The Adventures of Captain Proton

The opening intertitle of "The Bride of Chaotica"

The Adventures of Captain Proton was a holonovel created by Tom Paris for play (or historical study) in the USS Voyager's holodeck. The program was built to look like 1930s science fiction B-movie serials. During this program, the holoprojectors would display in black and white. Real people and objects entering the holodeck would also appear in monochrome. (VOY: "Night", et al.)

Chapters

• Chapter 16: "Spell of the Spider"
• Chapter 18: "Bride of Chaotica"
• Chapter 37: "The Web of Pain" (VOY: "Alice")
• Unknown chapter: "Captain Proton Versus the Cosmic Creature"
• Unknown chapter: "Invaders from the Ninth Dimension"
• Final chapter: "Satan's Robot Conquers the World (β)"

The Bride of Chaotica was listed among many films held in the Enterprise's database. (ENT: "Cogenitor")

Characters

See: The Adventures of Captain Proton characters

Locations Arachnia Den of Crocodiles Earth Fifth dimension Mercury Mines of Mercury Planet X Fortress of Doom Dungeon of Pain

Story elements Army of Evil Brain probe Confinement rings Cradle of Persuasion Death ray Destructo beam Earthling Imagizer Lightning shield Ray gun Rocket ship Spider People Spider ship Telegram

Appendices

Appearances

• VOY:
  • "Night" (Season 5)
  • "Thirty Days"
  • "Bride of Chaotica!"
  • "Shattered" (alternate timeline) (Season 7)

References

• ENT:
  • "Cogenitor" (Season 2)
• VOY:
  • "Alice" (Season 6)
  • "Drive" (Season 7)
  • "Repression"
  • "Nightingale"
  • "Lineage"
  • "Endgame"

Background information

Captain Proton was an homage to Flash Gordon and similar movie serials of the 1930s. (Star Trek FAQ, p. 14)

Even so, Captain Proton took many of its direct stylistic influences from one specific serial/movie, namely Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952)/Satan's Satellites (1958) by Republic Productions, the latter being a recut of the former into a full length seventy-minute movie. These productions featured Leonard Nimoy as one of the Martian invaders, Narab. [1]

Chaotica's "Satan's Robot" is a near identical recreation of the robots used in numerous Republic Productions serials such as Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940)/Dr. Satan's Robot (1966) and is almost certainly named as a result of this inspiration. Similarly, Captain Proton's outfit, including rocket pack and chest box is nearly identical to that of the hero's in Satan's Satellites.

The Captain Proton simulations establish that the Voyager holodeck has the ability to fade the colors of anything and anybody inside, making them appear "black and white".

Prior to the on-screen introduction of Captain Proton, Brannon Braga predicted, "That will be an interesting stylistic departure for us, to be doing black and white sequences with cheesy science fiction and big clunky robots and cheesy rocket ships that shoot sparks." (Star Trek Monthly issue 44, p. 13)

While the episode "Night" was undergoing initial development, the name of this serial was "The Adventures of Captain Galaxy". It was originally called that in the final draft script of "Night" (as of 29 May 1998), though the name was changed to "The Adventures of Captain Proton" by the time the eighth revision to that final draft teleplay was issued (on 2 July 1998).

Robert Duncan McNeill has very fond memories of playing Captain Proton: "To me it was kind of the epitome of Paris' love of nostalgia and it combines the nostalgia with the sci-fi element. It was kind of a show within a show. It was just so much fun to play these old style kind of sci-fi scenes. We were able to make fun of ourselves in many ways while we played it and that was a lot of fun. That was definitely my most favorite of the holodeck creations that we came up with." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion, p. 282)

In a virtual Star Trek panel held in May 2020, McNeill again expressed his appreciation for The Adventures of Captain Proton, stating that he felt that it was something that there should have been a lot more of and that he would love to revisit. He also stated that he had spoken with David A. Goodman about the possibility of writing a Captain Proton serial, possibly for CBS All Access. Garrett Wang also expressed appreciation for the idea, possibly as a crowd-funded project. [2]

Apocrypha

At least one complete Captain Proton story has been written in the real world by Dean Wesley Smith: Captain Proton: Defender of the Earth. He presumed that, in the Star Trek universe, the holonovel Captain Proton was adapted from a supposed 1930s pulp magazine and set out to write and publish that story.

Captain Proton was also stated – perhaps erroneously – to be a preexisting movie serial from the 20th century, of which Tom Paris is a "devotee". (Star Trek: The USS Voyager NCC-74656 Illustrated Handbook, p. 121)

In the short story "Captain Proton and the Orb of Bajor" from the anthology book Strange New Worlds IV, Benny Russell wrote a radio play with the same title that was produced as a radio adaptation of the series and aired over the Barnard Broadcasting System.

In the computer game Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force, Tom Paris flies the Hazard Team to the "Scavenger" mission and tells them that the in-flight movie will be Captain Proton vs. the RoboZombies. The game also contains a Captain Proton-themed training level on the holodeck. In addition, in the game's expansion pack, players may go to the holodeck and play through a short Captain Proton-themed level, complete with usable ray gun weapon.

In Star Trek: Destiny by David Mack, one of Captain Hernandez' crew members, while stuck on New Erigol, writes a treasure trove of Captain Proton books before dying of old age. The USS Titan and, later, the USS Enterprise-E and USS Aventine discover this trove.

In Star Trek Online, the Captain Proton holonovel has become distributed at the very least among Federation crews within various sectors of the Alpha Quadrant, with at least one mission objective involving the protection of an ensign while he salvages his copy of the holonovel from his quarters during an Undine takeover of his ship.

External link

• The Adventures of Captain Proton at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works