Robert Duncan McNeill recollects not liking his character, Lieutenant Tom Paris, within the early seasons of Star Trek: Voyager. McNeill performed Tom Paris in all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in 2025.
Lieutenant Tom Paris was the hotshot helmsman of the USS Voyager, however he had a singular origin. When Star Trek: Voyager started, Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) had Paris launched from jail to search out the Maquis. Paris turned the USS Voyager’s pilot, however he was brash, conceited, and tough across the edges in Voyager‘s first few seasons.
Showing on The Transporter Room podcast with Chris Garis, Allyson Leach-Heid, and Linda Paiges, Robert Duncan McNeill frankly recollects how a lot he disliked the best way Tom Paris was written firstly of Star Trek: Voyager. Nevertheless, McNeill additionally factors out that Tom “doing actually jerky issues” made his character’s gradual evolution extra satisfying. Learn Robbie’s quote under:
I didn’t like him. I didn’t like him the primary season. They stored writing these items, and it wasn’t simply dialogue. I don’t suppose they discovered his voice but early on. But it surely was additionally motion, what he did, the issues they wrote that he did. It was like, ‘Ugh, you’re taking one step ahead, two steps again.’ You’re doing a little actually jerky issues. I don’t like this man, why would the viewers like this man if he’s doing what he’s doing?
I used to be actually completely satisfied that they let go of [Tom Paris’ early characterization]. I feel they’d this concept that Tom was like a Han Solo or a Julian Bashir. Not even Julian, he was like candy and earnest. Tom was… he’d been across the block, he sort of had a chip on his shoulder, he was impolite to individuals, he was self-absorbed and egocentric, and didn’t have a superb relationship with girls. Didn’t discuss girls properly. Ugh, I didn’t like him.
However the truth that he developed… If he hadn’t been such a tough to love character early on, I feel the satisfaction of the place he ended up wouldn’t have been nearly as good. So in the long run, I feel it was a superb factor, however watching these early episodes…
Watch Robert Duncan McNeill on The Transporter Room under:
A part of the explanation for Lieutenant Tom Paris’ early characterization as a jerk was that Tom was initially based mostly on Nicholas Locarno, whom Robert Duncan McNeill beforehand performed in Star Trek: The Subsequent Era. Nick Locarno had a legal previous at Starfleet Academy that Star Trek: Voyager‘s producers felt made him “irredeemable” and led to the creation of Tom Paris.
Lieutenant Tom Paris was created with many similarities to Nick Locarno, together with the actor who performed him. As Star Trek: Voyager continued, nevertheless, Tom turned a greater individual, a trusted good friend to the USS Voyager’s crew, and Paris began a romance with Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson), which helped wash away his rotten early characterization.
Tom Paris is now appeared upon fondly by Star Trek: Voyager followers, and he is higher often known as Ensign Harry Kim’s (Garrett Wang) finest good friend and the co-designer of the Delta Flyer, in addition to being one in all Starfleet’s most celebrated pilots. When Robert Duncan McNeill voiced Lt. Tom Paris on Star Trek: Decrease Decks, he was handled as a real Starfleet legend along with his personal collector’s plate.
Robert Duncan McNeill and Garrett Wang reviewed each episode of Star Trek: Voyager on their podcast, The Delta Flyers. Robbie has a clear-eyed perspective on Lieutenant Tom Paris and understands higher than anybody how a lot Tom modified from his early characterizations to the hero he turned all through Star Trek: Voyager‘s seven seasons.
- Launch Date
-
January 16, 1995
- Community
-
UPN
- Showrunner
-
Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, Brannon Braga, Kenneth Biller
- Administrators
-
David Livingston, Winrich Kolbe, Allan Kroeker, Michael Vejar
- Writers
-
Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor