First I want to start by saying I loved this episode. But something also felt a bit off. Well, it turns out what felt off was that they never go to the bridge. Why you ask? Well, I looking into it and it turns out there was a fire on the bridge set and they had to make an episode that totally stayed off the bridge as a result. Up to this point I haven't been totally sold on the Captain Proton bits, but having Janeway as Queen Arachnia was just awesome. Especially the bit in the meeting where Janeway assumes Seven will be playing Arachnia and then realizes everyone on the room is looking at her. The part of the story about the photonic life forms mistaking the holodeck for reality was pretty silly, but then again their experience with carbon based life was clearly non-existent so I guess it works well enough.
The episode opens on the holodeck with Paris and Kim trying to save Constance Goodhart, secretary to Captain Proton. They are interrupted by a distortion showing up on the holodeck and they find they are unable to shut it off or exit. Harry manages to beam them out though. The ship meanwhile gets stuck in a patch of space where subspace is leaking in or something. The real point being we see two aliens who are apparently from a dimension that is entirely photonic appear on the holodeck in the form of two men in suits. They meet the villain of the serial, Dr. Chaotica. His henchman kills on of the aliens and a war starts between the aliens and the evil doctor. Detecting weapons fire on the holodeck Paris and Tuvok investigate. They find the program in chaos with characters dead who shouldn't be. They eventually run into one of the aliens but he refuses to believe they are alive since they aren't photonic.
In the briefing room Paris explains that until the war between the aliens and Chaotica is resolved they won't be able to move the ship. The only solution is for someone to play Queen Arachnia and sedude/trick Chaotica into turning off his lightning shield. Janeway reluctantly accepts the promotion to queen. The Doctor gets to play president of Earth/ambassador to the aliens. He convinces them to stop shooting for Proton to try and save the day. Janeway shows up in Chaotica's lair as Arachnia and soon has the lighting shield down. Proton/Paris saves the day by destroying the deathray and the aliens close their portals. We end with a the end or is it closing on the holodeck.
Review: My summary is a bit brief because there is a lot of messing around, but unlike the normal kind of messing around this stuff actually seems really fun. For an episode that exists to solve a problem with a set, it is a damn good on.
7 out of 10
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