The Good: Interesting plot, Decent acting, Moments of character.
The Bad: Very simple episode on many fronts.
The Basics: When Voyager rescues a Hirogen who is tracking a member of Species 8472, the relationship between hunter and “Prey” is explored!
At this point in the story of Star Trek: Voyager, the show was committed to the Hirogen. Voyager was on the outskirts of, then entered, Hirogen space in “Message In A Bottle” and “Hunters” (reviewed here and here!) and it continued that arc through “Prey.” “Prey” is, appropriately, in some ways the opposite of “Hunters,” which was character-heavy and evolved into a plot-focused piece. “Prey” starts with a very basic plot and evolves into a decent character conflict for the episode.
In fact, “Prey” is set up to quickly dismiss its own plot aspects that seem more ridiculous than true to the show. The teaser starts with a shot of a bioship from Species 8472 before finishing with the revelation and hunting of that creature. In order for any of this to be impressive, the viewer has to know what the creatures from fluidic space are and the ones who know will recognize the ship and be underwhelmed by the climax of the teaser. Followed by a scene that has the Doctor tutoring Seven Of Nine on etiquette that ridiculously asserts that the Doctor learned social graces by repeating banter, “Prey” fortunately recovers to be a much more interesting episode that ultimately pits Janeway against Seven Of Nine in a psychological and philosophical conflict.
Following a Hirogen hunting party that results in the Alpha wounded by a member of Species 8472, Voyager comes to the rescue. After an unnerving exploration of the Hirogen ship, Paris, Tuvok, and Chakotay rescue the Alpha Hirogen and bring him back to Voyager. A member of Species 8472 makes his way to Voyager’s hull at the same time. When the creature enters Voyager, the Alpha Hirogen becomes determined to leave Sickbay and hunt the creature.
Janeway sees the conflict as an opportunity to attempt to make peaceful contact with a member of Species 8472 while the Hirogen is eager to kill it for its hunt. Seven Of Nine wants to eliminate both threats by letting the Hirogen take out the alien invader and when teams are sent out to find the member of Species 8472, the conflict between Janeway and Seven Of Nine reaches a peak.
“Prey” takes time to make explicit what the prior two episodes implied, which is that the Hirogen are hunters. That “Prey” bothers to state that directly is somewhat insulting given that most of the dialogue from Hirogen characters before now refers to “the hunt.” Janeway’s desire to use diplomacy is a reasonable and good character trait that makes perfect sense for her.
The bulk of the character development in “Prey” is the character conflict between Janeway and Seven Of Nine. Janeway is predictably StarFleet in her assertions, like the nanoprobe-modified phaser rifles to shoot nonlethal bursts. Seven Of Nine, similarly, is insistent that Voyager’s crew kill the alien or let the Hirogen kill it. Neither one honestly develops; the episode simply afford the two the chance to express their conflicting opinions with Seven Of Nine, predictably, ending up subservient to the wishes of Janeway. The final scene expresses well the hypocrisy of Janeway’s (and the United States military) view.
“Prey” is also oddly unwilling to work in context for character and also for making itself sensible. There is no mention in this episode of the letters from StarFleet or how the crew is reacting to the destruction of the network that carried those messages. Moreover, the Hirogen do not express anger at Voyager for essentially destroying their communications network. In a similar way, writer Brannon Braga seems to have no good explanation for how Species 8472 penetrated the ship’s shields and writes it off as “what is important is that it is here now.”
The simple plot of “Prey” is fleshed out with time-consuming sequences involving Chakotay, Paris, and Tuvok suiting up and hunting the alien in corridors that have been depressurized. This requires them (and Seven Of Nine) to wear environmental suits and that takes some time to execute. Given the lack of a substantive plot or a conflict that has real meaning for viewers, this feels somewhat like filler.
There are no bad performances in “Prey.” Tony Todd plays this Alpha Hirogen and given how much of his performance is against virtual creatures and has his face and mouth obscured by a mask, he manages to emote well. The final scene that has Jeri Ryan and Kate Mulgrew playing off one another is well-executed and Ryan is characteristically cold and controlled as Seven Of Nine. Mulgrew is appropriately authoritative as Janeway in the last scene as well.
The special effects in “Prey” are decent, though the lighting on the representative of Species 8472 are still not quite right. The moralistic elements of “Prey” are enough to remind viewers just how pleasantly different the Star Trek franchise was. In fact, the only truly unenlightened aspect of “Prey” is that the crew seems content to call the alien by its Borg designation. One wishes that while Tuvok was in contact with the alien he might have come up with a more appropriate name for the species than 8472. This is conceptually offensive, like calling a person by their Medical File number instead of humanizing them after an assault.
Even so, “Prey” works well to create a conflict above and beyond its exceptionally simple and obvious plot.
[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Voyager - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the gamechanging middle season here!
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7/10
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© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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