https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp260
When we covered holodeck villains at the end of last year, one of those segments was on Doctor Chaotica, from The Adventures of Captain Proton. Now we cover his foil, the title character of the holographic novel, Captain Proton himself, who is played by Tom Paris in all appearances we see on the show.
Captain Proton can often be seen swashbuckling his way through the plans and evil machines of Doctor Chaotica and Queen Arachnia. His first appearance is in the episode Night, where he tries to have Seven of Nine experience the holo novel as Proton's secretary Constance Goodheart, who is often the damsel in distress in these stories. It doesn't go well, but when the ship is attacked and all power is lost, trapping them in the holodeck, Seven proves a good ally to have in overcoming the all-too-familiar holodeck-gone-rogue situation.
Proton has a sidekick, like all super heroes, the one being Buster Kincaid. When Harry Kim joins Tom Paris on these adventures, Harry plays the role of Buster. In addition to having this be another way these two close friends spend time together, the holo novel provides a place of escape for Tom Paris when events in real life are too tough to handle. Tom and Harry often refer to their escapades in this holodeck program in other episodes throughout seasons 6 and 7 of the show.
Of course, sometimes real life invades this holodeck, as in the episode Bride of Chaotica. Aliens mistake the holodeck for real existence, and Tom and Harry must figure their way out of the mess that causes. Captain Janeway joins the acting fun in this particular episode. Although this episode was very close in time to the first two episodes involving this holo novel, the real story is that this episode was crafted to keep action or scenes on the actual bridge of Voyager at a minimum to allow time for repair to a set damaged by fire in real life.
QUOTE (from Night)
Dr. Chaotica: Captain Proton!
Tom Paris: Spaceman First Class, Protector of Earth, scourge of intergalactic evil - at your service.
Captain Proton was intended in part to be a parody of Flash Gordon, and a 1930s comic book character. We see many of the same character traits in these holodeck scenes. Captain Proton was not just another escape for a Voyager crewman on the long journey home, but instead, an opportunity to dive deeper into the Harry Kim-Tom Paris relationship and an opportunity for the show actors to have fun playing some campy scenes.
Interestingly, Captain Proton has been the subject of one story written in the real world, by regular Trek author Dean Wesley Smith. He wrote the story to fit in as the background material that Tom Paris would eventually base his holo adventures off of. If you want to look this up, it's called Captain Proton: Defender of the Earth.
Captain Proton and Tom Paris are played by Robert Duncan McNeill, who has served more as a director in Hollywood since his days on Voyager. He was offered the chance to direct a season 1 episode in Discovery, but timing did not work, so maybe we will see his return to the series as a director in season 2.
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