106 – Bride of Chaotica!

Grade: D-

Summary

Tom Paris and Harry Kim are having fun with the Captain Proton Holodeck simulation when suddenly they see some kind of distortion in the Holo-matrix. It turns out that there are photonic life forms that have mistaken the Holodeck simulation for an actual planet and living beings. They don’t believe that the carbon-based characters (like Tuvok and Paris, for example) are actually alive, but they do believe Chaotica and the Doctor are alive.

Commentary

This is one dumb episode. Perhaps the stupidest one they ever made. It was supposed to be an homage to 1930s sci-fi serials, and it certainly was that, but it was very stupid. While I can enjoy a good sci-fi serial every now and then, I really couldn’t enjoy this episode. It was just plain boring.

There’s probably a funny story in here someplace, and maybe it will work for you. It is obviously played off as comedy, and the actors certainly appear to be having fun. For me, however, it just doesn’t work.

I’m starting to like Janeway less and less. There’s a scene in here when she demands black coffee from Neelix and won’t take no for an answer. Here we have power drains taking place everywhere on the ship – there are only 4 working toilets and 3 working showers for 150 people on the ship, and yet Janeway can’t function without a giant mug of coffee. What a joke. Who’d want to work for her?

Another scene that just didn’t work for me was the briefing scene when Paris explains the problem on the Holodeck. It’s obviously supposed to be funny, since he’s using words like “Death Ray” and “Lightning Shield” and stuff like that. Kate Mulgrew looks like she’s just phoning in her emotions. She didn’t look at all realistic in her reactions to what Paris was saying. I just didn’t buy her acting in this one. Normally she’s great, but this time, it looked like she wasn’t acting until she was on the Holodeck.

Actually I think it would have worked better if the Holodeck wasn’t broken, if there were no photonic alien threats and no other B story. Just put the regular crew in black and white on the Holodeck and wasting time. I would have enjoyed that more.

Of Note

Chaotica’s Death Ray was actually used earlier in the episode of Next Generation when Data and Riker find the weapons salesman on an empty planet. It was one of the weapons that he tried to sell them.

In this episode, Janeway says she is a “size 4.” I had to laugh about that. There’s no possible way she’s a size 4. She’s more like a 10.