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| Tom Paris and Capt. Janeway. Yes, really. |
THE PLOT
Tom Paris has been working with Torres and Harry Kim on a new engine design, in hopes of breaking the transwarp barrier. By reaching the impossible Warp 10, they hope to go to Infinite Warp, occupying every place in the universe simulatenously. If it succeeds, returning home would be achieved "in the time it takes to press a button."
After solving a structural problem involving the warp nacelles, Tom is finally able to make his test flight. It's a success, prompting much celebration. Until Tom suddenly collapses when drinking Neelix's coffee (no, it wasn't Neelix's cooking that did for him, though the doctor can certainly be forgiven making a wry remark to that effect). Tom is mutating, to the point that his lungs can no longer process oxygen. And this is only the beginning...
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Continues to be emotionally supportive of her crew. The doctor has advised not allowing Tom to make the flight, due to a tiny but extant possibility of brain hemmorhage. Janeway is inclined to allow Harry to make the flight instead, but Tom argues passionately, making it clear how important it is for him to be the one to fly the shuttle. Janeway allows it, wishing him luck.
Tom Paris: Despite his strong service aboard Voyager, he has not been able to shake his old feelings of worthlessness. He seizes on the idea of breaking the warp treshold as a way to prove his value to himself as much as anyone else. When his mind wanders into a semi-delusional state, he accuses Janeway of "lying" when she expresses concern for him, describing himself as "the Maquis traitor who sits on the bridge" and insisting that whatever he is changing into has to be better than who he is. While the character material (easily summed up as "inferiority complex") is hardly revolutionary, Robert Duncan McNeill gives a terrific performance. The show needs to do more with Tom Paris - I just hope that next time, it spotlights him in a better episode!
The Doctor: There's a wonderful little character beat when Tom dies and Kes grieves. The doctor clearly wants to comfort Kes. But he is not comfortable expressing emotions. He reaches out to lay a hand on Kes' shoulder, then stops himself and pulls back. Robert Picardo is terrific as ever. I love the way he doesn't quite know how to speak while telling Kes that an autopsy will be necessary in the morning before leaving her with Tom's body.
Kes: She clearly does have affection for Tom, worrying at his bedside as he dies. After his apparent death, she is quick to grant his body the kiss he had asked for, and all of her reactions indicate that his attraction for her is probably reciprocated. Honestly, the show could do worse than to play with that - She and Tom would make an infinitely more plausible couple than she and Neelix do.
THOUGHTS
The infamous "Worst Star Trek Episode Ever!" An episode its own writer described as a "royal, steaming stinker." Does it live down to its reputation?
Well... In fairness, the episode actually gets off to a fairly decent start. Despite some stilted dialogue, I was passably absorbed in Tom's personal quest to break the barrier. The script does its job of laying the groundwork for the personal importance of this to Tom, and even connects back to Tom's personal insecurities later in the episode. As the first Act ended, I found myself scratching my head as to how this mild but competent episode could be on anyone's "worst" list.
Then Tom "dies," and the whole thing goes badly off the rails. The first half of the episode isn't quite good, but it's a reasonable enough bit of filler. The second half, however, veers way out into a territory best referred to as Looney Land. Tom comes back to life for no readily apparent reason, and his skin begins flaking off. His behavior becomes erratic, full of paranoia and hostility. Then he rips his own tongue out and grins at the camera, in a bit that would be more at home in a horror movie than in a Star Trek episode.
It all ends as only an episode like this could: By crossing the threshold into Infinite Insanity. Tom breaks free of a treatment involving "anti-protons" (which, along with some guff about DNA and evolution, helps fill the Techno- and Medi-Babble quotas for the episode). He then kidnaps Janeway and takes her through the transwarp barrier, thus subjecting her to the same mutations he's going through.
A few days later, the crew discovers both of them on an alien world. As lizards. With a litter of lizard children, after apparently had lizard sex. Even Tuvok can't quite keep a straight face, deadpanning that he looks forward to reading Chakotay's write-up of this incident.
Of course, this is Voyager, where nothing is unable to be handwaved away with a reset. The Doctor zaps them with anti-protons, and they are reset to their old selves. Offscreen, because doing this is not very important after all. Neither of them remembers much of anything, nor does either of them have much of a reaction to having mated and had children of an entirely different species. To some people, that might be a topic of conversation, but Janeway dismisses it with a wry one-liner.
TOM'S ENGINE
So what about this incredible engine? Well, it's barely even mentioned after the halfway mark. Which is a shame, since it should be a source of genuine aid. Sure, breaking the transwarp barrier is obviously Not Good (even if the doctor has a "cure," it's unlikely to be effective if the entire crew are too busy embracing their inner lizard to help him administer it). Still, the engine does appear to stabilize travel at warp speeds just under the barrier. Which means the ship could adapt his engine to cruise home at Warp 9.9 with no ill effects. OK, it's not a magic wand that gets the whole crew home tomorrow. But it would still shave several years off their total journey - nothing to sneeze at, surely? Not to mention the benefits of getting out of Kazon space that little bit faster.
This being Voyager, of course, that possibility isn't even mentioned by anyone, and I'm sure won't ever be employed in future episodes.
FINAL VERDICT
Okay, I admit it: Threshold is bad. It's like watching a train derailment. The vehicle starts off chugging along well enough, albeit with a few creaks here and there. Then it hits a plot curve at a particularly bad angle and jumps the tracks, plummeting to its death. The spectacle of that plummet, however, is so dizzying that it avoids the cardinal television sin: It's never boring. It's the Spock's Brain of Voyager. Dreadful by any objective standard, but so completely crazy in its badness that it becomes a spectacle in itself.
Which is enough to avoid a rock-bottom rating, though not enough to get it anywhere near a good one.
Overall Rating: 2/10.
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