VOY: Hunters

         This episode has a very strange division between the A and B stories. I am going to have to say that the crew getting letters from home is the A story and the race of hunters who almost kill Seven and Tuvok is a fairly distant B. I guess after all the hostile aliens they have encountered that is fine, but it seemed like they maybe should have had these two events be part of different episodes. Having the crew finally hear from home was one of those things that only works on Voyager, but at least it did work. Kim was so excited to hear from his parents, Chakotay was super depressed to hear all his friends are dead and Janeway seemed to be taking the news her fiance had left her fairly well. 
         We open with the crew receiving a garbled message from Starfleet and see hostile aliens witnessing the use of their relays with anger. Seven sets to work trying to retrieve the messages and discovers they are letters from home. She also learns that she can't get the messages without getting closer to the relay. Janeway takes the ship in but there is intense gravity distortion coming from the relay, it seems it is powered by a black hole. Messages start coming in and Neelix gets the job of delivering them which of course means he reads some of each letter first, you wouldn't want someone trustworthy doing a job like that. The relay itself is hundreds of thousands of years old and puts out the energy of a star over a year every day. They are having a problem though and the only way to keep getting the messages and the hidden encrypted message from Starfleet is to get closer, but the ship can't do that so Seven and Tuvok take a shuttle.
         As they approach the hunter aliens from the opening show up and quickly overwhelm the shuttle. Seven and Tuvok wake up tied up in a room full of skeletons. The hunter is sad they didn't put up more of a fight but is looking forward to having their remains in his collection. His buddy calls for backup and they head to confront Voyager. Voyager doesn't put up with being bullied and destabilizes the black hole powering the relay. The three additional hostile ships that just showed up are pulled in and Kim barely manages to get Seven and Tuvok to safety before the final alien ship is destroyed. They escape but the relay network is broken and the hunter aliens are presumably pissed off about it.

         Review: A fairly average episode that does at least move the overall story of the series forward. I strongly question Janeways decision to have Neelix distribute the letters but otherwise there is some nice character stuff here.

5 out of 10