Seven of Nine and Tuvok are captured by a devious alien who forces Seven to participate in brutal arena fights for a massive, planetary audience. As Voyager tries to find and rescue their crewmembers, one of the other fighters takes on Seven as his pupil, teaching her how to survive long enough to be rescued.
The "bigness" of this episode came in the guest stars. For Star Trek fans, the highlight was beloved Deep Space Nine veterans Jeffrey Combs and J.G. Hertzler as the architect of the fights and Seven's Hirogen mentor, respectively. For the executives cutting the advertisements at UPN, the highlight was "The Rock" (as he was credited here on screen) -- Dwayne Johnson himself, at a point where he was still a WWE star, and a few years before he became one of the most bankable action stars in Hollywood.
Really, none of these roles seem like they amount to all that much on the page; the episode relies on the talents and charisma of the actors to make them work. All three performers do. Penk is barely a character, but Jeffrey Combs brings his considerable talents to bear, making him a fun-to-hate villain in just a few scenes (admittedly, by giving a performance that's about 75% Weyoun). Meanwhile, The Rock does all his wrestling signatures of the time. Apparently, he was concerned at being typecast and was reluctant to take the role; just last year, he explored those feelings in an episode of his Young Rock sitcom that was a fictionalized account of making this Voyager episode. (But even at this early point in his acting career, he has to win every fight he's involved in.)
Yet it's J.G. Hertzler who gets the best part (even if his character isn't given a name). Whether you see the twist coming or not -- that he and Seven must fight each other in the end -- you can feel sympathy for his backstory about being separated from his son, for having been forced to fight like this for nearly two decades, and for now just wanting to give up. It all builds nicely to the question of whether Seven would actually kill someone in cold blood who she knows that closely. (The episode would have you think this more ambiguous than it actually is; in the final moment of the fight before Voyager rescues them, it sure seems to me that Seven has decided to strike the killing blow.)
Generally speaking, I like the episode. (And I won't deny, the stunt casting of Deep Space Nine actors totally hooks me.) Still, I find a number of small nits to pick throughout. It's a little weird how much the main characters are caught up in the fights, even given Chakotay's boxing past; do they not know there are "red matches" to the death in this sport? Was Kate Mulgrew taking vacation time during this episode; why is Janeway written out for the middle of it only to be written back in at the climax? Does The Doctor's comment about Hirogens at the end seem to anyone else to be oddly racist for the character? And is it really a satisfying ending that Penk is left out there to keep enslaving people to fight in his arena?
I have a few nits behind the scenes as well. The use of stunt performers for the fight scenes is painfully obvious; not only does Jeri Ryan's double clearly look nothing like her, but the fight choereography is vastly more complex whenever the main actors have been swapped out. Penk's CG ship looks a bit too pristine, without enough surface texture to look realistic. Plus, there's actor Tim Russ' gripe about the episode; according to him, this was originally a Tuvok episode, rewritten for Seven of Nine so it would focus on her for the big promotional stunt. He's not the only Voyager actor who claims episodes were taken from his character to give to Seven of Nine. And if he tells it true, then it's a bit of salt in the wound that Tuvok has to comfort Seven about her emotional crisis in the final scene.
Other observations:
- I'm always entertained by "makeup on top of makeup," as we get here with Neelix's sunburn.
- There are several good lines throughout. I especially like B'Elanna's quip that "the Borg wouldn’t know fun if they assimilated an amusement park," and Tuvok's exchange with Seven of Nine about how the silence between them was not awkward at all.
- The arena fights feature big taiko drum-like background music, which is a fun shift for the show. Though I'm unclear whether only we the audience are hearing that, or if it's actually being played within the world of the show, to the fight spectators.
For a stunt episode, "Tsunkatse" isn't bad. Basically, I feel like it "justifies" the stunt. Still, I wouldn't call it a truly great episode -- just a good episode with great performances. I give it a B.
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