Somehow, a soulless exercise in corporate synergy resulted in a good episode of television. And I’m really mad about it.
Okay, picture this. It’s early 2000 and you’re a Star Trek: Voyager fan. You’ve just moved out of home and are exploring a brave new world of low slung/wide-legged jeans, ill-applied eyeliner and regular internet access. For the first time, you have dial-up at home and a super-fast ethernet connection in the university libraries, and you can check your email as many times a day as you want. For up to fifteen minutes at a time unless you can pay for a local phone call.
This is the future. It doesn’t get any better than this.
The problem is that having regular internet access means being aware of things that never really touched you in the past. Suddenly you know that Voyager is one of the top rated shows on its brand new network, but it mainly appeals to female demographics. The demographic which actually counts is white men aged 18 to 35, and they only tune into UPN to watch pro wrestling.
Sexing the show up by adding Seven of Nine only improved the ratings a little. Now it’s time for … a crossover event. “The Rock”, a wrestler you’ve literally never heard of (because you’ve literally never heard of professional wrestling before it came up in this context) will be making an appearance on Voyager, fighting Seven of Nine (of course) in an episode where everyone is obsessed with a fake alien bloodsport. Because that’s what men are into?
As a fan, you feel majorly disrespected. You grudgingly watch the episode and concede it wasn’t as bad as you expected. But, like, what’s the point? Janeway and Chakotay barely even stand next to each other or make eye-contact! This is the worst episode of Star Trek: Voyager ever.
I haven’t watched “Tsunkatse” since that day in mid-2000 when I rented the video and confirmed what fandom had already told me: it was bad and stupid and should feel bad.
But in the twenty-four years between then and now, I have:
- watched a little pro-wrestling, thanks largely in part to that time my flatmate and best friend were funemployed and obsessed with the Rock and John Cena
- looked on with mild interest as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson grew from a niche celebrity and That Guy From That Episode Of Star Trek I Hated into a bona fide A-list celebrity (briefly beloved, now I think said to be kind of an ass?)
- been briefly obsessed with the Netflix series GLOW, a fictionalised dramedy about women’s pro-wrestling in the ’80s;
- come to appreciate that pro-wrestling and certain iconic Star Trek fight scenes — especially Shatner’s two-handed punch — share common origins;
- read Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Josephine Riesman, a fascinating biography of the man who essentially made pro wrestling what it is today, who brought us The Rock and co, and who has been credibly accused of rape, sexual harassment, negligence and general mistreatment of colleagues and employees;
- learned more about the behind the scenes environment in which the Star Trek of this era was made.
Suffice to say, my opinion of “Tsunkatse” has completely changed. It’s a good episode, and — here’s the trick — it always has been.
In a season which has so often felt like it was treading water, struggling to find something meaningful to say or an interesting way to say it, watching “Tsunkatse” feels like a shot of adrenaline. The stakes are meaningful — not only are Seven and Tuvok’s lives on the line, but so is a guest character we come to care about, and Seven’s humanity itself. The allegory is powerful, even if “maybe the entertainment we love comes at the cost of the lives and health of the people making it” is a bit on the nose for both Berman’s Star Trek and McMahon’s wrestling industry, and also Hollywood in 2024. The dialogue is, no pun intended, punchy. The characters seem to like each other. That’s a much higher bar than it should be.
“Tsunkatse” isn’t perfect
It has a handful of small flaws:
- The idea that Janeway is going to swoop in and save the day with the Delta Flyer is a bit silly
- We spend way too much time with Neelix and his home-made sunburn remedies — time which would be better spent with literally any other character
- The fight between Seven and the Pendari Champion played by Mr The Rock has an element of “okay, guys, let’s watch this pro-wrestler beat up a beauty queen!” which makes me uncomfortable — it’s necessary for the story, and important for Seven to be vulnerable here, but something about the framing gives me the ick. Though that might also be my memory of the contemporaneous promotion affecting my perceptions?
- It’s just annoying that the rest of the season hasn’t been this good.
Also — this might be controversial, but in addition to The Rock, “Tsunkatse” relies heavily on two iconic Star Trek guest stars, J.G. Hertzler and Jeffrey Combs. Both made multiple appearances in DS9 — Combs played more than one recurring character — and would turn up again in Enterprise.
Hertzler and Combs are important parts of the wider Star Trek ensemble, and extremely talented, but I couldn’t help but find their presence in “Tsunkatse” distracting. Alongside the presence of The Rock, it really felt like Voyager was signalling to a particular kind of fan, “It’s okay! This isn’t the lady Trek! Look, we have those white men you loved in DS9!”
Okay, so maybe I’m not completely over my feelings from 2000.
Other observations
- First “Memorial” and now “Tsunkatse”. That’s two consecutive episodes I enjoyed watching. Has Voyager‘s sixth season turned the corner?
- Mention is made once again of Chakotay’s love of boxing. Oh yeah, this episode has character continuity. Wild.
- (I have come to feel about the sport of tsunkatse as I do about the boxing in “The Fight” — in a world where major injuries can be healed in minutes by waving some light around, the sports we currently consider egregiously dangerous and violent must seem a lot more accessible. Provided, you know, the participants have given informed consent and actually have access to that magical 24th century technology, and aren’t being kidnapped and enslaved for profit.)
- “Tsunkatse” explores Seven’s abhorrence of violence and profound fear that giving in to violent urges will rob her of the humanity she has fought so hard to reclaim, and I am once again asking if the writers of Star Trek: Picard ever actually watched Voyager.
- Young Rock, a sitcom about The Rock in his youth, has an episode about the making of “Tsunkatse”, and I briefly considered watching it for this post. That’s how dedicated I am. Here’s the trailer.
In conclusion
Apologies to my younger self, but this episode is great. Four home-made sunburn remedies out of five, but also? I kind of want to go and rewatch GLOW.