Star Trek Voyager Cast: Where Are They Now?
8. Robert Duncan McNeill
Robert Duncan McNeill first appeared in Star Trek back in the Next Generation, portraying Cadet Nicholas Locarno - a bad boy who gets Wesley Crusher into a whole tonne of trouble. He ends the episode expelled from Starfleet Academy and that was the last we heard of him.
Techically.
The character of Tom Paris is effectively Locarno, allegedly rewritten to avoid giving royalties to the writers of his first episode. That theory itself is up for debate but the end result is that Tom Paris was born.
McNeill is in every episode of Voyager, beginning life as the cheeky flyboy who finds it hard to follow the rules, before switching over the course of the series to the fiercely loyal pilot of the ship, along with loving husband of B'Elanna Torres. He is the only actor to appear alongside Ray Walston, aka Boothby, in all three of his Star Trek appearances.
During his time on the show, McNeill would begin what would end up becoming his true career, in the form of directing. He first directed the episode Scared Ground, going to to direct many more episodes of Voyager and Enterprise. He has also said that he was offered the opportunity to direct an episode of Discovery, though was unavailable at the time.
He has recently started a podcast with co-star Garrett Wang, called The Delta Flyers.