Lieutenant J.G. Tom Paris
From LoveToKnow Sci-Fi
From Officer to Rebel to Convict
Few Star Trek characters have had a past as checkered as Voyager's pilot, Lieutenant Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) -- and so young and angelic looking, too!
The son of an admiral and indeed from a long line of Starfleet admirals, Paris followed family tradition into Starfleet. But as a junior officer, he was involved in a pilot-error shuttlecraft accident that resulted in several deaths. Paris falsified records to hide his own culpability, was found out and court-martialed.
Dishonorably discharged from Starfleet and permanently estranged from his family, Paris drifted and drank until he was recruited by the Maquis rebels – his joining the Maquis seems to have been motivated more by the chance to fly again and just for something to do than any conviction in their cause. Captured on his first mission for the Maquis and convicted of treason, Paris is sent to a Federation prison, which is where he is when the viewers of Star Trek: Voyager meet him.
A Second Chance
Paris is visited in prison by Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), with an interesting proposal. The rebels he was working with have vanished into the Badlands with a Federation undercover operative onboard, and Janeway has been assigned to track them down. If Paris helps her find the Maquis, he'll be granted early parole.
He accepts the offer and accompanies Voyager on its mission. It's not easy for him; the regular Starfleet officers despise him. Only new-minted Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) is willing to befriend the disgraced Paris.
Lieutenant JG Paris: Stranded Far From Home
And then disaster flings Voyager to the far side of the galaxy, killing many members of the crew, and Paris winds up as Voyager's pilot, given a temporary field commission to Lieutenant Junior Grade by Janeway.
The very rebels they were attempting to arrest are incorporated into the ship's crew, and they too have reasons to despise Tom – he was in the process of betraying them by leading Voyager to them when both ships got stranded. On first meeting, the rebel captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran) tries to attack him, and by the end of the pilot, Chakotay is Voyager's first officer.
(Hey, if redemption were easy, more people would do it and it wouldn't be so interesting.)
Winning Hearts and Minds
Luckily for Paris, he's a charming fellow. He soon overcomes his crewmates' distrust and dislike and becomes a valued member of the Voyager crew.
He's also fun to be around. His holodeck re-creation of his favorite bar in Marseilles, Sandrine's, becomes a favorite crew hangout.
Tom and his buddy Ensign Kim befriend B'Elanna Torres, the hot-tempered Klingon-human Maquis who becomes the ship's engineer. Later in the series, Tom and B'Elanna become, first an Item, then a married couple, and then parents.
There's Something Familiar About This Guy...
Oddly enough, Robert Duncan McNeill previously played a character with a very similar story line in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In "The First Duty", McNeill played Nick Lucarno, a Starfleet Academy cadet who was involved in a shuttlecraft accident that resulted in deaths, attempted to cover up his involvement...
When the producers were putting together the characters for the new series Star Trek: Voyager, there was discussion of including the character Nick Lucarno as a regular. But it was decided that Lucarno was not 'redeemable', and a similar but redeemable character was created instead.
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