LogFAQs > #933225335

32. Tom Paris
Why yes, I do happen to have a fascination with 1990-2000 history, how did you know?

I had to look up if his name was actually Thomas, I wasnt sure if the writers bothered to give him a full name.

So I invented in my mind this idea years ago that Tom Paris was intended to be the Han Solo of Voyager. That in the shows original pitch of two crews working together but barely, he was going to be a wildcard who would side with either crew and youd never know his intentions, since he obviously wants to return home but is a felon with no real loyalty to either side. I have absolutely no idea if that was their actual plan, but I do know that my imagined Tom Paris is more interesting than the one we got. Again, Im not sure if Tom Paris is this high because hes genuinely okay or because his competition includes the likes of Neelix, but who cares? Aside from Seven of Nine, hes the only human character on the show with any kind of pathos. Even though his motive is still just I want to get home like the non-Seven/Doctor characters, having that soiled past makes him inherently more interesting than most of the others.

Tom Paris actually gets quite a lot to do in the series, enough so that Id say he rises above mere supporting character and into being an actual character. He has a wide variety of interests and skills that are consistently mentioned (compare this to Chakotay, who has a different hobby every episode) and round him out in a somewhat-believable way, if you can forgive his expertise on the time period Voyager was aired in and he has a little romance arc with Torres.

Because the show forgets about the Maquis/Starfleet drama immediately, Tom Paris provides the only actual inter-ship conflict, even if that conflict is just Janeway or Chakotay occasionally getting irritated at him. Its actually one of the biggest missed opportunities in the show that everyone is willing to just accept Paris, too. There needed to be a solid season or two of everyone mistrusting him and Tuvok taking Janeway aside and being all Captain, we cant trust the safety of the ship to this guy and her being like We dont have the resources to keep a guy in the brig for years, and we cant dump him out into space, so Ill give him a shot, and Paris feels alienated in the school cafeteria while girls giggle behind his back and the principal threatens to expel him if he gets into one more fight, and eventually he has the chance to leave the ship and roam space on his own or something, but comes back and saves everyone at the last minute so they finally accept him. Instead, everyone is like Well, we kind of dont trust you, but you also want to get home, so whatever, and Paris is just a normal crewman after three episodes. Its the one time in Star Trek where everyone behaving reasonably makes things worse.

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Started: July 6, 2005