Hello and welcome to the Personnel File, the series where we look into the career and personality
of some of Star Trek’s Iconic characters and this time, we’re pulling the file on
one of Starfleet’s equally troublesome but talented recruits, Tomas Eugene Paris. As
is usual for this series, we will included primarily the canon materials, that is the
shows and flesh out some of the gaps with Memory beta content, which comes mostly from
Novels, games and the like where it doesn’t conflict with the primary.
So, Tom Paris was born in 2346, Portola Valley, California, Earth, Sol System. He was the
youngest of three siblings, the others being Kathleen and Moira. His father was Owen Paris
and mother Julia. He was from a traditionally Starfleet family. Not only was his father
and admiral in Starfleet, but his Great Grandfather, Admiral Daniel Paris, his Grandfather Michael
“Iron Mike” Paris and several others such as his Great Aunt Patricia Paris and his uncle
Cole Paris. Growing up he spent much of his time in his
room, listening to music, playing games and generally avoiding his father. He also discovered
a love for early human space exploration history such as the Friendship 1 program and this
grew into an appreciation of old vehicles, such as automobiles, the precursors to private
shuttles. He grew to love tales of adventure, including stories of old ocean explorers and
the more fantastical tales of Captain Proton. At the age of 16 in an act of rebellion, he
took his father’s shuttle out for a joyride and sank it in Lake Tahoe.
(2364) Originally he wished to join the Federation Naval Patrol but as expected of him, he applied
for Starfleet Academy at the age of 18 and was accepted as he showed natural gifts as
a Pilot. During his time at Starfleet academy he took
a shine to piloting programs on both shuttle and Starship level and excelled in them. He
scraped by in Stellar Cartography and passed Advanced Subspace Geometry, likely due to
its relevance in warp travel. He took physical training in Marseille, France
but during a training incident in the Vega System, three cadets lives were lost due to
Tom Paris’ error and he covered it up as the only evidence of events was his word.
2366: Tom intended to apply for helmsman position on the newly commissioned Enterprise D but
Admiral Owen Paris removed his name from consideration as he believed having his son immediately
posted to the Federation’s Flagship would show favouritism, despite Paris having the
required skillset to excel at the helm. On graduation, 2367 he was posted to the Ambassador
Class USS Exeter NCC-26513 and promoted to Lt. Jr Grade. His Betazoid girlfriend at the
time uncovered his remorse at the accident from his academy days and he eventually confessed
to his actions. The resulting hearing saw him dishonourably
discharged from Starfleet in 2368. 2369 After a year, Tom had been wondering
aimlessly doing odd-jobs on Earth. Tom found his way to Paris when the former officer Chakotay
approached him, looking for potential Maquis sympathisers. The Maquis Captain needed a
pilot and Tom wanted to get back into a pilot’s chair so agreed to join.
In his first mission in 2370, his vessel was damaged by a Cardassian ship and before he
could return to a Maquis-sympathetic world, the USS Bradbury intercepted his ship arresting
him and all aboard. He was sentenced to New Zealand Penal colony
in 2370 where he remained for a year before his knowledge was needed.
In 2371, Captain Kathryn Janeway recruited him to use his knowledge of the Maquis, the
Badlands and Piloting skills to track down his former boss, Chakotay.
During the USS Voyager NCC-7 4656’s first mission into the Badlands it was abducted
by the Caretaker array in 2371 and ended up stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 Lightyears
from Earth. Due to the death of Lt. Veronica Stadi, the
USS Voayger’s Flight Coordinator, Paris was given a field commission reinstating his
position as a Lieutenant .Jr. Grade and made the new Helmsman.
He was also assigned to provide medical support for the EMH Doctor.
During the Voyager’s historic 7 years in the Delta Quadrant, Tom Paris, like many of
the crew was part of several remarkable achievements. In 2372, He became the first Human to reach
Warp 10, or at least something like the theoretically infinite speed. However… let’s just call
it health complications, rendered this form of travel unfeasible.
The quality of his work deteriorated however and multiple disciplinary actions were levelled
against him, towards the end of 2372.This however was part of a ploy to alienate him
from the crew to uncover a traitor in their midst using Tom’s grey past as cover.
In 2372, Paris helped in returning the stolen Voyager to its crew after a Kazon takeover.
In 2373 he took part in a temporal Incident that took him back to 1996 Earth.
In 2374: Contact with Earth was established through the Hirogen relay network and Admiral
Owen Paris attempted to reach out to his son. In 2375: Paris, with the aid of Lieutenant
Commander Tuvok, Ensign Harry Kim, Seven of Nine and Lt. B’Elanna Torres designed and
manufactured the Delta Flyer shuttle to cope with the hazards of the Delta Quadrant.
This year he was also demoted to Ensign and sentenced to 30 days in the Brig for disobeying
his captain and aiding a civilization against the Prime Directive.
In 2376 he began to display more erratic and tardy behaviour, akin to his earlier days
on the Voyager after he acquired the malevolent shuttle termed “Alice”.
In 2377 he was Promoted back to Lt.Jr Grade and later this year, married B’Elanna Torres.
Within a year, his daughter Miral Paris born as the USS Voyager returns home using Borg
Transwarp Corridors. This marks the end of the show but his adventures
continued in book form. In 2378, the crew of the USS Voyager had a
lot of doors opened for their careers and he was promoted to Lt. Cmdr. One of his first
actions was to travelled to Boreth with his wife to look for her mother.
By 2380, the USS Voyager had passed to Captain Chakotay who picked Paris as his XO. Paris
would only be appointed to the position with the loss of the prior Executive officer, Commander
Andrew Ellis. During 2381, the Borg invasion from the Azure
Nebula occurred during which the USS Voyager was involved, followed by the later phases
of Project Full Circle which saw the vessel return to the Delta Quadrant.
In 2382 Michael Owen Paris Born. There’s a bit of a gap here as the next
big appearance of Tom Paris is in Star Trek Online.
In 2394, Paris had achieved the rank of Admiral in Starfleet and was stationed on Earth Space
Dock. At this time he had befriended one up-and-coming Jorel Quinn.
In 2395, Tom’s daughter Miral Paris entered Starfleet Academy.
At the close of 2409, the Federation had learned of the threat posed by an Iconian return and
Admiral Paris took a voluntary demotion to Captain. This was so he could serve on the
front, coming to the conclusion that an Admiral’s chair wasn’t suited for him.
In 2410, Captain Paris created the Delta Flight program with the go ahead from Admiral Quinn
with the goal of bringing together the Alpha Quadrant’s best pilots from Stafleet, the
KDF and the Romulan Republic for special operations. Most of these pilots were thrill seekers or
rebellious types as Paris had once been. Captain Paris was assigned captaincy of the
USS Mercury NCC-47902 in 2410, one of three prototypes for the Pilot Escort Class of light,
fast and lightly crewed ships. He took part in the battle of Starbase 234
during the Iconian War. Tom Paris is drawn to adventure, romanticising
the prospect since his youth. From tales of ocean-faring swashbuckling escapades to science
fiction recreations of archaic futures, Paris detested being stationary and unchanging.
This is either the reason, or cause of the great friction he felt with his father, the
Starfleet Admiral who wanted for force his son into the mould of a Starfleet Officer
as befitting the Paris lineage. Acquiescing to his father’s wishes and joining
Starfleet over the Federation’s coast guard, Tom nonetheless continued to act out in a
rebellious way, chasing women, flaking on classes that couldn’t keep his attention
and flying fast. He embraced this image of himself as a bad-boy and was bolstered by
his stellar reputation as a pilot. Despite this, we can see that he has a genuine love
of flight as he did apply himself to relevant classes such as Advanced Subspace Geometry,
aware that skill alone won’t cut it in Starfleet. This shows on some level he was always seeking
approval, from peers and his father, though its only in his later life that he’d realise
this about himself. He continued to adopt and cultivate this image
of himself as a bit of a rogue, like those he had been influenced by in his childhood,
giving him an immature streak too. The biggest mistake he made, covering up the loss of his
fellow cadets in the Academy, haunted him until he confessed, showing that he, at heart
was a good person. Joining up with the Maquis was another mistake, fuelled by his desire
to get back behind the helm of a ship and he seemed resigned to his days as a washout
with a criminal record had Janeway not recruited him.
During his time on Voyager, we see him adapt to the situation though it’s not a smooth
transition. He retains his distaste for authority and a regimented lifestyle for a long time,
but develops a respect for those around him, leading him to try to fit in to his new circumstance.
As he matures on the vessel and through its numerous events, he learns to find a sort
of balance and I wouldn’t be surprised to find this is a reason for his attraction for
B’Elanna Torres, who struggles with some conflicting aspects of her nature. He also
has a cynical streak that often surfaces in stressful situations and informs the more
disaster ous decisions in his life. His love of flight translates into a love
of speed. He loved discussing anything technical around Starships as long as it was related
to going fast. He was also a big car aficionado seemingly, with no limits following back designs
of the internal combustion engine to its origin. His love of adventure stories led him to holoprograms
and he considered himself somewhat of an amateur Holo-novelist, writing his own scenarios for
fun. As usual, I’ll finish this video with some
personal recommendations as to good Tom Paris centric episodes and I’ll have to open with
“Vis a Vis” which shows a good growth of Tom’s character as he comes to the realisation
that “oh my god”, he’s no longer as drawn by impulsive and rash behaviour as he
once was. “Thirty Days” has his demotion and sees
Paris conflicting with loyalty, expectation, morality and his own rebellious attitude.
Aaand Investigations is actually less Paris-centric than you’d think considering he is the linchpin
of the episode, but it contains good examples of how the early crew viewed him, the ex-con
among the hard-working honest crew. Anyway, thanks for watching this personnel
File. If it wasn’t for the mandate that Voyager had to remain episodic, I think we’d
have seen a more consistent and fluid growth of character across the entire crew but as
it stands, some characters got a decent arc in there. I guess a benefit of it being episodic
though is we can pretend that “threshold” never happened. Goodbye!