The Killing Game, Part II

DVD, Star Trek: Voyager S4 (The Killing Game, Part II)

I'd like to know who wrote this holoprogram, because they really knew the Voyager crew's characters down pat: there's the rebellious Seven we saw in Part I, the intractable leader of the Resistance, Katrine, played by Janeway (also Part I), and this time we have Captain Miller, played by Chakotay, having a push and pull over the command of the mission, which could represent the early conflict between the Maquis crew and that of Voyager which it was forced to integrate into. Chakotay himself was quick to bow to Janeway's superiority, but this is his chance to put down his foot a little bit - after all, if the Resistance wants the American army's help… Not all the characterisations are suited to their Voyager actors, with Neelix going full-on Klingon (complete with singing and shouting in the Klingon language - I wanted subtitles!), with his warrior buddies until he's 'woken up' when the transmitter keeping everyone in holographic character is blown up by Janeway, the Holodeck having spread out into the corridors and surrounding areas so that the bounds of the programs are unclear. This was one of the things that both worked terrifically well as a concept, but also fell down a little in execution, mainly in the way that Janeway's plan to turn the tables on her Hirogen pursuer worked out mechanically: she's chased into a dead end and hides amid the wreckage until he comes forward so his rifle disappears. All very clever (as was the visual of the dead soldier's missing legs which alerts Janeway to the limits of the program), but it doesn't happen immediately - he's holding the gun for a second or two before it vanishes!

There is precedent for this: in the first proper Holodeck story, the 'TNG' episode 'The Big Goodbye,' the holograms attempt to leave and fade slowly. It doesn't make sense to me, I'd think it would be much more like the soldier's legs in that they're completely nonexistent outside of a certain point rather than being able to bleed out of existence. However, we never saw how slow or fast his legs disappeared because we weren't there to see him shot, so perhaps they also took a couple of seconds to shimmer away? The other point that doesn't work is that then Janeway proceeds to pick up the gun off the floor. It must be another gun further up the corridor where the holographic emitters are operational, obviously, but from the way it was directed it looked like she'd just scooped up the Hirogen guy's gun. I do take issue with a few directorial choices in the episode, not something I usually draw attention to, except in praise, ordinarily. While the majority looks good, helped by the rain (which I assumed was an addition by the production to add atmosphere to scenes, but according to Memory Alpha were real downpours they had to contend with!), I was very let down by the great moment of the Klingons charging in to save the day after Seven's photonic grenade accidentally takes out all their allies. This should have been a grand moment in keeping with Klingon opera, the warriors careering madly over the barriers to enter into pitched battle with Nazis and Hirogen alike, but the way it's shot they're barely visible! You see it all from a distance and so you're distanced from it, not caught up in the heroic dash.

Usually these things are milked to perfection, such as whenever the Klingon ships come charging in during the Dominion War, so I don't know how they managed to drop that ball. The other thing that was a bit silly was Harry Kim having a big red countdown on his station for when the Holodeck was going to overload! I understand that they needed to show the audience something like this, but couldn't Harry have had something a little more unobtrusive so as not to draw attention? I would also point to missing out on the bold speech Neelix was about to give the Klingons as we cut away and never get to hear what stirring words he used to persuade them into battle against a new enemy. Also, when he was talking to them earlier shouldn't he have said something about sending their souls to Gre'thor rather than the next world, or does his character only have the knowledge he himself has and he may not know that much about Klingon afterlife mythology? At least we get confirmation on Torres' pregnancy that it is an actual projection, albeit one that makes her feel heavier and even kicks! It shows how invasive a holoprogram could be, as although I suspect it's all external to her body, a sort of add-on I would imagine, it does lead to speculation on whether the inside of a person's body could be messed about with as much as their outside. I'm sure there would be rules and laws about how invasive a program could be, but with the safeties off anything's possible. And if they can do that, then could they not also alter a person's brain chemistry from the inside, purely simulated? It throws up all sorts of questions - could a program not run entirely on the retinas of a participant, with the nerve impulses of their body used to simulate as if they were touching something or moving around? Theoretically you wouldn't even need a Holodeck-sized space, just enough room for a body to stand or lie.

That's about all there is to say on this episode because so much of it is about the, dare I say it, action! The most important addition to the story that made it stand out from merely being a Holodeck action spectacle was the examination of the threat to the Hirogen society if they keep on as they are - although the visionary leader is killed by his unseeing underling, urged on by the very Nazi holo-character this underling counts as nothing, but somehow strikes a nerve within him, Janeway stays true to her bargain with the dead leader and both sides call a truce, the Captain giving the remaining Hirogen the Holodeck technology that can change their way of life, even though they aren't exactly thrilled to receive it. It's strangely moving when at the last moment Janeway fulfils her promise, but I could have done with one more scene to reflect on what had happened, perhaps Janeway and Seven, or Tuvok, maybe Janeway and Chakotay, even Tom and B'Elanna. Perhaps they allowed too much time for the action and, for once, not enough time to look at the consequences, both from wondering what the Hirogen will do with the holo-tech she gave them (what space seed will grow from what we did to today? as Kirk might have said), and on victory in World War II. It was just missing that last line to reinforce the positive future and upbeat end, as upbeat as it was.

We would get the opportunity to witness what the Hirogen did with their new freedom, just as we saw what the Kazon did with their stolen Replicator tech earlier in the series. Funny that Janeway was dead set against sharing with the Kazon, but upon finding a kindred spirit in the Hirogen leader who wanted a kind of proto-Federation in his idea of bringing the scattered members of his species back together, she was quick to agree. If only Maje Cullah had been intelligent enough to talk of such a thing, he might have got what he wanted after all! I wondered if only certain members of the Hirogen are actual hunters as when the leader tells his subordinate to do something he says he'll get the hunters. This might explain why the majority of the Hirogen we see in these episodes are ordinary humanoid size rather than the gigantic creatures seen previously. Seven has no fear for her life when it's threatened by them, and it shows in her response that she still has a twisted pride in the Borg when she says that they will one day assimilate the Hirogen, and to remember her then. And finally, there's a rare mention of 'the Christian saviour' and 'the God of the Jews' as the Nazi says neither of these will stand in the way of the Nazi destiny. Such things so rarely got a mention in Trek, but it's like they're pointing out how wrong the Nazis were through this holographic puppet which doesn't even know that the beliefs he holds and the 'glorious' vision of the Fuhrer were quashed centuries ago so that we can laugh at his fanaticism and the ego that believed even God wouldn't stand in their way. So much for that theory.

I have to say that I haven't enjoyed this two-parter as much as I used to when I was younger. While modern Trek tends to get big thumbs downs from me it's often because of action over substance, so I've definitely come to appreciate the cerebral Trek and the intelligent Trek, and the Trek that expands on the cultures and ideas in its history and universe so that I see there's less here to make for a completely strong viewing experience. It still looks the part and the ideas are strong, but more than anything it's the love of the characters that still means a story such as this stands above modern Trek. That they also attempted to weave in the ideas of a species that wants to change was the most interesting and the least explored, but it still remains a fun and large scale story, and for getting us to accept feature-length episodes as events, this was important, so it does still have some special things about it.

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