User Reviews

The actor Tony Todd stars as a surly and menacing Hirogen hunter in this episode. You can easily tell it's him because of his gorgeous voice, though underneath all this makeup and latex, there's no way to know it's him!

When the show begins, two Hirogens are hunting that Preying Mantis- like creature that scared the crap out of the Borg a few episodes ago. However, evidently despite shooting the thing many times, it still managed to kill one of them and nearly kill the other. Voyager comes upon the Hirogen ship and tries to help, as they are cosmic do- gooders. However, this is a great example of the phrase 'no good deed goes unpunished' and soon the ship appears ready to be destroyed. And, in an interesting confrontation, Seven deliberately ignores the Captain's totally insane orders!

I always thought that Captain Janeway was way too pacifist on the show and here she nearly destroys the ship because she's basically a social worker at heart. I say Seven was RIGHT! See what I mean when you see this one.

Overall, a decent episode--and you'll soon see a lot more of these nasty Hirogen. By the way, these Hirogen and love of the hunt are sure reminiscent of "Star Trek: Deep Space 9: Captive Pursuit".

Once again Voyager encounters the Hirogen, this time the Hirogen aren't trying to hunt them, in fact their ship has been disabled, one of them is dead and the other severely wounded. They take the wounded Hirogen aboard little knowing that its prey is still around, it isn't until something breaks in from outside the ship that they realise they have something more dangerous than one wounded Hirogen to worry about; his prey was Species 8472, the one species that even the Borg are scared of. When the Hirogen wakes up he demands to be released to continue his hunt but Janeway is having none of it, even when further Hirogen ships attack Voyager she refuses to let them hunt the Species 8472. It turns out their prey is wounded and just wants to return home and Janeway decides to help. This decision leads to a serious disagreement with Seven of Nine... perhaps Seven is becoming a little more free thinking than the captain intended.

This was a decent episode which nicely illustrated the contradictions in having a chain of command while also expecting free thought, something Seven has difficulties with as she wasn't raised in such a system.

This episode was very well done, though writing could have been improved on a little bit. I will admit that this season has taken a large step up for the series, but I have found the early episodes with Seven of Nine a bit difficult. Ever heard the term OP in gaming? Seven is the Over-Powered character of the Voyager series; overly knowledgable, super strength, technologically advanced. Jeri Ryan is an amazing actress and once Seven as a character begins to grow and expand, the episodes she features in become much better. This episode also showcases an excellent Tony Todd, albeit almost completely unrecognizable as the Hirogen hunter.

However, I have never understood some reviewers obvious disdain for Captain Janeway throughout this series. Some seem to insist that she lay a course for the Alpha Quadrant and let that be that. No research, no discoveries or curiosity. Would this make for an entertaining show for you then? Episode after episode of ships maintenance and officers log reports?? Yawn.

Yet still, others have complained that Janeway is not forceful or aggressive enough. Is there a problem with compassion? Would you prefer a militaristic version of ST along the lines of Battlestar Galactica? Fine, it already exists.

One of the best aspects of the Star Trek universe as originally envisioned by Gene Roddenberry was the idea of EXPLORATION, seeking out new life and new civilizations... yes I'm quite sure I've heard that somewhere before. As for the crew that reviewers get so touchy over, they signed up for Starfleet, they knew the risks of job. To Janeway's credit, fighting what would appear to be an overly hostile ENTIRE quadrant, she has managed to keep a crew and ship together against terrible odds. Facing very difficult decisions on a nearly weekly basis, finding the balance between duty and compassion, hostility and peace, Janeway has done an admiral job with one of the most difficult situations in the ST universe.

Sorry, Species 8472 vs Hirogen

I will disagree with other reviews about the sense of Cpt Janeway - species 8472, despite the peril it poses, deserves some compassion, at least as a dramatic device. Describing it as pure evil was unfair - in general, non-humanoid species are rare enough in Star Trek, and usually shown as xenophobic (probably to explain why they are not around much).

Anyway, the episode was quite good, except of course for the captain's hypocrisy (or, better, the writers' disregard for continuity): she is unwilling to sacrifice the hunted alien even if it saves the whole of Voyager, but no one is there to remind her of that time she killed a guy called Tuvix.

Once again Janeway ignores a chance to move on in order to explore a new species. In this case, Tuvok and Seven have already had an encounter and were nearly killed. Seven expresses her disdain for the Captain, reminding her how foolhardy she is. The issue is a hunting force going after a creature and Janeway's stupid decision to bring the thing on board their ship. I don't know if the writers were meaning to show Katherine as incompetent as she seems, but it certainly plays out that way.

Voyager encounters the Hirgoen and species 8427.

This is an enjoyable episode with great character moments.

I'll cut to the chase about Janeway v Seven; I like the conflict and think it is the best aspect of the story. There are some exchanges between the two that are written well and performed excellently by Katie Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan.

It is one of the most notable Star Trek episodes that dabbles in the compassionate side of humanity, since the classic 'Arena', where Kirk shows mercy to his vulnerable opponent. I am not going to pick a side in this particular argument, I will just say that it is very different to the Gorn situation.

The Hirogen v 8427 is Alien vs Predator on board Voyager. Neither are the strongest Trek aliens, particularly the Hirogen, but they are used well to generate the character moments mentioned above. Tony Todd's voice is used to great effect.

For me it's a 7.5/10, but I round upwards.

As other reviews here clearly demonstrate by their insistence on taking sides and declaring absolutes, this was an episode fraught with difficult and complex decisions. On one hand, we have the Starfleet ideals (which, some people seem to be forgetting, aren't atypical of any Star Trek series, and captains like Picard and Sisko have made very similar decisions. Granted, Kirk might not be a great example of that, but TOS was less fraught with these sorts of situations, especially when Kirk could just punch and sex his way through the galaxy instead.) On the other hand, the practicalities of being alone out in space (which occurs for most Starfleet vessels, actually, not just Voyager...how many times does the crew of a given ship on a given series depend on being rescued by Starfleet rather than getting themselves out of the predicament du jour?)

I'm not going to bother taking a side here. I'm neither a Starfleet, nor a hapless extra just waiting for the command decisions that will get me killed, not a Twitter god with legions of fans anxiously awaiting my opinion on an issue brought up in some sci-fi episode from 20 years ago. I can go on about how ideals aren't ideals if you throw them away at every dangerous turn, or about how sometimes you have to just bite the bullet and do the safest thing, but I won't because reading the other reviews on the topic here has bored me to death with their declamations and certainties and barely-suppressed rage for some reason. Instead, I just want to take a moment to point out that 7 of 9 at the end of the episode sounded *exactly* like an angry teenager lashing out at her parents and trying to gain the moral high ground after doing something the parents disapproved of. Which is fair -- 7 has only been fully human for a very short time. And Captain Janeway did exactly what a parent should do in that situation -- refuse to argue the point because there's no way the teenager won't continue to feel like she (or he) is being picked on and treated unfairly, no matter how specious the argument might be. Regardless of how you feel about the rest of the episode and the decisions made, Janeway made the right call there.

Incidentally, Tony Todd should be in every episode of every Star Trek. We had a vicious, nigh-impervious alien species that wants to wipe out all other species on Voyager, and Candyman was still the scariest being on board.

Have to agree with some of the other reviews. This one is just nuts. Janeway is so busy trying to be "compassionate" that she puts her crew and ship at risk pretty much constantly. To the point of being clearly unfit for command.

How asnine. Janeway tells Chakotay to fire upon Alpha Hirogen if the latter "steps out of line" yet she disagrees with Seven, choosing a soft approach with Species 8472.

What more can be said. Another crappy Voyager episode straight out of the Powerbook of the worst Hollywood hack.