VOY - The Killing Game Part I

Plot – Has any episode of Voyager began with so many WTF moments in quick succession? Janeway, in full Klingon make up, hamming it up to the high heavens, enduring a physical fight with a Bat’leth and being stabbed in the gut. Is this real? Every fibre of your being might be telling you that it is a trick but it is very, very real. The episode has to jump through several illogical hoops to get there to explain how, but when has that ever stopped the writers on this show.

After the credits the WTF moments continue apace…Voyager has been captured by the Hirogen, the crew are being subjugated to sadistic and violent tests in the holodeck and most of them have had their personalities wiped and believe themselves to be the French during the Second World War. Again, you have to go with this, even if your brain is rebelling at all of the backstory that is completely absent in order to make this work. Just forget you have a brain. Watch the pretty pictures. Enjoy the performances. Deactivate any part of your cortex that puts things together rationally.

It’s frustrating because ultimately the stakes are nothing in this two parter. Everybody is play acting in a scenario that will be forgotten in a couple of weeks. As such to sacrifice two episodes to such unnecessary fluff feels like overkill when the show could be getting on with something a little more significant to its central theme (to get Voyager home, all but forgotten in season four). When one of the Hirogen sums up the scenario they are playing out as ‘pointless’, it shows that even the characters are aware of the inconsequentiality of the plot.

Character – Bizarrely, it’s Harry Kim who gets the best development (bizarre only in the sense that is usually anyone but) and it is great to see. He’s the one crewman on the ship who is trying to keep everything together. Suffering beatings from the Hirogen and attempting to undermine their efforts.
He’s tired, tortured and fed up. That wide eyed puppy from Caretaker is nowhere to be seen now, Harry is truly seeing the consequences of travelling through an uncharted region of space.

Performance – Kate Mulgrew is having the time of her life getting the chance to stretch her wings and play other roles. Her Klingon is wildly over the top (but fun because of it) but her turn as Katherine, the French bar owner and spy extraordinaire is far more compelling. She’s sharp and playful, succinct and witty. I wouldn’t have minded Janeway adopting some of these traits. Every time she snaps at Seven it has the added frisson of knowing that there was genuine tension between the two actresses at this point. I think she’s probably really enjoying those moments.
Great Dialogue -

Production – Everything from the wartime fashions to the gorgeously intricate sets to the sunny location work is executed with much panache. This was clearly the work of a production team with a handsome amount of money to play with and whilst it is reported that this was a creative team that was exhausted after epics such as The Year of Hell, that isn’t evidence anywhere in the episode itself. It’s a feast for the eyes and it shows just how artistic the Trek team can be when they get to do something a little different from the norm. It feels like their imaginations are on fire. 

Visually, the Hirogen are very impressive. The make up is every bit as you would expect from Star Trek at this point and the biggest coup they made here was by making them so tall and imposing. Because of how they are shot and the actors that are chosen they feel even taller and more menacing than the Klingons. It’s when it comes to how they are written that the problems arise. They are very much portrayed as Klingon-lite, a warrior race that thrives on battle (I swear there is a Bat’leth on the wall of Voyager at one point – the trophies of war). There’s little to distinguish them other than their leader, Karr, who is a bit of a revolutionary and wants them to regain a sense of culture and position in the Quadrant. Had they been written with that kind of sensitivity throughout this five episode run, I might have mourned their loss a little more but the conclusion that this episode draws is that Karr is the odd one out and the rest of the Hirogen will go about their hunting ways long after he has been forgotten. That they are not a species that can adapt and that perhaps because of that, their time is up.

That shot of Nazi Headquarters being blown to bits and the decks of Voyager visible as a hole is torn in the holodeck has to be seen to believed. Even in 2020, that is an incredible bit of special effects work.

Best moment – Seven of Nine dashing into action with a beret and a pistol. It’s so wonderful it practically justifies the entire episode.

Worst moment – Tom Paris as an American officer in a relationship with Torres?

I wish they hadn’t done that – You have the entirety of human history at your disposal and you want to set the crew of Voyager in a simulation that shows off their mettle…what are the most clichéd tyrants you could choose to identify with? Yes, the Hirogen are dressed up as Nazi soldiers and Star Trek continues its obsession with the Third Reich. We’d head back there again during Enterprise. To take what the most cartoonish villains of this shows run (the great lumbering oafs) and to squeeze them into uniform adorned with swastikas feels so…obvious. ‘Tell me…why are we the Master Race?’
Joe Menosky admits that they struggled to make the premise of the episode work – and it shows. They wanted a story set during the Second World War but couldn’t find a reasonable way of making it work and so went with a simulated version of the conflict with the Hirogen throwing people into this environment like setting red ants and black ants on each other. Rather smartly they decided against depicting the ship being taken over. Because if a race of warriors overtake the ship and make their first decision to head to the holodeck rather than using the ship to do some serious damage you might have to question their priorities. The ship is taken over, the crew are on the holodeck, deal with it. That’s basically the approach they took. It’s already happened…why bother thinking about it?

A reason to watch this episode again – What a fantastically fun piece of work. A handsomely budgeted action adventure epic featuring the regulars in new parts. It is also so utterly lobotomised that I find myself having to force myself to enjoy it because the common sense part of my brain that asks questions rebelling at every turn. This would make an excellent drama in its own right without all the Voyager trappings and the regulars commit themselves to the roles totally. The shade of Secret Army falls over the production, although Allo Allo springs to mind too and the director is determined to make sure as much money as possible is splashed over the screen. As a piece of thrilling fancy, this does its job admirably. As an episode of Star Trek Voyager, it mostly stinks (assuming it is aiming for intelligent, incisive drama). But given the order of the day is fun and it works on that level, I honestly cannot find it in myself to object too much. The last ten minutes are some of Voyager’s best; suspenseful, exciting and thrilling.

***1/2 out of *****

Clue for the next episode -