Paris: ...now the vial is sitting on a small pedestal next to the throne.
Janeway: I'll keep an eye out. (salutes) Thanks for the briefing.
Paris: I'll see you at the Fortress of Doom! And remember: You're the Queen!
Star Trek: Voyager: Season 5, Episode 12, "Bride of Chaotica"
I am STILL laughing my ass off and loving this episode. I named one of the makeups from "Quirked" after Janeway's performance in this episode. What a hoot.
https://www.facebook.com/kikolife/photos/a.10152286041746486.1073741852.121960011485/10152286042246486/?type=3&theater
At least it's memorable. Voyager will always be associated with Faustian Chaotica. All other recurring holo programs dwindle in comparison (although Leonardo, Vic Fontaine and Dixon Hill ain't bad either). Of course it's infantile. Of course it's silly. Memorable nonetheless. Paris and Kim even make fun of Voyager's paper cave and volcano sets. That's actually kind of funny. This episode lacks a good A-plot though. Photon based life forms? Really? I don't buy the whole story. The other go-to alternative is a holo character who escapes the holo-deck and tries to capture the ship.
PS: it's a shame though that this episode wasn't shot on actual b/w film and re-published in HD. The cheap TV format is an unfortunate issue with Voyager anyway (at least in retrospective) but it reminds me how fantastic original b/w movies usually look in the digital age.
Love these Flash Gordon style episodes.. So fun!
There's nothing I hate more than Tom's holodeck episodes.
I want to enjoy this, and can see how people would really like it…but I just find it so silly and somehow boring. I find the idea of photonic based life forms really interesting but they don’t do anything with it. I’m a completionist but this episode tests my limits.
I liked the snippets of Captain Proton we had so far. Getting a whole episode was cool. Not sure about those photonic aliens, though. But in a way it fits the theme.
Is it ridiculous ? Of course it is ! It's supposed to be. The sequels this is homaging are looking like that from our perspective. Take it for it is, but don't take it too serious.
A fun episode. Glad to see the crew having fun together.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2018-07-16T15:30:47Z— updated 2018-07-17T17:42:13Z
I get that this was probably a lot of fun for the writers and actors. It's not any fun to watch, though. It took all my strength not to just turn it off half way through and pretend it never happened. It disregards any character continuity for the sake of comedy (and it's not even funny, just cheesy and actually very boring). For some reason the show keeps insisting that Tom Paris is a geeky boy scout instead of the ex-con with authority issues. I don't get it, and I hate it.
Why does Janeway continue to stay in character even after the mission is over? Why don't we find out anything about the photonic aliens? Why doesn't the crew even bother to learn about them? No, it's more important to do the holodeck fantasy - which conveniently can't be shut down because reasons. I can't believe people got paid to write this.
It's interesting to compare this to DS9's 'Take Me Out To The Holosuite', which aired fairly close to this one and which is similarly bizarre but managed to succeed.
I knew that Voyager would be a struggle for me to get through, but I don't think I expected it to get as bad as this.