Star Trek: 10 Greatest Jeri Taylor Episodes
5. Hunters
Though the Hirogen were introduced in the earlier Message In A Bottle, they make their first true towering appearance in Hunters. However, important as they were for the rest of Voyager's fourth season, the true heart of the story revolves around the data stream coming from Earth. Here, Janeway discovers Mark has moved on, Paris receives a letter from his Dad, and Chakotay and Torres learn that all of their friends have been killed.
Deep Space Nine and Voyager aired concurrently, with the former's sixth and latter's fourth seasons more or less lining up. The Dominion was dominating storylines on DS9, though weren't a threat to a ship flung 70,000 light years away. In Hunters, Taylor made the threat seem much closer to home.
The episode also cannonised several plot points from Jeri Taylor's novel Mosaic.. Tuvok's son and mother receive their names, Mark is given a surname, and Paris's father is given a first name. The episode did not receive strong reviews on its initial release, though time has helped to raise its standing in the season - almost to the height of those two Hirogen on their ship.