Why Tom Paris Is Actually Starfleet's #1 Badass
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
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I disagree with Tom Paris not having a character arc. It’s small but he goes from cocky selfishness to reliable crew member throughout the course of the series. Also his random hobby of liking old cars isn’t that random considering they establish his love of 1900s Earth history which is reference a fair number of times throughout the shows run.
Like, nearly every single holoprogram he creates during the show. The only one that isn't set in Earth's past is the bar that's based on a real earth place, that's still a historical landmark.
@@SapphWolf "the bar that's based on a real earth place", that just happens to be in Earth's past (from his point of view)? ;-)
I'd say that Tom Paris does not have a character arc, but maybe if you were writing the show, he would have had one.
@ Matt M - yes u are completely right.. Good stick up for Tom... I love voyager myself.
Yeah I watched it recently and by the end he becomes a more down to earth dad. Going from season 7 to season 1 Paris is kinda jarring.
It’s kinda like Data’s arc - he seems static from episode to episode but season 7 Data is waaaay better at reading social cues than season 1 Data, which is embodied in his getting good at poker, and he also limits the needless specificity and other such things which also fall into the social awareness bucket.
I mean, it’s subtle. But it’s there.
Woah woah woah. They developed the Tom and Bellana (sp) romance very well. In fact it was one of the better Trek romances.
Ya and the wedding was definitely on camera!
That scene where they're stranded out in space together and think they're gonna die is one of the most beautiful moments in Trek
This hate on Voyager thing on this channel truly bothers me lol
Haha, not to be dismissive of your opinion, but in my opinion, it seems like the writers decided sometime around season 4 that Tom and B’Elanna liked each other the whole time, even though they had no on screen chemistry or foreshadowing at all in the first several seasons. If anything, there was the building blocks of a Harry/B’Elanna romance set up in the first episode and throughout the first season.
@@SuperPowerGeek The wedding we see on camera is actually between the demon planet silver blood clones of Tom and B’Elanna.
I actually find it more ridiculous than anything that Paris would be forced to be a medic on the ship. Of all the people on Voyager, the guy who flies the ship (and did so many other things as you pointed out) has to work shifts in sick bay too. It's laughable.
And as punishment if I remember correctly.
To be fair... having to be trained by The Doctor with his general capacity to socialise and not be a douche bag... is a pretty scathing punishment.
I mean, the Emergency Medical Hologram is not meant for long term use--like only for enough time for the ship to return to the nearest Star Base and have a proper doctor assigned to them. Which usually is not that long of a period of time for the class of ship that Voyager is... and most certainly not expecting situations where a Federation ship gets stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
Army 19Delta Reconnaissance Surveillance and Target Acquisition we always had at least one actual medic in every line platoon. For some god unknown reason I was also singled out to go to college under orders and become a licensed Emergency Medical Technician the exact same skill set as ya know the guy who actually hold the MOS of MEDIC that usually was riding in my truck with me anyway but wait I was also....
*UAV Instructor Trainer (every bird in the unit was my problem you try telling a captain he can't legally order you to do xyz as a Cpl cause you refuse to lose your lic or go to jail if it goes wrong)
*Postal Operations,
*Key Control,
*Ammo and hazmat handler,
*sensitive site exploitation expert (basically make sure evidence is handled like I'm a damn CSI),
*remote weapons station operator and maintainer and trainer,
*BETSY tower operator maintainer (multi-million $$$ thermal observation mobile tower with fucking grown crystal lenses and a laser that can blind a person at 10 km)
*Aribic language specialist (more time in a college classroom instead of training my guys)
With informal training in BFV maintenance having knowledge of the operations system on the first gen of A3 bradlys to override and troubleshoot software faults on my own.
Communications specialist having been trained to operate set up and install every single piece of commo equipment in our unit need power cables run from a GPS system in a truck tank or brad don't call maintenance no they woke my ass up.
And somehow defector CQB instructor nothing stranger than having an E-7 from platoon ask you to train his NCOS and joes on how to clear buildings as E-4 in a combat zone. One of those im sorry did you ask what i think you asked me to do.
All that on top of my main job of running my squad and handling VIP Personal Security Details. With most of that shit above my pay grade at the time oh yea that was all skill sets and duty positions I learned and held over a three-year time span half of that time in a combat zone.
When star trek does wonky shit or fucked up orders i just sit back and think yup been there haha sucks for you.
"Whats that wait no we are changing uniforms again that's 10 GD uniform types in fucking 12 years are you fucking kidding me! I don't get paid enough for this shit! pick one fucking one and stick with it till i die! this is real life not star trek i cant just replicate this shit for free!" rofl
It's because other than the doctor he's the only one with a medicine background
*Bernard Gilbert: wrong. The Doctor expects Tom to assist him while he is there, and complains multiple times about Tom being late or missing shifts. Chakotay even ends up enforcing it as I recall. Eventually 7 becomes the new protege and Tom is off the hook.
Also Steve is a little hard on Tom's medic skills. He does point out he is not a doctor, but he ends up being pretty competent at treating injuries and triage (after some training from the doctor), during times when the doctor is not there.
I had to pause the video to laugh my head off at
"don't do 'em like you did Tuvix! Pleaase!!"
To be fair, Tuvix was super creepy.
Janeway is Sith Lord!
I wonder if anybody ever made a Tuvix model/skin for either of the Elite Force games...
😂😂😂 that was hilarious
Still too soon
I am the Janeway, Criticism will not be tolerated. Resistance is futile.
Given that she's the only one to have defeated the Borg as much as she has, she has more than earned that hypothetical line.
Tom even had massive news for his father, his granddaughter was being born at that exact moment and he didnt say a word.
I don't think it's fair to say Tom and B'Elanna were randomly paired enough. I re-watched the show recently (for reasons I won't get into) and you can see the chemistry there starting as far back as late Season 2.
I mean, it was indicated that Tom was somewhat of a womaniser--or just not able to be satisfied by most women...
And B'Elanna being Half-Klingon made it so that being able to have any kind of sexual relationship with her was not a major possibility. I mean... Half-Klingon children usually have their human parent dead from the Snu Snu. The fact that Tom was able to do stuff with her, and not end up dead... is actually hinted based on other relationships he talked about.
... and... also from his relationship advice he gave... to... Harry Kim... and... you know--I am surprised that Tom Paris did not get Harry Kim killed from that relationship advice... well, in any of the time lines that actually count and matter, at least. I mean... Tom Paris is able to bed a Klingon and live--and act kind of bored if it is not like that... Harry is... well... able to die from many many different ways that are not Snu Snu (but definitely include that).
Nah.
Tom Paris also became the "Medic/Nurse" when Kes left Voyager. So yeah. 👀
I actually liked that Tom Paris was too afraid of his father to wave him “hi” on the viewscreen. Since they had a few episodes establishing his fear of his father’s disappointment and disapproval, I thought that sort of trauma getting fixed in a long distance episode-of-the-day routine would just be wrong.
Any healing he gets with his father would require therapy and in person interactions over years (might take decades since Tom hadn’t even begun evaluating his own self worth until years into being stranded), because that admiral was an emotionally abusive father.
Except that absolutely nothing in that scene communicated that Paris was afraid. The reason why, of course, is because Paris had no lines in that scene, and that happened, in turn, because the scene was poorly written. Again, it's comforting and even fun to invent stories the show never told, but it's easy to see it never told them.
And what about the fact that the Harry Kim who finishes the show is actually an alternate dimension Harry?
He's not. He was not a Harry Kim from an alternate reality. Voyager and all of its crew were twinned (the equivalent of being cloned by quantum physics.) He was identical to the original Harry Kim, including memories and life history up until that point. He wasn't from a different reality. He just didn't exist before.
The crew were twinned - in two seperate realities?
Sorta and not.
So is Naomi.
Voyager could be fairly weird...
Voyager was a huge victim of 90's TV. Back then it was all about syndication. They bent over backward to make the show episodic with no continuing throughlines. Like a sitcom. Hell, Seinfeld had more continuity!
It's not that simple, though, because _Deep Space Nine_ and _Babylon 5_ ran alongside _Voyager_ in the same genre and era, and, in one of the crueler twists of irony, were able to carry heavily serialized storytelling because they were _less_ popular. It was far from impossible, in any case.
@@MegaZeta sorry for necro but in this case it was that Voyager had pressure from the network execs while DS9 only had pressure from the studio. As DS9 was sold into first-run syndication while Voyager was what UPN was pinned on.
Yeah sometimes I think I know more about bob sacamano than I do chakotay.
It was the cast that saved Voyager from becoming a terrible show. They clearly had chemistry beyond just their acting abilities, a chemistry on a level I didn't witness in any other ST show.
Let me put it this way. He's married to a Klingon woman... and she is "satisfied" in the relationship. Imagine the beast in bed as a squishy human you have to be to have that accomplishment.
A half-klingon that resists her klingon heritage?
According to Worf, all he has to do is recite poetry and duck
Torres's is a sad excuse for a Klingon so that doesn't say much about Paris
Well I think your right, its canon that tom Paris is good in bed.
I guess it's as good a summary of the character as any: Tom Paris, the so-so Star Trek boner joke.
I like Voyager, but I feel like the last episode is missing it's ending. They make it home, but a large portion of the crew where criminals when they left, what happens to them? Or 7 of 9? Or the Borg tech on the ship?
I get what they were going for in ending the finale the way they did. I like the final shot of Voyager approaching Earth flanked by other ships. It's a nice image, the ship that's been alone for seven years rejoining the fleet. But in getting there they skipped over so many points (like the fate of the Maquis crew members, the Tom/Admiral Paris bit I complain about in the video, etc.) that seemed to be crying out for a resolution.
Steve Shives yeah that is a nice shot. What I think might also been good is another reunion scene, but this time the people didn't survive the first time are now all there, and maybe Tuvok doesn't get what ever he had thanks to some foreknowledge. But all that might not have fit the timetable or buget they had left. I don't know.
Steve Shives I don't see why you hate Star trek voyager its the most amazing series ever I mean come on It is cool andd wel written charaters
Zersixdracos I think Tuvok is a bit like Spok in some ways
I think that the reason why the last episode seem as it lacks proper ending is because the decision to cancel the show was made few episodes before the end. This is clearly visible because in the last three episodes don't follow the steady story progression phase that we have seen throughout the series. In the 23rd episode of the last season we say goodbye to Neelix who has been with us for almost entire show. That is often a sign for uncertainty of the show continuation. Then in 24th episode we got that strange story about doctor trying to force the crew to simply settle down on a nearby inhabitable planet instead of supporting the voyage home. In this episode we can see quite a bit effort from screenwriters to try and show again as many of the ships crew as possible at least one more time. And then in the last episode we have this rapid story wrap when Janeway from the future comes and helps Voyager get home safely with the use of Borg technology all within one episode. So it is clearly that writers didn't have enough time to finish all the loose ends and wrap up the story properly.
If you compare the last season of Voyager with the last season of DS9 you can clearly see that DS9 they started wrapping the ends story somewhere in the middle of the last DS9 season and not in the last few episodes as it happened with Voyager.
Interesting that the picture on Admiral Paris' desk appears not to be Tom, but Nicholas Locarno...
You made me laugh with that one. It also opens up a whole world of possibilities, like how Tom Paris was a troubled kid because his dad always idolized that nice Locarno boy, and Tom just couldn't ever measure up. And when Locarno was tossed out of Star Fleet Academy, the dad started taking his frustrations out on Tom, who finally cracked under the pressure. Oh yeah, there's a whole dark backstory lurking there.
Well, he was supposed to be the same character. That is, until Voyager's producers realized they could screw the episode's writer out of royalties for the character by giving him a different name and slightly changing his background...
The story I've heard -- and Memory Alpha backs me up -- is that they wanted a character with the same vibe as Nick Locarno, but they couldn't find an actor who could do a good Nick Locarno, so someone finally said: "why don't we get the actor who played Nick Locarno?" As for Robert Duncan McNeill, he has a very good take on the two characters that we shouldn't forget. Nick Locarno was a worm who was good at looking like an upstanding guy, while Tom Paris was a good guy who was only superficially "bad". Nick Locarno wasn't Tom Paris in any of the ways that count.
Lol!
@@kingbeauregard lol
The doctor finds in Tom's medical history records of his surgeries to look more like the son his father wanted!
the writing for characters on Voyager was all over the place. Each individual writer for the episodes had a completely different vision of who the characters were.
Tom Paris would swing between several different archetypes, such as:
* Arrogant kid, product of his absent celebrity-like father.
* Douche spoiled kid who relives misogynist and racist fantasy from several decades or centuries prior.
* Fucking hero who stood up against Janeway and the terrible Prime Directive in defense of a species that didn't deserve to die.
Were these descriptions supposed to be contradictory?
Are real people one dimensional? 🤔
I can't believe you made an entire video about how awesome Tom Paris is without mentioning that he's the King of Consent and refused to take advantage B'Elanna even when she was literally throwing herself at him because he knew she was 'under the influence,' didn't take a love declaration made under the duress of oxygen deprivation and imminent death at face value until they had rationally talked it out, and even in the act of initiating a literal "shut-up" kiss, gave her the moment and space to object in case she deemed that unacceptable.
I realize these should be bare minimum acceptable levels of decent human behavior but twenty years later our society is somehow still only just figuring that out and watching these scenes as a young girl were extremely formative
Yeah... I don't think Steve is going to list "isn't a rapist" as a positive for a character. It's kind of... Assumed.
Tom was showed to be interested in pre 21st century media and vehicles form the get go and throughout. Examples: Giving the Dr a holo program to "park" in. Recognizing the truck. Being semi- knowledgeable in the 90's time travel episode, putting a television in his quarters, and of course the feaux Flash Gordon Captain Proton. It all tied in with the piloting and his former rogue like lifestyle. Guy appreciated the old stuff and liked to drive/fly fast. How is that not a consistent character trait? Tom grew...he just grew too fast for a former rogue. Agree that it all ended abruptly.
You're not following. The video makes it plain: yeah, Tom Paris knew a lot about the 20th century... and also about a million other things whenever the show decided it wanted a character to know about them for an episode. This is a sign of bad writing.
I think maybe the reason you don't like Voyager as much is because you're spoiled by DS9 which is an excellent show with fantastic writing. By the end of the series, it feels like a different series from when it started. DS9 had the opportunity to really delve deep into the universe of Star Trek. The politics, the alliances, the different factions, war, religion, morality. Voyager couldn't do that. They were off doing their own thing, relegated to cliche plot elements. I don't think that's necessarily bad writing. I think that the writers of DS9 just had more to work with but they were also, to some extent, better writers.
If you watch any science fiction show for long enough, and if you're like me and you've read a hundred old 50's sci fi stories and novels, you'll start to see these stories again. Everything has already been written. They just have to tell the stories in different ways. That episode that you keep showing where Picard is naked, that's obviously (spoiler) 1984. Every time they land on some planet with a roughly 21st century level of technology, you'll see elements of Brave New World or Bradbury's various distopias.
So, in conclusion, I don't think it's bad writing per se. It was just not brilliant. DS9 was mainly for fans I think and Voyager seemed like it was more for everyone.
Voyager had a great premise and potentially interesting characters and failed to make best use of either. They stole most of their best bits from TNG and handwaved conflicts they’d set up in season one.
There were good eps but, overall, Voyager was marked by a raft of unfulfilled potential.
I disagree slightly, I think Tom Paris had one of the better character arcs on the show, only really eclipsed by 7 of 9 and the Doctor. He had a slow growth from a cocky guy with problems with authority to someone actually fairly responsible.
I agree that other than the characters mentioned that Voyager’s characterisation was something that could have been done a lot better. And that’s coming from someone who likes Voyager.
There was nothing wrong with Harry's arc, and yes, he did have one. I like Steve's videos, but I swear, DS9 stans are some of the biggest snobs in the fandom. Harry did have character development. He became more assertive and self confident as the series progressed. That's even addressed in S4:E 24 (Demon) when Tuvok tries to patronize Harry about his knowledge of Demon class planets and Harry shuts him down.
Not to mention "The Disease," one of my favorite VOY episodes where Harry caught that STD that made his skin glow after messing with that girl from the xenophobic race. He was literally yelling at Janeway in that one and doing all kinds of nonsense that Ensign Eager Kim had not previously done before on the show. Then there was S6:8 (Nightingale) where Harry disobeyed the Prime Directive by commanding that ship that had lost its captain, and thus getting himself involved in an intergalactic dispute. Now, I could see making that character development argument about Chakotay, but Harry? Nah.
kimbridge I'd classify Harry as the Jake sisco of voyager. Even Wesley had a bigger story arc albeit only being on tng for a couple of years!
Daniel Smith Harry's arc was an arc of mostly failure. Everytime his arc comes up, namely him becoming a more experienced officer he gets overconfident and fails. He works extremely hard to not be a rookie and gets schooled every single time. It's like the producers saying: "Harry, your character arc is your character trying to have a character arc but we won't allow it!" Some episodes are almost funny if you think about them like this. His character arc doesn't work because it is way too nuanced and simple at the same time. Therefore it fails. Same about Jake. Both have a very simple concept. Harry becoming a more experienced officer. Jake becoming a man of words instead of actions. But both concepts are very nuanced at the same time and not very linear or impactful. Both of their arcs cumulate in them not being able to change, because both arcs never got finished. Nullifying the same arcs in the process.
@@JoniWan77 "Someone has to be the ensign," I believe that's what Garrett was told when he asked about further development of the Harry Kim character. It sucks, but Voyager was pretty set on having each character fulfill a certain role and personality type. Remember, they also created Star Trek shows for syndication at this time and changing one's personality too much would make the show inconsistent if you're just jumping into the middle of a random episode.
Thankfully we've really leveled up our habits. Since we tend to binge watch more than watch things in random order that week, it makes more sense to have better beginning to end storytelling.
Inevitably, the answer to your sort of response is the same: it would be very _nice_ if the character had the arc you imagined in hindsight because you were fond of them.
That he second time I've heard you bring up Harry changing from a clarinet to a sax. A sax player told me that if you can play one you can play the other automatically. If the writers knew he could play either/or then they just said "what the hell, he'll play his sax in this scene".
Can confirm - flute, clarinet, oboe, and saxophone all have very similar fingerings, and the dual similarity with mouthpieces and embouchure on clarinet and saxophone makes switching from one to the other practically seamless.
same for violin and viola
@@sperocras so much so that kids who want to learn sax often learn on the clarinet when they’re tiny because it’s easier to hold. As I recall Wang actually did play the sax predominantly IRL but the writers chose the clarinet at first because they thought it seemed more in line with his character or something? But Wang felt like it was girly and pressured them to change it for ages. I don’t recall if it switched over in season 6 or season 7, but if it was season 7, it was probably because of the change in showrunners to the guys who headed up Enterprise season 4. They gave Harry a break in other ways too, like in “Nightingale”.
That's true they are reed instruments.
It's a good thing Voyager was able to establish communications with the Delta Quadrant (13:25).
Great! you had to go and mention Threshold. I was really hoping to forget about it.
I don't count it as Canon. I can't... ugh... why, just why.....
If your going to do a video on Enterprise, then you should do one on Enterprise's most well-written and developed character: Porthos.
Enterprise was so bad that people don't even remember it when talking about the worst of Star Trek. It was way worse than Voyager, but it doesn't feel as offensive because it doesn't even feel real. It was just some kind of mass hallucination we had after drinking some expired Orbitz
Janeway was a Badass, the famous "I'm usually pretty easy to get along with" Speech and her "Kamikaze Time Math". Her continuous battles with the Borg and her shotgun diplomacy with Star trek biggest bad, also Borg.
Harry Kim was this fresh faced Ensign, turns into hardened officer. Paris was this rougish criminal and he became a father and husband. The doctor and Seven were pretty alright as you pointed out. I love the Doctor's Character. Captain Janeway was a strict up tight "Don't Fraternize with the junior officers" type and became a mother figure to 150 people. Torres was hard headed Klingon who hated being Klingon but she got more comfortable with culture as the show went on. You seem to be blind to the good and nit pick the bad.
I think you missed it, Steve. What's really going on is that Tom Paris is a 24th century version of Captain Proton, who always comes up with an answer and always saves the day. At least that's the impression I get from your overview, though there's an even simpler one:
He read the script.
Something should be said for Robert Duncan McNeill's acting ability that he could take a Mary Sue character and still make him likeable, unlike a certain boy-child character from TNG...
Your comment's a good example of how "Mary Sue" doesn't really have any weight or substance. What about Tom Paris was a "Mary Sue"? As the video explains, he didn't have a random grab-bag of talents because the writers used him as a self-insertion character, but because the show had problems establishing _most_ of its characters.
Tom is less of a Mary Sue though because his main talent is piloting, and he was rigorously trained for that in the academy and has a family history of excellent Starfleet service. His need for his father's approval helps consolidate his character as an over achiever as well, so designing space ships and things like that is an easier sell. Wesley Crusher on the other hand is a teenager and they let him on the bridge to pilot a multibillion dollar spaceship with a diplomatic charter. He is really a Mary Sue because the writers thought it was the dream of every boy watching the show to pilot their own spaceship and they thought they needed a character to emulate that.
@@missmdubs1938 Don't forget that being a Mary Sue also implies a lack of struggle or difficulty. One of my favorite little details of Voyager was Tom's demotion to Ensign because he disobeyed a direct order to follow his conscience and do what he thought was right, and he was rightfully punished for it. It took... what, almost 2 seasons for him to be reinstated to his former rank?
(Also remember the episode Destination: Oblivion where the memetic duplicate ship from the Demon Class planet forgot that they weren't the originals, and set off towards earth, and in that episode Tom and B'ellana are getting married and Tom was never demoted, so for that episode and that episode alone he's referred to as a Lieutenant? Fun little continuity clue that something is wrong right from the get-go)
Whether or not Tom was right to disobey orders like that is really up for debate, as he ostensibly did the right thing, but did so by arrogantly deciding that he knew what was best for another culture, one in which he had no authority. That kind of moral ambiguity (something Trek has always been known for) is never applicable to a 'Mary Sue'.
Voyager may have some real shitter episodes, but it also has some of my favorites from the entire franchise, and Tom is featured in a lot of them.
@@bakuhakudraws5603 he was re-promoted at the end of the season they demoted him (6?) so it’s more like 75% of a season or something like that. Kinda like with Odo’s being human, it seems longer in our memory than it really was.
It's Gary Stu, Star Trek fans could surely stand to learn a thing or two about the correct terminology to use.
You must not have been payin attention but it was mentioned they were starting to talk via letters and they did have a sortof vague 'hello' via comms.
They gave Tom all the cool stuff they could have saved something for Harry. Notice the one character that they did take the time to develop, the Doctor, is generally thought of as the most interesting character.
You left out that he's also a sailor. They definitely seemed to give Tom more of these random skills than anyone else. It could be argued that there are some unfortunate implications since some are things that Harry and B'elanna should have been able to do without him. Have him as the test pilot for the Delta Flyer and the Warp 10 thing, sure. That makes sense in a "let's endanger the guy who drives the ship getting us home" sort or way, but it's better than designing.
Another area Voyager missed outside of Tom poorly assisting the Doctor was showing the crew being trained in different areas or expertise in case someone dies. If they had to take the full 70 year trip, they'd have needed to be prepared to train children to take over.
Tom Paris is my favorite character in Voyager, and Tom and Harry's bromance is my favorite on TV!
Tom Parris was a bad ass! He paid for the mistakes he made at starfleet, and lets not forget the role that Wesley Crusher played in that, boy did Captain Picard rock him for that one
Paris was one of my favorite Trek characters. I always felt he would've been a better fit for DS9, what with his snarky attitude and less-than-squeaky-clean backstory.
Speaking of that backstory, as much as I enjoyed it, it still annoys me that he was clearly intended to be Nick Locarno. The studio didn't want to have to pay royalties to the writer of TNG's "The First Duty" and it robbed Voyager of what would have been a nice bit of continuity.
There is a very sad story told by Kate Mulgrew that explains that sent nearly the whole cast home days before the last scene was shot. After they wrapped they immediately started dismantling the set and there was no wrap party. Clearly that is how little they cared about the show.
Dude i just finished voyager. I think it was my favorite series.
Same!
Ever watch "Farscape"? You'll like it, but it will make you hate "Voyager" even more. You'll be angry to see so much of the potential of "Voyager" realized elsewhere.
"Farscape" is the best show....ever.
Any show where two of the main characters have a hand up their asses at all times, gets my thumbs-up.
Congratulations. You just won the Internet for the day.
_Farscape_ is still the benchmark for TV science fiction.
No Babylon 5 is the benchmark.
I actually started my recent Voyager binge by reading the novelization for the first episode. I had never read it before, and becase for that I had no idea Tom was originally envisioned as Super Cool. Like somebody who had to be forcibly restrained to keep him from wearing Raybands all the time. After reading that I was very grateful for Robert NcNeill"s restarted performance. I never thought much of him as an actor, but he is good in Memorial. He gives by far the most nuanced performance in that ham fest and I feel like he gives one of th he best portals of PTSD in Trek.
In defense of the warp 10 barrier being done in Tom's spare time it could easily be argued that different Cochran build a phoenix in his spare time in both cases the ships were designed specifically to do what they did but given that Cochran and Paris both had " day jobs" they had to build the ships in there spare time
Tom is one of my top all time favorite Trek characters
Brad Dourif's charcter Lon Suder could've been a really great addition to the cast in the long term, I think they squandered a chance at a redemption story arc.
Good LORD I'd KILL for that!!!
Ah yes Tomas "Ibid" Paris. Who is the following: An esteemed Pilot, a commando, a field medic, a history nerd, a skilled mechanic, a father, a loving husband, a great wingman, holonovelist, AND LITERALLY WENT INFINITELY FAST with an engine HE MADE.
Infinite Improbability drive. +10 internets
What the hell do you mean no character development? Remember when Harry Kim switched musical instruments from the clarinet to the saxophone?! Absolutely riveting!
Tom is a big kid who just loves 'stuff' and situations, he jumps into situations and is afraid of Nothing. He married a Klingon for god's sake !!!
Janeway: *changes reality*
Steve Shives: "Imagine the hubris of changing the reality!..."
Admiral Clancy: *"SHEER FUCKING HUBRIS!!!"*
I think Rain Robinson sums up Tom Paris very nicely: "Sexy, in a Howdy-Doody sort of way" 😁
Dude! When you referenced Tom's photo on his dad's desk, you could have totally mentioned that it was a photo of Robert McNeill playing a different character in TNG!
I am compelled to agree. I have always thought by series end, he should have been at the very least a LCDR (Lieutenant Commander) promotable to Commander. Like you, I chalk it up to bad writing. They had a hollow deck they didn't use for training the new crew or to acquire new skills. I could go on but I'm not going down that rabbit hole. I will close by saying, they had a tremendous opportunity to do something good and blew it.
This, and if we take the Iconian War arc from Star Trek Online, Tom goes on to be promoted to the rank of captain and forms an unconventional warfare unit called Delta Flight, drawing on all the unconventional thinking the Federation and its allies can muster.
You forgot that he's also a trained field medic because he happens to have a chemistry minor from back when he was in Starfleet.
You're right about a lot of things about Voyager but it's still my favorite show.
I felt like Voyager went badly off the rails when they inexplicably decided to abruptly change Janeway from the "we have to do the right thing even when it's hard" attitude right on over to "You know what? Screw it, let's do whatever will shave three months off our seventy year trip."
Yes, sure, there were issues before this (for example, in season one, they had a bit of a consistency problem with "we are moving as fast as we can in a single direction, but we keep repeatedly running into the same alien bad guys whose ships are way inferior to ours"; the character development issues you point out are also meaningful), but I felt like Janeway's sudden ethical breakdown was the main thing that really destroyed the show more than anything else in the later seasons, particularly when other members of the crew who had supporter her ethical position earlier just went along with the new Janeway without question. I feel like the TNG crew would've had Picard in the brig within thirty minutes if he'd pulled that kind of personality change (and the real PIcard would've congratulated them for it when he somehow got back).
I love how sarcastic this is. I’m a Voyager fan and watched this episode with a grin on my face. I think many of us really like Star Trek most when it presents a universe that we want to live in. I think TNG and Voyager did that pretty well.
Janeway's disapproving glare was like an evil Mary Poppins getting you to "Take your medicine and like it, DAMMIT!"
They sure did develop. 7 of nine learning to be more human and exploring her humanity as well as the Doctor. The only episode that really made me cringe was the 37s. Please forgive off topic, anyway, if you really look closer you will see they each developed in there own way. The blending of the two crews brought some unique challenges for the writers to keep up with. I feel that you are being a little hard on the series. Kate Mulgrew i thought did a superb job developing her character. As far as the second in charge...well...i agree that he needed a little more developing.
They didn't develop, is the thing. But it's very easy to write a story you would have _liked_ the show to tell in hindsight, then claim that it did.
Honestly I don't think men can ever get over a woman captain. I feel it's alot of the reason they hate on it.
I think Kate was fantastic. Voyager is definately one of my fav star treks along with TNG...there was many many examples of character development. But don't expect them to give the credit where it's due, unfortunately.
@@sheenaalexis8710 I'd take orders from Janeway any time - there are very few people of any gender I can honestly say that about - but I still think Voyager was a bit of a mess in many ways. The older I get, the more messes I find, but even when I was watching it for the first time as a teenager, I really really wanted to like it much more than Deep Space 9, but it just... didn't seem to hang together.
I'm sorry but kira was the biggest badass from ds9
Most anoying character
nah quark and chief o brien are the unsung heroes of that show.
She does have that completely awesome "If you want a war, I'll give you one" speech in the series premier.
For sure. Definitely one tough girl who don't take shit from no one. Garek was no slouch either. He was an intriguing character.
She isn't Starfleet, though... ;)
(Sorry to fit the Star Trek nerd cliche...)
I'm sometimes a hard ass on Voyager as well, the writing was spotty, but I think Enterprise was worse. Voy at least tried to have an interesting concept, Ent was just boring shlock. And don't get me started on STD... * shivers *
That said the one character I thought on Voy that was the best was the Doctor. He was perhaps the most human, even though he was a hologram.
I was born in the mid 80s and grew up watching TNG and moved right along to Voyager. Being young at the time, I didn't mind how often preposterously silly the show often was early on and stuck with it when I grew into adolescence because of course, Jeri Ryan.
As a kid, Tom Paris was my favorite Star Trek character because he seemed like he had it all - cool hobbies, lots of friends, a ladies man, even interest in B movie grade black and white films which I also loved as a kid.
Looking back, it's easy to conclude that he is a male Mary Sue. But you know what? I still like the character and the show. It's not as good as TNG and certainly not as good as DS9, but I can't hate on Voyager the way other Trek fans often do.
"Reports on my immolation have been greatly exaggerated" LOL
I loved Voyager, but I agree with you completely. I found it just so frustrating but kept watching out of a kind of loyalty (or was it in the vain hope that Janeway and Chakotay would finally get it together?)
I so wanted them to get together!
Tom Paris is also the Dragonborn because he is leader of the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, and that boring werewolf guild in Whiterun.
Tom Paris went from a person who did nothing and did not take responsibility to a very responsible person and a married man and a child at the end of the series. His probl was he thought he could not live up to what his father wanted him to me .Tom needed to let got of this pressure he put on himself and just allow himself to do what he had to do. Being so far away from the Federation allowed him to mature into who he is and not what he though his father wanted him to me. Janeway would not let him get away with things and he grew up.
If memory serves the "piloting error" wasn't failing to piolot his vessel. It was more failure to recognize that others could not pull that maneuver. Tom manages it the others crashed
Wesley managed the maneuver, as did the Bajoran cadet. Oh wait, that's "not" Tom Paris *eyeroll*
Warms my heart to hear the Infinite Improbability Drive namechecked.
That Data picture + context at 2:30 has me laughing my ass off.
This week Tom/Chakotay/Harry has always been into... *roll dice* boxing/archeology/the sea/cars/Irish villages/heterosexuality!
“Tom is a great pilot”
“Tom made a pilot error and got three people killed”
I see why Janeway made him the helmsman. To scare the crew. Which is actually the same reason she let Neelix be the cook.
4:44 The Cochrane shuttle is Type-9, not Class 2. Class 2 was randomly inserted into later Voyager episodes because the hack writers don’t know shit about their own show and couldn’t be arsed to check.
You know, I dunno if anyone has ever said this, but you could totally cosplay as the Doctor from Voyager.
Tom is my favourite Voyager character as well because he is very adaptable, and really quick on his feet
1. God I love Voyager. 2. God I hate that we don't see any reunion with the characters and loved ones on the show. I need to see Harry and Libby. Tom and Admiral Paris. Tuvok and his kids and wife. Harry and his mom. Harry and his dad. Harry and well we could make a whole show on Harry's reunion and finding out that he was looked over for becoming a lieutenant.
There was an episode of TNG where Picard is traveling through 3 periods of time and in the future time frame they have warp 13.
So that warp 10 thing of being so fast as to be everywhere in the universe at the same time, must have been bad writing if warp 13 is possible?
Giving Voyager's basic premise they really needed to have a serilaized modern storytelling format. The ship needed to get damaged and stay dmaged! The caharacters, other than Seven and the Doctor, needed to evolve! But most of all Kes was a HUGE misses opportunity. Imagine if the show was on today, we could have sen Kes grow from being a girl, to a young woman, to a mature woman, to an old woman and then die surrounded by her grandchildren IN THE NORMAL LENGTH OF THE SHOW!!
In regards to things mattering for one episode,it always tickled me seeing Neelix politely remind people hes only got one lung after encountering the Vidiians early on
Starfleet did not even know that one of their admirals was actually an alien lizard working undercover to find humans as a food source.... What does that say about Tom Paris!?
The actor who played Admiral Paris starred in V. 😉
Some years ago the actor who played Dianna in V was in Ramsay Street (She had a guess role in Neighbours - an Australian soap that popular across the world, especially in the UK)
It's odd because I remember the last episode of Voyager quite differently than how Netflix and other streaming sites currently show it ending. I remember that scene at the end of this video of Janeway talking to the Admiral, but then a hail from sickbay and a baby crying and the Doctor asking Tom to please report to sickbay, "there is someone who would like to meet you". Tom then interrupts the scene and shouts "I'm a father! You're... you're a grandfather!" then Tom races down to sickbay with the Admiral and Janeway both just kinda... staring in the direction Tom went. Then the scene changes to the Admiral holding the newborn baby (which had the Klingon lobes on its head) in sickbay and saying "I started today thinking I was going to war, and I am ending it holding my first Grandchild." Some other stuff was said and a few other things were tied up, then they showed the last scene of the ships ending back to earth.
I have to wonder if Netflix is showing the syndicated version of the show because I absolutely remember this scene as the end of the Voyager. Call it a false memory, but when I saw the final episode on Netflix I was super confused that all this stuff I remember was cut out.
The writers wanted the Tom Paris character to be very similar to the Nick Locarno character. They even ended up casting the same actor, though that wasn't their original intent. But given this, why not change the character to Locarno? It would have given that character a much deeper Character Arc as well as satisfied continuity buffs.
I wish they would have done a ten year reunion after the credits of the series finally to see how they end up.
I liked him since the pilot. When the helm officer was killed in the pilot, he immediately took the helm and assisted the captain. When the captain sent him to sickbay, away he went. No bitching, no complaining, no whining "I'm not really a crew member.", just went and did his duty.
Nobody going to talk about the U.S.S. Enterprise in the final episode of Season 7 (TNG) reaching warp 13?
Yep most people didn't even catch that
Only recently found your videos, which has me going through them from the start. Just a slight correction that has probably been pointed out, but it was Tom Paris' attempt to cover up his responsibility for his error by falsifying reports that got him dishonorably discharged from Starfleet. If he owned up to the mistake, he would have definitely seen some form of punishment, but probably not been booted out.
Its so sad... Voyager couldve been THE BEST Star Trek show - if the ship and crew continously deteriorated, and if they always had to test their morals against ever increasing odds.
Paris, 7of9 and The Doctor were the only good characters on the show
please just spell out “seven of nine”
Tom and his father reminds me of Spock his father. Their relationship didn't really resolve either.
Can we talk about the fact that the photo of Tom on his Dad's desk was photoshopped from the trial in TNG's "The First Duty" where the Tom actor plays Nick Locarno? The same trial where Nick lied to a bunch of admirals and was later expelled!
infinite improbability drive. Love it!
Saxophone is basically just a gold clarinet. The fingerings are very similar and some notes are identical. They're both reed wind instruments. It's really not that much of a stretch for Harry to have the ability to play both.
Tom would get a huge kick out of being called a badass
Oh yeah... on that "erased reality"... she did not erase it. It still existed. It was one of three alpha timelines that existed due to Janeway.
If she erased that time line, the effects would have rippled outward--and the ship would have still been in the Delta Quadrant.
We see the effects of time lines being erased by Red from That 70s Show, the 29th Century Federation and 30th Century Federation... and it does not work the same way as how Admiral Janeway handled stuff.
Small side note... the picture of 'Tom' on Adm. Paris' desk is a stock photo of Nick Locarno from TNG
The main thing that makes Tom Paris a badass is he's one of the only people in the 24th century who knows how to drive stick shift on a '69 Mustang
(also being able to repair it is a bonus, but I've known plenty of mechanics who couldn't drive for crap)
Since I often see complaints about why didn't Paris or Kim, or whoever, get promoted... promoted to where, exactly? They were on a ship in the Delta Quadrant... every crew position is filled. What good is getting a promotion when you'll inevitably end up having the exact same role and duties as before you were promoted? A promotion in such a scenario would be meaningless, because it'd make absolutely no difference to anything... I imagine that's why they were never promoted.
11:15 'voyager characters with skills'. There was an episode where Neelix and Tuvok merged.... what if something like that happened with all the major characters of Voyager, but with more of a "SENSE 8" type of thing? Those guys would be unstoppable.
As SFDebris once said (may be somewhat paraphrasing here):
"Some characters are an everyman, but Tom Paris _literally_ has the skills of EVERY MAN"
Realistically, Chakotay should have been the one into old cars on the basis that his tribe rejected new technology, and in the future, "old" tech can include current tech. And Harry Kim should have designed the delta flyer and been Tom's co-pilot for the warp-10 run because of his alternate timeline where he worked on theoretical warp drives.
That doesn't sound "realistic" so much as it sounds like your personal fan fiction.
Tom is in the same room as a conference call with Daddy Paris MORE THAN ONCE, and they NEVER SPEAK TO EACH OTHER ONCE (although mostly I’m mad at Janeway for not saying “oh hey, you’re son’s here, wanna say hi real quick?”).
I love the Admiral Paris character though, and his inclusion paid off in its own way a few times. Remember the episode “30 Days”, where Tom is locked up in the brig, demoted to Ensign, for going against orders? That episode’s entire framing device is built around Tom struggling to find the words to write a letter to his father about the incident. Their relationship is so strained, this was in many ways the only amicable reunion that they were capable of having.
I actually like Star Trek: Enterprise. Sure, they've had their weird and/or "where you even going with this?" moments, but I really enjoy seeing "how it all began," as it were. It's not the best ST show, granted, but it's not as terrible as some ppl make it out to be.
Btw, I agree with you that ST: TAS is actually worth being considered part of canon. Like, I watched a few episodes... and realized at some point, that if they had been live action, they would've fit right in with the rest of the original series show; the only reason, on my part, that TAS seems to be "not as good" as TOS, is simply that it IS animated. The way they worked the animation makes some scenes seem choppy, and the characters' faces are much less expressive --as a result of the animation style they used--.than they would have been in live action. The episodes themselves? Actually fit with what was typical of the TOS style.
He's an ace pilot commando field medic, who once made an engine that goes to infinity! This is the guy that Starfleet DOESNT want??
He does not listen to orders that well. That is Starfleet's big issue with him.
I mean... he lives one century after Captain James Tiberius Kirk... who has been promoted to Admiral more times than any other Star Fleet Captain--and managed to pull of being Genghas Khan IN SPACE. With one sixth of all sentient beings being direct descendants of him even centuries afterwards.
Star Fleet kind of wants to NOT be known as an organisation that would have somebody like that happen twice.
Paris: I need you at tactical!
Janeway: Aye sir?
tbh, Tom only really has one interest: Cars. At least his time periods equivalent of that. He likes cars, space ships, anything that moves and likes using them. All the skills you listed are peripheral to that. Have fun flying space ships? Well, you'll get good at it. Want to go faster and better? Learn to improve what you have. Don't have everything for those hobbies on hand? Use the holo deck technology. Want to experience realistic old cars? Good luck finding real ones - better to just learn how to create authentic replicas on the holo deck. Maybe time appropriate scenery as well? Might be fun.
So yeah. He's that guy who can tell you what exactly is wrong with a random car driving by in the distance and has drawings of his perfect car hanging around his garage/workshop which is bigger than his living area.
*Random Idea for a Trek, Actually Video*
In the DS9 episode Rules of Engagement, O'Brien is asked how many space engagements he has been in. I took a quick look and compared that number to military service records online...
Miles O'Brien has more combat experience that most navy men that fought in BOTH World Wars. He's even right up there with "the fightingest Marine" Daniel Daly. I even compared him to other fictional characters like Master Chief from the Halo games, and he's right up there with a character who supposedly fought a 27 year long war from beginning to end.
And that's just FLEET engagements. Miles has plenty of ground combat experience as well. He led 24 men against an entire Cardassian _regiment_ at Setlik III and came out on
top.
Yet despite all that, he's a very well-written character. His marriage to Keiko is not exactly "smooth sailing" and the things they fight ABOUT are the sorts of things left when you live in a world where you can't fight about money. As the show progresses, Miles struggles with PTSD and has repeated brushes with the law that don't go so well for him. Not to mention that his mirror universe doppelganger winds up the leader of the human resistance.
Perhaps it's time to give O'Brien his due and dethrone Tom Paris as the #1 Federation Badass.
Maj. Kira wasn't exactly a pushover, herself. Should have made the list.