Prey

DVD, Star Trek: Voyager S4 (Prey)

It starts as one story and ends as another, something that applies to this three-episode Hirogen arc in its entirety, pleasing in its symmetry. It's a pleasing episode in many ways, as all three in this arc have been: beginning with the mysterious communications array that allowed them contact with home, continuing with an unfriendly encounter with the owners of said array, and culminating in an unstable alliance with one of their number to hunt a common enemy. That's the three-parter, right there, but then this episode does the same: begins with a rescue mission, turns into a hunt with the Hirogen warrior, but becomes about Seven's allegiances and her inability to settle in. The key to her story is trust, or lack of it when it comes to Captain Janeway. Seven may well be right in some regards, as we see Janeway operating erratically over the course of the series and it's never simple to know what she'll do. Her actions here bespeak of the original choice to strand her ship and crew in the Delta Quadrant in the first place: to protect the helpless Ocampa from the hunter-like Kazon that only want to kill or enslave the weaker species is much the same rationale as standing up to a fleet of enemy vessels to protect what was once the deadliest enemy of our galaxy and shows true Trek spirit. Species 8472 wouldn't understand the concept of asking for asylum, I suspect (not until later did they begin to really study humanoid life as we'd see in Season 5's 'In The Flesh'), but Janeway knows when a creature is in need.

Such a terrific turnaround in concept and fully in keeping with the Roddenberry ethic completed in 'TNG.' That is to find common ground even with your enemy, and Janeway says much these very words in one of her conversations with Seven in which she tries to bring the ex-Borg drone around to an understanding of the important pieces that make up the human condition - one of these being compassion, even for your most bitter enemies, something very Biblical and just that makes the episode shine out among all the sci-fi trappings. The EMH is doing the same thing early in the episode, teaching Seven some polite phrases to scatter among her rather dry technical delivery of information in order to help her settle in better (with a lovely reference to Kes' former role, which the Doc is now beginning to take on for Seven as Kes did for him, showing how good trickles down to others). As she would be later to Janeway's discourses, Seven is resistant, but is willing to give it a try, the difference being that her life and the ship's survival isn't at stake with this level of behavioural change, while with the latter and greater she feels it is. Her lack of trust comes from a kind of logic, and if there's an episode that sums up her character as a teenager going through all the rigours of puberty and trying to understand her place in the world, then this is it! I only wish there could have been a scene with Tuvok where she debates logic because she was doing a very good job of turning the tables on Janeway's explanations, but if he had had the time to show the flaws in her logic then there wouldn't have been such a big buildup to the ultimate rebellion against the Captain so I can see why they didn't do that.

Tuvok was much too busy having two dangerous alien visitors aboard (really good how they use his telepathic nature so 8472 can communicate, as it did with Kes in the previous encounter), one a prisoner, the other needing to be contained, and both deadly and unpredictable. One thing that stands out from episodes this season is how well the whole crew are used throughout the stories. It's true that it did become the Seven of Nine show with so many episodes dedicated to her character and the exploration of becoming more human and fitting into this miniature society, but with this season it was not yet at the detriment of the other cast members: Tuvok is very visible and active as Security Chief, B'Elanna, despite the actress' pregnancy, was important in Engineering and was attacked by 8472 when it leaps dramatically from the Warp Core (though not too seriously injured, suggesting it was only protecting itself, not out for blood). Paris gets to crack wise here and there (though I imagine he was joking about hunting a mouse through a Jefferies Tube as it seems very unlikely such creatures would be able to get aboard ships in the 24th Century, or survive all the adventures this one's been through!), and even Neelix is given a scene where Tuvok orders him to report for security duty, needing as many hands as possible for the capture of 8472, and recalling 'The Year of Hell' where Neelix wore a gold uniform in that alternate future, and took on those duties permanently. Only Harry Kim is lost in the shuffle, but not every episode can feature everybody.

Chakotay, often an underused character in later seasons, gets to show his Commander's mettle when leading the overly keen and forceful Hirogen on the hunt, putting the guest in his place regardless of his great physical stature and presence, not to mention the honking great gun right in his face. If anyone forgot that the First Officer was a Captain in his own right, so often has he been happy to support Janeway in her role as top dog, then it's scenes like this that are there to remind us his peaceful and cooperative demeanour is a choice and when pushed he has the strength of personality to be a true leader. And Janeway needed a strong First Officer in this episode, so full of tricky situations and hard calls to make. I love the fact that even after their previous encounter with the Hirogen, rather than take the better part of valour and run at the first sight of one of their ships, she orders about turn and heads straight for the enemy, instinct telling her it's necessary to patch in some kind of diplomatic solution or they'll be forever running. Her instinct proves correct, the bold approach, you sense, being the best way to deal with those that fire first and don't bother with questions, but this time there's no danger as the ship is disabled. At this point she could have got away with a 'well, we tried,' and headed them on their way, but she prefers to see this as an opportunity, both to learn about the species and as a potential act of assistance to an enemy.

Again she's proved right, even Seven having to admit that the risk was acceptable, though with the stinging addendum, "This time!" Her decision is to send an Away Team to find out what's wrong and then to beam the injured Hirogen back to Sickbay. The Hirogen character was perfectly cast, with Tony Todd carrying the haughty pride and glittering violence behind the eyes and voice that he does so well as a menacing Klingon. This appearance was sadly his last in Trek and I was very disappointed that an actor of his calibre, whom early on was touted for a recurring role in 'Discovery,' never materialised (I don't know whether he would have been one of the Klingons or if he was going to be the Vulcan Admiral Turrel which he would have been amazing as!), but at least he made the hat trick with this episode after being in both 'TNG' and 'DS9,' always one of the best guest stars the franchise ever had. How I wish he and Michael Dorn could both have been in 'DSC' together, that would have made me so excited, but who knows, maybe he hasn't finished with Trek roles now that so many series' are in the works? The Picard series would do well to cast someone like Todd as a main cast member! The Hirogen isn't his most fleshed out character, and he didn't have quite the same height as the previous actors to play the behemoth space hunters, but he's still very tall and it's in his manner and restrained power that you sense how dangerous this guy is. And because the Hirogen are so formidable, their prey is even more so - there's certainly the horror of it, 'DSC' far from the first Trek to show nasty stuff, as Tom finds when he picks up a Hirogen helmet only to realise it's a severed head!

I don't think I mentioned the makeup before, but the Hirogen were another superb addition to the Trek lore of Michael Westmore. They had the look of some kind of cream-puff pastry dessert, weirdly, but with all that metal armour, big guns and huge scale of everything about them, they were immediately unique and memorable, unlike a number of aliens of the week with a slightly different bump on the forehead. 'Voyager' needed to find new recurring foes on a season by season basis, roughly, as they were travelling through new areas of space, which they'd then leave behind, so to keep coming up with believable threats that tested the crew to its limits must have been a task and a half. I know they were just saving money by reusing the same ship set we saw last episode, but we get to see even more as the Away Team explores this sinister weapons cabinet/trophy collection that is their ship. I hadn't noticed before, but here we see without doubt the gesture-based controls they favour. Not since 'TOS' ('The Cage'), did we have the impression of such an approach to technology when Spock appears to switch images on the viewscreen by waving a hand, even if that was more likely a wrong inference, probably signalling to a crewmember off screen, but here it adds more mystique to the race. Tuvok even uses a word I didn't know to describe them, talking of the 'denaturation' of their prey, something I had to look up! You can see the influence of the 'Alien' and 'Predator' films in both the Hirogen and 8472, but these stories have more than mere fighting for survival, they're actually about something.

Like Klingons they have a certain type of honour code, though very different in specifics. They value the hunt above all else so that the Alpha-Hirogen actually relishes 8472's ability to disrupt the sensors they apparently carry on their humungous weapons, as if he prefers the purity of a hunt with only instinct and reactions, allowing his honed senses and reflexes to guide him. The importance of personal experience and judgement over reliance on technology is an important facet of Trek and it's also shown here in Janeway's attitude. Technology is just another tool for her humanity to use rather than something that enslaves will or thought or imagination to it, unlike how you sense our current world holds it up as something to aspire to in itself, to covet and chase after. Of course in Janeway's time they don't have money so all such things are readily and freely available, making them less desirable as things in themselves, but it's fascinating to see a Captain of experience being allowed to demonstrate it, and another reason how great this episode is. Her first lesson for Seven is in showing compassion, where Seven sees only threat, and I realised she's a character in fear, as much as Saru in 'DSC' - she doesn't understand beyond what her own experience has taught her, she can't grasp the complexities of situations that require more than a '1' or a '0' response, and it's her own desire in moving towards humanity that is as much to blame because she sees the value of herself and the ship surviving, but not the risks her Captain takes.

Janeway's story of how she was ordered to rescue an injured Cardassian soldier was a whole new part of her history that I didn't remember - I assume it was the same conflict that Chief O'Brien was part of, perhaps it even happened on Setlik III? Although the ship is stuck on the other side of the galaxy and the only familiar aliens tended to be whoever was in the crew, stories like this remind us that these are Starfleet officers from Earth and the Federation whom have served in the same period that people from 'TNG' and 'DS9' did, tying the series' together even though only verbally. While there was talk of Cardassians, there was a more obscure reference which seemed to be a connection to 'TOS' when the Hirogen speaks of tracking a silicon-based life form through the mantle of a collapsed star. The most famous of these was the Horta from 'The Devil In The Dark' (and now Captain Lorca's menagerie in at least one episode of 'DSC'!), and though they didn't seem to be a warp capable species, happily chomping through rock, who's to say they didn't have cousins in the Delta Quadrant? For me it brought to mind this bulky Hirogen scrabbling head first down a narrow tunnel deep underground, so if I was doing an illustration for this review it would be that! I did wonder what happened to the biobed in Sickbay which was removed when they keep him in there after he's defied Chakotay's order and tried to kill 8472 - did they beam it out thinking he could use its technology somehow? And those security guards were stupid to stand so close to the forcefield, allowing the Hirogen to take them out when it went down - must have been ex-Maquis!

One thing that almost never happens in Trek far and wide is the artificial gravity going down, but they bravely tackle it in this episode, I suppose because 8472 can survive in the vacuum of space. For a moment I thought Chakotay and Tom were going out on the hull, but then I remembered this isn't 'First Contact' and they didn't have a feature film budget for such stunts, as cool as it would have been. It was cool enough to get a shot zooming in on 8472 clambering along the outer hull, so creepy and alien. It's Tuvok that discovers the gravity loss as he suddenly starts floating up and I'd loved to have seen how he pulled himself along to a secure deck. As it is, we only really get the slight impression of no gravity when Seven fires at, and misses, a PADD slowly rotating in a corridor, or the fact they have to wear EVA suits with magnetic boots (was Paris unconscious after the Hirogen shot him, because Tuvok checks on him and it looks like he's only held up by his boots?), and later when they corner 8472 and it floats unconscious, curled up in a mass of legs and arms so that for the first time you feel pity for one of its kind, so violent and inhuman as they were. That's the crux of the episode: that 8472, no matter that it belongs to a fearsome race that had been intent on the destruction of biological life in our galaxy, was only a single, lost creature who wanted to get home, but was preyed on by the merciless Hirogen in their barbaric custom. Janeway takes the side of the weak and chooses to defend it against the coming might of a Hirogen fleet at the risk of everything she has because that is the Starfleet way, or the way of a humanity redeemed.

As happened with every enemy race throughout Trek from Romulan to Suliban, and even such bloodthirsty or relentless ideologically opposed races such as the Jem'Hadar or the Borg, we find some common ground with at least a faction of them. The irony is heavy when you think that Seven was a Borg, just such a race as merciless and relentless as 8472, yet can't put herself in its position. If only the creature had been around in 'Hunters' when the array collapsed, dragged into its own singularity power source as that's all it wanted to get home to fluidic space! Actually, that may have been what drew it to this region, that it was able to sense an opening to its home, arriving too late, but would explain its being hunted in an area near Voyager's current course. The masterstroke of the episode is in getting Seven into a position where she's placed in between the Hirogen, desperate for the blood of his prey, and the defenceless 8472 which she's been ordered to subdue with a burst of nanoprobes. She has the chance to seize her humanity, as her Captain sees it, and show her fellow crewmembers she's one of them, or stand up for her 'individuality' and go against orders. The Hirogen being there makes it easy because he sees she wants it dead and he's happy to comply. But she finds the third alternative to either Janeway's directive or the Hirogen's wishes: instead of taking out the Hirogen and 8472, leaving Voyager at the mercy of the Hirogen fleet, or allowing the Hirogen to kill his prey, she lets 8472 loose and beams both it and the hunter to one of the enemy ships when 8472 pounces.

As she later argues, it is her individuality that made her do what she did. I don't get the impression she hated 8472, only that she understood firsthand its level of threat and felt she knew best how to deal with it. It's interesting to speculate what would have happened otherwise: would Voyager have been able to beat off the Hirogen vessels with no warp drive to escape? Possibly, but at the loss of life on both sides, no doubt. How did Seven know that the Hirogen would honour their words when they say they'll leave Voyager if they hand over 8472? It wasn't in their nature, from what we see, to destroy an enemy without the pleasure of the hunt, so just as Seven must have known 8472 would spring on the Hirogen as its greatest immediate threat, allowing her to beam it off, she must have surmised the hunters would prefer to deal with this immediate hunt with the promise of Voyager still out there to chase in future. We also don't know how the hunt went - did the Alpha-Hirogen we know get ripped to shreds on the Hirogen ship? Was he already dying by the time he was beamed away (he didn't sound too healthy!), or would 8472 be overwhelmed by numbers and be unable to take on the dedicated coterie of furious hunters? Perhaps it went down as a legendary hunt for the Hirogen that they talked of for long after, we'll never know. It's not important to the story that we do, because it's really about Seven and her rebelliousness against authority that means she's crossed a line with Janeway.

And you don't want to cross the line with Janeway! We've seen so many crewmembers over the years get that final scene where the Captain comes to them to dish out a dressing down, telling them how disappointed she is, cold anger more terrifying than heated emotion. To let her down is something no one wants to do, except in this case Seven has shown so little allegiance to Janeway as leader, and only a general wish to help the ship and its crew in the best way she sees fit. She refuses to use the experience to grow and in a very un-Trek-like decision, goes against orders in a pinch. It is this that demonstrates she's not ready to be accepted as a part of the crew, and is literally sent to her room to think about what she's done. Janeway isn't stupid, she knows Seven still has much to contribute, which is why she allows her to continue working in Astrometrics, but she's in her black books again after coming so far over the season. It's a big setback and punishment can only be to no longer accept the trust that had built up, with the further threat that she'll be thrown in the Brig if she ever does anything like this again. Even in her disgrace Seven won't accept she was wrong, answering back so that the Captain no longer even wishes to talk with her, curtly stating "As you were," and stalking out, having failed to get through to this obstinate child-woman. And that's the point, the other crew that have let Janeway down at various points, were mature enough to be aware of her disappointment and humbly accept her judgement, but Seven isn't even at that point yet and can't even be got through to.

Because of this, it's quite a sad episode because Seven had really begun to seem a part of the crew, and as Janeway said she gave her more leeway in her unorthodox ways than she would otherwise, but perhaps too much - if she'd clamped down would she have got to this point or would she have been kept under the thumb? On the other hand she might not have gained or felt trust between them if she were too hard and held down too tightly. But it's also a good thing that this happened because it gives them somewhere to go with the character. It would have been truer to Starfleet training and attitudes if Seven had seen the error of her ways and had therefore defended 8472, learning the lesson Janeway was teaching her, and stunning the Hirogen. They'd have had to fight it out with his fellow ships, but that would have been the 'TNG' way. The episode takes a richer approach and, as you expect in semi-serialised storytelling, sets her up in a place from where she can go, either one way or the other. It's good to see Janeway fail, too, unable to get her messages across so that she's almost choked with anger at Seven's attitude. Trust can be lost as well as gained, and though the episode could be seen to end negatively, there's so much positivity throughout that it's a very pleasing one to watch and certainly makes you wonder where Seven will go next. They probably should have laid off on her for a few episodes and let her quietly work away in Astrometrics and maybe have the occasional visitor on a professional basis only, but show something's changed, to allow seeds to grow, though the next episode was immediately another Seven episode!

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