Prey

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".

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.

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.

The episode takes the Hunters, the Hirogen, to the extreme. They're hunting the Borg hunters, Species 8472, now. It's exactly as cool as it sounds. I love it. But I'm after a different feeling here. The episode should trigger a feeling that's not obvious, but possible to achieve from this point: Disillusion-Rejection-Oblivion. The Hunter species, the Hirogen, feel so real because they are based on real-history's Prussians in North-Eastern Europe. Their country is now extinct. Put yourself in the shoes of a bystander, watching the Hirogen. Say, like the Prussians, they just lost their empire. Nothing to call home, anymore. And still, the Hirogen keep chasing insanely stupid goals: Hunting other species. And no other species tells them how stupid that is! The Hirogen consider everyone else prey! They never get any feedback. And you (Captain Janeway) won't tell them, either. In fact, you can't. The Hirogen openly admit, they oppose anything you're going to do. 'Hello, enemy.' As a result, you'll watch them, too, in a state of Disillusion-Rejection-Oblivion.

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.