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| Seven meets a Hirogen Alpha (Tiny Ron) |
Voyager receives a garbled message from Starfleet Command, sent using the same alien relay network the crew used to contact them. The bulk of the message was caught in a relay station not far from the ship, so Janeway sets course to retrieve the rest.
As they near the station, Seven of Nine is able to extract more of the transmission. Most of it consists of letters from home. As the messages are delivered, the crew reacts in various ways: Some joyous at contact from loved ones long unseen; some anxious as no letter makes it to them; others horrified as they learn of the devastation caused by the war back home.
Meanwhile, the Hirogen, the alien race who lays claim to the relay network, intercepts the transmission. An Alpha Hirogen (Tiny Ron) moves to intercept Voyager, determined to claim the first kill for himself - and he arrives just in time to capture Seven and Tuvok!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Receives a letter from Mark, her fiance... But this long-nurtured dream turns into a nightmare as she realizes that what she's received is a "Dear John" letter. Kate Mulgrew is fantastic in the scene in which Janeway reads the letter, and writer Jeri Taylor wisely refrains from having her read aloud or any similar hamfisted tactic. The camera simply stays on her face, allowing us to see her expression collapse into numb shock as she reads the words in front of her. It's probably a relief to get to play hardball with the Hirogen not much later, and the alien hunters pick a particularly bad day to get on her bad side.
Seven: Clearly regards Janeway as a mentor, even a friend, and her actions throughout the episode show just how important her opinion is to her. She misses needed sleep to retrieve more of the message as they travel to the relay station, responding to the Doctor's irritation at her by stating that "this message is important to the captain." When the transmission is interrupted by unstable Technobabble that can somehow be stabilized by piloting a shuttle closer to the station, Janeway insists Tuvok accompany her. Seven fears this may be due to mistrust, and is visibly relieved when Tuvok tells her that it is Starfleet protocol to send at least two people on an Away Mission.
Tuvok: When Neelix delivers his letter, he insists that he will finish his duties before reading it. "Do you have any reason to believe the contents of the message will change?" he says when Neelix protests. However, once the Talaxian is out of the room, he quickly sets aside his report to read his news from home. He does want that contact from his family - He just wants it to be private, something I can relate to quite well.
Tom: As the crew becomes excited, he tries to pretend that he doesn't care about word from home. "What I have on Voyager is so much better than anything I ever had back there," he tells Torres. He advises an anxious Harry to stop hoping for a letter in order to avoid disappointment... But when he learns that he has received a message from his father, it's clear he cannot follow his own advice. He resists reading his message, too afraid that what will be said will disappoint him all over again. He again shows his genuine feelings for B'Elanna, however, dropping his self-pity the instant she reveals how horrible her own news from home was - That most of her friends in the Maquis are dead at the hands of the Dominion.
Harry: When he doesn't immediately receive a letter, he begins to worry that he's not going to get one - perhaps fearing that he's so irrelevant, that even his own family doesn't miss him. Don't worry, Harry: As Circe Lannister once observed, parents have little choice but to love their children. Still, I suppose if you can admit that you're Harry Kim, then acknowledging the problem may be the first step toward recovery.
Hirogen: With two appearances in as many episodes, it's clear that the Hirogen are being set up as a new recurring menace to the crew. Unfortunately, there is little so far that's encouraging. They are driven by a desire to hunt prey, and they crave challenging prey... Which makes them basically the Predator if it was able to speak. Come to think of it, having them be so chatty may be a mistake, since it completely drains any sense of threat, particularly when they behave as relentlessly stupidly as they do in this episode. Janeway defeats the Hirogen here by... Well, by letting them literally kill themselves by shooting at the only thing keeping their ships from being sucked into a black hole. I'd call them the Kazon with better makeup, only I don't think the Kazon ever did anything quite as purely idiotic as that.
THOUGHTS
I have to give Voyager points here. Message in a Bottle introduced a new situation, with Starfleet now aware that Voyager had survived and was in the Delta Quadrant. It was a situation that genuinely demanded follow up... But I did not expect it to come in the very next episode.
Hunters builds its entire narrative around the elements introduced in the previous episode: contact with Starfleet; the alien relay network; the belligerent Hirogen. All three elements are used, and used in a way that keeps Hunters as a unified episode. More than that - Jeri Taylor's script helps resolve my chief complaint about Message in a Bottle, showing the sense of significance to the crew that was previously missing. In short, this episode makes its predecessor a better episode by its presence.
Though the Hirogen end up being unimpressive in their first proper outing, the focus here is really on the characters - And the character material works well, because it convinces. Chakotay and B'Elanna learn of the destruction of the Maquis, and B'Elanna reacts first by wanting to take a revenge that would be impossible even if she wasn't ridiculously far from home, then by focusing on giving good news to Tom and Harry. Jokes about Harry aside, the reactions of both him and Tom feel right for their characters, and Tuvok's desire to read his news privately feels absolutely correct for him. There's even a nice interaction between Janeway and Seven, when Janeway reminds her that she likely has family back home that she hasn't met yet, making all this more relevant for the former Borg than she wants to believe.
Thanks to the strong character focus, this episode ends up being a good one. If the Hirogen felt like more of a true threat, it would be among the season's better offerings - but even as it stands, I found this episode very enjoyable.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
Previous Episode: Message in a Bottle
Next Episode: Prey
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