Thirty Days (Star Trek: Voyager)

"Thirty Days" is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the ninth episode of the fifth season. The episode has an average rating of 4.7/5 on the official Star Trek website (as of August 5, 2007).[1]

Plot

This episode is mainly Tom Paris's retelling of a mission on a water world while he is in the brig.

The episode begins with the Voyager's meeting with a new race that originates from an ocean planet. They find out that the "planet" is losing mass at an alarming rate, and will be destroyed in 5 years if nothing is changed. The inhabitants believe that something at the center of the planet is responsible for its destruction; however, their best ships cannot reach that depth. Tom Paris eventually convinces the captain to allow him to take the Delta Flyer into the center of the planet. Paris tells the captain that he often read Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea when he was a child.

The Delta Flyer's journey is cut short when an undersea animal, similar to an electric eel, attacks it; however, it is determined that the reason for the planet's loss of mass is the mining of oxygen from the planet.

When Paris reports back to Captain Janeway, he is told that the planet's government will do nothing about it, and they must stop because of the Prime Directive. Paris then disobeys the captain's orders and returns to the planet to destroy the oxygen-mining facility. Before he can, Voyager fires a depth charge at the Delta Flyer, disabling it.

Tom Paris is then reduced to the rank of Ensign and sentenced to thirty days in the brig for disobeying Captain Janeway.

Original production

In the special features of the Star Trek: Voyager bonus disc it is learned that the original shoot of this episode was wholly the scenes of Tom Paris's adventure on the planet. When test screened the episode lacked the mandatory time length and so the brig scenes of the episode were formulated by Robert Beltran (Commander Chakotay) and added.

Sidenote

The Monean scientist's instrument shown in the episode "Thirty Days" is the same prop described in the later episode "Dark Frontier" where it is described by Janeway as a Borg "transwarp coil".

External links

• Thirty Days at the Internet Movie Database
• "Thirty Day" at TV.com
• Thirty Days at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Thirty Days at StarTrek.com