Tom Paris
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference
 Tom Paris (2376) | |
| Gender: | Male |
| Species: | Human |
| Rank: | Lieutenant junior grade Ensign |
| Occupation: | Flight controller Medical assistant |
| Status: | Active (2378) |
| Father: | Owen Paris |
| Marital Status: | Married |
| Spouse(s): | B'Elanna Torres |
| Children: | One daughter, Miral Paris Three hyper-evolved Human children |
| Played by: | Robert Duncan McNeill |
 Tom Paris (2371) | |
Thomas Eugene Paris was a Human Starfleet officer who returned home from the Delta Quadrant in 2378 after serving for seven years as flight controller of the Federation starship USS Voyager under Captain Kathryn Janeway.
Contents |
[edit] Family and Academy years
As the son of a senior Starfleet official, Admiral Owen Paris, Tom Paris often felt inadequate due to the pressure his father put on him to excel. He had a troubled relationship with his father who remained tough and remote, telling him for instance that crying was a sign of weakness. (VOY: "Persistence of Vision", "Threshold")
As Tom had a love of the ocean and sailing, he wanted to join the Federation Naval Patrol. However, his father had other plans for him, and Tom abandoned this idea. (VOY: "Thirty Days")
Tom discovered his love of piloting at the age of eight, when his father took him for a trip in an S-class shuttlecraft. (VOY: "Alice")
At the Academy, in the 2360s, Admiral Paris was the instructor of his course on Survival Strategies. Admiral Paris did not play favorites with his son as his student, giving Tom Paris a "B-minus", overall, in the course. (VOY: "Parturition")
During his first year at the Academy, Paris fell in love for the first time with Susie Crabtree. She broke off the relationship and he almost failed Stellar Cartography, broke out in hives and couldn't get out of bed for a week as a result. He spent much of that year in a daze and even years later would think of her from time to time. He chose Marseilles, France as the site of his physical training second semester. He frequented a small bar known as Sandrine's, where he met a girl by the name of Ricky. Advanced Subspace Geometry was the only class at the Academy where he actually paid attention. He did hone his natural aptitude for piloting skills on craft large and small and proved adept at holo-engineering. He managed to graduate from Starfleet Academy after a stormy four years with a major in astrophysics. (VOY: "Lifesigns", "The Cloud", "Vis à Vis", "Future's End")
While he considered most of his early family to be rather ordinary people, referring to them as "salt of the earth" and some "farmers" and "colonists", he held great respect for one of his ancestors, a pilot who flew the first orbital glider over the lower Martian plateau. (VOY: "11:59")
Tom Paris loved his bedroom back home, and often locked himself away in there to cry, play games and listen to music. Also noted, he lost his virginity there at the age of seventeen while his parents were away for the weekend. (VOY: "Threshold")
[edit] Starfleet career
Upon graduation Paris was assigned to the USS Exeter. Later, he was dismissed from Starfleet when he tried to cover up a piloting error on his behalf which led to the deaths of three fellow officers at Caldik Prime; the fact that he later told the truth didn't make up for it. He once joked that "The ghosts of those three dead officers came to me in the middle of the night and taught me the true meaning of Christmas" when asked why he told the truth. (VOY: "Caretaker", "Non Sequitur")
[edit] Incarceration and joining Voyager
After being expelled from Starfleet, he joined the Maquis, but was captured on his first mission. Paris was serving time in a Federation Penal Settlement in Auckland, New Zealand when he received a visit from Captain Kathryn Janeway. She gave him the opportunity to redeem himself by participating on a mission to track down the Maquis who were hiding in the Badlands. After a short hesitation, he decided to take this opportunity.
[edit] USS Voyager
[edit] The First Year
When Tom first came aboard Voyager he was seen as brash and arrogant. When Captain Kathryn Janeway first recruited him to retrieve a Maquis ship that had disappeared in the Badlands, he agreed to help but only if there was something in it for him. He did not care much about the crew of that ship and smugly confirmed Chakotay's assertion of him as a mercenary willing to fight for anyone who pays his bar bills. He received a rather cool reception from pretty much everyone he encountered, as he, in the eyes of others, seemed a little too cocky and a little too sure of himself. When he first boarded the ship, first officer Cavit as well as the ship's doctor, openly expressed their dislike of him. Chakotay, after being trapped in the Delta Quadrant with the Voyager crew, was also not happy to see him and upon their first encounter on the ship, he angrily accused Tom of having sold them out for a meager reward. However, they finally came to terms and Chakotay's sentiment changed greatly after Paris saved his life on Ocampa and as the crew moved forward and gradually grew closer. (VOY: "Caretaker")
Despite rather shaky beginnings, and a crew that wondered whether he could be trusted when things got tough, Tom Paris was able to gradually redeem himself and show what he is really made of. In addition to saving Chakotay's life, he also helped rescue B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim who had been sent to an underground Ocampa city and he struck a meaningful friendship with Harry Kim, who had just graduated from the academy. After the Caretaker's Array was destroyed, he was promoted to flight controller, with his Starfleet rank of Lieutenant reinstated. He was assigned the additional job of medic for The Doctor when an assessment for medical replacements was brought forth, as Paris had two semesters of biochemistry at the Academy. (VOY: "Caretaker", "Parallax", "Phage")
While on a mission to Banea to repair a damaged collimator, Paris was convicted of murdering Tolen Ren. The images of Ren's last moments up to his death were imprinted in Paris' brain, as a punishment, causing neural damage. Tuvok, with the assistance of others, was eventually able to discover proof that Paris was innocent. (VOY: "Ex Post Facto")
Paris created a holoprogram of Sandrine's which became a favorite spot of the crew to relax. The program included Sandrine, Ricky, a pool hustler, and a gigolo. (VOY: "The Cloud")
Paris, along with Torres, was captured by the Vidiians. While Torres was subjected to an experiment that parted her Human and Klingon halves, Paris, after working at hard labor, was going to have his organs harvested. Finally, Chakotay and a rescue squad were able to save them. (VOY: "Faces")
[edit] The Second Year
In 2372, Paris came into conflict with Neelix over Kes, whom Paris had become attracted to and flirted with over the course of the year. (VOY: "Elogium", "Twisted", "Parturition") This conflict was resolved, however, when both Paris and Neelix were assigned together on an away mission, and had to depend on each other for survival. This marked the end of Neelix's jealousy of Paris over Kes and the beginning of their friendship. (VOY: "Parturition") The extend to which Neelix appreciated Tom became especially apparent when Paris had to pretend to leave Voyager in order to expose a traitor among the crew. Not knowing of his plan, Neelix truly believed that Tom was leaving and thus, on his show A Briefing with Neelix, delivered a rather moving speech praising Tom Paris as a gravely misunderstood young man whose bravery, courage, and friendliness were overseen by misleading first impressions and the judgment of others. (Of course, Tom did return to the ship after his mission was over, much to Neelix's delight who thought he had lost a friend. (VOY: "Investigations")
Paris was also the first Starfleet officer to reach warp 10 and thus the transwarp threshold safely. However, despite success in the simulations without ill effect, the real flight experience caused him to begin to mutate into an amphibian like lifeform that could no longer process oxygen. While in sickbay and in his delirious state, he revealed to The Doctor that what he remembered the most about being a kid were the times he spent in his room crying; the same room in which he also lost his virginity at seventeen. When his mutation was reaching near completion, he kidnapped Janeway and took her on a warp ten journey, which resulted in her mutating as well. When they were found they had completely devolved into amphibians and produced three offspring which the crew left on the planet they had escaped to. Back on Voyager, The Doctor was able to return them back to their Human forms. (VOY: "Threshold")
[edit] Kazon
Paris was instrumental in the battle with the Kazon on numerous occasions. It began when he was involved in a plot, backed by Captain Janeway and Tuvok, but unknown to Chakotay and everyone else, to act disruptively and exhibit bad behavior and tardiness in order to make his pretending to leave Voyager to expose a traitor among the crew, more believable. After the mission was successfully accomplished, he narrowly made it back to Voyager before his stolen shuttle was destroyed.
He also led a fleet of Talaxian ships which recaptured Voyager after it had been captured by Culluh and Seska: during the attack, he had left Voyager in a shuttle to go back for help. While the crew was forced to leave the ship and marooned on a desolate planet, The Doctor and Lon Suder managed to remain on board. They sabotaged Voyager which was now under Culluh's and Seska's command, allowing Paris to retake the ship. Paris had already taken out the primary couplings and thanks to Suder's efforts, the backup phaser couplings were disabled as well, causing them to explode and disable Voyager while Cullah and Seska tried to navigate it. This explosion of the phaser couplings is also ultimately what resulted in Seska getting killed while she was sitting at the conn at the time Paris initiated the overload. After retaking the ship, Paris rescued the rest of the crew from the planet. (VOY: "Investigations", "Basics, Part II")
[edit] The Third Year
In 2373, Paris and Harry Kim were accused of terrorist actives they did not commit and held in an Akritirian maximum security detention facility more than 300 meters underground with fifty other prisoners. There, they were controlled by a neural implant called a clamp, which induced paranoia and violence. Even though Captain Janeway was able to prove their innocence, the authorities refused to release them. Paris saved Kim's life, and later Kim nursed Paris back to health after he was stabbed by another inmate. The two men suffered horribly in the prison, however, and the stress of prison and the neural implants did take its toll on both of them: when Paris, suffering from delirium, dismantled a tool Kim was going to use for an escape attempt, Kim, enraged at what he did, almost killed him. Eventually Voyager was able to rescue them. This incidence marked an important step in Tom's and Harry's friendship, as Tom realized the kind of friend he had found in Harry who not only saved his life, but also stood by him at his worst. (VOY: "The Chute")
Tom also traveled back in time, to 20th century Los Angeles on Earth - along with Tuvok, Chakotay, and Janeway - to stop Henry Starling from stealing a time ship. Tuvok and Tom were sent to find Rain Robinson, a young astronomer in Starling's employ who detected Voyager's arrival, find out whatever information she had gathered and destroy it. Spending a great deal of time together and sharing similar interests, Tom and Rain developed feelings for each other, but were forced to part ways when Voyager's mission was over and Tom had to return back to the 24th century. (VOY: "Future's End", "Future's End, Part II")
That same year also marked the first time Tom and B'Elanna's romantic interest and attraction for one another became apparent. When B'Elanna began experiencing symptoms similar to the pon farr, after being attacked by Ensign Vorik who was also undergoing the blood fever, she quite aggressively pursued Paris and displayed feelings of passion toward him, to the point of wanting to mate him. But Paris refused to initiate anything with her while her judgment was impaired and she found herself in that delirious state. This angered B'Elanna who had sensed all along how much Tom wanted her - pointing out his advances, the longing looks and his jealousy everytime she was with someone else. Even though it was difficult, Paris continued to resist her. After she overcame her blood fever, however, B'Elanna returned to her reserved self again. Paris admitted that even though she was scared to show her Klingon side, he did like it and hoped to see more of it in the future. (VOY: "Blood Fever")
Later that year, Paris, along with Tuvok, was trapped in and almost killed during a holoprogram that was sabotaged by Seska. Its safety protocols were off-line and the program about a Maquis take-over of the ship was in progress, with a holographic version of Seska that had been programmed to target anyone who opened the program's narrative parameters file. Despite the odds, Tuvok and Paris were able to stay one step ahead of Seska's programming until Janeway could write an ending to the novel, culminating in the Seska hologram being 'killed' when a phaser rifle malfunctioned. (VOY: "Worst Case Scenario")
[edit] The Fourth Year
The year 2374 was a rather eventful one for Tom Paris, mainly because he and B'Elanna grew closer, finally began admitting their feelings for each other and decided to take their relationship to the next level. However, they had a rather rocky start, especially because B'Elanna kept pushing him away with her defensive and caustic attitude. On the Klingon Day of Honor she behaved particularly intolerable towards Tom who was trying to encourage her to embrace her Klingon side instead of running from it. When she demanded that he leave her alone and angrily snapped, Tom told her point blank that if she kept pushing away those who cared about her, she would indeed end up alone. This struck a chord with B'Elanna who had been angry for such a long time. They finally admitted their feelings for each other when they were near death as they were floating in space in their EV suits after an away mission gone wrong. Right before Voyager found them and much to Paris' surprise, B'Elanna even admitted that she was in love with Tom (VOY: "Day of Honor")
They kept their relationship under covers for a while, however, unsure as to how serious the other was about it and how to go about revealing it to their fellow crew mates. As a result of the secrecy they were trying to maintain and which made them sneak around a few times, they were occasionally caught in rather compromising situations such as when Tuvok walked in on them in engineering. On one occasion, they even had to be set straight by Captain Janeway who demanded they exercise better judgment if they wanted to pursue a relationship. (VOY: "Revulsion", " Scientific Method")
During the year of confrontation with the Krenim timeship, Paris was captured and taken aboard the ship with Chakotay. He tried to sabotage the ship in order to restore the timeline, objecting to Chakotay's plan to convince the Krenim to stop on the grounds that the Krenim commander had gone mad. He secretly transmitted the location of the Krenmin ship to Janeway who was able to crash Voyager into the ship, destabilizing its temporal core and causing it to erase itself, restoring the timeline. (VOY: "Year of Hell", "Year of Hell, Part II")
Even though Paris had managed to build a new life for himself on Voyager and leave behind his troubled past by proving himself, it still haunted him occasionally. When Voyager received a message from Starfleet containing personal letters from the crews' family and friends, Tom once again was haunted by that life in the Alpha Quadrant that he was desperately trying to escape. While everyone was thrilled about the letters from home, Paris masked his pain behind jokes and cynical remarks, stating to Harry Kim that he should not keep his hopes up because no hopes meant no disappointments. When he eventually did end up receiving a letter from his father, Paris was less than enthused. He confided to B'Elanna that the more everybody was excited about the letters from home, the more he wanted no part of it, emphasizing that what he had on Voyager was better than anything he ever had back home. In the end, however, he reluctantly admitted that maybe he really still cared what his father thought about him. Even though the letter was lost in the data stream, he decided to believe that it maybe contained the kind of reassurance he sought from his father. (VOY: "Hunters")
His memory, along with that of the entire Voyager crew, was removed by the Hirogen and he was placed in a simulation where he played the role of an army officer during World War II in France. In that simulation, which the Hirogen used to hunt for "prey", he and Torres' character had a romantic relationship before the war. (VOY: "The Killing Game", "The Killing Game, Part II")
Later that year, Tom began feeling a bit restless and somewhat trapped in his routine, when he met an alien named Steth whose adventurous and unbound lifestyle appeared rather attractive to him. They became friends and Steth, a shapeshifter with the ability to transform himself into any humanoid form, switched bodies with Paris and posed as the real Tom on board Voyager, behaving strangely, threatening crew members and even attempting to strangle Captain Janeway who had confronted him about his untypical behavior. However, Tom was able to regain his body with the help of another humanoid who also had its body stolen by Steth. (VOY: "Vis à Vis")
While exploring a toxic, Demon class planet, Paris and Kim came into contact with the planet's atmosphere and were bioformed. The planet's metallic fluid, the silver blood, created duplicates of Tom and Harry because it wanted to have consciousness and be sentient. That silver blood finally released Voyager after the crew agreed to be duplicated to populate the planet. (VOY: "Demon")
[edit] The Fifth Year
In 2375 Paris had to heavily lobby for and finally did build the Delta Flyer, a shuttle of his own design intended for use in the increasingly-hostile Delta Quadrant. Captain Janeway authorized construction in order to retrieve a multispatial probe that was lost in the atmosphere of a gas giant and in danger of being stolen by the Malon. The Malon began work on a shuttlecraft also, and finished theirs before the Flyer was complete. When the Malon sent out their shuttle, the Flyer was deployed early, despite a flaw with the vessel's structural integrity. The Flyer was successful in retrieving the probe, but a hull breach started to occur. B'Elanna Torres designed a makeshift device that deployed a temporary force field, successfully containing the breach. (VOY: "Extreme Risk")
He explained that he found a 0.42 phase variance, a major design flaw, in Voyager's new quantum slipstream drive's system while running tests at a console. His opinion was that it was an Edsel. This warning was instrumental in staving off a catastrophe. (VOY: "Timeless")
Paris was demoted to ensign and sentenced to thirty days in the brig, for disobeying orders when he had attempted to interfere in a society that was threatened with the loss of the containment of their ocean. While in the brig, he began to dictate a letter to his father and took great pains to describe the circumstances that led him to the brig in detail, so that this time his father would know that unlike the last, his incarceration was not for disgraceful reasons, but for noble ones. (VOY: "Thirty Days")
In the same year, as he was enjoying a chapter of one of his favorite holodeck programs The Adventures of Captain Proton, Photonic life-forms on an exploratory mission from the fifth dimension became entangled in a war with the characters from that program, mistaking Voyager's holodeck and the program it was running for reality. Paris, with the help of the crew, was eventually able to convince the photonic aliens to leave the ship, but this also meant the end of his Captain Proton program. (VOY: "Bride of Chaotica!")
Later that year, he became trapped on a planet with Tuvok and The Doctor, and was taught survival techniques by Noss, an alien female who had fallen in love with Tuvok. Tom advised Tuvok to let Noss in and try a relationship with her, since it was unlikely he would ever see his wife again. He later apologized for his bluntness but asked that Tuvok at least let her down easy, if he could not return her love. (VOY: "Gravity")
When the crew was being deceived by false telemetry emitted by what looked like a wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant, Tom believed to have received a letter from an old friend who had offered him a spot at the new test flight center with a chance to pilot the newest experimental ships in Australia. The "wormhole" turned out to be a creature luring everyone into its bowels by promising them to turn into reality everything they ever dreamed of. (VOY: "Bliss")
A duplicate Tom Paris - created from the time Voyager landed on the demon type planet filled with the silver blood that sought consciousness and asked to duplicate the entire Voyager crew - married a duplicate B'Elanna Torres. The ceremony was held in the mess hall and celebrated by the entire duplicate crew. Shortly after, however, the deterioration of the crew began, resulting in the duplicate B'Elanna Torres dying - followed by other crew memmbers, including the duplicate Tom Paris (VOY: "Course: Oblivion")
When Voyager encountered another Federation starship stranded in the Delta Quadrant, B'Elanna ran into an old boyfriend Maxwell Burke; an encounter which left Tom nervous and evoked certain feelings of jealousy in him, prompting him to ask questions and inquire about the nature and depth of their relationship. (VOY: "Equinox")
[edit] 2376
2376 brought many adventures and dangers. Paris salvaged an alien ship that had a neural interface that almost led to his death, and he fought against the Vaadwaur. (VOY: "Alice", "Dragon's Teeth")
After returning from an away mission, he began to have dreams that he had participated in a massacre. These were memories produced by a synaptic transmitter on a planet they had landed on. It was put there to keep alive the memorials of the people who were killed. (VOY: "Memorial")
He accompanied Chakotay and Seven of Nine in the investigation of a subspace energy cloud. They discovered the Ares IV, an old Earth ship sent to Mars in the early 21st century, which had been trapped inside the cloud in 2032. They, too, were trapped, but managed to escape by using parts from the old ship to fix the Delta Flyer. (VOY: "One Small Step")
[edit] The return
During the last year of Voyager's journey, he was reinstated to the rank of Lieutenant junior grade prior to helping the Borg drones of Unimatrix Zero escape from the hive. (VOY: "Unimatrix Zero") Seven suggested Tom could help Icheb study astrometrics for the Starfleet Academy entrance exam, when she believed she would no longer be around. (VOY: "Imperfection") He married Torres during the first running of the Antarian Trans-stellar Rally, proposing as the shuttle came close to suffering a warp core breach. Its destruction was averted after the warp core was ejected into a class J nebula, containing the antimatter explosion. The two of them used the Delta Flyer for their honeymoon. (VOY: "Drive")
One of Paris' more important personal struggles here was when he helped Torres accept her Klingon heritage and allowed their baby to be born with Klingon characteristics. Ever since her father left following an argument, Torres had been convinced that she was responsible for him leaving due to her and her mother being too Klingon for him to cope with, and she feared it would happen again. Paris convinced Torres that he would love all their children no matter how Klingon they were, and she agreed to leave her daughter as she was. Trained by Kohlar to use the bat'leth, he also fought for her honor when a group of Klingons believed she was carrying the savior of the Klingon race. (VOY: "Lineage", "Prophecy")
Paris and most of the crew of Voyager were kidnapped by a race called the Quarren. They were brainwashed and drugged so they could be used in the labor force of the planet. He was looking for a job after being fired from the local power plant by a new efficiency monitor, named Annika Hansen. Paris got himself hired in a local tavern to wait and bus tables. He was rescued through the efforts of Chakotay. (VOY: "Workforce")
While piloting the Delta Flyer through Ledosian space, Paris was charged with reckless piloting, and was required to attend a piloting class. He failed the course when he rescued an away team from the planet and disabled a deflector shield. (VOY: "Natural Law")
While on the ship's first Starfleet-assigned mission for seven years, he was captured by a race that had been contaminated by an old Earth probe. He was rescued – and, indeed, helped make peace with the population by having an infant suffering from radiation sickness receive treatment – but his crewmate, Joe Carey, was killed. (VOY: "Friendship One")
During the last battle with the Borg, which enabled Voyager to return home, his first child was born, a daughter named Miral. Although he was unable to be present at the birth, as he was needed at Voyager's helm, he was contacted by The Doctor as soon as the birth was over and Voyager was back at Earth, the Doctor informing him that "There's someone down here who would like to say 'Hello'." (VOY: "Endgame")
[edit] Alternate realities and timelines
- In an alternate timeline, for his first official away mission, Tom Paris joined Kathryn Janeway, B'Elanna Torres, and Tuvok on a planet devastated by the detonation of a polaric ion device. Due to a subspace fracture, he and Janeway were pulled back in time prior to the detonation. They were taken hostage by protesters demonstrating against the use of polaric energy. When being escorted to a polaric power plant, along with a boy named Latika, Janeway told a guard that she and Paris were hostages. One of the protesters went to shoot at Latika, but Paris took the bullet. (VOY: "Time and Again")
- When Kim mistakenly entered an alternate reality in which he was never assigned to Voyager, Paris helped him return to his own reality. In that timeline, when he arrived at Deep Space 9, Paris got into a bar fight with Quark and was sent to the brig by Constable Odo, forcing Voyager to leave without him. Having served his sentence at a penal colony, Paris moved to Marseilles where he spent his time at Sandrine's drinking and hustling pool. He did not know Kim, but nevertheless helped him return to his own timeline at the cost of his life, as the runabout they were on was destroyed while they attempted to duplicate the accident that sent Kim to this reality. (VOY: "Non Sequitur")
.jpg)
- In another alternate timeline made null by Kes traveling back through time, Paris married and had a child with Kes, named Linnis Paris, following Torres' death during the "Year of Hell" conflict. Linnis went on to marry Harry Kim, and the two of them had a son called Andrew. This was during the timeline that Kes was experiencing time jumps that were taking her back in time, caused by her contamination from the Krenim's temporal weapons, and was subsequently erased when the Doctor cured Kes of the contamination. Any feelings Kes had for Paris as a result of the experience were never explored before her departure. (VOY: "Before and After")
- In the alternate timeline in which Voyager crashed on an L-Class world in the Alpha Quadrant after an accident with an experimental quantum slipstream drive, Paris died upon impact, along with the rest of the crew, save Harry Kim and Chakotay, who were aboard the Delta Flyer, and the Doctor, who was merely deactivated. (VOY: "Timeless")
- In an alternate timeline in which it took Voyager sixteen more years to return to Earth, Paris retired from Starfleet and became a holonovelist. He and The Doctor retained their typical bantering relationship, with Paris teasing The Doctor about the fact that it took him thirty-three years to choose the name 'Joe'. (VOY: "Endgame")
[edit] Hobbies
Tom Paris had a variety of interests, but many of them focused on 20th century North American culture, specifically the latter half of the century – old sci-fi movies, pulp sci-fi, "muscle cars" and automobiles in general, and similar pursuits. He created his own holoprogram called Grease Monkey in which he could tinker with old cars. (VOY: "Vis à Vis") He liked 20th century snacks (in that period better known as "junk food") such as hot dogs, popcorn, and pizza. He was interested in 19th century sailing vessels and seemed to have some interest in Irish culture, as was evidenced by his creation of the Fair Haven holoprogram. He also possessed considerable knowledge of the early Mars projects from the first missions of the 1970s to the first colony. (VOY: "11:59")
He was fond of playing practical jokes, particularly on Tuvok. For example, he reprogrammed a holographic Vulcan monastery that Tuvok used in a variety of ways (including dressing one of the central figures in sleepwear, and changing the chants to Ferengi chants about profit). In the holographic village of Fair Haven, when the character Maggie was about to kiss Harry, Tom turned Maggie into a Holstein-Friesian cow. He also reprogrammed all the systems Tuvok interacted with to say "live long and prosper" whenever he used them.
[edit] Holoprograms
One of his holo-programs, Captain Proton, was mistakenly taken for real by aliens who thought that they were going to be attacked by Dr. Chaotica. Janeway assumed the character of Queen Arachnia and defeated Chaotica. (VOY: "Bride of Chaotica!")
Later while using the program Fair Haven, Paris would play a joke on Kim and turn his holodate, Maggie, into a cow. When some of the villagers saw this, they believed that Kim and Paris were evil spirits. They captured them and tried to drive the spirits from them. Due to damage to the holodeck the characters had become self-aware. After Janeway explained the situation to Michael Sullivan, he calmed down the villagers and the pair was released. (VOY: "Fair Haven", "Spirit Folk")
[edit] Personal relationships
[edit] B'Elanna Torres
B'Elanna Torres was Voyager 's Chief Engineer and eventually would become Tom's wife. Half Human and half Klingon, B'Elanna had a fiery disposition that was tempered by a vulnerable side that was very endearing.
Their first real flirtation occurred in 2373 during an away mission on a shuttlecraft when Tom asked B’Elanna if she had a hot date back on Voyager. When she denied any interest in the attentions of Crewman Freddy Bristow, Tom suggested that she might join him on the holodeck sometime. B’Elanna, aware of Tom’s reputation as a ladies’ man, turned him down flat. (VOY: "The Swarm")
The relationship heated up later that year when Ensign Vorik, struck with the pon farr, asked Torres to become his mate. She also turned him down, but in his passion, Vorik took her face in his hands and unintentionally initiated a telepathic mating bond. Driven to distraction with this blood fever, Torres became trapped with Paris in a cave on a planet. Although she begged for him to mate with her, Paris refused because he realized that she was not in control of her actions. Both of them admitted that they had been nurturing feelings for each other, but Paris was adamant that he would not misuse the situation. When Tuvok finally rescued them, he told Tom that unless he mated with Torres, she would die from the pon farr-like symptoms. He was ready to accede to B’Elanna’s wishes when Vorik interrupted them to claim her for himself. Ultimately, Torres and Vorik fought to end the pon farr. Later, in a turbolift, Torres told Paris that they should forget the whole thing, but he insisted that even though he had seen her "big scary Klingon side", he was still interested. Her last words as she departed the turbolift were "Careful what you wish for, Lieutenant." (VOY: "Blood Fever")
Although occurring in an alternate future, Paris and Torres again appeared as a couple when Kes began to live her life backwards, although Torres died in an attack shortly after Kes's appearance in that timeline. However, when she finally stabilized in 2373, it was obvious that Paris and Torres were still just friends. (VOY: "Before and After")
Paris and Torres grew to become close friends and Paris even began to work Klingon martial arts programs with her on the holodeck, even though Torres was not impressed by the scenarios. When the entire crew lost Voyager to a race known as the Nyrians, they became stranded on a spacecraft with prison cells simulated to be environments suitable for the prisoners. In an attempt to escape, Paris and Torres became trapped in an "ice age" scenario and were forced to embrace each other to stimulate warmth. (VOY: "Displaced")
It became obvious that they were growing closer when they shared an illicit holoprogram that Torres found depicting a Maquis mutiny on Voyager. (VOY: "Worst Case Scenario")
Torres finally acknowledged their mutual attraction when they were stranded together after the Caatati blew up their shuttle (VOY: "Day of Honor"), and a few days later they began a romantic relationship. (VOY: "Revulsion")
Later, Paris made up excuses to end his duty shift sooner to be with Torres. He even used the transporter to get to her without being seen by other crew members. Eventually, they were caught by Tuvok when they met on the upper deck of main engineering. After that, Paris and Torres were worried that their relationship would be known among the entire Voyager crew. They even tried to prevent this by not entering the briefing room at the same time. Although at this time their relationship was passionate they were not sure if their relationship would have a future. Tuvok never mentioned that he caught both of them to Captain Kathryn Janeway, but she found out and reprimanded them. It seemed she had heard about their relationship via other ways.
When the involvement of the Srivani became clear it was thought that their feelings for each other might have been caused by their experiments but they were not sure about this. Even if this was the case Paris and Torres were willing to find out on their own. (VOY: "Scientific Method")
Tom's relationship with B'Elanna would eventually lead to a marriage (VOY: "Drive") and in 2378 their daughter Miral Paris was born. (VOY: "Endgame")
[edit] Harry Kim
During their time on Voyager, Harry Kim became Paris' best friend.
Paris first met Kim, a then-naive ensign straight out of Starfleet Academy, on board Deep Space 9, where a Ferengi bartender named Quark wanted to sell Kim some Lobi crystals. When he overheard their conversation, Paris made a remark about the crystals – he had seen a dozen crystals in a shop at the Volnar colony for only one Cardassian lek. With this remark, he sunk the deal the Ferengi wanted to make and prevented Kim from paying too much for the crystals. Paris took Kim with him after he told him "Didn't they warn you about the Ferengi at the Academy?"
When Paris reported on board Voyager, Kim noticed the strange behavior between Paris and the Chief Medical Officer. When he asked about this, Paris told him it was too long of a story and he was tired of telling it. Someone would tell Kim sooner or later. Kim later found out what it was: an accident as a result of a pilot error which Paris tried to hide by falsifying reports, which Paris eventually admitted was his fault. When Paris advised Kim he should stay away from him, Kim told Paris he could choose his own friends. (VOY: "Caretaker")
Over time, their friendship grew. Among other things, they had double dates with the Delaney sisters and spent leisure time with Paris' holoprogram, The Adventures of Captain Proton. Paris also gave Kim relationship advice when his friend needed it, although he never tired of reminding Kim about his bad track record; a hologram, an ex-Borg, an alien (breaking laws of protocol, especially since it was secret), and a resurrected member of the crew (the 'Dearly Departed', as Paris described it). (VOY: "Time and Again", "Prime Factors", "Alter Ego", "The Disease", "Ashes to Ashes")
[edit] The Doctor
Although their relationship was often a difficult one, Paris also managed to become close friends with The Doctor, helping him explore one of the most difficult aspects of being a member of the crew: relationships. When The Doctor was initially rejected by Denara Pel, a Vidiian who The Doctor had developed feelings for, he went to Paris for relationship advice, and Paris helped set The Doctor and Pel up on a date in a holoprogram. (VOY: "Lifesigns") When The Doctor created a holographic family and one of his 'children' faced death, it was Paris who convinced The Doctor to keep running the program, realizing that The Doctor needed to experience the negative aspects of family life if he wanted to develop as a person. (VOY: "Real Life")
Paris was chosen as The Doctor's medical assistant soon after the Voyager was thrown into the Delta Quadrant. Citing his limited academic backgound in biochemistry, Janeway ordered him to begin training as a field medic. (VOY: "Parallax"). He remained the sole known flesh-and-blood medical assistant until The Doctor recruited Kes. (VOY: "Phage"). While he presumably continued some level of medical training with the Doctor, Kes thereafter became the Doctor's primary assistant. Upon her departure, Paris increased his duty shifts in sickbay once again. Although he was initially reluctant, he proved to be highly capable at the job. Over time, it became clear that, although he complained about the role, preferring to pilot the ship, he still wanted The Doctor's respect. This was the main reason Paris resented the Doctor's holonovel about abused holograms, Photons Be Free; he worried that 'his' character, a womanizer called Lieutenant Marseilles, reflected how The Doctor saw him. Despite this, when the crew arranged a trial to determine The Doctor's legal rights, it was Paris who objected to them taking the easy way out by claiming that The Doctor had no right to sell the holonovel in the first place, as they would basically have been admitting that The Doctor was not a real person. (VOY: "Author, Author")
[edit] Kes
As Kes' role on the crew developed, Paris began to develop feelings for her; in an alternate future, he admitted that he'd had a crush on her from the moment she joined the crew. At her second birthday party, he sacrificed two weeks' worth of replicator rations to give her a beautiful locket as a present. (VOY: "Twisted")
His feelings for her grew when he became her flight instructor, prompting a brief conflict between him and Neelix, but the two of them resolved their differences after saving an alien infant together. (VOY: "Parturition") The two were also closely involved in helping The Doctor cope with relationships; Paris and Kes helped The Doctor arrange a date with Denara Pel, a Vidiian The Doctor had developed feelings for. When Paris left the ship as part of a ploy to expose a Kazon spy, Kes was one of the three people who came to say goodbye to him directly, the other two being Neelix and Harry Kim. (VOY: "Investigations")
In an alternate future, Kes and Paris married during the "Year of Hell" conflict, following the death of B'Elanna Torres; the two went on to have a daughter, Linnis Paris, who married Harry Kim and had a son called Andrew Kim. This timeline was erased when exposure to temporal radiation sent Kes traveling back in time from the moment of her death, and any feelings she may have developed for Paris in the course of her jumps were never fully explored before she finally departed the ship. (VOY: "Before and After")
[edit] Appendices
[edit] Background
Tom Paris was played by Robert Duncan McNeill throughout the entire run of Star Trek: Voyager.
From the Voyager pilot "Caretaker" on, Paris and Harry Kim were the best of friends. This was somewhat similar to the chemistry that existed between best friends Julian Bashir and Miles O'Brien on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The relationship between Tom Paris and Harry Kim probably was also partly inspired by the relationship between Nicholas Locarno and Wesley Crusher, with Tom standing in for Nicholas (wisecracking pilot) and Harry standing in for Wesley (skilled engineer). This type of relationship can also be seen with Leonard McCoy and Spock in The Original Series, Geordi La Forge and Data in The Next Generation and Charles "Trip" Tucker III and Malcolm Reed in Enterprise.
Paris was largely based on the character of Nicholas Locarno from The Next Generation episode "The First Duty", who was also played by Robert Duncan McNeill. When the writers were trying to cast for the part, they couldn't find anyone that seemed to match McNeill's persona, so they eventually just asked him to read for the role, and he got the part. Reasons for not simply bringing back the Locarno character have varied. It may have been because they would have had to pay royalties to the writers of "The First Duty" every episode, though in interviews, the producers of Voyager have said they felt Locarno's actions in that episode made him irredeemable (TNG Season 5 DVD bonus materials). Later, a photo of McNeill as Locarno was used as a photo of young Tom Paris on Admiral Owen Paris's desk in the episode VOY: "Pathfinder".
Paris's middle name "Eugene" perhaps is a tribute to Eugene Wesley Roddenberry, much like the name of "Wesley" in Wesley Crusher's name, making Paris as one more Star Trek TV series main character that shared similar names with Gene Roddenberry.
When Paris was promoted to lieutenant at the end of VOY: "Caretaker", he was given the rank pips of a full lieutenant and wore them for several episodes. However, as of VOY: "Faces", this costume gaffe was corrected to reflect Paris' actual rank of lieutenant junior grade.
In the It's A Wrap! sale and auction, two uniforms used by Robert McNeill in his portrayal of Tom Paris that were up for auction contained pectorals to show increased musculature. The usage of this is unknown, although a racquetball uniform used by Alexander Siddig as Julian Bashir had muscle padding as well.
[edit] Apocrypha
In the Voyager relaunch book series, Paris moved to Boreth with his wife and daughter. He later re-joined the crew of the USS Voyager and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. He served as Voyager's first officer, under the command of Captain Chakotay, after the original first officer was revealed to be a renegade Changeling.
In the alternate future of the Deep Space Nine Millennium book trilogy, Paris and the rest of the Voyager crew returned to the Alpha Quadrant at an unspecified time. He also was married to B'Elanna Torres. He and his wife were later assigned to the USS Enterprise-F under Captain William T. Riker. Paris, along with the Enterprise and her crew (Including Deanna Troi and Geordi La Forge), were killed during the destruction of Earth.
In the Star Trek: Stargazer series of novels written by Michael Jan Friedman, there is an officer on the USS Stargazer under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard named Cole Paris. He eventually began a 'relationship' with a fellow crewmember, a non-corporeal entity, after an encounter in her quarters in her gaseous state left him with an incredible feeling; he acknowledged from the beginning that it wouldn't be easy, but he wanted to try and make it work. Cole was Owen's brother, and, hence, Tom's uncle.
An earlier Paris ancestor, Iron Mike Paris, appeared in the Star Trek: The Lost Era novel Serpents Among the Ruins by David R. George III. According to this book, Mike was the father of Owen and Cole.
[edit] External links
- Tom Paris at StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek website
- Tom Paris at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Tom Paris at Wikipedia
