clearspira wrote: ↑Sun Aug 14, 2022 1:27 pm
Speaking of the podcast, McNeill is pretty vocal about how much he dislikes season 1 and 2 Paris.
However it fits better with his backstory. Perhaps that choice of backstory was an error though (although in this day and age everyone trying to go behind everyone's back, out for themselves, and with little respect for much else beyond whatever cause they have seems to be the norm, and personally I could do without it).
Early Paris and that backstory might've worked if he was to be a bridge between Starfleet and the Maquis, if that wasn't more or less instantly irrelevant.
clearspira wrote: ↑Sun Aug 14, 2022 1:27 pm
Speaking of the podcast, McNeill is pretty vocal about how much he dislikes season 1 and 2 Paris.
However it fits better with his backstory. Perhaps that choice of backstory was an error though (although in this day and age everyone trying to go behind everyone's back, out for themselves, and with little respect for much else beyond whatever cause they have seems to be the norm, and personally I could do without it).
Early Paris and that backstory might've worked if he was to be a bridge between Starfleet and the Maquis, if that wasn't more or less instantly irrelevant.
If you go back to ''Caretaker'' many character choices do make sense. Paris for example is meant to be a traitor to both the Federation and the Maquis, so it makes sense why he is hated by everyone but the greenhorn and why he is a bit of a cocky loner. But seeing as that was dropped pretty much by episode 2 then the original character traits suddenly become meaningless.
Kind of like Neelix really. If he had remained who he was in ''Caretaker'' we would have had a better character.
clearspira wrote: ↑Sun Aug 14, 2022 1:27 pm
Speaking of the podcast, McNeill is pretty vocal about how much he dislikes season 1 and 2 Paris.
However it fits better with his backstory. Perhaps that choice of backstory was an error though (although in this day and age everyone trying to go behind everyone's back, out for themselves, and with little respect for much else beyond whatever cause they have seems to be the norm, and personally I could do without it).
Early Paris and that backstory might've worked if he was to be a bridge between Starfleet and the Maquis, if that wasn't more or less instantly irrelevant.
If you go back to ''Caretaker'' many character choices do make sense. Paris for example is meant to be a traitor to both the Federation and the Maquis, so it makes sense why he is hated by everyone but the greenhorn and why he is a bit of a cocky loner. But seeing as that was dropped pretty much by episode 2 then the original character traits suddenly become meaningless.
Kind of like Neelix really. If he had remained who he was in ''Caretaker'' we would have had a better character.
I think it's hard to work out a way that Neelix could have remained that character and still remained on the show, basically. Maaaaaybe if they kept the Maquis as Maquis and so the dynamic of the show was less "perfect Starfleet crew" and one with more tension between Janeway's vision and the attitude of the Maquis then that Neelix could have made sense, but on the other hand if Janeway, Tuvok, and the other Starfleet characters were already having to deal with the Maquis wanting to do their own thing, that original Neelix may have been even moreso too much to deal with and he may have been off the ship even sooner.
At least to me, it seems less that McNeill dislikes early Paris, at least not just because he's sleazy, lecherous and duplicitous, but more because he didn't really seem to have any reason to be that way. Especially out in the Delta Quadrant when he's a vital part of a stranded crew and now has actual friends for the first time.
Locarno got one episode and frankly he was a more fleshed out character than Tom Paris was for the first couple seasons. You knew exactly why he did what he did, the relationships he had with his father and with his classmates, the pressure he was under, the fear of having his dreams taken from him for one mistake etc.
IMO, the biggest mistake made with Paris was that they never explained what he did to get tossed out of Starfleet, hell it's never even hinted at. All you ever find out is Tom lied and people died. Nothing more. It's hard to care about a character when the defining moment of their life is given less than a minute of screen time over 7 years.
Durandal_1707 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 17, 2022 6:51 pm
Huh, I was expecting this episode to be the one where Neelix fucks a Klingon and trashes Tuvok's room doing it.
After a little searching, turns out that one was "Prophecy." Which is one of the few Chuck hasn't reviewed yet. Hmm.
