'The Killing Game'

Stardate: Unknown
Written By: Brannon Braga and Joe Menonsky
Directed By: David Livingston
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5)

�The Killing Game� is an exciting episode and is quite interesting.  Seeing the crew under these circumstance is good, and we finally get something different about the Hirogen, even if it isn�t that good.  But a lot of it is just impossible to buy, like the entire holodeck idea.  Let me start at the beginning:

Voyager gets over-run by the Hirogen, and I can put up with the fact that we don�t get to see any of this happening.  What I would�ve preferred though is to forget the Teaser we had, Janeway as a Klingon, and have a small snippet of the battle and the Hirogen taking over.  Than after the credits you can say �20 days later� or something like that.

Anyway, after the Hirogen have taken over they proceed to make Voyager an extremely large holodeck.  The resources and energy requirements for that would be huge, too huge for Voyager to be able to handle by itself being alone and lost in the Delta Quadrant, aren�t they? ;-) So are the other Hirogen ships helping out with this?  This question isn�t answered, and it should be because this is such a huge issue.

The Hirogen put the crew in these holodecks, and using neural transmitters, make the crew believe they are apart of the simulation.  And they disengage the safeties.  So how did the Hirogen get the crew to do this (this could�ve been explained in my revised Teaser!), and how did they discover the technology? 

That may sound like a stupid question, but we discover that the Alpha Hirogen�s plan is to use the holodeck technology to benefit their race, so that would mean he knows about Voyager�s technology, and he knew before he tried to take Voyager.  Some more explanation on this would�ve been nice.

And to do with the holodecks, and my loathing for the Teaser, why did Janeway have Klingon prosthetics on her?  Just after the Teaser those prosthetics are removed, and Neelix isn�t changed into a human or a Klingon during the simulations, so why does Janeway need prosthetics?  Okay, because the writers wanted you to get interested in the episode at the beginning, but still . . .

I admire the Alpha Hirogen�s idea, to use the holodeck technology to help his nomadic race have the thrill of the hunt, and at the same time unite them.  This is the only noble cause of the Hirogen.  But this doesn�t satisfy my want for the Hirogen to be more different, because this idea is not favored by many among his race, or even his crew.

I like the use of the Nazi era, the sets are well done, and apart from the un-believability of the holodeck idea, the rest is just wonderful!  The plot runs at a good pace, although too much time is wasted with Seven�s singing, and the acting is good.  I liked the use of Roxann Dawson�s pregnancy as part of the plot.

And the last act had me looking forward to the conclusion, seeing those troops heading towards the hole in the holodeck wall, which looked splendid.  And speaking of splendid, that SFX shot of the Nazi headquarters blowing up was truly impressive.  I believe, at the time, it was one of the most expensive and intricate shots they had ever done, and it was worth it.

Unfortunately, �The Killing Game� is flawed with it�s holodeck premise, but other than that this is a joy to watch and even though I�m looking forward to �Part II� I doubt there is any way that the story can recover from the first part�s setup.