User Reviews

I can see that this episode gets die-hard Trekkies in a tizz. That's what comes of taking popular sci-fi too seriously. Being simply a Star Trek dipper, I found it a wonderfully refreshing change from the usual, often po-faced, offerings. Also, being the age I am, the old 1930s serials, repeated on tv in the fifties and sixties still hold fond memories for me. The Captain Proton holodeck simulations were always a good idea, and I understand that this extended session was due to a fire which rendered the Voyager bridge set unusable. Briefly, Tom and Harry are working on the next Captain Proton episode when a photonic (light-energy based) alien civilisation tries to make contact with the holodeck characters which also appear to be photonic. Unfortunately those characters, based obviously on the Mongonians from Flash Gordon, are belligerent, and war ensues which puts Voyager in danger. The conflict is resolved by utilising many of the staple serial conventions including main villain Chaotica's continual desire for a new bride to rule the Universe at his side. Captain Janeway ably fills this role as Arachnia Queen of the Spider-people. Dressed in a tight-fitting gown with a wildly exaggerated collar and with the aid of a pheremone love potion she seduces Chaotica's henchman and lowers the lighting shield enabling Proton to destroy the death ray, apparently killing Chaotica in the process. However, the closing serial credit suggests, like another sci-fi villain, Chaotica will return. The black and white serial sequences are wonderfully realised in 1930s style. And I did suddenly notice that they were shown in 4:3 projection. As mentioned above many familiar serial practices were employed such as the way into the impregnable fortress being via underground caverns. The re-use of the same sets to represent different locations and the use of secret weapons suggested by on-screen processing effects. The costumes looked very authentic. A mixture of Roman and oriental and, as ever, Proton's captured secretary Constance Goodheart, had to be dressed as a handmaiden, tied up awaiting Chaotica's pleasure. Inevitably her dialogue consisted solely of screaming on cue. Watch it and enjoy it. And stop taking things so seriously!

This is clearly a labor of love for the buck rogers serials from the 1930's and you can see that in the construction of the episode. I was a generation (or three) removed from that time period so I think the impact is lost a bit on me but that's not to say I cannot appreciate what they were doing here ----

The highlight is Janeway going on all in on camp. She's always hitting for the fences in any scene she is in and it's a lot of fun watching her performance here.

It's a bit of a history lesson in the evolution of sci-fi ---- I am sure Roddenberry watched stuff like this in his youth and it no doubt had impact on elements in TOS.

Actually, this is a pretty fun, lighthearted episode. Yeah, we have yet another holodeck malfunction plot device, but once you suspend that disbelief, it's easy to tell that the cast was having some fun with the split roles, and the writers keep the dialogue fun and snappy.

Paris and Kim play their Buck Rodgers knockoff serial heroes, where Kim reveals his true motivation for playing along, saving hot holodeck chicks. But as Voyager gets pulled into a subspace quantum gravity techno-babble situation, cross dimensional beings mistake the fantasy of the holodeck for Voyager's reality, and find themselves at war with Chaotica, the Merciless, or something like that.

Naturally, the only solution is to play out the holodeck fantasy to its conclusion, and the hilarity ensues.

Kate Mulgrew obviously has a lot of fun throwing herself into the role of the Arachnia queen, and even the Doctor plays an amusing President of Earth. And they stay pretty true to the melodramatic serial style of the old '30's Sci Fi. Kick back, enjoy a little fun in what's usually the dreary, foreboding Delta Quadrant for a change.

At the outset it looked like this may be just another holodeck gone wrong episodes where crew members are trapped and threatened by rogue characters and no safeties active. This episode was actually a novel twist on that idea... While Tom and Harry are taking part in the "Captain Proton" game Voyager passes through an spacial distortion and finds itself unable to move. Aliens come through an anomaly in the holodeck where they meet the evil Chaotica, these aliens are photonic so see the holographic characters as real life forms who can be harmed by the simulated weapons in the program. One of them is killed by Chaotica's henchmen and these aliens start a war against Chaotica's evil empire. The crew of Voyager can't shut off the program so are forced to enter the program and ensure that Chaotica is defeated. To this end Captain Janeway takes the role of Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People to infiltrate Chaotica's fortress and disable his lightning shield to enable Captain Proton, Tom, to defeat his death ray.

Unusually for an episode of a modern programme it was almost entirely in black and white, it also didn't fall in to the trap of taking itself too seriously but left its tongue firmly in its cheek with cod dialogue and the camp look of old serials such as "Flash Gordon". It was a lot of fun to see the reluctant Captain Janeway dressed up as Arachnia.

(SPOILER) Many enjoyable things in life are best enjoyed in small doses- chocolate cake, for example, is wonderful as a dessert or occasional treat, but most rational people would quickly tire of it...plus get a little nauseous...if they were eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

That's the trap that "Bride of Chaotica!" falls squarely into. Momentary glimpses of Tom Paris' "Captain Proton" adventures have been a welcome relief from time to time during the course of Voyager's many hazardous adventures, and have provided a welcome chuckle or two before we get down to some serious space drama. but an entire hour devoted to the camp humor and over-the-top performances of the "Proton" characters is simply a bit too much and after awhile becomes annoying rather than amusing.

There is a fine line between excellent satire and just plain silliness, and this installment quickly strays into the latter and stays firmly there. There is supposed to be a serious subplot involving a previously unknown race of photonic aliens (REAL Star Trek stuff) but, unfortunately, this is "lost in space" (pun intended) as an unending barrage of sight gags and campy dialog destroy any possibility of dramatic tension or interest in the plot or characters.

I'm sure that this story probably looked great on paper, and no doubt the principle actors had some fun with it, but we've seen far too many "we can't shut the holideck down" episodes not only in "Voyager" but in ST:TNG and ST:DS9 as well, and the idea has long since worn out its welcome, so lets move on already (but kudos to the production designers for some affectionate, faithful, and highly detailed "Buck Rogers" style costumes & sets).

I've never considered myself a fan of the Captain Proton-holoprogram. In fact, it's way too silly for me to enjoy. So when I realized this was going to be an episode pretty much all about that I confess I didn't cheer out of joy. Although I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would. Some parts of it where actually interesting. I liked the part about the fifth dimension and the photonic beings that appeared in the holodeck, although I would have liked to known more about them and seen the crew explore more about how they live and such. As it was here we pretty much just got to know they existed and that they can't read "real" people as lifeforms. It was also kind of fun to see Captain Janeway agree to participate in the Captain Proton-craziness. But other than that I mostly just endured the episode and smiled awkwardly a few times.

If you're not like me and want to see all the Star Trek: Voyager-episodes and also don't really like Captain Proton you might want to skip this one.

At about 15 minutes in to the 45 minute episode, I realized I had been watching this episode... and I had no idea at all what the hell was happening. At first, I saw that Tom and Harry were apparently stuck in the incredibly tedious "Captain Proton" holodeck simulation, for yet another malfunctioning holodeck episode.

So I figure it's going to be about the incredibly tedious adventures of Captain Stupid and Harry Kim, so bland and boring he doesn't get a name or stupid title.

Then all of a sudden Tom and Harry are back on Voyager's bridge, without any explanation as to how they got there, having apparently got out of the holodeck.

So on Voyager there is a plot involving pure technobabble. I do not know at all what the hell was going on, just technobabble and apparently getting stuck in somewhere somehow.

Meanwhile, a pair of aliens dressed as sleazy 30s gangsters appear, but are from another "dimension" where they are all photonic lifeforms, and they cannot detect Voyager or carbon lifeforms.

They then start a war on Chaotica, the bad guy in the Captain Proton thing, where their own soldiers die for real.

The explanation given is that these are essentially MIRROR aliens in terms of holographics. As in, they are photonic lifeforms and view carbon lifeforms as artificial and unreal as we do holographic lifeforms.

The whole idea is made more stupid by its stale, boring, generic, lackluster execution. This is probably one of the worst Voyager episodes because it's just not at that Season 2-ish level of Voyager of "So unbelievably atrocious, you have to see it to believe it" like "Treshold" or "Tattoo" It's just boring

The Captain Proton - stuff in Voyager is my personal Jar Jar Binks of Star Trek... I never liked black and white (movie or still image) and this wannabe nostalgic B-movie Tom-is-such-an-old-earth-aficionado - stuff is just so displaced and lame it makes me attack the skip - button (and then soon hit quit). This goes so far as that I lose all interest in the actual story when there is more than a minute of Chaotica and Proton.