By S. Wong on Monday, January 18, 1999 - 11:00 pm:
Hmm, just noticed that Robert Duncan McNeill was the Cadet Nicholas Locarno in ST:TNG episode: "The First Duty." How'd he get back into Starfleet? ;-) Changed his name? Just kidding around.
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By Anonymous on Wednesday, January 20, 1999 - 10:56 pm:
Tom Paris was specifically based on Nick Locarno -- with the difference that Locarno was considered un-redeemable, but Tom could be -- and was -- "salvaged". (Which is why "30 Days" refutes one of the basic premises of the series.)
And after TPTB spent time looking for a "Robert Duncan McNeill-type" to play the new and improved Locarno, they finally wised up and used the Real Thing.
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By Dwmarch on Wednesday, January 27, 1999 - 8:46 pm:
See my message in the Tom Paris area for my theory on the Paris-Locarno connection.
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By Brian Lombard on Wednesday, January 27, 1999 - 11:50 am:
According to the Voyager Profile Trading Cards,
Tom's middle name "Eugene" is an homage to Gene
Roddenberry.
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By Dwmarch on Wednesday, January 27, 1999 - 11:54 am:
It says that in the Encyclopedia too. I believe it.
Wouldn't it be nice to find out that Tom Paris is related to Nick Locarno? Obviously they can't be brothers but maybe cousins? Wouldn't it be nice to see a throwaway line about how trouble runs in the Paris family? "I had this cousin that was in Starfleet Academy and he pulled a really stupid stunt and got expelled for it..." or something. That would be a nice touch.
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By Catherine on Friday, January 29, 1999 - 5:55 pm:
I agree. Actually, I read in the making of Voyager book that the creators were thinking about naming that character Nick Locarno.
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By Sharon Jordan on Saturday, February 13, 1999 - 8:49 am:
Is it me, or does Robert kind of look like Mike Nelson from MST3k?
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By Richie Vest on Saturday, February 13, 1999 - 10:02 am:
hey Sharon I think you are right
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By cableface on Tuesday, April 06, 1999 - 3:58 pm:
Well, as someone pointed out in the Caretaker board, Locarno at first seemed okay but he was really a right p***k.Paris, on the other hand, at first seemed to be a p***k but is really a nice guy.And Paris is a way better name than Locarno.
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By Jinx on Friday, May 14, 1999 - 12:56 pm:
Is anyone else bothered by the way their rewriting Tom's backstory? The more "perfect" they make him, the less I like him.
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By Johanna on Sunday, July 04, 1999 - 11:17 am:
I like it when it Tom plays Captain Proton - he
is at his best when mocking his own shallow
character!!
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By Alfonso Turnage on Tuesday, July 06, 1999 - 6:14 pm:
Thomas Paris is Nick Locarno. They wanted Nick Locarno to be a part of Voyager, but since a non-staff writer wrote that episode and invented that character they would have had to pay him/her royalties or something. So then came Tom Paris.
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By Christopher Q on Thursday, July 08, 1999 - 7:45 pm:
How does Tom know so much about the 20th Century if our records get lost & destroyed?
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By Matthew Patterson (Mpatterson) on Thursday, July 08, 1999 - 8:38 pm:
I think there must be a class taught at the Academy. All of them seem to know too much about our century.
And if just one copy of Encarta on CD survived, they'd know probably more than they wanted. (The world according to Microsoft. There's a scary thought.)
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By Alfonso Turnage on Sunday, July 11, 1999 - 8:23 pm:
Christopher Q, remember(as another nitcentral
discusser brought up) that there was WWIII and possibly another Eugenics War before Earth/Vulcan first contact in 2063. There was also time for Cochrane to build the Phoenix and have the scattered governments negiotiate a ceasefire beforehand. The 20th century is probably thought of as the last modern time period before first contact and the beginning of the building of the UFP. It, or whatever they can dig up on it, probably has significance because of that fact.
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By Christopher Q on Thursday, July 15, 1999 - 4:56 am:
It's just that other characters have commented on the lack of information that survived about the 20th Century. I've gotten that impression from "Space Seed", "Future's End", and "11:59" to name a few. It would make since that the loss of info was the result of Eugenics and WW III. But the question remains...
If the info was lost, where does Tom get his facts?
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By Anonymous on Tuesday, July 20, 1999 - 9:03 am:
Maybe by 24th century standards a lot of information was lost. To them where it is possible to check shipping records and transportation records ect. from any place in Federation space not having precise information makes it seem that there is a lack of information.
They would probably know more about us than we would about people four hundred years in the past but still a lot of information would be lost.
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By ScottN on Tuesday, July 20, 1999 - 11:39 am:
I saw a show on PBS recently about digital photography, and they made a point that is relevant to the discussion of 20th century records...
Somebody held up a 5.25" 360K floppy (I know, the younger crowd is saying "What's that?") disk and pointed out that it was only 10 years old, and already it was difficult to find something that could read it. Given the rapid change of pace in digital storage, and how rapidly it becomes obsolete, will many of our digital records be readable, even if they survive?
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By Matthew Patterson (Mpatterson) on Tuesday, July 20, 1999 - 12:01 pm:
Probably not. That's why books are the only way to go. Assuming they still speak English in the future.
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By Thomas Eugene Paris on Tuesday, November 02, 1999 - 5:58 pm:
Mes cheres amis,
bonjour et bienvenue! Je m'appelle Thomas et vous me faites l'honneur en produisant cet discution!
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By Chris Thomas on Wednesday, November 03, 1999 - 1:04 am:
I've never understood why they keep Tom as the medical assistant when he has a major role as the helmsman on the bridge - surely there are other crew members who have similar training and/or could gain more training, like Kes did?
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By Thomas Eugene Paris on Saturday, November 06, 1999 - 4:34 pm:
Parce-que cela me payerait mieux!
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By The Congratulator on Tuesday, November 09, 1999 - 3:05 pm:
Happy Birthday!
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By Mandy on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 6:41 pm:
Given how many times they've almost lost the Doctor and how much Tom hates sickbay (or is in the brig or piloting the ship or otherwise occupied), you'd think they'd be training a whole slew of people to take his place!
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By Plantman on Thursday, August 24, 2000 - 2:06 pm:
Shouldn't some of the science officers have some experience in the medical field. Wouldn't they be a better choice than that idiot Paris.
DOC: "I have absolutely no one to assist me..."
KES: "I thought Lieutenant Paris was assigned to sickbay?"
DOC: "As I said, no one to assist me."
--Phage
Paris is such an idiot!
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By Adam Bomb on Friday, August 25, 2000 - 5:48 pm:
Go to section 31.com for onfo re:Tom Paris.
By Josh G. on Sunday, April 22, 2001 - 7:35 pm:
From trektoday.com...
"I really like 'Threshold', the Warp Ten episode where I turn into a lizard," McNeill told Gregory L. Norris and Laura A. Van Vleet at the Trek Galaxy. "Most of the fans hated it. I don't care. I really liked it."
"Yeah, I got to play the Elephant man, or Frankenstein in that one," he went on. "I just saw a picture the other day that showed the moment when my tongue falls out. It was just so much fun to play this disgusting, wonderful transformation. Because I don't work with prosthetics all the time, it was really very transforming for me as an actor as well. The whole thing, to have the prosthetics to work behind and to try to fight through, it allowed me a lot of freedom to do things Tom Paris usually couldn't do under normal circumstances. I like that episode."
http://www.trektoday.com/news/220401_05.shtml
***
Well, I did like McNeill's performance in "Threshold," the rest of the episode however...
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By BF on Friday, May 25, 2001 - 10:37 am:
He's taken his first post-Voyager role. Its in a horror film called "Infested".
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By William H. Berry on Saturday, June 09, 2001 - 5:16 pm:
I agree, somewhat, with Jinx. I didn't like the "wussification" of Tom Paris as the show went on, but it makes sense. He's a married man with a kid on the way. He has to grow up (and outrank his wife). Besides Klingon woman really can hen-peck you .
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By LUIGI NOVI on Saturday, June 09, 2001 - 9:04 pm:
In what way did they rewrite his backstory?
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By William H. Berry on Sunday, August 05, 2001 - 7:01 pm:
Tom Paris was supposed to be an independent minded trouble maker out chasing aliens in skirts with a devil-may-care attitude who gets along with nobody (except Harry Kim). When chastised for not following a direct order (the water planet episode) that Tom Paris would have replied something like, "Jawohol!! Isch Nuremberg nienen holden?"
By the end he was "wussified" (or his character grew) to actually be likable, sort of. Even Chakotay, who was personally betrayed by him leading Voyager through the bad lands, doesn't hate him.
Maybe the character grew, but I had a soft spot for the self-centered, shallow but talented @#$!%faced#@$%!.
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By Adam Bomb on Friday, August 24, 2001 - 7:42 am:
Perhaps he was "softened" by his love for another p.o.'ed former troublemaker, B'Elanna Torres. Maybe mutual love softened them both.
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By Adam Bomb on Friday, August 24, 2001 - 9:09 am:
Tom Paris' attitude stems from the fact that he is a GM guy, as he was shown working on a Camaro. Get with it, Tom. MUSTANG RULES.
GM reportedly will cease production of the Camaro and Firebird next year. The 2002 model year will be the last for these venerated muscle car nameplates. Ford, however, will keep producing the Mustang, and is planning a makeover in the next couple of years.
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By William Berry on Sunday, August 26, 2001 - 8:44 am:
Adam Bomb - you're right. I don't think you need my verification but I was a @#$#%^^&&* before wife (now ex-wife) and kids made me grow up, somewhat. I can not speak for females (Hey, if I understood women I might not be divorced), but that would explain B'Elanna not breaking skulls in the final seasons.
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By William Berry on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 - 1:05 pm:
And Adam Bomb I also got to agree with you on the Mustang thing. I think the episode where Tom was in a holodeck simulation fixing a car was bogus. If holodeck programs have any reality than a car being fixed up should be a Ford. A FORD (Fix Or Repair Daily) is the more realistic choice, although it is hard to imagine B'Lanna mispronouncing "Mustang."
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By Ian Livingstone on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 12:07 am:
Well yeah having a ford up on jacks in a garage being repaired is about the only way I've seen em. I've got a chevy suburban with 500000miles on it and still going strong.
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By Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 9:35 am:
Without Ford, there would be no Chevys.
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By Adam Bomb on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 10:39 am:
I had heard that Henry Ford was indirectly involved with the founding of GM, Charles. I think that he had a motorcar company that he eventually sold out to William Durant, founder of Cadillac. He than started his second Ford Motor Co., which is still in business.
One Ford executive is the offspring of both the Ford and Firestone families, which makes all the current corporate sniping over culpability in the Explorer/Wilderness tires matter really bitter.
If Tom had been working on a Mustang, William, we never would have had B'Elanna's amusing mispronunciation of "Camaro". What if he had been working on a Barracuda or Javelin?
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By Ian Livingstone on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 10:30 pm:
True one must have something to compare and contrast perfection with. :-)
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By Lolar Windrunner on Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - 10:33 pm:
What's the big deal? A car is a car. I've never owned either a ford or a chevy but have driven them on rental and found them pretty much interchangeable. A car is a car. Except the Insight and the Prious. They are cool.
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By Anonymous on Thursday, August 30, 2001 - 1:52 pm:
Lolar, Mustang and Camaro guys will use anything to dis one another. PS don't mention Star Trek cuz we are talkin' 'bout cars.
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By Lolar Windrunner on Thursday, August 30, 2001 - 4:21 pm:
Ah that does explain it. As for cars, I'm currently driving an older Subaru Legacy. Not bad little car, good milage but I'll probably be trading up to a Prious. Or an Insight, one of the guys I work with got an Insight about a Month ago and has filled the tank only twice. This is after driving 60 miles a day 5 days a week. The only thing I have against the Insight is that it is an updated CRX and I now have a family. (Ah to have the days of youth again.) Sad to say most of the "foreign" cars are better than either the Mustang or Camaro at least in Body style. The Toyota Celica looks a lot sportier than the Mustang. The Focus and the Mustang look too close to me.
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By Anonymous on Friday, August 31, 2001 - 2:34 am:
A Mustang (or Camaro) can pass anything except a gas station. (Ok, that's true of any muscle car.)
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By Justin ODonnell on Wednesday, April 09, 2003 - 4:48 pm:
I had heard that the writer's considered using Nick Lacarno's character for Voyager, but ultimately decided against it. They felt that the spectre the incident he was involved in in "The First Duty" was always there, that there would be no way for the character to live it down. In short, they thought Paris was too much of a bad guy.
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By Trike on Thursday, April 10, 2003 - 12:00 am:
There also would have been an issue of royalties to the writer of "The First Duty" for the continued use of Lacarno, which would have been prohibitively expensive for Paramount. The same thing happened on Enterprise. The writers originally intended T'Pol to be a younger version of T'Pau, but would have owed royalties to the writer of "Amok Time" (or to his estate).
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By ScottN on Thursday, April 10, 2003 - 8:56 am:
That would be author Ted Sturgeon.
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By Anonymous on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 12:17 am:
Didn't he play someone in Masters of the Universe?
I guess his dad was right. He would do something special...
By Bab on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 9:05 pm:
I prefer the Camaro styling over Mustang, but the 69-70 Ford ponycar still a beauty!
Bill Mitchell, head stylist of GM, once described designing the Camaro's smooth lines by "blowing a bit of air into a hypothetical inflatable Mustang toy and watching its dimensions expand gracefully......."
(I'm a 68 -72 Vette guy myself!)
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By LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 1:09 am:
Justin O'Donnell: I had heard that the writer's considered using Nick Lacarno's character for Voyager, but ultimately decided against it. They felt that the spectre the incident he was involved in in "The First Duty" was always there, that there would be no way for the character to live it down. In short, they thought Paris was too much of a bad guy.
Luigi Novi: The real reason is that they'd have to pay the writer of The First Duty(TNG) royalties for using that character.
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By Blue Berry on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 3:07 am:
Funy thing is, you see the actor, are told he left Starfleet Academy under a cloud, and his father is an admiral. What does not scream "Lacarno".
Funny how you never see Paris and Lacarno to gether. (For those that don't get it, it is an old Superman (with George Reeves) joke about Superman and Clark Kent.)
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By Anonymous on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 9:47 pm:
What exactly is Tom Paris' background anyway? In fanfics, it's said that he caused a shuttle accident in which only he survived. IIRC, he detoured through a nebula or something and there was an accident that he lied about.
Is there somewhere with cannon info about what happened?
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By LUIGI NOVI on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 11:01 am:
Caretaker(VOY) established that he was involved in a shuttle accident that killed three other officers, but couldn't bear to admit to himself that it his own pilot error was the cause, so he falsified the reports to hide his culpability, but later admitted that he did so because hid conscience could not withstand it. The nature and location of the accident, however, was never established during the series, nor ever mentioned ever again after that episode, so there is no further material on it that is canonical.
Blue Berry: Funy thing is, you see the actor, are told he left Starfleet Academy under a cloud, and his father is an admiral. What does not scream "Lacarno".
Luigi Novi: Locarno was never stated to have an admiral father.
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By Darth Sarcasm on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 11:38 am:
Funny how you never see Paris and Lacarno to gether. (For those that don't get it, it is an old Superman (with George Reeves) joke about Superman and Clark Kent.) - Blue Berry
I've also never seen Will Riker, Ezri Dax, Ensign Suder, and Seven of Nine together. Could there be some significance to that?
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By LUIGI NOVI on Friday, June 04, 2004 - 10:49 pm:
Omigod, Darth. You're not saying what I think you're saying, are you?
WILL RIKER AND LON SUDER ARE INVOLVED IN A TORRID 4-WAY WITH EZRI AND SEVEN????!!!!
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By Anonymous on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 6:33 am:
^---- Sounds like fun.
Why did TPTB make Paris an expert on 20th century Earth culture? And why did they make him a bad joke-cracking womanizer? Was this only so that there would be a Trek character that *real-life* people could identify with more easily?
It seems that doing this was pretty unneccesary. After all, Riker was accused of being "Kirk Lite" in the way of him being popular with the females, and then they create Paris, which was basically, a copy of a copy. At least it seemed that way to me. He caused the death of three fellow officers and then tried to cover it up (gee, doesnt that sound familiar), was booted out of Starfleet, joined the Maquis, was captured after only three weeks and imprisoned, and all that leads to him being chosen by Janeway to be an "observer" on the mission to locate the Maquis ship which Tuvok had infiltrated. And then all that other stuff happened. Whoopty freakin' doo.
Anyway, I just have to say that I was never particularly impressed with his character. The way he always knew everything about things, as long as they originated from 20th century Earth, really started to annoy me after a while. Others may feel differently, but that's how I see it.
And as for what happened to him in That One VGR Episode That Must Not Be Named? Don't EVEN get me started.....