctor, whenever I remember that Schweitzer/Schmalus phase of him, it just cracks me up no end!!
To conclude: When the plot makes it necessary to go back in time or refer to history, can it possibly NOT be 20th century Earth???
O.K., rant over. But you'll be hearing from me again, I suspect. I'm only down to season 4!
Sun, Aug 29, 2010, 6:04pm (UTC -5)
Can you imagine a similar story line assembled around jews & muslims, or perhaps Vietnam?
Thu, Feb 10, 2011, 7:36pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Apr 19, 2011, 10:33pm (UTC -5)
One redeeming aspect of part one, though. I did enjoy Jeri's singing. And it was nice to see her with her hair let down too.
Sun, Aug 7, 2011, 7:25pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Nov 11, 2011, 1:06am (UTC -5)
Let's see. Remember that early scene when the Hirogen number 1 and their doctor discuss the possibility of Janeway being aware of her identity through her persona as the Klingon?
That is the crux of the episode(s) and fits perfectly in with Voyager's (real) premise. There are some issues with the execution (see Chakotay's reaction in part II), but the strength of this episode has to do with the strong identity of these archetypal characters. This show KNOWS it's mythology, and so it puts a myth inside the myth, framed within the admittedly fun historical context of WWII France.
As it is Star Trek, there is also the connection drawn between the Nazis and the Hirogen, but it's not so black and white as you paint it; what the Hirogen have lost is identity, focus, greatness. The Nazis, however evil, were certain of their divine purpose. It is the intrinsic nature of purpose, based on mythical archetypes which gives Star Trek and Voyager its identity, which fascinates the Hirogen number 1 and represents a hope for his people who have lost their culture. Culture. That is what the mythos of things like Star Trek provide a society. I could keep going on this vein of intriguing ideas which this episode generates. And those ideas are fresh with each viewing. That means, to me anyway, that it's a success of Star Trek episode. It is far from perfect, but much of the "excess" is so palpably enjoyable (see for example Doc and Neelix cheering on the attacking Klingons) it's hard to find fault with the superficial nature of these minor plot elements.
Part Ii is a bit of a disintegration, and the ending is, well, weird. I can see giving part II 2.5 stars and part I 3 or 3.5. Much like TNG's "Unification," Part II abandons a great deal of the philosophical headway made in part I.
Thu, Jan 26, 2012, 12:18am (UTC -5)
Fri, Jan 27, 2012, 1:07am (UTC -5)
Ever heard of "german ingenuity" WW2 the nazi technology was superb for a bit and honestly had great ideas. The problem was they tackled it all ideas at once. While USA picked a couple of ideas only and then kept making it better and better. At some point USA caught up with the germans tech wise and help win the war. In essence the Hirogen would've been the most tech advanced in delta quadrant if they weren't hunting. But that doesn't mean that the human way of progress (cooperation and peace) is the only way - in fictional universe look at klingons. Warlike but with warp tech. Honestly a lot of scientific progress happen faster during war or threat of it... Hirogen are hunters. They need to be tech savvy to prey in the first place-just like invention of spears, cannons, guns, etc. to "hunt".
So to your question, yes very possible.
Wed, Apr 4, 2012, 2:01am (UTC -5)
Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 7:02pm (UTC -5)
Voyager did indeed jump the shark here. "The Killing Game Part II" is Voyager's version of Happy Days' "Hollywood, Part 3 of 3."
Wed, Jul 4, 2012, 12:54pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Oct 3, 2012, 6:53am (UTC -5)
No, Voyager is nowhere near as good as DS9, but it really does have its moments, and I think this was one of them. It's just a fun holodeck episode, and I don't think it pretends to be anything more. Just take it at face value and enjoy it for what it is.
Thu, Oct 4, 2012, 6:11am (UTC -5)
Thu, Oct 4, 2012, 6:13am (UTC -5)
Fri, Jan 4, 2013, 10:47am (UTC -5)
I like both parts of this. Good, big boombastic fun.
Mon, Apr 1, 2013, 1:36pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Apr 3, 2013, 4:02am (UTC -5)
Sat, Apr 6, 2013, 3:16am (UTC -5)
Thu, May 23, 2013, 10:33am (UTC -5)
Sun, May 26, 2013, 11:15am (UTC -5)
Mon, Jul 1, 2013, 1:18am (UTC -5)
This was a painful episode to watch. I didn't buy that the Hirogen would do any of this even if one of them was going through a sort-of enlightenment. "I feel like our way of life will get us nowhere." (sensible.) "So, let's violently abuse these humans over and over again " (huh? some renaissance.)
And there goes Elliott again. When everyone else in the world doesn't like a star trek episode that he likes, there is just something wrong with them. In this case, we are "jaded". (snicker) Look, I can enjoy a crappy Star Trek episode like anyone else. But this one was was just too disjointed and unbelievable. That's it. I didn't like it. Deal with it. Now to part 2.
Mon, Jul 1, 2013, 2:39am (UTC -5)
Thu, Aug 1, 2013, 4:48pm (UTC -5)
Yeah, it's ludicrous that a holographic could be projected into B'Ehlanna that perfectly stays aligned as she moves. I guess they improved the technology since Neelix had to stay perfectly still to maintain a holographic lung in place.
Mon, Sep 16, 2013, 8:32am (UTC -5)
Gives us some more depth on Hirogens, shows them interested in learning about their prey's culture and mindset (which is why we're in WWII).
And I think Neelix as Klingon was amusing.
This was a good, message-based episode.
Mon, Oct 28, 2013, 1:56pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Jan 9, 2014, 9:34am (UTC -5)
Indeed...Naomi Wildman springs to mind here. Was she fighting toddler Klingons, or just left to starve to death in her quarters?
Sun, Feb 23, 2014, 6:44pm (UTC -5)
I enjoyed this episode but I remember when this first aired " how many times are we going to do the almost lost my ship routine?
And WHY give technology away when you miraculously manage a cease fire without that on the table? *face palm*
Mon, Aug 18, 2014, 5:04am (UTC -5)
Mon, May 18, 2015, 10:01pm (UTC -5)
This reviewer has made a conscious effort to avoid understanding what the episodes are about.
Wow.. statements like this are great when you don't even try to back them up. Bravo!
Sun, Aug 9, 2015, 2:35pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Dec 9, 2015, 10:12pm (UTC -5)
Yes, this was a very silly episode, and a rather egregious use of the reset button. Which is too bad; the holo-emitters in the hallway could be an interesting thing to keep. After all, imagine if the ship was boarded (again). Instead of sending out the security crew, Janeway activates the emergency security holograms! Just turn the safety off, give them some weapons, ensure they have impenetrable armor, and give them rudimentary AI to ensure they don't hit any of the crew, and voila! Raiding party repelled, with no threat to the crew. It would be an interesting callback to the episode, and provide an actual positive impact of the episode. Or maybe they could extend the holodeck for some lighthearted sideplot for some show. After all, Kim said they extended it another 5000 sq meters! That's some change!
Oh well, on the plus side, it was another interesting side to the Hirogen. We got to see that they weren't entirely a one-trick pony; at least the captain wasn't. At least some of them recognize that their desire to rebuild their society. So we've had four episodes with the Hirogen, and each of them were just different enough to not be boring.
So I thought it was fun. Best part: when the Klingons go off to battle charging and cheering, the Doctor followed, waving his little dagger around sarcastically with a "Tally-ho" to join it.
(Oh ok, one complaint: it seems obvious that someone at the top of the pecking order wanted to see Klingons fighting Nazis. But they seemed to have no idea how to get around to it. Janeway appeared in the Klingon holodeck with Chakotay, supposedly to invite them along. Then she left. Then Chakotay left. Then Neelix and the Doc just sat around for awhile. Only once the time was right for the grand finale did they finally act on it. Bad plotting there.)
Mon, Jan 25, 2016, 1:22pm (UTC -5)
I like TNG's "A Matter of Time" where Hitler was brought up as an example by Picard to show what an elementary boogeyman he is when brought up in his time. That works, because although you're exposed to 20th century trivia, the 24th century characters acknowledge they've evolved beyond that time to point where the idea of Hitler and Nazis is purely academic.
Even DS9, which arguably has Space Nazis (i.e. the Cardassians/Dominion), is still clever enough to keep the references subtle and fit in-universe.
So apparently Voyager is just using concepts that earlier Treks were smart enough to throw out.
1 star for makeup, I guess?
Sun, Feb 14, 2016, 2:55pm (UTC -5)
Well, you can't say that this doesn't take a crazy idea and run hard with it. I wonder who first proposed 'Hirogen in Nazi uniforms'? Because if there's one thing you can never have enough of, it's Nazis, right?
This is about as meta as its possible to get - the resistance on the ship mirrored with the resistance on the holodeck, Janeway and Seven's conflict being played out, B'Elanna and Tom having a relationship - and actually there is some satisfaction in the different layers. Harry may have found his strongest role yet. And the whole thing looks gorgeous.
But it's Hirogen in Nazi uniform at the end of the day. The whole - probably fairly interesting - story about how they took the ship goes out the window to provide the set-up. The sub-plot about the Hirogen commander as a reformist seems important but only gets one scene - hopefully this will get expanded upon. But as US forces led by the unwitting crew look set to storm the real Voyager from the holodeck you can't help thinking that this is all a bit too crazy for its own good. 2.5 stars.
Sun, Feb 14, 2016, 4:00pm (UTC -5)
So after the first part, people fight n' stuff and it all ends happily. Part 2 tosses out the window everything that made part 1 interesting, namely the multi-layered approach. At least the reformist Hirogen story plays out, if only by the numbers. We see Klingons vs Nazis (to be fair, what's not to like about that). But it all just degenerates into an unholy mess that doesn't even make much sense.
1.5 stars - incidentally breaking a 12 ep run scored at 2.5 or more. I guess we were well overdue a clunker, and this was it.
Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 8:33am (UTC -5)
Jewish propaganda seems to find its way into the far future - apparently they are still trying to justify the Palestinian massacres.
All kinds of themes can be explored by science fiction - but they should be explored metaphorically - thats the whole point of being in the scifi genre is to explore human themes .. WITH A NEW PERSPECTIVE .. these two episodes would only have value if they were printed on toilet paper - at least you could wipe your ass with them.
Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 8:44am (UTC -5)
That said, the episode wasn't supposed to be a metaphor for WW2 (for an excellent WW2 metaphor on the toll oppression can take on both sides of the coin see DS9's Duet). This episode was an excuse for a period piece. This wasn't really an exploration of the Nazis, it was an exploration of the Hirogen and if they can change.
I don't think it was a particularly good one and Trek's obsession with having a Nazi episode on over half their shows (TOS/VOY/ENT all did one) is certainly weird. But I think there's a certain appeal to having the Nazis be villains because they are often demonized as the epitome of evil... so it's hard to have a better black/white villain.
It's lazy and the episode was not one of VOY's finer 2 parters... but the Nazi stuff wasn't really meant to be explored. It was just supposed to be fun. One can say it missed the mark, but they weren't exploring WW2 themes here.
Fri, May 6, 2016, 12:27am (UTC -5)
Thu, May 19, 2016, 12:24pm (UTC -5)
Nazi's..... again? Is this frakin mandatory or something? Jesus.
.... and it's bad.
I never watch this during reruns... the Hirogen have been ruined (and they shrunk).
1 star for Jeri's singing... that was quite enjoyable.
Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 3:33am (UTC -5)
Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 10:29am (UTC -5)
Case in point:The Killing Game, which I watched yesterday with my wife and kids. We all enjoyed it quite a bit. The girls were a bit disturbed at the cruelty of the HIrogen in badly wounding the crew over and over again, and my oldest daughter was amused at Seven of Nine singing in the cabaret. But by and large this was a big, fun episode, with a villain that had a little depth to him and a cast who clearly enjoyed playing alternate versions of their usual characters. I liked how the same relationships and conflicts appeared between the characters, even when they didn't quite know who they were. And Janeway as a Klingon was great.
Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 11:24am (UTC -5)
As I have always said, the reviews were not written in a vacuum and are a product of the time. While I am not conceding it per se in this case, "Trek burnout" could possibly have played into my tone, I suppose. As a critic, I was also holding things to a higher standard than "sit back and enjoy." Does that mean I would necessarily react the same way when I show these to my kids in 5 or 10 years? Who knows? The context becomes different.
Again, not specific to this episode per se, which I haven't seen since it first aired.
Mon, Nov 7, 2016, 6:55am (UTC -5)
I didn't like this 2 parter. I didn't think it was fun. I thought it was just stupid.
But voyager has been on a bit of a roll with the last few episodes, so this poor outing can be forgiven...
Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 4:57am (UTC -5)
So the Hirogen leader who looks through the ships database and finds the WW2 data. "Hey that would make an excellent story for a hunting game."
But why the hell did they choose the losing side?
Wouldn't it be far more logical if the Hirogen portrait the Allies?
And I think the episode itself would have been more fun to watch since good and evil would be twisted. :)
Fri, Dec 30, 2016, 7:47am (UTC -5)
But why the hell did they choose the losing side? "
Probably arrogance. "Hey, we can do it better!"
Mon, Feb 13, 2017, 9:05pm (UTC -5)
Also, the writers keep killing Janeway, because they think it's introducing some dramatic tension or something. Am I the only one who wishes they'd let her RIP.
Sat, Feb 18, 2017, 10:48pm (UTC -5)
Like many commenters on this episode, I find myself disagreeing with Jammer's reviews on one fundamental point: He likes Big Ideas Episodes which often strike me as pretentious, while I like entertaining episodes which he finds shallow. (To be fair, he wrote many of these reviews when he was in his 20s.) In my view, Star Trek is at its best when it balances a sense of fun with a sense of thought-provoking ideas, and at its worst when it veers too sharply into either self-important ideology or cliche-ridden humor.
That's why TOS will always be the first, best, and most "original" Star Trek series for me. While TOS has its share of dogs, most of the episodes go for broke and try something really creative, blending adventurous fun with thought-provoking ideas. There's a reason JJ Abrams went back to TOS and not to another series for his Trek reboot: It's fun, it's retro, and it's hip in a tongue-in-cheek way. While the reboot movies have arguably veered too far into generic blockbuster mindlessness, they often channel the pulpy joy that made TOS a classic.
Voyager episodes like "The Killing Game," "Bride of Chaotic," and "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy" remind us of a time when Star Trek took itself less seriously -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing from the post-TOS era when Trek episodes (DS9 most notably excepted) too often fell into a bland pattern of stage-bound, daytime soap-style rehashes of pre-canned ideologies wrapped in technobabble peril. When push comes to shove, I'd rather rewatch something like Voyager's "The Killing Game" rather than TNG's "The Chase" any day.
Wed, May 17, 2017, 6:00pm (UTC -5)
If nothing else, the implications of this episode for the Star Trek universe are astounding. Holographic technology, combined with neural transmitters, can be used to completely rewrite a person's entire personality and skillset, giving them access to new languages (as seen with Neelix's mastery of Klingon), combat abilities (familiarity with archaic firearms) and a lifetimes's worth of knowledge. It can even be used to project entire body parts (the cranial ridges seen on Neelix and Janeway) on to a person. If combined with the doctor's mobile emitter, this would give any Starfleet officer godlike abilites.
Just sayin'
Wed, May 17, 2017, 6:12pm (UTC -5)
Thu, May 18, 2017, 1:03am (UTC -5)
Fri, Jun 9, 2017, 5:18pm (UTC -5)
Anyway, the episode was fun and enjoyable, but I definitely agree that it was full of cliches. Neelix was less annoying than usual, but annoyance with him is such a common element, there's almost no need to comment on it.
Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 4:03pm (UTC -5)
And yet...
Thu, Aug 3, 2017, 11:11pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Aug 21, 2017, 5:53am (UTC -5)
Mon, Sep 18, 2017, 2:01pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Sep 28, 2017, 3:25pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Nov 3, 2017, 1:30pm (UTC -5)
So that's all interesting. It's also almost entirely in part one. Part two really just throws everything at the wall, and after the whole crew regain their memories, it even loses whatever is interesting about how the characters are recast in a historical setting. It's just a bad guy fight, but not only that, it's even a bad guy fight where the *ACTUAL* fight ends up happening off-screen after a whole hour of chaos (hence the "oh yeah, and then we spent three days fighting and it was a draw!" ending, which is unsatisfying. There are still some good moments in part II, mostly involving the commandant character who is at least somewhat interesting, and I liked Janeway's method of turning the tables on the lieutenant, but most of what was somewhat interesting about the first part just disappears in the drawn-out stuff in part two.
I'd agree mostly with Jammer's ratings on this, but would go a bit lower for part 2 -- 2.5 for p1, 1.5 for p2.
Tue, Nov 14, 2017, 9:07pm (UTC -5)
Like In the Flesh, I thought the plot would have worked better with DS9 with the Dominion War. The parallels were stronger. I also really didn’t buy the Hirogen reasoning for using the holodecks. They have the upper hand by knowing the prey are the crew. The crew are oblivious. And the Hirogen already knows how the program plays out. Not much fun in that I would think. I did really like the parallel explicitly drawn between the Borg and the Nazis. I also thought it was cute idea having Torres’ character be pregnant with a holographic baby so Dawson could not have to hide her pregnancy. I actually though liked Bryan Fuller’s idea that he suggested but was rejected of having B’Elanna be pregnant as part of a Vidiian plot to give birth to a baby who could cure the Phage—ultimately the basic idea in part was later incorporated in “Prophecy”
It all just felt a little too mechanical. 2 stars
Sat, Dec 9, 2017, 12:15am (UTC -5)
Where are the female Hirogen? How do they reproduce if they hardly ever see each other and fly around separately hunting stuff all the time? Just wondering.
The Hirogen are hunters and want to use the holodeck to hunt prey. So why would they possibly use a WWII program where the crew are sitting in a bar plotting all the time? And the Hirogen wander around talking to holo-nazis and harrassing people? wtf? They would have used Normandy or some other battle. Not some stupid French town where they don't even fight anyone ever. What was the point? Makes no sense. And they know who and where their prey is all the time, so what fun is that?
When Kim and the Doc devise this plan to nullify the neural interfaces and then execute it, why does only Janeway's stop working?
EMH: ...That will enable Ensign Kim and me to deactivate all the neural interfaces. After Captain Janeway and the crew regain awareness, you can work with them to mount a resistance against the Hirogen.
So...why only Janeway? Why didn't they all stop working? No explanation. It worked later for everyone though for some unknown reason.
And does every holodeck program have a holodeck control panel hidden behind some books or some weeds on a rock? Since when? And why?
Who wrote this program? Did the Hirogen write it? And if they did, how? They know nothing about holodecks. If it was an existing program, why would it include characters to be played by all the crew and the Hirogen and include a Nazi that can persuade the Hirogen guy to betray his commander and all that. I still don't understand how the holodeck programs are supposedly created and supposedly work. In any of the holodeck shows on any series, but whatever. I can forgive that I guess.
How did the Hirogen come up with this neural control interface thingy? They know nothing about holodecks. How did they invent and manufacture and implant all of these devices in an hour or a day or whatever it was? Pffft.
So if the holodeck safeties are off, that means that the holodeck can damage the ship itself? Not just the people in it? That's f**king retarded. If they programmed the holodeck to set off a nuclear bomb, does that mean that Voyager would just go POOF! and be vaporized? Who would design them that way? That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. Setting off holographic bombs all over the place. Ridiculous. I know they have shot panels and things in the holodeck in other Star Trek episodes, but to let the holodeck blast a huge gaping hole through 3 decks of the ship? wut?
Janeway tricks the Hirogen into going into the area where there are no holo-emitters so his gun dematerializes. Fine. But then she picks it up off of the ground and shoots him with it. Wut?
And why are all the Hirogen running around with holographic rifles anyway instead of their normal guns after everything has gone to hell? Wouldn't they get their cool futuristic guns and start blasting the crap out of everyone?
Why increase the size of the holodecks in the first place? The holodgraphic world is as big as you want it to be already. Making it bigger in the real world doesn't make the holographic world bigger. That makes no sense.
Seven makes a WWII/Borg grenade that cancels out anything holographic. Whatever. That's dumb already, but when it goes off, all it does is get rid of the good holo-people and their weapons. Not the buildings, or the street, or the barricades, or any of the bad guys standing just a few feet away.
I could go on and on and on, but that's enough.
The only good part is the Hirogen commander wanting to use the holodeck for his own people. But that was barely mentioned. That should have been the main focus of this, not this idiotic Nazi nonsense.
Terrible episodes.
1/2 star for part one.
Zero stars for part two.
Wed, Dec 20, 2017, 5:58pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Dec 23, 2017, 2:08am (UTC -5)
@Skush "What happened to the 7+ foot tall Hirogens from 'Hunters'? All the Hirogen in this episode are normal height. Did that ship just happen to have basketball playing Hirogen on it? That was what made them so intimidating. Seven even says so in that episode."
ALL. OF. THIS.
I'm only going through Voyager for the first time, so I was really starting to enjoy all of the "above average" to "pretty damn good" episodes that were happening in the 4th season. Then we get this stinker.
When I read Jammer's teaser for this episode ("After having taken over Voyager, the Hirogen supply the crew members with artificial identities and subject them to violent holodeck simulations"), I was really excited for this one, because I was really enjoying the Hirogen at this point. I thought the 7-foot tall super-violent Hirogens from "Hunters" were hilariously campy with their over-the-top voices -- as if they were giant professional wrestlers or something. (They basically were. They threw Tuvok around like a rag doll.) And then we got the great Tony Todd's performance of a more nuanced and scary Hirogen in "Prey" -- a brilliant episode. And finally, I basically just crack up at the fact that they have to say "PREY" no less than five times per minute. It almost becomes musical after a while.
So I was seriously looking forward to this episode when I read that the Hirogen were gonna be torturing the crew with ultra-violent holodeck programs. I figured it was a can't-miss episode.
How wrong I was.
Instead we get 2 hours of heavy-handed "Nazis are bad" (as if we didn't know) and the main cast getting to play dress-up in "France" and act out of character. I'm sure it was a fun shooting experience for the actors; but not so much a fun watching experience for this viewer. I mean, I'll probably hate it less when I re-watch VOYAGER in 10 years, but right now on first viewing, this one stunk up the joint for me.
And I still can't believe they ruined the Hirogens like that, ugh....
Parts I, II - 1 star
Sat, Dec 23, 2017, 3:56pm (UTC -5)
'I mean, I'll probably hate it less when I re-watch VOYAGER in 10 years'
I thought the same thing, my second time through, about the whole series. But I was wrong. If anything, it gets worse as you see the ridiculous things they get away with that you didn't see the first time. You probably think, as I did, that the next time, you will forgive them some of the mistakes they made, but instead you see all the mistakes that you missed the first time. Because the first time around all you see are the glaring, in your face errors. The second time, you see more of the subtle stupidity.
Fri, Dec 29, 2017, 1:15pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:49am (UTC -5)
Mon, Mar 12, 2018, 4:35pm (UTC -5)
Tue, Apr 3, 2018, 9:23pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 7:58am (UTC -5)
Thu, May 10, 2018, 8:00pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Sep 23, 2018, 9:54pm (UTC -5)
Just not much substance here. And my dislike for the Hirogen is even worse. Please let Part 2 be the last we see of them.
Sun, Sep 23, 2018, 10:45pm (UTC -5)
Well, Seven looked pretty. Roxanne didn't have to hide her pregnancy with the cleverest method for dealing with an actress pregnancy I've ever seen.
Bye, bye, Hirogen. Please let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.
Wed, Jan 30, 2019, 8:00pm (UTC -5)
I guess the Hirogen have come a long way from cardboard villains in "Hunters" -- the only worthy part of "The Killing Game" is the Hirogen leader fearing that his people are hunting themselves into extinction and that they must change. That much is good but there's quite a bit of stupidity in the end when the Klingons join the battle and then the warmongering No. 2 Hirogen somehow accepts the ceasefire and Janeway basically forces him to take the holodeck technology. The No. 2 Hirogen didn't ascribe to his former boss's unconventional philosophies and yet conveniently accepted the ceasefire without the condition of getting the holodeck tech, yet Janeway forces him to take it -- another dumb Janeway decision (poor writing).
The other part that didn't make sense to me is why all VOY crewmembers in the holodeck didn't get the neural interfaces shut off when it first happened for Janeway as she's about to shoot 7. They do later on obviously but I think this was just made up arbitrarily (of course) for story purposes who gets back to normal and when.
There's plenty of excess here that's not really worth commenting on. Plenty of wholly implausible shit but the novelty aspect of the 1st part was interesting for about 20 mins. or so (seeing the regular cast members role playing and seeing some depth added to the Hirogen). Ultimately as a verdict on the Hirogen, they do come across as somewhat similar to the Kazon (nomadic, belligerent) and largely forgettable.
2.5 stars for "The Killing Game" and 2 stars for "The Killing Game, Part II" -- definitely the weakest of VOY's 2-part episodes. Basically comes down to the Hirogen being led by someone who wants to lead his people in a new direction so he goes nuts with the holodeck. It's another example of the crew having to re-take their ship with plenty of over-the-top nonsense thrown in. The 2nd part went on too long with gunfights and just mechanical stuff but Part I wasn't bad -- the whole thing should have been done in 1 hour. Something about Trek liking to revisit WWII ("Patterns of Force" and "Storm Front" come to mind).
Sat, Jun 29, 2019, 4:47am (UTC -5)
Wed, Jul 17, 2019, 8:58pm (UTC -5)
Thu, Aug 1, 2019, 6:44am (UTC -5)
HA! I couldn't agree more Dan. I especially liked the description "other assorted piles . . ."
Aliens take over Janeway's ship . . . again.
Nazi's . . . again.
Dumb holodeck show . . . again.
Reviewers making the excuse "this was a 'fun' episode" . . . again.
The only interesting thing are the Hirogen because they are unique in the Trek universe. It's fascinating to think that over time a civilization gives up many aspects of its culture to focus on only one aspect of culture in such a intense way. They even gave up their homeworld apparently; crazy, bizarre. It's very interesting. The most compelling scene by far was the Hirogen commander understanding that his civilization is not evolving, therefore it is in danger of disintegrating into oblivion. I was shocked at this scene because it was profound and true, and I normally never use those two words when referring to Voyager.
Rating: 3/4 of a star
Thu, Aug 1, 2019, 6:47am (UTC -5)
The writers were toying with us, aaarrrrggghhh!!!
Thu, Aug 1, 2019, 6:56am (UTC -5)
Love your screen name! We have something in common.
Thu, Aug 1, 2019, 9:37am (UTC -5)
Love your screen name! We have something in common."
My head canon is that Admiral Janeway didn't die after the Borg pod thing blew up in Endgame; she was flung back in time and ended up an inmate chef in a 21st century prison. The nano probes also gave her a Russian accent.
Not any less plausible than most of Voyager's plotlines.
Fri, Aug 2, 2019, 4:38am (UTC -5)
Agreed, LOL!!
Tue, Aug 6, 2019, 3:54pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 12:13am (UTC -5)
It's funny how some call this 'too unrealistic' when an episode where Kes aged backwards in random short leaps in an alternative time line gets high praise.
3 Stars.
Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 4:06pm (UTC -5)
It would have been absolutely brilliant if he would've answered "I'm gay."
Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 11:07pm (UTC -5)
Psychedelic Star Trek Soup.
WITH non-comic bonuses like recent character developments continued in period drag, meditations on how cultures atrophy and devolve, one incisive speech about the arrogant pretense of superiority (by the Hirogen to Pretty Boy Nazi), and the purest distillation I can recall hearing of the corrosive poison in ideologies of racial or cultural exceptionalism and social Darwinism (in the speech Pretty Boy used to reinforce what Hiro 2 already believed and inspire him to continue the holy mission).
Make Hirogen great again!
All of that - AND Seven singing torch songs. And wearing bobby sox!
What more could we ask of free entertainment, I ask you?
Thu, Nov 14, 2019, 12:16am (UTC -5)
Hiro 2 listened so carefully and thoughtfully that for a moment I thought he would hear how inane the cant sounded, have an epiphany that his #1 had been right to see the need to revamp their culture, and shoot Pretty Boy to prevent more killing.
But no. I guess supremacists will be supremacists. If only they could have transported that nutty Dukat over from Alpha, maybe the supremacists would have won.
Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 12:33am (UTC -5)
The Eugenics War.
We’ve never seen it; only heard about it and it’s consequences. Surely the Hirogen would have found those Augment supermen much more compelling prey. Imagine them battling a EW iteration of the young (pre-Botany Bay) Khan Noonien Singh!
Ah, one of these days...
Thu, May 14, 2020, 8:52pm (UTC -5)
Mkay
Tue, May 19, 2020, 9:14am (UTC -5)
This is an increasingly anarchic episode as the story progresses, I agree about that. The Hirogen don't quite understand what they've unleashed by turning the holodeck safeties off and running a war simulation. Unlike Jammer, I enjoy the chaos of part two as the whole situation escalates and falls apart. It works on the level that the Hirogen don't truly understand what they have with Voyager's tech, and it comes back to bite them. In the end, a negotiated settlement and Voyager's crew getting away with their lives and ship is probably the best they could have done. It's a wonder the whole crew aren't traumatized and suffering from PTSD after what the Hirogen put them through. Being forced to take near-fatal injuries over and over again only for the Doctor to heal the victims and send them back in to fight again is as sadistic as it gets.
I'd give both episodes three stars. This is a very "Voyager" episode that probably would not have worked well if at all on TNG or DS9. The spectacle is fun and helps to soften the harshness of the ideas behind the simulations. The cast all get plenty to do and allow us to see all aspects of life on the ship under HIrogen occupation.
Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 9:09pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Jun 10, 2020, 9:24pm (UTC -5)
But, once again, the script needed a good rewrite.
Tue, Jul 28, 2020, 2:20am (UTC -5)
I would put this worse than threshold.
Tue, Jul 28, 2020, 2:24am (UTC -5)
But, blah, It’s the worst of Voyager’s loop-d-loop style.
Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 5:02am (UTC -5)
The whole thing is certainly beyond ridiculous for too many reasons to count. But it's a neat little story with an interesting underlying idea and with enough dynamism and sci-fi action to not make me hit that fast-forward button. That's a success in its own right!
Of course, the entire holodeck thing is absurd. By the 24th century it's fully expected that technology will enable us to manipulate the human neural interface in such ways as to provide a fully realistic artificial-reality experience or, put simply, stimulate the brain to experience a make-believe world like on a holodeck. Unlike using the holodeck, simply stimulating the brain to see, hear, touch, smell, etc. pre-programmed environments would be far more cost-effective and less resource-intensive. But, then, it wouldn't allow for all these silly contrived stories that lazy Star Trek writers have been coming up with throughout the franchise...
Wed, Sep 9, 2020, 4:07am (UTC -5)
The two episodes made the same mistake as many other holodeck episodes: they destroyed suspension of disbelief. They did this, by adding a layer of fictionality onto the fiction that is the Trekverse; not by adding more science fiction to a universe that was already scientifictional, but by adding a lot of what might be called “costume drama” to the scientifictional Trekverse. Using WW2 as the costume drama, when it was so obvious that those in the costumes were familiar starship personnel or their familiar opponents, was asking for too much suspension of disbelief. ST is not meant to be about dressing up as Nazis, Romans, gangsters or Anglo-Saxons: it is not a costume party. It is supposed to be science fiction.
Episodes with holodeck stories all too easily give the impression that the writers wanted a rest from science fiction, and therefore, since they were writing for a scientifictional series, tried to dress up the episode as something else. Barclay on the holodeck in TNG works, because his holodeck fantasies, however preposterous, are about people he knows from life on the Enterprise D - his holodeck life is organically related to his life as a member of the crew. And his fantasies reveal his personality. These holodeck episodes were not like that. There is no reason for Seven to be a chanteuse in WW2 Paris, or for the Hirogen to be Nazis. To present these characters in those roles, fits very poorly with what has already been told about them.
Mon, Nov 23, 2020, 12:28am (UTC -5)
Tue, Feb 2, 2021, 3:05am (UTC -5)
Tue, Feb 2, 2021, 9:49am (UTC -5)
Compare it to the the ENT episode "Judgment" where we learn that their are various Klingon castes, but that the warrior caste has come to dominate their entire society. What will the Klingon empire look like in 1,000 years if it stays on that course? Maybe a little like the Hirogen.
Thu, Mar 4, 2021, 3:38pm (UTC -5)
I like the character of the Hirogen commander. He adds some depth to a race of Predator clones. He should have been at the very heart of the episode. The premise of the episode should have been that he is using the holodeck hunt as a tool to teach his men that their current way of life is a dead end. As Jammer says, killing the commander before the battle ended made the truce completely unbelievable.
Negatives: too many dumb things to bother listing.
Positives (or at least interesting bits): Chakotay makes a pretty cool GI Joe, Wang's acting is better this week, the Hirogen commander is interesting, the "Meaningful Speech Scene" is successfully delivered by a Nazi, Jeri Ryan's singing is always a plus.
P.S. I really like Malia's idea of using the Eugenics War as the setting instead of (yet another) WW2 story.
Thu, Mar 4, 2021, 5:01pm (UTC -5)
The writers wanted the Hirogen to set their fake hunt during a great historical war. Okay, that makes sense. They could have actually gotten creative, done some world-building and set the hunt during a period of Star Trek history we know little about. How about World War III? The Earth-Romulan War? The Vulcan Nuclear War (when Vulcans first decided to embrace Logic)? The Vulcan Civil War (when the Romulans split off from the Vulcans)? Or, yes, the Eugenics Wars? All major conflicts we know very little about. But no. They just HAD to go with the standard World War II scenario, because - by God - it was the 90s and that meant anything historical had to revolve around World War II! Using any other real life conflict would have been more creative. Good grief, World War I would have been more interesting.
The episode itself even brings up an incredible idea and then never follows up on it. The Hirogen leader mentions the possibility of using the Battle of Wolf 359 as another fake hunt. Talk about what could have been a phenomenal episode for VOY! They could have gotten both Patrick Stewart and Avery Brooks to do crossover guest appearances. I would much rather have seen that instead of another tired World War II “adventure”.
Thu, Mar 4, 2021, 5:59pm (UTC -5)
fantastic idea.
Sun, Apr 11, 2021, 3:13pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Aug 20, 2021, 11:29pm (UTC -5)
"The Killing Game" plays with the subject of identity quite a bit, and I enjoyed that aspect. The main characters, aside from Harry and The Doctor, lose their identities and are conveniently manipulated as warrior pawns for 19 days, and are well on their way to becoming little more than holographic tackling dummies on an indefinite basis to satisfy the Hirogen need for sport. There can be little doubt that the writers meant to recall TOS episode "Day of the Dove."
Like DOTD, The Killing Game is about the retrieval of original identity before all is lost. The key to the underlying argument of the episode is unequivocally expressed, ironically, in relation to the Hirogen, (not Voyager's crew) toward the end of part 2 in an oddly powerful, if disturbing speech by B'elanna's erstwhile German officer beau. This character, who seemed to be a cardboard figure in part 1, delivers a tour-de-force of Nazi rhetoric culminating in the sentence: "We must be faithful to who we are." Hirogen #2 is mesmerized by this faulty logic and persuaded to murder Hirogen #1, literally moments before the inception of a new era for the Hirogen people.
Shades here of Melekon and John Gill. 3 stars
Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 10:00pm (UTC -5)
But the two-parter doesn't actually do anything with its premise. We don't really see much of the WW2 hologram expanding across Voyager. We don't get any interesting "reality bleeds" between the holodeck and real ship. And we don't actually see many Allies vs Nazis skirmishes.
And though primarily an "action episode", most of the episode is a bore (what little action there is, is badly shot IMO).
If I recall correctly, the "Workforce" two-parter in a later season revisits many themes seen here, and executes it much better.
Mon, Dec 6, 2021, 8:09pm (UTC -5)
"Janeway as a Klingon was great."
I probably don’t understand at all how a holodeck works, but I can accept that it does for the sake of enjoying the story. What I really don’t get is how real people can be made to look different in the holodeck, like Janeway and Neelix as Klingons. I also didn’t get how the holodeck could change Riker's uniform from the TNG one to the ENT one in the last episode of "Enterprise." And why bother? Just program the holo-characters to see Riker wearing an ENT uniform even though he's wearing a TNG uniform. Maybe what was going on in "The Killing Game" was that the other characters only *saw* Janeway and Neelix as Klingons. But why would the Doctor see them as Klingons? He's a hologram, of course, but he's not a holo-character in that simulation.
Wed, Dec 8, 2021, 9:53am (UTC -5)
In general it seems that explaining all objects in the holodeck as projections of light and forcefields was a mistake, since more often than not we see inanimate everyday objects leave the holodeck (drawings, water, snowballs, lipstick). So the general consensus is that most of the objects in the holodeck, aside from the surrounding environment and people/animals, are just replicated. That's why you can eat and drink in the holodeck and not get a bad case of gas when you walk out the door. There would need to be programmable parameters for what is real and what is totally holographic, otherwise the explosion of the Krieger wave generator in the holodeck (TNG's A Matter of Perspective) would've also blown away the table and chairs everyone was sitting on, unless those were brought into the holodeck from outside.
As for Klingon Janeway and Neelix, that's an interesting question. I'd have to re-watch the episode, but considering everything else they've done, I wouldn't put it past the Hirogen to force the Doctor to surgically alter their appearance. Even if that's not the case (B'Elanna's baby bump is holographic for example) it seems within the capabilities of the holodeck to beam or replicate prosthetics onto someone, even prosthetics that have some animation to them. Like it didn't put a baby inside B'Elanna, but it glued a fat suit onto her that also kicks. That's my wag anyway.
Wed, Dec 8, 2021, 3:26pm (UTC -5)
It seems trivial compared with the other stuff the holodeck does.
Sun, Jan 30, 2022, 12:38pm (UTC -5)
They hint at a few good ideas - Janeway pushing through her control, the Hirogen wanting to have a bloodless hunt and the big hole in the side of the holodeck looked pretty cool.
Hell, if they had leaned in to the goof a bit more and had a proper Klingon / Nazi showdown (those Nazis being dishonourable curs) , or Paris being a Nazi commandant trying to hunt down people outside the holodeck it would have been a lot better.
It always strikes me that Voyager isn't worried about crew depletion.
Sun, May 1, 2022, 11:03pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Jul 6, 2022, 8:25pm (UTC -5)
I watched the latest Spider-Man, one of my favorite characters, and it felt just like this. No Way Home-- soulless world with formidable fx that are no more interesting than the endless screensavers the bridge crew of the Enterprise watched in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Fri, Jul 8, 2022, 11:26pm (UTC -5)
There was a surprising bit late in the second part where one of the simulated Nazi's makes a rousing speech to the Hirogen officer and convinces him to take out his leader!
It made we wonder if this Hirogen forgot he was in a simulation, never understood it, or was indeed swayed by the speech just because he found it so rousing.
It surprised me in that the speech actually mentioned Jews and Christians, which Trek of that era never did, near as I can recall.
But the second reason it surprised me is I had long since stopped paying attention because I thought the episode was long over and I had been playing on my phone forever.
Thu, May 4, 2023, 1:34pm (UTC -5)
I think one of the biggest arguments in favor of continuity on voyager is the fact that the ship’s compliment was supposed to have been decimated right out of the gate leaving the ship critically undermanned. This setup gave the show a powerful dramatic potential for every remaining member of voyagers crew to be vital. Meaning the loss of even just one crewman could have had major emotional weight and logistical challenges. But instead, the incessant reset button-ing left redshirt deaths forgettable, even casual in their week to week impact. It’s a real shame, even the best voyager episodes are dramatically undercut by the creative choice to NOT lean into the shows potential.
Tue, Jul 18, 2023, 9:26am (UTC -5)
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