Star Trek: Voyager — 5x12 — Bride of Chaotica!
Synopsis
Janeway and Paris must defeat Doctor Chaotica.
Remarkable scenes
- Neelix mentioning that only 4 bathrooms and 3 sonic showers are operational.
- Tom: "Satan's robot." Tuvok: "Naturally."
- Tom: "Intercepted communications between Doctor Chaotica and Arachnia. Stop. Chaotica at war with aliens from 5th dimension. Stop. Must strike now to disable death ray." Tuvok: "Stop. Please summarize the message."
- Tuvok and Tom meeting the photonic alien. I like how he said "all life is photonic" and that Tuvok and Paris didn't register on his instruments and must therefore be the simulation.
- Janeway: "Let me get this straight. Transdimensional aliens have mistaken your Captain Proton simulation for reality." Tom: "Yes ma'am." Janeway: "And now an armed conflict has broken out between these aliens and Chaotica's holographic army." Tom: "Yes ma'am. His army of evil."
- Janeway being nominated to play Arachnia.
- Tom instructing Janeway on how to best fit into her role: "It helps to say things like: 'The clever fiendishness of your evil plan is brilliant!'"
- The doctor masquerading as the "president of Earth."
Review
A great humor episode, it was especially fun to watch the various crew's reactions to witnessing elements of the Captain Proton simulation out of context. This episode was meant in many ways to be a parody of Star Trek. Tom is "researching" how ancient humans viewed the future. And they didn't get it quite right. The same may very well happen to us. Additionally, Tom impresses Tuvok with his technobabble, an allusion to Star Trek, Harry wonders why the Planet X set is identical to the Mines of Mercury set, another allusion to Star Trek, and so on. Aside from the general parody, this episode makes me really wish we'd seen more of Bashir's holosuite programs on DS9. I would have liked to have seen Bashir and O'Brien at the Alamo, or at the Battle of Britain. And if it was half as fun as this episode was, it would have been amazing.