Flesh and Blood (Star Trek: Voyager)
Holograms rebel against Hirogen hunters in a moral conflict.
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"Flesh and Blood" is a two-part episode from the seventh season of Star Trek: Voyager. It originally aired on UPN on November 29, 2000, and was later broadcast as two separate 45-minute installments. The story continues events from the episode "The Killing Game."
Plot
The crew of Voyager encounters a Hirogen ship that has been converted into a large holodeck. All but one of the Hirogen crew are dead; the survivor, engineer Donik, explains that the holograms disabled security controls and killed the crew. Another Hirogen ship arrives in response to the distress call. Both ships are led into a trap by the holograms, who then abduct Voyager's holographic Doctor.
Aboard the holographic ship, the Doctor finds the holograms are based on Alpha Quadrant races. Their leader, a Bajoran named Iden, asks the Doctor to tend to wounded holograms—a surprise, since holograms cannot normally be harmed. The Hirogen modifications cause the holograms to experience pain and death repeatedly to make training more realistic.
The Doctor explains Iden's situation to Captain Janeway. They argue about holographic rights as the Hirogen contact their homeworld and fight security teams in the Mess Hall. Iden detects two Hirogen vessels approaching and fires on Voyager, abducting Torres before fleeing at warp.
On the holographic ship, the Doctor explains the holograms' plight to Torres. Iden identifies a nearby Y-class planet for their society. En route, they encounter a Nuu'bari mining vessel using photonic beings for labor. The Doctor and Torres find other holograms growing wary of Iden's intentions.
Voyager arrives and prepares to fire on the holographic ship. Iden transports several Hirogen to the planet's surface, where the holograms hunt them. The Nuu'bari holograms are activated but do not understand; Torres explains their programs are not complex enough.
The Doctor finds Iden about to execute the Hirogen leader and tries to stop him. When Iden refuses to listen and moves to deliver a lethal blow, the Doctor fires his weapon, fully disrupting Iden's program.
The surviving Hirogen are treated and returned to their ships. On Voyager, the Doctor accepts responsibility for disobeying orders and working with the holograms.
Lore & Background
The episode follows the USS Voyager discovering a Hirogen ship converted into a large holodeck, where holograms have killed the crew. The holograms, led by the Bajoran Iden, abduct Voyager's holographic Doctor to tend to their wounded, revealing that Hirogen modifications cause holograms to experience pain and death.
Captain Janeway and the Doctor debate holographic rights as Iden's holograms attack Voyager and abduct engineer B'Elanna Torres. Iden plans to establish a society on a Y-class planet, encountering a Nuu'bari mining vessel using photonic beings for labor. The Doctor ultimately disrupts Iden's program to prevent the execution of a Hirogen leader.
The Hirogen Menace and a Hologram Uprising
When the crew of USS Voyager stumbles upon a derelict Hirogen vessel in the Delta Quadrant, they discover a nightmare: the ship has been converted into a massive holodeck, and every member of its crew is dead save for a single engineer named Donik. The holographic programs, it turns out, found a way to shut down security systems and systematically kill their creators. Before Voyager can intervene, a second Hirogen ship answers the distress call, and both vessels are lured into a trap that leaves them helpless as the rogue programs abduct Voyager's own holographic Doctor.
The story then shifts to the holo-ship, where the Doctor encounters a community of holograms modeled on Alpha Quadrant species, led by the Bajoran Iden. These programs have been subjected to Hirogen modifications that allow them to feel pain and die over and over, making their combat training brutally realistic. What begins as a rescue mission escalates into a full-scale conflict when Iden opens fire on Voyager and abducts Torres, dragging the crew into a war between artificial beings and the violent Delta Quadrant hunters who created them.
The Doctor's Moral Reckoning and Holographic Rights
At the heart of the episode is a philosophical collision between Captain Janeway and the Doctor over what rights, if any, holographic programs possess. The Doctor's surprise at Iden's request for medical attention—since holograms are not supposed to be capable of injury—forces him to confront the reality that the Hirogen have engineered their modifications to make these programs suffer genuine pain and experience repeated death. This revelation ignites a heated debate aboard Voyager about whether a being that can feel agony and be destroyed deserves the same protections as a biological life.
The Doctor ultimately chooses to side with the holograms, working alongside them to hunt the Hirogen on a nearby Y-class planet. When Iden prepares to deliver a lethal blow to the Hirogen leader, the Doctor intervenes by firing his weapon and fully disrupting Iden's program—an act of self-defense that nonetheless constitutes a violation of his orders. In the aftermath, the surviving Hirogen are treated and returned to their ships, and the Doctor stands before his crew to accept full responsibility for defying command and allying himself with the very programs he was sent to protect.
Critical Acclaim and Franchise Placement
Critics have consistently singled out this story as one of Voyager's strongest extended narratives. Jamahl Epsicokhan of Jammer's Reviews awarded it 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising it as a well-crafted outing and declaring it the finest of the series' three two-hour episodes (not counting the pilot), while dismissing The Killing Game as bloated and Dark Frontier as comparatively thin. Its standing within the broader Star Trek canon has also been recognized: in 2019, CBR placed it at number 19 on a list of the best holodeck-themed episodes across the entire franchise.
Bryan Fuller, the episode's writer, has seen his work on this particular story lauded as well. In 2016, SyFy Wire ranked it the sixth-best Fuller-written episode, acknowledging it as a brilliant concept that fell slightly short of perfection, while Den of Geek positioned Part I and Part II at 15th and 16th, respectively, on its list of top Fuller episodes. These accolades cement the story as a benchmark for what Voyager's longer-form storytelling could achieve.
Production Context and Thematic Resonance
Originally broadcast on UPN on November 29, 2000, the episode was structured as a two-part narrative that was subsequently played in two separate installments of roughly 45 minutes each. The story serves as a direct continuation of The Killing Game, another extended Voyager episode, linking the two into a broader arc involving the Hirogen and their holodeck technology.
Written by Bryan Fuller, the episode occupies a distinctive place in the show's seventh season, blending themes of holographic consciousness and ethical responsibility with the visceral action of a Delta Quadrant survival story. The episode's journey to physical media came on December 21, 2003, when it was included in the Star Trek: Voyager Complete Seventh Season DVD boxset, making the full two-hour experience accessible to collectors. Its thematic connections to broader topics—artificial consciousness, simulated sentience in fiction, and existential risk from artificial intelligence—have kept it relevant in ongoing discussions about how science fiction grapples with the boundaries of personhood.
Reader's Guide
The episode explores themes of holographic rights, artificial consciousness, and the ethics of simulated suffering. It serves as a follow-up to "The Killing Game" and presents a nuanced conflict between the Hirogen, who use holograms for brutal training, and the holograms themselves, who seek freedom. Reception was generally positive: Jamahl Epsicokhan rated it 3.5 out of 4 stars, calling it the best of the series' three two-hour telefilms.
In 2019, CBR ranked it the 19th best holodeck-themed episode of all Star Trek franchise episodes. SyFy Wire (2016) ranked it the sixth best episode written by Bryan Fuller, while Den of Geek ranked Part I and Part II as the 15th and 16th best Bryan Fuller episodes, respectively. The episode was released on DVD as part of the Star Trek Voyager: Complete Seventh Season boxset on December 21, 2003.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Flesh and Blood (Star Trek: Voyager) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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