Star Trek: 10 Best Holodeck Episodes
4. Voyager: Bride Of Chaotica!
The Adventures of Captain Proton played a huge part on Voyager. The holodeck program was one the main ways the stranded crew took their minds off of their situation. The premise was quite obviously based on the 1930s serial, Flash Gordon, a nod to one of the science fiction ancestors of Star Trek.
Captain Proton and his sidekick Buster Kincaid were played by Tom Paris and Harry Kim. But one day, they left the program running to attend to ship's business. While they were away, extra-dimensional beings showed up in the holodeck, thinking they were making first contact. Dr. Chaotica, the villain of the story, assumed they were enemies and attacked them, inciting a war.
The only way to stop the battle was to engage the story. Paris and Kim played their usual parts, joined by the holographic Doctor as the President of Earth. While she eventually relented, Captain Janeway initially fought back against playing the role of Queen Arachnia, Chaotica's bride.
Essentially, she didn't like the implication of the casting.
It was an incredibly fun episode that benefited greatly from the old school science fiction vibes. More than that, it made the story within the story relevant to what was going on in the rest of the ship. First contact happens frequently on Star Trek programs but it rarely plays out as part of a war with holodeck characters.