S5 E09: Thirty Days

Paris has been demoted and sentenced to thirty days of solitary confinement. Through the composition of a letter to his father, we the viewers discover what has happened. Voyager found an ocean in space - its inhabitants, though unwelcoming at first, accept their assistance in discovering the cause for recent losses in mass. Paris and company take the Delta Flyer in to the center of the ocean, and find an ancient gravity generator that has been holding the ocean together; but it is now straining to its limits due to the oxygen mining that the Moneans are engaging in. When it is clear that the Moneans have no interest in shutting down their oxygen mines to save their world, Paris and Riga (a Monean scientist) steal the Flyer and try to blow up the mines. Janeway stops him, and demotes him for his actions. Paris is unrepentant.

First, let me say that the special effects in this episode are exceptional, easily some of the best in the series. In particular, any time an object enters or leaves the ocean (Monean ships, the Flyer, or a torpedo) is very well realized. The underwater Monean cities are gorgeous, and the reactor at the center of the ocean is cool looking too. It's pretty clear that they ran out of budget by the time they got to the giant eel, since we don't even hear it being fired upon, but that's okay, there was still plenty of eye-candy. The science of the space ocean is fairly ridiculous, particularly the idea that mining the oxygen out of the water would somehow increase the overall mass, or make it more difficult to hold the water around the reactor. But, for me, the overall coolness of the finished product is enough for me to shrug the inconsistencies off.

The issue of punishment on Voyager came up for me just one episode ago, when I was watching Nothing Human and Tabor said that he wanted to be relieved of duty. That wasn't exactly a crime situation, it just occurred to me that the issue of how to punish people that you need to keep your ship functioning still hadn't really been satisfactorily addressed yet - if Tabor wanted to go on strike, what would they have done about it? I'm glad I didn't get into it in the review for that episode, since it is a much more appropriate topic for discussion here. So far, the punishments we've seen are: Stern talkings-to for Torres and Tuvok for mutiny in Prime Factors, Neelix needing to scrub something engineeringy for a few weeks for theft and deceit (Fair Trade), and Lon Suder getting solitary confinement in his quarters for murder (Meld). Tom's solitary confinement in the brig, though limited in duration, puts even the punishment for murder to shame.

There are only a handful of people on Voyager to whom demotion would actually mean anything - fortunately, they're mostly the people we see every week. It came up as an option in Scorpion, Part II when Chakotay "disobeyed an order," and while I harbor no ill-will towards him for his actions there, it would have been really interesting to see the ramifications for Janeway if she'd demoted from first officer her liaison to the Maquis part of the crew. Paris is one of the main characters for whom demotion probably means the least; he is so saturated with bravado that you can actually see it kind of encouraging him. It adds to his personal narrative of "Tom Paris the rebel," and since he feels so good about the cause he has picked it emboldens him even further, to the point where he pens (figuratively, no one can write in the 24th century) a letter to the father that he avoids even thinking about.

As much as this is a bit of a step back for Paris' in-show character, I consider this to be a huge step forward for his character's development; the lack of which I have been bemoaning for some time. The writers have, in general, seemed unsure of what to do with him up until now, and I think this choice was great. This action makes him more of a Mal Reynolds than Chakotay ever was: an anti-hero, trying to do what's right by him while exhibiting a casual disregard for the rules. He has made a decision that he will not measure personal success by the standards that Admiral Paris has set for him, while still attempting to be a beneficent type of rebel. I just hope that the writers can stick with this direction for him.

Despite appreciating the strides in character development here, and being among those who are uncomfortable with the power creep that the Prime Directive has experienced by the time of Voyager, I do disagree with his choices. By Voyager standards, Janeway already has violated the Prime Directive just by giving the oxygen replicating technology to the Moneans. As much as it is a short-sighted choice on the part of the Moneans to not immediately implement said technology, as long as their actions are only injurious to themselves, I agree with the Directive's protection of their autonomy to do so. I certainly can't blame Paris for wanting to do something about it, and I can't even really blame him for taking action either, but destructive action is not the course of action I would have taken.

Watchability: 5/5

Bottom Line: This episode is indispensable as an example of how to turn around a faltering character. It remains to be seen whether it will be an example that the writers build off of going forward, but I've got my fingers crossed.