VOY - Prey

[MerelyAFan]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/v884.php

I give credit for making an episode with Hirogen & Species 8472 reasonably interesting, though the diminishing novelty of the latter, eventually completed in In the Flesh, was already becoming apparent here.

[Darth Wedgius]

I've either never seen this episode or I'd forgotten about it. If I didn't use a pseudonym here I'd be afraid of someone might be taking my nerd card away.

I like that Seven put the welfare of the ship ahead of one alien's. It wasn't necessarily the right thing to do, but it was a hard choice to make and they didn't get out of it by reversing anything's polarity.

I'm OK with giving Neelix a phaser, too. He's been shown to be more dangerous cooking. More seriously, it could have led to a change in his character, as Troi's promotion might have, and that would have been good in both cases. Speaking as someone who actually liked both characters, I think they were locked into nigh useless roles.

[PerrySimm]

If you're not super into the J-7 dynamic, then it's most memorable for Tony Todd's appearance. Janeway taking the side of 8472 is a head-scratcher.

Touching the warp core is a bad idea, it's like a billion degrees in there. Kick the wrong feed out and the coolant will rush out and dissolve you.

[clearspira]

VOY and ENT had a reputation for castrating Trek's greatest villains but 8472 is a first: they were castrated on their second appearance. A remarkable feat - especially as 8472 has five sexes and thus should have more balls than any of them.

[Fianna]

Seemed to me like there was an obvious "take a third option" solution to this dilemma: send both the 8472 and the Hirogen hunter to the 8472's universe. That would allow him to continue the hunt, just like the Hirogen were insisting.

Sure, he'd almost certainly be killed hunting the 8472 on their home turf, and would even if he survived, is unlikely to find a way back to his home universe, but if the Hirogen are as big into hunting as they claim, their response to that should be, "Challenge accepted!"

[Thebestoftherest]

Agree. No wonder Voyager isn't talk about as much.

[Linkara]

Seemed to me like there was an obvious "take a third option" solution to this dilemma: send both the 8472 and the Hirogen hunter to the 8472's universe. That would allow him to continue the hunt, just like the Hirogen were insisting.

Sure, he'd almost certainly be killed hunting the 8472 on their home turf, and would even if he survived, is unlikely to find a way back to his home universe, but if the Hirogen are as big into hunting as they claim, their response to that should be, "Challenge accepted!"

Problem with that idea is that it basically invites a new invasion by 8472. After all, the war with them was started by the Borg intruding on their realm. And while the Hirogen are more adept fighters, their lack of cohesion and organized structure would not only mean their eventual destruction, but invite 8472 to come back and attack our universe again. Sure, we'd see them trying more stealthy approaches in "In the Flesh," but as far as Voyager at the time knew, 8472 were content to sit back and not have anything more to do with these stupid bipeds anymore.

I'm also going to disagree on the Stupid Neelix Moment. While I'd need to rewatch the episode, I feel like the SNM should be reserved for bits where he actually did something stupid. In this case, him just being told "I need more security personnel" and him going "Got it." isn't enough. While Neelix can be a terrible character, I feel like he shouldn't be ragged on when he's not actually doing anything stupid. That being said, one wonders what he's doing in the mess hall during a situation like this, especially when all the lights are off. Feels like he should be either assisting in repairwork or sitting in his quarters away from the action.

While one could argue this is the first step in nerfing 8472 and ruining them as a threat, honestly I'm okay with this one - the show treats them as the danger that they are and of course it's a better dilemma and resolution than we usually get on the show, and like Chuck I appreciate that Janeway didn't have an answer to Seven's "You want me to be an individual, but you chastise me for being one."

[Mecha82]

That CGI for Species 8472 hasn't aged well. It looks so primitive in today's standards.

[Marveryn]

I think that what hurt 8472 is the introduction of the episode. If they show the hirogen hunting something perhaps a bigger group and then cutting it just as species 8472 was about to attack Ninja style. Then we move to the ship and scene with a nearly direlect ship beaten up. It would had made the episode more effective. Heck just cut away before the Hirogen started to gun it down would had work

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

What is all this talk about 8472 being from another universe? I heard it in the review and now here!

edit: Ah, it's like subspace or something.