Bride of Chaotica!

You're either going to love it or hate it. This is an episode that doesn't take anything seriously. It's completely insane, random, full of plot holes and downright corny but it makes me laugh and therefore I give it an 8. I'm a hardcore Treky but I like to party too, even in the 19th century. Lighten up a little and have some fun. That's what this episode is about.

What a fun, campy episode this one is! It takes place on the hollodeck in a black and white parody of a 1930's Buck Rogers serial. A photonic alien life form from outside of Voyager has accidentally gotten into a battle with Paris's hollo-nemesis, the evil Prince Chaotica. That battle is holding Voyager in a subspace riff, and it's losing power. So members of the crew dress up and ham it up in the hollodeck.

It's a snappy little script, full of jokes and asides, and Janeway is particularly enjoyable as the vampy Queen Arachnia. The story is also highly self-referential, and not all viewers may enjoy that. It's a story about a story, and brings you in full consciousness that you are watching human actors pretend they're in space. You won't go into outer space with the gang in this one, but you will get that feeling like when you're watching a fun play, when all the actors are having a good time and the audience is in on the joke. I love it when series do episodes that are far outside their norm. If you like camp, you'll love this little episode. If not, then you might want to pass.

This is clearly a WTF episode for Star Trek, they just go off the rails for the sake of entertainment. But what entertainment it is!

Great sets and costumes and fun roles for all the crew involved. Janeway cosplay is fantastic and the Doctor was born to act.

What's more, this episode was earned with several brief scenes in the Chaotica holodeck program in previous episodes. Trek was so episodic that seeing a continuity setup like that was impressive.

Funny how halfway through the episode Tom Paris talks about how he'll never go back to this holodeck program of his. It's like he's telling the audience, "don't worry, we won't ever put you through this again" which also worked to set my mind at ease and allowed me to just enjoy the ride.

Loved this episode and never want to see it again. 😀

"Bride of Chaotica" is a dumb episode...but it works because it never tries to be anything but cheesy and dumb! It begins as several other episodes have begun--with Paris and Kim in the holodeck playing Captain Proton! However, after they leave to go back to work, something totally unforeseen happens--the holodeck remains on and subspace beings enter it. Unfortunately, these beings think that the evil Dr. Chaotica is real and begin an all-out war against this holo-menace! In the process, they disable Voyager and it's up to Paris, Kim and the Captain to enter the holo program and straighten all this out.

To call this episode anything other than silly old fashioned fun would be difficult. Obviously the show was based on the old Flash Gordon serials and it's clearly a homage to these old serials. Well worth seeing.

In the meanwhile the captain's performance is funny too