The Hirogen take over Voyager and discover this new technology called holodecks. They attach neural interfaces to the crew so the they forget who they are and act as characters and send them into the holodecks for simulated hunts but the safety protocols are turned off so the crew is repeatedly injured and repaired by the doctor.
It's an interesting premise with lots of potential and generally entertaining but the ending is so boring that it makes the episode feel useless. Why did ending the holodeck program even stop the fight? Voyager is surrounded by 3 or more Hirogen warships with Hirogen inside and outside of the holodeck. The Hirogen do not surrender. Why did they surrender here?! They needed to be truly conquered by being placed in a untenable position.
The writers seem to be slaves to the Star Trek formula. Perhaps they don't have the time to really develop an idea like this into something really good. There's a neural interface problem, so blow up the control. There's still a holodek problem, so blow up the holodeck control. Whoop de doo. How many zillion times has that been the solution to a Star Trek problem?!
Budget presumably greatly limits the number of speaking characters, which limits what they can do. There are a number of Hirogen characters but only two of any significance. The leader see the potential of using holodecks to replace the hunt but he is completely alone. We don't see him working with a team to make the holodecks a better experience for them. We only see him ask Harry Kim to expand the holodecks to explore more of human history, but is illogical because that doesn't advance his plan. We should see him striving to make this an experience that's as good as real life, even get the Voyager crew to help him.
Imagine that his warriors complain that the holographic characters are not worthy prey. So the leader asks Harry for the programs with the most cunning prey. We see fun clips of them repeatedly conquering every foe. So Harry says that he needs help to create better characters, so they get one or more crew members to design new characters, but because the crew has access to the program, they covertly turn characters who are Hirogen allies into traitors. For example, they could manipulate Belana's Nazi boyfriend so that we see a glitch to indicate his change and then he either helps Belana, tricks a Hirogen or directly kills a Hirogen. When the Hirogen realize this, they will not know who is friend or foe. The lack of control could scare some of them and energize others into loving this holodeck experience.
There could be two dissenting Hirogen, one who remains dissenting and one who grows to see the potential. When the dissenter kills the leader, the other one kills him and becomes the new leader who Janeway gives the technology to. There could even be a Hirogen civil war between those who agree and disagree with the leader. Something more interesting than playing WWII resistance fighters for two episodes.
Alternatively, the unseen crew that is separated in "jail" could covertly gain holodeck access but they don't want to simply turn off the holodecks because there's too many Hirogen in control of the ship, so they start to use the holodeck against the Hirogen in ways that are subtle enough that they do not all discover the ruse and end it. Ex. Could have doors and walls change. If a Hirogen walks into a room alone he suddenly will find that there is no more door or window, he is in a room that he cannot get out of. The resistance fighters need to lure and isolate the Hirogen one by one so that they do not become aware and fight back. They win through cunningly applied tech, not just blowing up a controller.
However, the room idea would enrage and humiliate them. Better to have them each feel beaten in battle, even if they are stunned and placed in stasis instead of killed. Later, the new leader could say to the offended Hirogen. "Did you learn more by winning or by dying?! You won't make that fatal mistake again. These holodecks will make us better warriors because we can experience more in one lifetime that we ever could wandering the galaxy."
The covert changes could be widely varied to create humor:
- The Kligons invite the Hirogen to use bat'leth. The Klingon bat'leth are razor sharp and slice the arm off a Hirogen, but when a Hirogen picks up that same bat'leh, it becomes blunt and bounces off the Klingon.
- Program the Hirogen weapons to misfire, miss-aim, or even explode in their hands but the resistance's arms to never miss, maybe even shoot phasers.
- Have the Hirogen discover beer and then turn that into a disabling drink that incapacitates them.
- There are so many many possibilities. Better to have some new unique humor than to only rely on the Doctor's quirks and Harry's mistakes.
Major missed opportunity: The Klingons. Klingons love battle and honor. Hirogens love the hunt and respect their pray but seem to have no honor. Should they respect each other for their similarities or hate each other for their differences? There should be at least one great conversation between the two, perhaps as they battle. Ex. A Hirogen slaughters a defenseless Klingon, so a Klingon objects. "You have no honor!" and the Hirogen quips back "All that matters is the win. He was weak." Then they fight even stronger.
Beyond these major changes, it's always annoying when the crew doesn't do the obvious. Inexplicable why we never see any Hirogen in the Klingon holodeck. Why did it take so long to bring Klingons to the aid of the resistance? That had me puzzled until they finally did it in a blitz where it barely mattered. They could have been working together with the crew for a long time. The Kingons holding off the Nazi soldiers while the crew does the technical solution.
The Hirogen's reason for using the crew in the holodeck was not satisfying and goes against the goal of moving to holodeck hunts. The leader says that it is so that he can learn about humans but he's not seen observing them in the holodeck. Need more thought as to why that is necessary or better. The obvious reason is that most holodeck characters are not designed to be hunters, prey or fighters. Most are simply foils for the crew to interact with in leisure or discussion.
The Hirogen leader's admiration of humans for surviving WWII was simply silly. In a war between humans, a human will win. It can provide insight into how humans persevere but no prize for the human race surviving. He could have admired them from reading Voyager's logs but saying "Your greatest battle was with the Borg, but you have no holodeck simulation of this battle! Why?!" This would enable an exploration of how we think differently. Janeway or Harry could create a Borg program for them, but one in which the Hirogens cannot win. Then there could be quips about such as "Nice to have the Borg on our side for a change."
So much potential for an interesting episode. Wasted.
3 out of 7 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink