The Killing Game (episode)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
 |
| "The Killing Game" | ||
|---|---|---|
| VOY, Episode 4x18 Production number: 186 First aired: 4 March 1998 | ||
| ← | 85th of 168 produced in VOY | → |
| ← | 85th of 168 released in VOY | → |
| ← | 509th of 726 released in all | → |
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| Written By Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Directed By David Livingston | ||
| Unknown (2374) | ||
| Arc: The Killing Game (1 of 3) | → | |
In an attempt to find new ways to satisfy their predatory instincts, the Hirogen force the crew of the Voyager into violent holodeck simulations.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
Captain Janeway, altered to look like a Klingon, battles several other Klingons. A Hirogen interrupts the battle and stabs her. He calls sickbay to tell them that the Captain is injured and needs medical attention.
The Voyager has been taken over by the Hirogen and they are using the holodeck to hunt the crew in various simulations. Each crewmember has been fitted with a neural interface that makes them believe they actually are the character in the holodeck program.
The Captain, Seven of Nine, Neelix, Tuvok and B'Elanna are put in a simulation of the Nazi occupation of France. They are running a café, but are secretly working for the French Resistance, while the Hirogen are working alongside the Nazis. Seven of Nine, or Mademoiselle de Neuf as she is called in the simulation, is a lounge singer, Janeway, or Katrine, is the café owner and Tuvok is the bartender.
The first scene of the French simulation begins with Seven singing "It Can't Be Wrong".
Listen to Seven sing "It Can't Be Wrong"file info
The "Resistance" deciphers a radio message telling them that the Allied forces will arrive within days, and they must assist by disabling the Nazi's communications.
One of the Hirogen, Turanj, gets dissatisfied with "playing the game", and ends up shooting Seven and Neelix. They are taken to sickbay, where The Doctor is asked to attend to their injuries. He insists that they stop these brutalities because the bodies of the crew have not been designed for this kind of punishment. For the past three weeks, so the Doctor, they have been stabbed, shot, beaten and phasered after which he was forced to attend to them just so they are sent back for more. The Hirogen, however, refuse to listen, even when the Doctor asks that they at least activate the holodeck safety protocols.
Back on the bridge, the Hirogen are forcing Harry Kim to expand the holodeck grids so that they can expand the holo-projectors into all surrounding sections. While another crew member distracts one of the Hirogen guards, Harry manages to transport the Doctor out of sickbay and tell him about his plan to get the crew back. Before they can do so, however, they need to disable the neural interfaces. He has found a way to tap into the sickbay diagnostic console, however, somebody has got to be inside the holodeck to engage the bridge control relays. They decide to use Seven's help for this task.
In the ready room, Karr tells Turanj that he has been studying Voyager's database looking for their next simulation. He tells him that there are many to chose from because humans have a violent history. When World War II is over, he plans to engage the Borg by recreating a notorious battle known as Wolf 359. However, this will be one hunt Turanj will never see if he continues to disobey him. Karr tells him that his lust for the kill has blinded him, like it has blinded many young hunters. However, if they took the time to study their prey, to understand its behavior, they might learn something, for each prey exposes them to another way of life while at the same time making them re-evaluate their own. He wonders what will become of the Hirogen when they have hunted this territory to exhaustion: a way of life that hasn't changed in a thousand years. He complains that they have lost their identity, that they have allowed their predatory instincts to dominate them - turning them into a solitary race, isolated, no longer a culture. He insists that their people must come back together, combine forces, rebuild their civilization; the hunt will always continue but in a new way, for he intends to transform this ship into a vast simulation, eventually replicating the technology, allowing them to hold on to their past while they face the future. Turanj is convinced that Karr is right, albeit very reluctantly, for he knows that others might not agree with Karr's assessment.
In sickbay, the Doctor manages to wake Seven, explaining to her that he has found a way to disable the interface by remodulating one of her borg implants to emit a jamming signal. Once she is back on the holodeck, the jamming signal will activate within seconds at which moment she must find the control panel inside the holodeck and engage the bridge access relays so he and Harry can deactivate all the neural interfaces.
Back in the World War II simulation, Seven is singing "That Old Black Magic" on stage, when one of her implants emits the jamming signal. At that moment she quickly excuses herself and gets off the stage. Since her character has shown resistance to Janeway in the past, suspicions that she is a Nazi sympathizer now come to a head with her new unwillingness to continue to sing while Janeway pumps the commandant (Karr) for information.
Listen to Seven sing "That Old Black Magic"file info
The French Resistance plan to infiltrate the Nazi headquarters to disable the communications, and Seven assists them.While Seven and Janeway are inside, Tuvok stays hidden outside, and sees some Hirogen approaching; though they are not in character uniforms, they have the normal Hirogen armor and weapons. Tuvok attacks them to keep them from discovering Seven and Janeway inside.
As the Allied Captain and Lieutenant Chakotay and Tom Paris, respectively, arrive and organize their troops, Janeway reaches the emitter planning to blow it up (which happens to be the wall where the bridge interface is). Seven is attempting to access the bridge interface, as Janeway (still in character) picks up the headphones and attempts to decipher the Nazi communications. Janeway notices Seven has not yet planted the charges, and sees her accessing the interface but doesn't know what it is. She thinks this proves Seven is a traitor sending messages to the Nazis, and points her pistol at Seven.When she is about to pull the trigger, Janeway's interface is disabled, just as artillery barrages create a simulated explosion which blows a hole in the holodeck wall, and the characters do not know what to make of it -- the program is still running.Seven and Janeway escape. The troops begin charging into the "Nazi bunker", taking the war to the rest of the ship.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"When the Americans arrive and the fighting begins, I don't intend to be standing next to a piano singing "Moonlight Becomes You.""
- - Seven of Nine to Captain Janeway
"I must discontinue this activity. I am not well."
- - Seven of Nine, after the Doctor's tampering restores her memories and identity mid-song.
"Straight from Allied High Command."
"It must be important."
"All messages regarding the war are important. It's only a matter of degree."
"I suppose you're right, but do you have to be so... logical about everything?"
"In any covert battle, logic is a potent weapon. You might try it sometime."
- - Tuvok and Neelix
"We've got to stop meeting like this."
- - The Doctor, when Ensign Kim activates him in the Mess Hall to discuss plans for retaking the ship.
[edit] Background Information
- This episode aired back-to-back with "The Killing Game, Part II" on its first airing. The producers had originally intended to air the two parts as a single, feature-length edition (and promotional trailers for the episodes advertised them as such) - however, these plans did not materialise, and each episode aired as a separate entity. A feature-length version was aired by the BBC on its first airing on 5 September 1999, and formed part of the UK VHS release Star Trek: Voyager - Movies.
- This is the fourth mention of Nazi Germany in Star Trek. The Nazis first appeared in TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever", and "Patterns of Force". Captain Kirk also referenced "Earth, Hitler, 1939." in Star Trek VI, in reply to General Chang's comment of "We need breathing room." The Nazis return in ENT: "Zero Hour", and "Storm Front", when agents from the Temporal Cold War send Captain Archer and the Enterprise NX-01 back to the Second World War.
- The Hirogen's entire culture and the plot of this two parter seem to take inspiration from the classic short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell where a man becomes trapped on the private island of a hunter who has become bored with big game hunting and now hunts other humans. DS9: "Captive Pursuit" had explored a nearly identical idea several years earlier.
- Both Captain Janeway and Neelix are seen wearing Klingon uniforms in this episode. Tom Paris would later wear one in "Prophecy".
- A Citroen 2CV Charleston (red and black) can be seen in this episode, but this car has been produced only in 1980 and the first car of this type was produced in 1948.
- This two-parter marks the only episodes where Roxann Dawson's pregnancy is intentionally shown on screen. Seven of Nine clarifies that her character's pregnancy is holographic, but in the Season 4 DVD extras, Dawson was relieved that she didn't have to hide her body while filming this arc.
- Jeri Ryan does her own singing in this episode.
- The text that appears on screen when The Doctor accesses Janeway's profile is a summary of the events in the Season 2 episode "Resolutions".
- The unit patch on Paris' uniform is of the 29th Infantry Division, which took part in Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944. The division landed on Omaha Beach along with the 1st Infantry Division and remained in the European Theater of Operations until the war ended. The insignia is the monad, the Korean symbol of eternal life and has the colors blue and gray. The division was a Maryland-Virginia-DC National Guard unit whose forefathers fought for the Union (blue) and Confederacy (gray) during the Civil War.
[edit] Awards
- This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series.
[edit] Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 4.9, catalogue number VHR 4630, 7 September 1998.
- In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: Voyager - Movies: Volume 3 (with "Equinox"), 5 February 2001.
- As part of the VOY Season 4 DVD collection.
[edit] Links and References
[edit] Guest Stars
- Danny Goldring as Karr
- Mark Metcalf as Hirogen Medic
- Mark Deakins as Turanj
- J. Paul Boehmer as the Kapitan
- Paul Eckstein as young Hirogen
- Peter Hendrixson as Klingon
[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars
[edit] References
Battle of Wolf 359; Dover; Fifth Armored Infantry; France; Goulot; Hirogen; Hirogen philosophy; Hirogen warship; holodeck; hologram; hologrid; Karabiner 98k; Klingon; McNulty, Jazzy; Nazi; Praxiteles; Tarpahk; Sainte Claire; Smith, Reginald; US Army; Second World War; The Concert; US 29th Infantry Division
[edit] External Links
| Previous episode: "Retrospect" | Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 | Next episode: "The Killing Game, Part II" |
