Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Tom Paris

8. Han Solo Or Doug From ER?

"I'm wondering by the way if Paris isn't getting too close to Han Solo," noted Michael Piller in a memo to Rick Berman and Jeri Taylor, dated 6 October 1993, as given in Star Trek: Voyager — A Vision of the Future. That was just the tip of the Hothian iceberg. The development process for Star Trek: Voyager had begun earlier that same year. Locarno was out. The struggle to define Tom Paris had begun.

For the first half of Voyager's pilot, Berman, Taylor, and Piller had already settled on the 'hero's journey' for Paris — "a quest for redemption, for rebirth in traditional Joseph Campbell terms". Piller soon realised that, for the second half, "new plot elements" would be needed. Paris had "to confront his demons and conquer them," but, at that stage, Piller couldn't quite figure out what those demons might be. He even considered throwing Paris in the brig, only to have him escape by fooling "the holographic doctor".

From Han Solo to Doug Ross, "the success that George Clooney had as the bad boy character on [ER] was really what we intended Paris to be on Voyager," added Piller in Star Trek: Voyager — A Celebration. The writer/producer went on to admit that "nothing we tried worked very well". Ultimately, "it was just not the right chemistry for Star Trek". It still took a few years, perhaps even seven, to move the character away from his 'bad boy' image.