Star Trek: 10 Times Starfleet Officers Crossed The Line

2. Tom Paris Does Time - 30 Days

When Tom Paris boarded the USS Voyager, he was earning the trust that Captain Janeway placed in him. It was she who recommended his early release from a Federation detention centre, which in turn led to his position as helmsman of the ship.

By 2375, as a lieutenant junior grade, Paris had more than secured his position in the crew. He was respected and even though he had a reputation for certain passionate responses, he was a capable Starfleet officer. The events that followed Voyager's encounter with the Moneans and their 'water world' put all of that in jeopardy. 

After discovering that this floating ocean was losing integrity, and that neither Janeway or the Monean council intended to do anything about it, Paris decided to act of his own accord. Fuelled by righteousness, and a childhood love of the ocean, he and a Monean named Riga stole the Delta Flyer, intending to use to it to force the Moneans at large to take action. 

He was stopped in his tracks by a timely torpedo from Tuvok, then demoted and incarcerated by Janeway. He learned the hard way that an officer cannot simply act of their own accord when the Prime Directive is on the line.