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Tom Paris not quite Tom Paris?
jadenmia
Member Posts: 148 Arc User
Does something seem... off? About how the Tom Paris in this game seems to not quite fit smoothly into the Tom Paris from the Voyager Series?
Granted, both 30+ years for the character and the parent aspect would definitely affect how a character develops, something still seems unnaturally off about it, especially in the interactions between him and his daughter. Like, it wasn't simply a protective father trying to keep his daughter from harm. More like someone tried to push the "overprotective father stereotype" onto a couple of characters where it simply didn't fit... and didn't fit, not simply by a long shot, but didn't fit, jumping over mountains, valleys and seas, like didn't fit.
Given the fact that 30+ years had passed since the daughter was born, got into starfleet, has years of starfleet experience, that alone would make the overprotective display for any father like character unnatural... but then add Tom Paris's character history into that AND take into account they life style and upbringing you can expect from a some what mellowed down Gun hoe rebellious Human Father, a wisened up Half Human Half Klingon Mother, tempered only by experience and balanced out a little by a rebellious human father, raising a daughter who is 3/4 human, 1/4 klingon...
Something just seems very wrong the overprotective father script they used. It is as if someone forced that stereotype into the story... And the adnormality of it having been forced, shows in the offbeat interactions and the odd feeling of displacement of the lore while playing those missions.
Granted, both 30+ years for the character and the parent aspect would definitely affect how a character develops, something still seems unnaturally off about it, especially in the interactions between him and his daughter. Like, it wasn't simply a protective father trying to keep his daughter from harm. More like someone tried to push the "overprotective father stereotype" onto a couple of characters where it simply didn't fit... and didn't fit, not simply by a long shot, but didn't fit, jumping over mountains, valleys and seas, like didn't fit.
Given the fact that 30+ years had passed since the daughter was born, got into starfleet, has years of starfleet experience, that alone would make the overprotective display for any father like character unnatural... but then add Tom Paris's character history into that AND take into account they life style and upbringing you can expect from a some what mellowed down Gun hoe rebellious Human Father, a wisened up Half Human Half Klingon Mother, tempered only by experience and balanced out a little by a rebellious human father, raising a daughter who is 3/4 human, 1/4 klingon...
Something just seems very wrong the overprotective father script they used. It is as if someone forced that stereotype into the story... And the adnormality of it having been forced, shows in the offbeat interactions and the odd feeling of displacement of the lore while playing those missions.
Post edited by jadenmia on
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Shhhhhhh.....
Season 11 spoiler... He's actually an Undine undercover agent.
Don't tell anyone, ok?
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life...</b></size></center>
What was yesterday canon, suddenly is no more, things over there change faster than Borg Transwarp.
I would replace Michael Dorn with Jeri Ryan. Alot of Worf's lines sound a bit like he's bored (though true, he sounded like that a bit on the show too). At least in the Solanae stuff. Granted, he does better on the Klingon arcs. But Jeri Ryan sounds spot on.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
The guy caved in after two replies from his daughter every time and she didn't even reply "violently".
It's basically:
"-Don't do the thing!
-I'm gonna do the thing!
-I told you not to do the thing!
-I told you I'm gonna do the thing.
-Okay, let's do the thing! Your mom taught you well."
I think that's because Jeri Ryan was given this one instruction on how to play Seven in the show: "Be as wooden as possible".
my initial thought is that boy this guy really phoned it in, but I don't think that's it
my guess is that the character tom paris was ne'er do well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne%27er-do-well) made good but always a bit of a "rebel". sure, he comes through in the end but he's still a malcontent character that's going to go his own way and do something different in the end.
we never saw the character evolve into someone who would ever become someone who would end up in the star fleet officer hierarchy, so it's too much of a stretch to see him in this role
and/or there were disconnects in communication between the actor and the people handling the actor and trying to explain to him what they wanted
and/or it was just too complex, it's quite a leap from the old character with not much to go on, no character evolution to work with, that is difficult for actors
and/or the actor simply aged-out of the role. the guy who played data said that he simply could not play that character any more, no way no how. not only because he has physically aged, but because he could no longer get in touch with the character of data - which according to him had some kind of childlike innocence or naivete
I think it's more of a consistency thing
like, "is what I'm seeing and hearing ... is that the character? or could it be after so many years?"
the people who played harry kim and the borg women, I'd have to say they nailed it, especially the harry kim guy, I never liked the character the way it was written, but I'd have to say the actor hit the mark
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Well,he has two things going for him in STO:
1) More experience as an actor
2) A writing team that really wanted to do something with his character specifically.
I don't know how much 1 was an issue back then, but 2 was certainly a big problem in VOY.
The Doctor wasn't the Doctor...by the end of Voyager, he was arrogant. In STO, he'd turned into a wet wimp.
Seven was again a cold fish, although I personally preferred her that way.
I think it's two issues, really:
1. Robert Duncan McNeil has pretty much retired from acting, so I think it's a combination of being rusty and phoning it in.
2. The writing is... a little clunky. Not terrible, but a little forced and ham-fisted, at times.
VO work is hard work, and some actors can't quite get it. I think Crosby, Dorn, Ryan, and Tim Russ have done pretty well (although, Ryan and Russ play their characters with deadpan, anyway). If the actor is enthusiastic about the role, then they'll likely succeed. If they're experienced in VO, then they'll likely succeed. I got the sense from his interview that McNeil was pleased to be a part of STO, but I wouldn't classify him as "enthusiastic."
never thought he was "off" as an actor in voyager, the writing seemed off in some way, it's been a while since I've seen it
the STO stuff was a nice surprise, both writing and acting
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
gung-ho:
Extremely enthusiastic or zealous: He was gung-ho about going on a vacation to the beach.
Gun hoe:
A scantily clad woman who is always seen with a weapon in her hands, usually one that is larger then her and incredibly unwieldy.
I don't want to troll here, but i really hope that this voyager "episodes" are over in a forseeable time. Really, no offense guys. (Voy never was one my fav series, infact it is the least one in my opinion.)
After doing the Delta Q missions for the third time (and i know i'm going to do another run with another character) i really learned to dislike them and everything voyager even more. The only good thing about it is that they didn't get Kate Mulgrew as voice actor, that would have been too much for me, lol. (you can't do that with an old man like me anymore)
I'd really like to see some other people and another ships(!) instead.
I think RDM sounded MUCH more natural and Tom Paris-y in the interview portion posted the other day.
but
I still love you RDM!!!
When asked what he thought the character would be doing in the time frame that the game adds his character in, he suggested more of a teaching role and self redemption perspective. That doesn't necessarily take him out of a captains seat, nor keep him from designing new ships. That would be more of an appropriate path of redemption for a rebel like character who also engineered a high performance shuttle, so a combination teaching/ship engineering job with starfleet still fits.
There seems to exist the possibility that RDMs lack of enthusiasm may also be connected to how he feels his old character should have been scripted. Even with the personality issues that would arise in such a situation... even with the incident on an earlier fed side mission with a hostage situation, it seems like even RDM didn't feel that the Admiral Tom Paris didn't naturally flow with the Tom Paris of the Voyager series.
an actor is going to have insight to a character that viewers don't have, both in being the character and going threw the process of being directed to preform that character as well as an actor who has experience in acting. The actor ends up going through a lot of dialog that gets the actor a certain perspective and insight to the character and that characters nature, that would not be noticed by others, because a lot of things that make the character don't show up on the script of a show, and other things that could have alluded to that characters personality sometimes get cut from the final cut of the show.
the possibility exist that the apparent lack of enthusiasm, maybe the result of seeing major differences between what the directors of the Voyager Series wanted and the Directors of STO wanted could be vastly different enough that a certain element of disappointment and concern of the characters integrity was not held up real well. This possible conflict may exist.
Wow, you took this way, way, way too seriously for this level of analysis. It's a video game based on a TV show. Get outside! :eek:
comon, we all go outside and we're all geeks/nerds/dorks/whatever in some way, so no calling "out"
get in the spirit of it, it's just character analysis, so to speak. anyone doing something creative gets into it, either all in their heads like some authors, or talking about it for collaborative stuff