Star Trek: Voyager - Tsunkatse (2000)

-Written by Kyle Bain.

During shore leave, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Tuvok (Tim Russ) go on an away mission. They are quickly enslaved, and Seven is forced to participate in gladiatorial combat on the planet Tsunkatse in order to save Tuvok’s life. As the rest of the Voyager crew attempts to locate them and bring them home, the clock continues to tick–making the future for our heroes uncertain. 

Star Trek: Voyager - Tsunkatse is one of the many “shore leave” episodes where characters are meant to take a break and enjoy themselves. For anyone that’s seen a Star Trek property, you know that things never go as planned. Additionally, in typical fashion, Tsunkatse takes characters in a different direction from where they might typically be–often employing comedy as a primary vehicle for the episode’s narrative. Characters like The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) possess something far more comedic than what typically exists within this greater canon. It’s off putting, it’s unnecessary, and it’s unwelcome. Characters regress within minutes of the episode’s start, and I’m not sure that by the conclusion the episode has fully recovered from this faux pas. 

Furthermore, the development of B’Elanna and Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) come off as completely unappealing–as their participation in these gladiatorial battles presents them in a way that makes them appear inhumane and inaccessible through the first twenty minutes. It almost feels that Tsunkatse spends the remainder of its runtime attempting to rectify this glaring issue. While some progress is made, for someone who has only seen a handful of Star Trek: Voyager episodes, it’s challenging for me to genuinely appreciate them by the time the episode has concluded. 

The issues certainly continue when it comes to the set design, with sets that feel entirely too small, almost claustrophobic. Considering the magnitude of the fight sequences, the sets don’t effectively express their size and significance. Tsunkatse fails to entice viewers through the episode’s aesthetic, and I feel it’s just one more glaring issue that should have been addressed before Tsunkatse was released to the public. 

It seems that Tsunkatse is a gimmick–nothing more, nothing less. With the inclusion of The Rock (The Champion) in a mere two-minute scene, it’s clear that Star Trek: Voyager and the WWF hoped to cash in on a strange crossover event. Had The Rock played a more pivotal role, a character with substance, there’s a chance that the crossover could have worked and generated some positive buzz. The strikes keep coming–and Star Trek: Voyager - Tsunkatse has only one saving grace. 

The development of Seven of Nine and Tuvok are what keep this episode afloat. These are characters that either struggle with their humanity or completely lack emotional competence. With Tsunkatse focusing heavily on these characters, Writers Gannon Kenney, Bryan Fuller, and Michael Taylor, along with Director Michael Vejar were onto something of substance that had the potential to carry the episode. The two characters have a massive amount of screen time in comparison to the rest of the cast, and while their development may only be miniscule in the grand scheme of things, it seems that there’s enough development, enough of an emotional push by the end of Tsunkatse that viewers are able to walk away from the episode with a glimmer of hope. 

Interestingly enough, with all of the bad that surrounds this episode, Tsunkatse left me with hope for the series as a whole. There’s enough by the conclusion of the episode, that the progress of characters like Seven of Nine and Tuvok will make in the future of Star Trek: Voyager seems clear. Tsunkatse was presented to me as an episode that exists at the bottom of the barrel of Star Trek lore, and I believe that this has something to do with me not hating it. Regardless of my preconceptions, Tsunkatse, despite its many shortcomings, isn’t a terrible episode. 

Directed by Michael Vejar. 

Written by Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman, Michael PIller, Jeri Taylor, Robert Doherty, Gannon Kenney, Bryan Fuller, and Michael Taylor. 

Starring Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, Jeri Ryan, Garrett Wang, Jeffrey Combs, J.G. Hertzler, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, etc. 

6/10 = WATCH IT FOR FREE