Kim and the alien work together to disable the force field blocking the chute, climb it, and find that the prison is actually a giant space station.
[1] Rosemary Morgan, who played Piri, had Star Trek in her family; her mother Julie Cobb appeared as a yeoman in the original series episode "By Any Other Name", and her stepfather was James Cromwell who had several roles in the franchise.
[3] Juliette Harrisson of Den of Geek cited "The Chute" as one of season three's best episodes due to its plot and cinematography and McNeil and Wang's performances.
[4] Den of Geek also gave an honorable mention in their ranking of the top ten episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.
[5] Screen Rant's Alexandra August described the dynamic between Paris and Kim as the closest Star Trek: Voyager ever got to a gay romance.
[6] Tor.com noted this as a classic "science fiction prison" episode, and were impressed with grittiness of the set and camera-work by the director, Les Landau.
[8] "The Chute" was released on DVD on July 6, 2004 as part of Star Trek Voyager: Complete Third Season, with a Dolby 5.1 surround audio.