One fan captures the good, the bad, and the ugly of Star Trek’s Robert Duncan McNeill

Star Trek’s Robert Duncan McNeill sure has had a wild ride in the franchise.

Robert Duncan McNeill has had a wild ride since joining Star Trek in the early 1990s. Originally he guest-starred on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Nick Locarno, a hot-shot cadet who helped cover up the accidental death of one of his Nova Squad classmates. After the incident came to light, Locarno would leave Starfleet.

But McNeill wasn’t done yet, as he would return to the franchise with Star Trek: Voyager, playing a Locarno-like character in Tom Paris. Paris was found in a New Zealand penal colony by Kathryne Janeway, who wanted to not only rehabilitate Paris but also use his elite piloting skills to fly her new ship; the USS Voyager.

After that, he would spend seven years on the ship having all sorts of adventures, his most famous one; however, was when he broke the Warp 10 barrier and quickly started to evolve/devolve into a giant salamander.

It wasn’t Tom or McNeill’s finest hour. After Voyager ended, McNeill would serve as director and producer across Hollywood before returning to Paris and Star Trek through a cameo on Star Trek: Lower Decks. That minor moment allowed the showrunner, Mike McMahan, to bring McNeill back as Nick Locarno for two episodes to close out season four.

One Twitter user, Chris Fenoglio, captured the essence of McNeill’s three most iconic forms.

Threshold will outlive all of Star Trek

While we all want to remember Locarno and Paris for the stellar characters that they are, the fact is that the salamander Paris is the most iconic of all three versions of the character depicted above. And sadly, that one season may outlast all of Star Trek as a whole, simply because of how bonkers it was.

If you’ve never seen the Voyager episode “Threshold”, we have to suggest you check it out today.