The Killing Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Star Trek: VOY episode | |
| "The Killing Game" | |
 Mademoiselle de Neuf |
|
| Episode no. | 86 and 87 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 186 and 187 |
| Airdate | March 4, 1998 |
| Writer(s) | Brannon Braga Joe Menosky |
| Director | David Livingston |
| Guest star(s) | Danny Goldring as Alpha Hirogen J. Paul Boehmer as Nazi Kapitan |
| Year | 2373 |
| Stardate | 51715.2 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "Retrospect" |
| Next | "Vis a Vis" |
The Killing Game is a two-part episode from the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager. A Hirogen hunting party has taken over Voyager and put its crew to work as living holodeck characters. Their minds are controlled by neural interfaces which make them believe they are their characters, and the Hirogen hunt them in two holodeck programs.
Captain Janeway is a Klingon warrior complete with holographic cranial ridges when she is critically wounded by a Hirogen participating in a Klingon holodeck program. The Hirogen heals her wounds and she is put back to work in a second, more spectacular program: a town in Nazi-occupied France circa 1944. The Hirogen find Nazism fascinating, and are using the program to experience life in a military bent on conquering the planet. The Hirogen take on the roles of Nazi officers patrolling the town of St. Clare, with Voyager`s brainwashed crew as their prey, members of the French Resistance.
Janeway is now Katrine, a dapper French restauranteur and leader of the underground plotting against their Nazi occupiers. She works with a dour bartender (Tuvok), who is loyal to the movement, and a chanteuse and munitions expert (Seven of Nine). Neelix plays a baker who ferries messages and secret codes to the resistance headquarters. B'Elanna is a very pregnant French girl named Brigitte whose affair with a Nazi Captain allows her to sneak behind enemy lines.
The Hirogen enjoy using the Voyager crew in the simulation, because they are more rewarding to hunt down and kill than are holograms. In Sickbay, The Doctor is furious that he must repeatedly save his crewmates from life-threatening wounds sustained as they are hunted in the simulations. Harry Kim, who is being forced to expand the holodecks throughout the entire ship, works with The Doctor to wrest control of the ship and its crew from the Hirogen.
The Doctor finds a way to release Seven and Janeway from their neural interfaces, and the two plan to break the Hirogen's hold on the rest of the crew. Just then, the Americans storm St. Clare with the help of the French Resistance. Captain Miller (Chakotay) and Lt. Bobby Davis (Tom Paris) arrive to take down the Nazi stronghold in the town, calling in an air strike to blow up German headquarters. The explosion overloads the holo-projectors' already strained circuitry and blasts an opening from the holodeck into the rest of the ship. Holograms invade Voyager and the ship becomes a World War II battleground.
Janeway fights off holo-soldiers and Hirogen Nazis to plant explosives in Sickbay. When it blows, the neural interfaces release the Voyager crew and they find themselves immersed in a war, or in the case of Neelix, amidst a herd of drunken Klingons. Meanwhile, the leader of the Hirogen captures Janeway and she realizes what he is trying to do. His own culture will never survive with their lifestyle of wandering in scattered hunting parties, and if he could establish holo-programs his people could stay together and experience countless hunts of all kinds. Janeway takes advantage of his wisdom and the two establish a truce.
Unfortunately, one of the other Hirogen has become inspired by Nazi philosophy. He assassinates his leader and aims to conquer Voyager`s crew in the spirit of righteous domination. Just in time, Neelix and The Doctor manage to merge the holo-programs, unleashing the murderous Klingons on the Nazis before they can execute the Voyager crew. Harry overloads the holodecks and the program finally ends.
After days of fighting, a truce is called between Voyager's crew and the Hirogen. The Hirogen agree to leave Voyager in exchange for holodeck technology.
[edit] Trivia
- The holographic pregnancy of "Brigitte" was not actually simulated. Actress Roxann Dawson was eight months pregnant when this episode was filmed.
- Jeri Ryan performs her own vocals while singing in the nightclub. This is also one of the few episodes when she is seen wearing an outfit other than her traditional Seven of Nine catsuits.
- Janeway's decision to share the holo-technology creates repercussions, which Voyager will encounter in a later episode ("Flesh and Blood"), and keeps some continuity of the show story line.
