Tsunkatse

Terrible character management. An extra star only because of the extra star. I'll leave that one cryptic. But as others said this takes people completely out of character to the point of being disgusting. What's next? A safari where they go down slice heads off animals and hang them on their wall? It's interesting how you get a run of good shows and great shows and then a couple bad shows in a row.

Such a pleasure to watch this show again after all those years. And such a surprise to recognize the Rock in this episode! Hope he had a hell of a time with the Voyager crew, as indeed he did a great job in this cameo.

Voyager is taking shore leave on some planet. Inexplicably, some of the crew, including Chakotay and Torres, enjoy going to a 'sporting' event that is a lot like the gladiators. Their enjoyment of this made little sense in light of how pacifistic and nice folks from the Federation are in the 24th century. Regardless, their enjoyment is cut short when they see Seven of Nine in the arena getting her butt kicked. But the ship cannot beam her out, as it turns out that the fighters are NOT right in front of them but are fighting remotely and their holograms appear in the arena. This means Seven IS fighting but not on this planet. Where is she, how are they going to get her back and what about Tuvok? After all, he was on a shuttle with her when she was kidnapped.

The only thing that I didn't like was seeing Voyager crew members attending such a nasty thing. It just didn't make sense. But it was otherwise interesting and worth seeing.

The writers of this episode seem to be a little late in wanting to ride the wave of wrestling's success. WWE's golden era was in the 1980s and early 1990s. The story isn't made any better by the fact that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has a guest appearance. Speaking of guest appearances: We see a small DS9 reunion with Combs (Weyoun) and Hertzler (Martok), which at least gives this episode something positive. Otherwise, this episode is rather weak and doesn't fit the bright stainless image of Starfleet.

When the crew has a few days of shore leave, Chakotay, Paris, Kim and several other officers spend their entire time watching an archaic form of gladiator competition. The crew bets on the winners and after a short time knows the fighters and their strengths. Somehow that doesn't fit the characters at all. Suddenly the crew is enjoying watching alien fighters smash each other's heads in a small arena. Also, how come they haven't heard about "red fights" where people actually fight to the death? With all the fights they attended and with all the background information about these competitions, they should have noticed this insignificant fact.

The crew only becomes suspicious when Seven suddenly appears in the ring and competes against a grim-looking "The Rock". Only then they do realize that there is apparently a plot behind the facade in which the fighters do not volunteer to fight, but are kidnapped and forced to fight.

The only interesting thing about this episode is the interaction between Seven and Hertzler as Hirogen fighter. This has a certain charm between a martial arts sensei and his student to teach him how to beat his own master. In the end, all that remains is the realization that Starfleet and the people of the 24th century are probably not as highly developed and morally elevated as Star Trek always wanted us to believe. As soon as people fight in front of an audience, they cheer along with the others in the stands.

How do people, trapped in the Delta Quadrant, become fans of a sport and get to know all about its history. This was a shore leave of a couple days and yet they know who the heroes are and the intricacies of the sport as if they had grown up there. Also, the method for getting fighters is ridiculous. I just found the whole thing ludicrous.