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

5. … And Other Space Babies

When filming began for Star Trek: Voyager, Robert Duncan McNeill was reportedly second on the call sheet, behind (of course) only Kate Mulgrew. "The rumour was they were going to make [Tom Paris] kind of like Janeway's boy toy or something," as Garrett Wang put it on the first episode of The Delta Flyers podcast.

Confirmed in Star Trek: Voyager — A Celebration, Paris was indeed intended to be "the series' romantic lead" — a possible "love interest for the captain". By season two, writers were concerned that Paris had been underused. In trying to rectify the situation, they gave him one of Star Trek's most notorious episodes — Threshold. Thankfully, Captain and "helm boy" never became anything close to a couple, despite a few offspring at infinite velocity.

"When I first read that script I couldn't believe they were going to shoot it," noted McNeill in Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4-5. Beyond the sheer ridiculousness of it all, McNeill realised that the journey to warp ten was really a journey of self-discovery for Paris. One's worth doesn't come from being everywhere in the universe all at once. "Happiness comes from within". Tell that to the salamander space babies you left behind!