Paris, Torres, and Kim believe they've found a way to break the Warp 10 barrier, a limit beyond which one's infinite speed leads you to occupy all points in the universe simultaneously. Seeing a potential route home (and his name in the history books), Paris conducts an apparently successful test flight... only to begin a rapid and frightening mutation.
I am not here to offer a full-throated defense of "Threshold." It's not a good episode of Star Trek: Voyager. But I think there actually isn't much wrong with it that's not wrong with most Voyager episodes -- at least, until the last five minutes.
The episode does try to connect with Star Trek history in ways that no doubt rub the purist/purest fans the wrong way. Warp 10 is the "transwarp barrier," we're told. Any higher Warp factors that we heard on the original series must have been using a different scale or something. (From The Next Generation on, anyway, they were consistent on this point.) Was Excelsior's "Transwarp drive" from Star Trek III really supposed to be capable of crossing the threshold? Would it have actually worked if Scotty hadn't sabotaged it?
"Threshold" also does disservice to several characters, though not in new and uncharacteristic ways. Neelix once again forces himself into conversation, and even the other characters try to shoo him off from the adults talking. (The audience is going to take its cues from the other characters. If they don't like Neelix, why should we?) As Paris comes unraveled, more of the unsavory characteristics they've been slowly purging from his writing come roaring back: he whines endlessly about how bad he's had it in life (when the truth is, he's probably the most privileged character on the show), he wants Kes to kiss him (haven't we gotten over that?), he babbles about losing his virginity. The Doctor backslides enormously in his bedside manner -- though this at least leads to multiple genuinely funny moments throughout the episode.
Yes, there's a lot here that doesn't quite make sense, but it whips by fast enough that to me, it's not really asking for more suspension of disbelief than any other Star Trek episode, good or bad. That they skip the obvious step of an unmanned transwarp test flight is obviously just a function of the episode's time constraints. That Paris "evolves" into an apparently unintelligent life form is a bit weird, but sure, whatever.
But really, until those last five minutes, I'd say the only thing truly wrong with "Threshold" is that it lacks courage in its convictions. This is a story clearly inspired by the movie The Fly, and it does deliver us some body horror moments as gross as broadcast television could probably allow in 1996: Paris' head breathes (a fantastic bit of makeup), and he rips out his own tongue on screen. Robert Duncan McNeill does a pretty credible job selling all this wild stuff too. But the director doesn't embrace any typical horror camera techniques. The lighting is the same as always. The musical score hasn't gotten the "we're making a horror movie" memo either.
Then those last five minutes make such a lasting impression. Ultimately, this isn't remembered as the episode where Paris faces his Daddy issues, or Jeff Goldblums around in creepy makeup. It's not remembered as the episode where the first hints of a romance between B'Elanna and Tom are planted. It's the episode where Paris turns into a salamander and has salamander babies with Captain Janeway.
What. The. Hell.
There's no Venn diagram where "able to still operate a shuttle" and "driven by raw animal lust" credibly overlap. There's no way to forgive the decision to abandon three lizard babies on a strange planet somewhere to keep on Trekking. There's no way to look at the Doctor's ability to restore Paris and Janeway as anything other than magic.
And on that last point in particular -- the Doctor does restore them. So how is this not a viable means of returning home? I understand if transwarp technology doesn't transform the entire Federation here; you can't "de-salamander" after every trip you take somewhere. But in this special situation, this one time, why not take the whole ship home and then quickly deal with the medical consequences?
Let's say that with little warning, the entire life you knew was upended, and you were suddenly cut off from the people you loved and the things you liked to do. For an entire year, you got by, hoping for a return to normal. Then, a solution appears. It's a solution that has you not feeling like yourself for perhaps a day, but through a modern medical marvel, it will be okay if you just go through with it. How crazy a decision would it be not to take the goddamn vaccine cross the transwarp barrier?!
Other observations:
- Paris has to describe what being everywhere at once is like, because of course there is no practical way to show it.
- I like that they're keeping the "Jonas is a traitor" story line alive... though it is a little wild that he's still scheming with the Kazon when it looks as though they may have found a way home.
- There's a great moment where the Doctor almost touches Kes' shoulder for reassurance, then thinks better of it. It's a great acting choice by Robert Picardo.
Yes, the ending of this episode is cuckoo bananas. But if you consider the entire hour as a whole, I just don't think this is the worst hour of Star Trek: Voyager. It's not even the worst hour of Voyager so far -- "Elogium" is so much worse as a script (and made watchable only by Herculean acting efforts by Jennifer Lien). Will I ever watch "Threshold" again after this? Almost certainly not. But still, I think it's fair to call it a C-. Better to be wild than boring.
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