Threshold

DVD, Voyager S2 (Threshold)

The worst episode of the series. That's the commonly held opinion. When you look at some of the events that occur within the space of the story - transwarp travel, mutation to a new lifeform, Janeway and Paris having alien slime children, the Doc being able to reverse the whole process and make them human again - it isn't hard to see where the bad reputation came from. But like Tom Paris' reputation, the episode has a goodness to it and works dramatically, but like some of the Trek episodes that skirt the edges of believable science, or even hop over the line, if you take the hokey stuff with a pinch of salt, it isn't too farfetched or ridiculous (we are on a ship that warps space, can disassemble people's molecules and put them back together, and creates food out of energy, after all!).

There's a lot to enjoy amid the implausibility. The people are interacting well, there's friendly banter, we find out what happens when a holodeck shuttle simulation ends while the pilot is sitting down (he ends up sitting on the floor), and we get links to the past with Janeway's roster of famous pilots, which includes Zefram Cochrane, a year or so before it became fashionable to reference the warp flight pioneer once he'd appeared in 'Star Trek: First Contact' (the shuttle Cochrane is also named for him). Paris gets to really show who he is, the inner workings of his mind (and I don't mean his mutated self's diatribe on how small Janeway looks - "I'm wearing the largest heels I can find, Mr. Paris!" I imagine her response might be...). His childhood spent crying in his room, his desire to be somebody, and at the end, his admitting that he thought breaking the Warp 10 barrier would be a quick fix. But as Janeway encourages, he's already someone important on Voyager and has changed people's view of him to become someone they respect and admire. Even when he was dying he wanted his Dad to know of his achievement, something that showed there was hope for the Paris family as would be shown in later seasons.

Transwarp is a difficult subject in 'Star Trek' because it seems to mean different things in different contexts. I believe we first heard of the term in 'Star Trek III' as the USS Excelsior was fitted with this new propulsion system. We never got to see it work thanks to Kirk's crew, who sabotaged it (did they push Starfleet technology back by a hundred years?). Another time it crops up is in the Borg's transwarp conduits. These certainly don't allow a traveller to be in every place at once in the universe, so my conclusion would be that transwarp simply means a higher echelon of warp speed, between the accepted 9.975 that Voyager can go to, but before warp 10, which must be a massive scale to ascend, since 10 is infinity. Not that it matters, as anyone that goes to Warp Factor 10 begins to mutate into the next form of life, a lizard-like creature, which is about as plausible as the mistaken belief we are descended from apes!

The makeup for Paris as the mutation is especially disgusting, even worse than the Vidiians. His head expands and contracts, he's got ugly gill protrusions all over his skin, and one eye is milked out alarmingly, as well as the most unpleasant moment in the episode - when he pulls out his own tongue. But I couldn't help feeling compassion for the pitiable creature he'd become, crouched on the deck in sickbay, wailing for help to be set free. One of the nicest moments is when Kes obeys his last request after he's died and the forcefield is taken down - she plants a tender kiss on his cheek. Some might balk at them, but I even liked the Mother and Father creatures that Chakotay and Tuvok discover on the planet, as well as the baby lizard slimeys that look like CGI they move so fluidly, but were actually done by pulling a sock along with string! There's a nice deadpan moment when Chakotay wonders which is the Captain and Tuvok points out it is the female, then Chakotay gives him such a look with as if to say 'I'm not that stupid, but how do we know which is the female?'

The ongoing spy storyline is forced into the episode, with Jonas giving the Kazon information on Paris' achievement, though what use they could make of it is negligible, it was more a display of his willingness to provide them with information. Could it be their three days in sickbay together was when Janeway and Paris (forgive me) 'hatched' the plan to root out the spy? I mean, after all that stuff he says about what he's gone through and how it's his own opinion of himself that needs to change, it will be strange when he starts acting up. Anyway, this episode is very much worth watching for its development of Tom (I must say, Torres looked very concerned for his well-being when she rushed into sickbay...), and the good use of horror, as well as nice scenes for every character. The balance is just right, if only they could have translated this aspect of the early seasons, and the arc-based additions with the later seasons' propensity for action and special effects, the series might have reached its potential.

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