The Best Moment in the Worst Episode of ‘Star Trek: Voyager,’ 30 Years Later
Thirty years ago, Star Trek: Voyager aired one of its most controversial episodes: “Threshold,” the episode now infamous as “The One When Captain Janeway and Tom Paris Turned Into Marines and Had Babies.” Over the years, revisions have allowed the opportunity to rename “Threshold” from one of the worst Star Trek which once made for an interesting camp moment in an episode that, while deeply flawed, still has potential sparks.
So to mark 30 years of this period A journey blasphemy, we decided to set aside the space for amphibian sex jokes (except for those that have already been made – please, we are only human) and look back at one of those possible sparks, a bright spot in the most absurd episode: what “Threshold” means Voyagerrebel chief, Tom Paris.
In the early stages of Star Trek: Voyagerone of the few recurring arcs the show consistently shares from episode to episode was the transformation of Lieutenant Paris. Tom joins the show with a shockingly murky background: a former Starfleet officer fired for covering up a pilot error, imprisoned for a brief infiltration into the arms of the Cardassian resistance group known as the Maquis, then released by Captain Janeway for what was intended to be a short test of his new adventure instead of returning home after 70 insignificant years. the galaxy.
Almost everyone is open Voyager in its early days it works with a sense of sadness that their lives and the future they had planned were destroyed in an instant, but not Paris. Paris is living her dream, she’s driving a super star, she’s yet to bite her toe at the Maquis and join. VoyagerHe’s a man of necessity, and the only authority Starfleet has to answer to is the woman who trusted him enough to give him a second chance in the first place. This is most evident in one way in those early seasons: Tom is kind of a big, cocky ass, even when he’s earnestly trying to prove that the faith placed in him was justified.
That brings us to “Threshold” and Tom’s cocky, yet ambitious vision of finding a way to break the titular Warp 10 limit—which was long established. Star Trek the belief that warp drives could not achieve faster-than-light speeds beyond that maximum. It’s an interesting idea to have a show with a similar premise Voyagerabout a lone Starfleet ship trapped tens of thousands of light-years from Federation space, it’s up for grabs, even more so when one of its main characters is a cocky pilot with a chip on his shoulder in a uniform. That in itself is a smart way to show what you’re involved with Star TrekA wider heritage even if it is separated from it.
But that’s not the time we’re talking about. That moment comes after Tom’s first test flight sees him successfully maintain a constant speed above the warp limit—then he experiences medical problems as his body undergoes what is eventually revealed as the first acceleration of the evolutionary process. Tom’s body begins to slowly deteriorate, requiring non-stop treatment: his hair falls out, his eyes glaze over, his skin spots and flakes, his joints and organs begin to fuse. The young dashing hero of the time has been turned into a broken, flexible-but-transformable thing.
It is in this form that “Threshold” delivers its greatest moment. It’s an interesting grotesquerie: body horror works wonderfully A journey and you feel it Voyager building on his amazingly terrifying results working with the Vidians last season, it made it even more fun to have one of our heroes used in such a terrifying way. But it’s the Paris Persona breakdown that works best. The wild changes he goes through are almost like the falling of a mask, both figuratively and literally, as parts of his face disintegrate.
One minute, she insults Captain Janeway for pitying her dire situation; next, with his attempt to minimize what he accomplished in breaking the warp 10 ago. His ego, often governed by his sincere desire to prove himself to the world and Janeway in particular, is rampant, making for a scene that is cool and sad in equal measures as she oscillates between the man we know and this evil figure. It’s a nice rhythm for the character Paris to once again find herself at the heart of the danger caused by her own sweat and respond to it by mocking the world around her—that this time it’s the evil that marks her soul, and the filters she’s built as she tries to save herself from it. VoyagerThe early days until now when he was stripped of his despair and pain, are now visible outside.
Of course, that’s when we get to him abducting Janeway, forcing her to go through the same process, and have sex with the space amphibian before. Voyager it tries to move on from it, not to bring back the millennial work ethic. But before that moment that would seal “Threshold’s” dark legacy for decades to come, it shone with a moment of true genius. A good example even some Star TrekThe lowest is the minimum something it’s worth thinking about.
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