Star Trek: Voyager: Robert Duncan McNeill has always defended Threshold

Fans of Star Trek: Voyager may not be shocked to hear that the man who played Tom Paris, Robert Duncan McNeill has always defended Threshold.

The Star Trek: Voyager series has an impressive list of episodes to re-watch. It’s a captivating show that tackles the idea of being on your own, lost with no one to help you. It tackles amazing topics such as the right to life, deadly plagues, and if people have the right to interfere in other cultures when someone needs help. They also tackled slug babies. That’s a tongue-in-cheek description of the Voyager episode “Threshold”, which saw Tom Paris, played by Robert Duncan McNeill break the warp ten barrier and begin to evolve into a new species.

On the Delta Flyers podcast, hosts Garrett Wang (Henry Kim on Voyager) and McNeill tackle their series episode by episode and they finally got to “Threshold” an episode that Wang himself even says is widely disliked. Though, McNeill doesn’t agree with the criticism.

“I’ve always been defensive about this episode”, McNeill told Wang. “This was Tom Paris’ elephant man episode. …I had a great time making it.”

The response isn’t too shocking, as McNeill’s performance is widely regarded as impressive throughout the entire episode. Yet, both Wang and McNeill agree that it’s the ending where things fall apart.

McNeill speaks about how he wished they had seen the Paris-evolution monster rampaging instead of it happening off-screen, something Wang doesn’t agree with, as it gives it a different feel. Yet neither man disagree that the ending, where Paris kidnaps Captain Kathryn Janeway and takes her past the warp 10 barrier, and the two then evolve into salamander creators. If that wasn’t bad enough, then it’s revealed that the two had babies together as salamanders. Thankfully Janeway saves it to some degree by implying she may have been the one to instigate the mating process but still…yikes.

In what’s an interesting revelation as well, McNeill reveals that he suffered from horrible asthma during the shooting of Voyager and had to spend time in the hospital, which was something that Wang never knew.

It’s a great podcast that provides unique insight into the world of Voyager, so if you’re looking for something to do during the winter months, catching up on this podcast is recommended.