Tom Paris
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [Source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thomas Eugene Paris was a former prisoner and acting helmsmen aboard the USS Voyager.
History
Tom was recruited by Captain Janeway from a penal colony in New Zealand, where he was serving a sentence for perjury. He'd been responsible for a piloting accident that killed three Starfleet officers and tried to cover up his role. Janeway pulled him out of the colony because he was acquainted with a Maquis leader, Chakotay, whom she had been assigned to capture. When the Caretaker dragged the USS Voyager to the Delta Quadrant, and many of the ship's crew died in the process, Janeway assigned Tom to serve as the ship's helmsman. He later marries and has a child with B'Elanna Torres.
Performance
Tom seems to be the only competent member of the Voyager crew, as he seems to be the only person that can get anything done. He is a direct contrast to Neelix, who claims to be competent at everything but is actually good at nothing useful. Tom claims only his piloting skills but proves to be good at almost everything. Tom Paris is, along with Tuvok, one of the few crew members to never truly accept Neelix as a member of the grew. This is not surprising considering how Neelix attacked him for just waving at Kes.
- He built a large combat shuttlecraft, the Delta Flyer, from scratch.
- He is the only person on the crew aside from Kes and the Doctor to demonstrate simple first aid skills.
- After the rest of the crew were captured and marooned by the Kazon, he not only survived having his shuttlecraft heavily damaged, he repaired it back to combat readiness (while being shot at) and managed to lead a force of Talaxians to successfully recapture the Voyager and rescue the rest of the crew.
- He even built an engine capable of breaking the Warp 10 barrier, albeit with some odd side effects.
He has acted as a commando, pilot, field medic, engineer, scientist, historian, and more.
- "And this is the guy Starfleet doesn't want!"
- —Chuck Sonnenburg