Written By: Bryan Fuller
Directed By: Allan Kroeker
Rating: *** (out of 5)
The premise is certainly original, holographic beings that can�t detect carbon-based lifeforms believe that the Evil Choatica from Tom�s Captain Proton simulation are really waging a war against them. In a sense the program is real because the aliens suffer real casualties as a result of the simulation. But Voyager is stuck in a layer of these aliens space and can�t get out until the aliens leave the ship.
The episode makes good use of Janeway when she must assume Queen Arachnia, Queen of the Spider Peoples role in the program in order to convince her lover, Dr. Choatica, to disable the forcefield protecting him so that Tom AKA Captain Proton can disable Dr Choatica�s death ray. Harry naturally gets a role as Tom�s sidekick, and the Doc ends up playing the President of Earth, convincing the Photonic aliens not to do anymore damage.
You�d think by all this, that �Bride of Choatica� would be hilarious as each of these characters tries to do their roles, especially with Captain Janeway. But no, that�s not how it ends up.
Janeway is only funny when she first appears in that ridiculous costume. After that she assumes the role almost perfectly and it just isn�t funny. Seeing Janeway in the outfit isn�t enough for me to hold this idea in place. Something has to go wrong, (like in DS9�s fun �Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang.�) something has to give her away or make her feel particularly uncomfortable.
The above wouldn�t be a problem if there wasn�t so much time dealing with that side of the story, but that�s the main part of the plot. That�s almost the reason to see this episode. So the writers really dug themselves into a hole by not making the Janeway scenes funnier.
Actually, I think this would�ve been much more amusing if B�Elanna had been forced to take on the role. It would�ve been logical seeing as B�Elanna is going out with Tom. Janeway could�ve ordered B�Elanna to do it.
There are some funny scenes here though. Tuvok�s reactions to the simulations are amusing, so is Tom�s hate of the Robot and hate of the program in the end! I also loved the crews reaction to the situation during the Briefing Room scene and the Docs typical attitude towards everything matched well here. The story is, like I said, original so at least this episode was more of a risk than the normal Voyager outing.
The sets portray the cheesyness of the program well and the guest cast portrays the typical overacting of the characters, the one-dimensional plot and characters and the whole cliched premise. This is one instance where cliches are a good thing.!
�Bride of Choatica!� misses the point, but I give it credit for the original plot. It�s good to see TPTB daring to take some risks this season.