VOY: “Tsunkatse”

Date: February 16, 2021

Season 6, Episode 15

Music Video of the Day: Happy 16th day of Black History Month!

Interstellar News: The sun came out today, and it was wonderful! Watched Episode II today with our dear friends, in the continuation of our Star Wars marathon. Boy, that was a fucking terrible movie.

TL;DR: Voyager is taking shore leave on the Norcadian home world and one of the local features is Tsunkatse, where two aliens fight each other a la Gladiator style. What they don’t realize is that all of the fights are captured, just like in Thor: Ragnarok, and forced to fight. They only realize this when Seven is in the ring, as she and Tuvok were captured while on an away mission. Seven only agrees to fight in order to save Tuvok’s life. Seven ultimately is forced to fight, to the death, her Hirogen friend… but Janway and Voyager save them before she kills him. Tuvok thanks Seven and the Hirogen goes off to find his son.

Favorite Quote:

Seven of Nine: The idea of killing someone for the entertainment of others is detestable.

Tuvok: Is the idea of losing your own life for the entertainment of others more palatable?

Tuvok asking the hard questions.

“Surely you can find some way to occupy your free time that doesn’t involve alien fisticuffs.”: This episode is going to be good, no matter what, because Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun, amongst others), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are all guest stars. Johnson even does “The People’s Eyebrow” and I about lost my mind as it brought me back to my childhood. The Hirogen are back in Hertzler’s character, and I knew from the beginning it was him who was going to be Seven’s opponent in the red match. I will give the crew some credit, though, they didn’t interfere with another society and didn’t patronize them anymore after they found out how the fighters were being “recruited”. I mean the story wasn’t all that creative… Seven and Tuvok think they’re too cool for shore leave, get kidnapped, and Seven debates if she should kill someone to save herself or not. We’ve seen it before and I’m sure we’ll see it again. It’s the guest stars and our regular crew that really make this episode. Combs is slimy and excellent, as always, and Hertzler is just fantastic in both his role as a Hirogen and a mentor. Johnson doesn’t get to display any of his acting chops, as he was still probably in the WWE (or WWF as it was called then) and was brought on for his physicality, but you can tell he knows more than just how to suplex people. I liked this episode way more than I should have, but it’s getting 8 lightsabers from me.

TA Out!