WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 1, “Twovix”.Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 premiered with “Twovix”, an affectionate and hilarious tribute to Star Trek: Voyager that featured the return of some memorable holodeck villains. On a mission that could bag them a promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade, Ensigns Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), assisted a museum caretaker in piloting the USS Voyager to Earth for a new exhibition. In true Lower Decks style, the mission did not run smoothly, thanks to some unique Voyager threats like the sentient macro viruses and some Tuvix orchids.
The transportation of the orchids meant that Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) had to contend with a Tuvix problem on the USS Cerritos. Determined not to repeat Captain Janeway’s controversial Tuvix solution, Freeman ended up allowing the situation to get out of control until Ensign D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) and Provisional Ensign T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) could find a more humane answer. If sentient macro viruses infected with Borg nanoprobes, and the second coming of Tuvix weren’t enough to contend with, the Cerritos’ Voyager mission also awoke three hologram villains from Star Trek: Voyager, who swiftly hijacked the legendary starship and piloted it toward Borg space.
The Clown
The Clown (Michael McKean) was a sadistic trickster who was a holographic manifestation of the fears of five individuals linked by a neural network on the Kohr settlement. In the Star Trek: Voyager episode “The Thaw”, Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and Lt. B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) were trapped inside the Clown’s realm after answering a distress call. The Clown tortured Kim, playing on his fears and traumatic memories for his own enjoyment while the Voyager crew tried in vain to rescue him without becoming trapped themselves.
Captain Janeway eventually entered the Clown’s realm as a hologram to successfully negotiate the release of Kim and the surviving individuals before shutting down the neural network. However, it appears that Janeway brought back a remnant of the Clown with her when establishing this holographic link. It’s the only explanation for his shock return aboard Voyager while Boimler and Mariner were attempting to fly the ship to Star Trek: Picard‘s Starfleet Museum. This time, however, it appears that the Clown’s reign of terror is really over for good after the Lower Deckers defeated him and his two collaborators.
Doctor Chaotica
Doctor Chaotica (Martin Rayner) was the lead villain of The Adventures of Captain Proton, a holonovel created by Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill). It kept Tom occupied during the soul-destroying journey through a region of space with no stars, in Star Trek: Voyager‘s season 5 premiere, “Night”. Based on 1950s sci-fi adventure serials like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, Chaotica’s appearances were always shot in black and white, hence his monochromatic appearance in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4.
Doctor Chaotica was the classic corny sci-fi villain who wanted to take over the universe, which accounts for his megalomania in “Twovix”. Hilariously, Captain Janeway had to play Arachnia, A.K.A. “The Bride of Chaotica” – one of Star Trek‘s best holodeck episodes – when a race of subspace aliens believed that the holodeck simulation was real. Sadly Arachnica wasn’t along for the ride in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 premiere. However, Boimler did get to play the son of Captain Proton while distracting Chaotica from Rutherford’s quick-thinking “Neelix cheese” solution.
Michael Sullivan
Michael Sullivan (Fintan McKeown) was one of Captain Janeway’s few love interests in Star Trek: Voyager, appearing in the season 6 episode “Fair Haven”. As with Doctor Chaotica, Michael was a creation of Tom Paris, whose holographic Irish town Fair Haven became a sanctuary for the Voyager crew. The local bartender immediately made an impression on Janeway, but a potential romance was jeopardized by the arrival of Michael’s wife Frannie (Jan Claire). Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Janeway modified the simulation to “delete the wife” and effectively created herself a perfect partner. Eventually, the Doctor (Robert Picardo) helped her see the error of her ways, and she restored Michael back to his original programming.
That wasn’t the end of Janeway’s friendship with Michael Sullivan, however, as she later had to intervene when he and his fellow Fair Haven residents became self-aware. This was due to a failure with the perceptual filters, which caused the people of Fair Haven to attempt to burn Tom Paris and Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) for being demons. After Janeway and Michael calmed everyone down, the holodeck program was shut down for maintenance. Although judging by the state Mariner finds the Michaels in during Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ season 4 premiere, Paris never got around to properly fixing the program.
Star Trek: Lower Decks streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
