Threshold (Star Trek: Voyager)

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Star Trek: Voyager episode
"Threshold"

Tom Paris, affected by breaking Warp 10.
Episode no. 31
Prod. code 132
Airdate January 29, 1996
Writer(s) Brannon Braga
Director Alexander Singer
Guest star(s) Raphael Sbarge as Michael Jonas
Year 2372
Stardate 49373.4
Episode chronology
Previous "Alliances"
Next "Meld"

"Threshold" is the 31st episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the 15th episode in the second season.

Contents

[edit] Plot

After discovering a new, more stable form of dillithium, Tom Paris and the rest of Voyager become convinced they can break the Warp 10 barrier. Unfortunately, simulations keep resulting in failure.

After some help by a confused Neelix, they discover a way to stabilize the problem and the planned trip is on. The shuttlecraft Cochrane is almost ready. Paris receives some negative news when the Doctor learns there is a two percent chance he would be killed. A unique medical problem affects Paris but not Kim, the other candidate to pilot the shuttle craft. Paris manages to convince Janeway, telling her he is willing to take the two percent risk.

The initial trip seems to end in failure, as Tom vanishes from sensors and communications. After a tense few minutes, his shuttle craft reappears, with Tom asleep at the controls.

Later, in Sickbay, Tom explains how he could see 'everything'. The Kazon, the Klingons, home. He further tells he knew Voyager was looking for him, so he made sure to turn off the engines. The shuttlecraft itself contains a very large amount of information about this sector of space, which would help immensely if Voyager was to break the Warp 10 barrier.

Tom doesn't feel well later, which doesn't surprise anyone. They are surprised when he keels over in the Mess Hall. It turns out he had developed an allergy...to common water. He swiftly changes, becoming unable to breathe normal oxygen.

He mutates rapidly, into an entirely new form of life. The Doctor theorizies an 'anti-proton' treatment could bring him back. During the treatment, which had to take place in Engineering, Tom escapes. He disrupts most of the systems on board and kidnaps Janeway. He steals the Cochrane and vanishes back into Transwarp.

After some time, the shuttle is located in a swamp on a planet and two reptillian beings, complete with three offspring, are found. Chakotay decides to let the offspring stay where they are. Fortunately the creatures have enough of their original human DNA left for the Doctor's treatments to work. Janeway and Paris are eventually restored back to normal.

[edit] Notes

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This is often considered to be the worst episode of Voyager, and some believe it to be the worst Star Trek episode ever. Its writer, Brannon Braga, in an interview on the DVD release of season 2, called the episode "a royal steaming stinker". The breaking of the warp 10 barrier is stated in the episode itself to be impossible, yet nonetheless happens; the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual had explained that warp 10 meant infinite speed and thus was effectively meaningless. It's also not clear why breaking the barrier is necessary since approaching it arbitrarily close should suffice.

As well as this, the episode illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the basic principles of evolution, depicting it as a force ongoing within an individual member of a species, in the manner of a mystical force. In actuality, for evolution to occur there must be not only mutation, but differential reproduction and natural selection through long term population of an environment by numerous individuals. Whilst an individual can mutate, evolution is only possible through natural selection, and the mutation will only go on to affect an entire species if that mutation protects those who have it from some sort of phenomenon that destroys the members of the species without the mutation.

Another scientific error is Tom Paris "evolving" an allergy to water. Since water is essential to organic biochemistry, this is impossible.

Many fans have decided to ignore the events of the episode. A line from Paris in the later show "Day of Honor" - "I've never navigated a transwarp conduit" [1] - is sometimes cited as backing this view, but transwarp conduits are a very different phenomenon from the infinite-speed transwarp in "Threshold."

Despite the unpopularity of the episode, the mutated Tom Paris was made into an action figure, with three of his offspring as accessories.

"Threshold" won the 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series, beating out Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "The Visitor."

"Threshold", does bear a striking resemblance to David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly, with Paris trying out a new means of transportation, only to start showing physical and mental changes, and to his personality. This is similar to that of Seth Brundle's in the Cronenberg film.

[edit] References

[edit] External links