star trek warp 10 lizard

Star Trek: Voyager's Weirdest Episode Answered What Happens If You Hit Warp 10

Star Trek: Voyager's "Threshold" stands as one of the weirdest entries in the whole franchise, but it found a strange way to answer a big question.

Star Trek: Voyager had a habit of swinging for the fences with its more high-concept episodes. When they succeeded, they created some of the series’ high points and helped put its own unique stamp in the Star Trek franchise. These included episodes like Season 2, Episode 24, “Tuvix,” which posed serious ethical questions in unique and fascinating ways. However, not every episode could hit the delicate balance required for that, and when they failed, the Voyager  got weird, such as when answering what happens when hitting warp 10.

Season 2, Episode 15, “Threshold,” explores that question. Presented as a mystery, it builds to a reveal involving giant salamanders and easy sex jokes. It’s particularly odd considering it surrounds one of the staples of Star Trek ’s lexicon: warp speed . The moment could have defined one of Star Trek ’s key pieces of technology. Instead, it’s become a shining example of the franchise at its goofiest.

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According to the franchise’s rules, warp factors exponentially increase speed. For instance, a ship traveling at warp 6 moves more than twice as fast as it would at warp 5, which is more than twice as fast as warp 4 and so on. The barrier to that is warp 10, a point where, as Harry Kim explains, an object touches all points in the universe simultaneously. After the ship discovers refined dilithium on a new planet, Tom Paris thinks he can use it to hit warp 10 and bring Voyager home to Earth in an instant.

The episode makes an obvious nod to Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier. Tom’s increasingly fixated efforts to cross the barrier reflect a disregard for the potential safety problems. “Threshold's” early scenes play that tension well, as Tom, Harry and B’Elanna first test their theories in the holodeck before Tom ventures out in a shuttle to break the barrier himself. The science is shaky, even for Star Trek, but the suspense admirably builds, and the dialogue plants just enough hints about some kind of Frankensteinian consequences should Paris succeed. That helps the episode skirt around its omnipresent Gilligan’s Island question: the audience knows that Tom will fail since Voyager can’t return home just yet. The tension comes in what his flight will do to him.

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Positing the question isn’t the episode’s problem. That comes with the answer, which “Threshold” at first seeks to defer in favor of more suspense. Tom’s flight succeeds, but it has untold effects on him, resulting in a slow transformation into a seemingly amphibious humanoid with a good deal of body horror included to keep the tension high. The word “quantum” floats around the entire episode, another term Star Trek often uses as a catch-all explanation for whatever concept it wants to explore, but the change still comes out of left field. It lacks any causal connections to Paris’s flight and turns its intriguing mystery into an utterly ridiculous one.

But it gets worse. As the physiological changes take hold, Paris abducts Captain Janeway and returns to the shuttle to repeat his warp 10 feat. The crew finds them three days later on an uninhabited jungle planet, transformed into six-foot-long salamanders. Moreover, they have bred, and their spawns are found nearby. Chakotay stuns them and returns them to the ship -- leaving their offspring behind -- while the Doctor restores them to their human forms. They simply remark how little of the experience they remember, and the ship flies on to the next Voyager  episode.

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The disposable nature of the entire affair is the last touch for a concept that had gone wildly astray long before. The salamanders' nature and their connection to Paris’ flight are never mentioned, nor is the fact that they simply abandoned their genetic offspring to the wild without a second thought. Considering the way “Threshold” builds up the monumental achievement of breaking warp 10 -- Paris is compared to Zefram Cochrane and the Wright Brothers -- the nonchalance with which it tosses aside Tom’s success and his subsequent transformation are stunning. That extends to the elephant in the room: the fact that Paris and Janeway mated and conceived of children as giant salamanders, which the crew accepts without a second thought.

Terms like “best” and “worst” don’t really apply to episodes like “Threshold.” From an objective standpoint, it’s terrible. However, its terrible qualities come in such a freakish and unanticipated way that they become selling points in and of themselves. It’s ridiculous but lovable in its own way, no different than any of the other occasions that the franchise’s sillier side came out. Although, that doesn’t save it from its sheer head-scratching quality, leaving it the “ Spock’s Brain ” of Voyager and a contender for one of Star Trek ’s all-time weirdest episodes.

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Episode aired Jan 29, 1996

Tom's attempt to cross the time warp threshold and make a name for himself results in rapid physical mutation. Tom's attempt to cross the time warp threshold and make a name for himself results in rapid physical mutation. Tom's attempt to cross the time warp threshold and make a name for himself results in rapid physical mutation.

• Alexander Singer
• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
• Roxann Dawson
• 38 User reviews
• 6 Critic reviews

• Capt. Kathryn Janeway

• Cmdr. Chakotay

• Lt. B'Elanna Torres
• (as Roxann Biggs-Dawson)

• Lt. Tom Paris

• Ensign Harry Kim

• Michael Jonas

• Voyager Computer
• Operations Division Officer
• (uncredited)

• Ensign Culhane
• Hyper-evolved Reptile

• William McKenzie
• Michael Piller (showrunner)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Robert Duncan McNeill helped refine the episode's conclusion. "I helped them rewrite the episode's final scene. I did not feel the original story ended very well. I was pleased because I got to have some input into how to resolve the story."
• Goofs At one point during his mutation, Tom removes his tongue, impairing his speech as a result; yet, when he asks the Doctor later to release him from sickbay, he clearly says "please." Without a tongue, he wouldn't be able to produce an 'L'. Also, his tongue can actually be seen on several occasions during that scene.

The Doctor : [examining the unconscious Paris] From what I can tell, he's just... asleep.

The Doctor : Can you wake him?

The Doctor : I don't see why not.

[bends down to Paris]

The Doctor : WAKE UP, LIEUTENANT!

• Connections Featured in The Toys That Made Us: Star Trek (2018)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title (uncredited) Written by Jerry Goldsmith Performed by Jay Chattaway

User reviews 38

• brianjohnson-20043
• Feb 20, 2021
• January 29, 1996 (United States)
• United States
• Official Site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 46 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Kate Mulgrew, Robert McNeill, And Garrett Wang Revisit “Threshold,” That Infamous ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Episode

| November 25, 2020 | By: Laurie Ulster 33 comments so far

Ask a fan to name one of the worst episodes in Star Trek history, and Voyager ’s “Threshold” is bound to come up almost immediately. This much-maligned second-season episode, later described by its writer Brannon Braga as “ a royal, steaming stinker ,” is famous for what happens after Tom Paris crosses the Warp 10 threshold: He transforms into a monstrous creature, then kidnaps Captain Janeway and takes her to a planet where they turn into salamanders and have babies before they’re rescued and restored. There was even an action figure from Playmates , complete with three lizard babies, described on the package as “mutant offspring.”

Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill finally got to “Threshold” in the latest episode of their weekly podcast The Delta Flyers , where they are making their way through the entire series in chronological order. Earlier this year McNeill told TrekMovie that while he was happy with his work on “Threshold,” it was the only episode he wasn’t looking forward to discussing, but Wang rightly pointed out that fans likely felt the opposite.

Kate Mulgrew joined the pair with some extra commentary in the Patreon-only section of the podcast to reminisce about filming her scenes and speculate on how salamanders might copulate. Here are some of the highlights of their lively discussion, including the audio from the non-Patreon part of Robbie and Garrett’s discussion.

The award-winning makeup had its challenges

Mulgrew asked (sincerely) if the episode had won “a lot of awards,” and while McNeill joked that it won the award for “maybe the worst episode of Star Trek: Voyager ever made,” it did, in fact, win an Emmy for Outstanding Makeup for a Series—and the episode deserved it.

From McNeill’s description of filming his scenes as Tom Paris mutated, it sounds like he should’ve shared in that award along with Michael Westmore and his team. None of it was easy, starting with the menthol that was blown into his eyes to irritate them so they’d be bloodshot.

McNeill reported that when he filmed the scenes where he was losing his ability to breathe in Voyager’s atmosphere, it triggered his sense memories of having asthma attacks. He imitated them as a way to get into the scene, but his body picked up on what he was doing and he started to have the anxiety and tightness in his chest that always accompanied his attacks, so severely that rewatching it brought back all those feelings vividly. (In fact, he had once had an attack so severe during a different episode that they had to delay filming so he could go to the hospital.)

He also said it was difficult to act once the makeup reached its peak.

They had tubes that went down my legs, and they were sitting on the floor, like three feet away from me, literally they were going (blows), blowing these bladder balloons. So all I could hear inside of the rubber, I could barely hear the actors, I looked at their lips moving.

As for the horror movie-type scene where Paris’ tongue fell off:

That tongue was made of silicone. But then they put some other jelly, red, like Jell-O, so that it looked like it was sort of just collapsing or falling apart. So I did have some red Jell-O, and I had that silicone tongue, rubber tongue, had to get in my mouth… it was a lot of stuff for that tongue coming out.

And then for the final touch, he used an inky black mouthwash right before they filmed, so the inside of his mouth would appear black—and his real tongue would be harder to see.

Not just character mutation, but character evolution

Despite the episode’s bad reputation, Robbie and Garrett had some positive opinions on it. Wang thoughtfully pointed out that there was more to the changes in Paris than what was seen on the outside as they discussed how Tom changed over the course of the series. McNeill said he “came into the series embodying a lot of toxic masculinity” and Wang said this was embodied in the scene where Paris monologues from his sickbay bed. “You see the vestiges of the toxic masculinity even in this scene,” he said, bringing up Paris’ memories of crying alone as a kid and being told crying was a weakness by his father. ‘This is definitely a transitional phase for Paris to become more of a complete human being,” Wang summed up.

McNeill agreed, and admitted he relished the opportunity to stretch his acting chops.

My memory of making the episode, because I got to play the Elephant Man in a way, I got to play this transformation, this larger-than-life operatic story of the entire character changing, and dying, and coming back to life, and seeing things, having this acid-trip kind of revelations, my memory was, it was a lot of fun to act in. SO it was really satisfying for me as an actor.

Kate Mulgrew talks salamander copulation

Kate Mulgrew made her Delta Flyers debut (on Patreon only) and started off joking over their choice of episodes to discuss.

I was thinking about this last night as I put my little head on the pillow. Of ALL the episodes you could ask me to join you in conversation about, of everything we did together, every conceivable adventure, confrontation, peril, right? You choose “Threshold.” The story of Lt. Paris and Captain Janeway having lizards.

After their enthusiastic YES, she went on.

I didn’t think it was our finest moment, Robbie, but since we’re going to be talking about it, let’s extoll its virtues, okay? Locked in a turbolift with Robbie McNeill is something akin to delightful alcoholism, I should think. Because no aspect of it was based in reality of any kind.

She says she had fun–not always the case for her, given the grueling schedule–and confessed that her makeup had to be reapplied many times because McNeill kept making her laugh, reporting that it was his entire modus operandi as she was “..trying desperately to give birth to 25 lizards.”

While they made fun of the episode, they all acknowledged their admiration and respect for writer Brannon Braga and director Alexander Singer. Mulgrew’s theory is that the team had had so much pressure on them for the first season and a half that they needed a break of sorts, and that’s what they were trying to do with “Threshold,” but “…in so doing everybody lost their mind.”

Mulgrew asked where Harry was during all of this, since Ensign Kim wasn’t, as McNeill thought he should be, “sobbing inconsolably” in Sickbay as Paris suffered and died; she told Wang he must have been “off on your shuttlecraft, looking for the lizards that had escaped.”

Amidst all their laughter, McNeill said that he thought there was a “grain of a really interesting science fiction idea” in there, about becoming one with the universe simultaneously, describing it as “ kind of like an acid trip, in a way, I would imagine.”

“I think if we’re going to be very frank, I would’ve preferred an acid trip,” Kate replied, cracking up her co-stars. “That’s very lofty thinking.”

Who says romance is dead?

Wang pointed out “Threshold” was significant for being the only episode where Captain Janeway has sex, albeit as a salamander.

This is the first time and probably the only time that she has that. And also later, when you guys are back to human form… you’re both in Sickbay, and he looks at you very sheepishly, and he’s like, “Um, yeah, I’m sorry.” ‘Cause he still has knowledge that he had the intercourse with you. And then you, Kate, you look back at Robbie, you say, “Well you know, it’s  all right, Mister Paris, but you do know that in a lot of different species, it’s the female that initiates the intercourse.” … It was almost, to me, a flirtation.

“That’s exactly right,” said Mulgrew. “Janeway did have a sense of humor, Garrett. And she often expressed it with Lieutenant Paris.”

“But,” she added, “ it does beg the question: I know that scientists will answer this… has anybody actually seen salamanders copulating? Have you guys ever actually witnessed it?”

McNeill chimed in, amidst their laughter, with “I will admit I did not do that research, Kate.”

Mulgrew doubled up.

I don’t think they copulate in any kind of way that could be confused with sexual intercourse. I don’t think there’s a great deal of, shall we say, foreplay.

“Tenderness, no,” posited McNeill, as Mulgrew ran with it:

Romantic pep talk? Erotic suggestions? I think they just slither on, and slither off.

Janeway and Paris, slithering

Listen to The Delta Flyers on “Threshold”

For more exclusive interviews plus an extended version of the podcast and more, become a Patreon subscriber .

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TOS : Spocks Brain TNG : Shades of Gray DS9 : Fascination VOY : Threshold DSC : * no comment *

ENT: “A Night in Sickbay”

But “Threshold” really isn’t the worst episode of Voyager by far, I’d but quite a few others in its place.

Oh i forgot ENT definitely Storm Front 1 and 2 !

I’d have to say “Once Upon a Time” is the worst.

Agreed on DSC. DSC has been very good so far.

For Enterprise, the Klingon Retrovirus eps were just horrible — the fan service was so obvious and forced.

TNG — Encounter at Farpoint and Unification — not that they were the worst, but given they were hyped so much, they were just such a disappointing letdown that it bothers me to this day.

TOS: Spocks Brain – yeah, that’s really a no brainer! :-D

TNG: why does everyone have issues with Shades of Gray? I loved all the flashbacks when I first saw it. Sure, it’s not the most creative kind of money-saving show, but I didn’t realize it at the time, and so I still like it. I’d probably pick Code Of Honor instead, though even that isn’t totally bad. In fact I’m rewatching season 1 right now, and I don’t find it nearly as bad as I thought it was…

DS9: haven’t watched alle episodes yet, so I don’t know about Fascination right now, but probably something from the first two seasons. Or anything with Sisko without the beard and with hair ;-)

VOY: agreed, there are a lot of episodes that are worse than Threshold. Sure, the salamander stuff is goofy, but the warp 10 concept was interesting, and overall it was done very well, I would say.

ENT: hmm, yeah, probably A Night in Sickbay, though that’s a nice Phlox story. Storm Front was hilarious, though, so probably that.

DSC: almost every episode, sorry.

I’d imagine Shades of Grey works better on the first run through the series but afterthat its utterly pointless and totally skipable. The thing is, a bottle show could have been done in far more original ways without any need for any SFX. Something maybe like a courtroom drama episode or a an episode where Picard sits in his quarters and talks about his life for 40 minutes to Wesley or something lol…

TOS: Spock’s Brain TNG: Code of Honor DS9: Move Along Home VOY: Threshold ENT: A Night in Sickbay DSC: *jury still out*

There, fixed your list “Tim”

Trek Worst List…

TOS: And the Children Shall Lead TNG: Sub Rosa DS9: Profit and Lace VOY: Threshold ENT: Unexpected DSC: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum PIC: The End is the Beginning LDS: Moist Vessel

Agree with And the Children Shall Lead. Spocks Brain is stupid, but it’s kind of silly good.

But Threshold is the worst

For me, the worst Voyager episode was Tsunkatse. The network was using the show as a blatant promo for The Rock.

So, Warp 9.99 is still the speed limit in the 32nd century, or are anti-mutation shields standard issue?

It looks like they use quantum slipstream technology now.

For me personally, the episode would have been do much better off what they were apparently trying to discuss, really occured. I mean for all these astonishing situations (crossing warp 10, unifying with Universe, dying, resurrection, turning info something completely different) informed character growth. I’m often saying that Star Trek isn’t a soap opera, it shouldn’t rely so hard on characters backstory, romances (like Discovery did on the first season or two), because no matter how good the characters are they shouldn’t be overshadowing what the franchise is (should) be about – you know – STAR TREK. By the way – DS9 is for me not an exception, because I consider it to be a great seria, my beloved one amongst those under ST name, but still – not a good Star Trek. With all that said – if you are having an episode od sci-fi where a single character goes through all those great SF situations, you need some context for them to work to make viewers think about how that could be transitioned to human condition. Threshold doesn’t give you enough of this on this almost Kafka’esque story and this is, in my opinion, why it gets what it deserves on the discussion boards.

This episode was awkward but I liked it.

If Tom Paris’ insubordinations are so-called “male toxicity”, maybe someone can enlighten me what to call Michael Burnham’s far more consequential insubordinations (not to forget her stereotypical inability to keep her emotions in-check, as behooves a professional officer and scientist)? At least Tom Paris didn’t start a mutiny that resulted in an interstellar war…

Um… not his insubordinations. More his constant hitting on women, which started in the very first episode. I recommend you listen to the Delta Flyers podcast, Garrett and Robbie have a great conversation about it.

Other than Thirty Days when was Paris insubordinate? That whole Season 2 arc was all a subterfuge, he wasn’t really being insubordinate.

I love Voyager and her crew to death but Threshold makes Spock’s Brain look like an Emmy winning episode. It’s just SO bad! I’ve only seen it twice to this day.

But these guys, Mulgrew especially, seem to have a good laugh about it. It’s nice they can just reminisce about the more awful stuff and not sound bitter about it.

Well, I’ve never got that hatred for “Threshold”. It was a mediocre, paint-by-numbers episode, forgettable and bland, but it’s not nearly as bad as some people want into to be. The worst episode was “Course: Oblivion”. I simply couldn’t stand the bleak, depressive resolution.

As for TOS: “Spock’s Brain” is campy fun but also by far not the worst of them. I really disliked “The Omega Glory” and “Plato’s Stepchildren”, though that kiss made TV history. But actually I liked “And the Children Shall Lead”. It has a certain “Children of the Corn” feeling, decades before those movies were made.

TNG… I don’t know. “Shades of Grey” was a filler with flashbacks that came for too early to be effective. I would have loved to see this in Year 7 with all of the series being covered. But again, it wasn’t bad at all. There are hardly any superbad TNG episodes. I like “Sub Rosa”. It’s not great but not bad either. I wasn’t a big fan of “Lessons”, but it wasn’t a stinker, just not particularly interesting.

ENT… Sickbay is okay with me. The worst disappointment was “These Are the Voyages” but only because they made it the series finale. As a standalone entry, it would have been quite neat.

DSC… Not a big fan of the rushed S1 finale but again, not a total loss. I have no DSC episode I totally dislike though I take issues with some scenes, especially the excessively bloody ones.

PIC… That’s why I hate “Stardust City Rag” for it’s Icheb opener.

Wow. I think Course: Oblivion is excellent. Especially on first watch, when we didn’t know what was going on. Parallel universe? Bad dream? I never saw the link to Demon coming.

Am I the only one who actually really liked this episode? I remember I watched it several times.

Very possibly, yes. I’ve never seen a “worst episode ever” list where Threshold was not near the top.

I loved A Night in Sickbay on ENT, thought it was a fun episode!

It was okay. I never understood the hate for it, either. It is just kinda there, neither good nor bad IMHO.

It’s not completely true that this is the only episode where Janeway has sex. In Fair Haven she most likely has sex with one of the holodeck characters, Sullivan. Chakotay even admits to having sex on the holodeck himself! And now that I’m thinking about this there’s another epispode… Janeway and some of the crew are abducted and brainwashed in two parter Workforce. Janeway meets a co-worker, Jaffen (love that name!), and decides to move in with him. I mean, c’mon! Either way, she has her fun more than once on the show. While sexuality is not required to make a show good, I think it’s good for her character and the show.

Definitely in Workforce! But that hadn’t happened yet, so I guess this is the FIRST time on the show? (I love Workforce.)

As it happens, Salamander “foreplay”, which in this case means things the male does to get the female ready to mate, is much longer than typical human foreplay. But it’s instinctive in nature, we can’t really say it’s “fun” for them.

The dumbest part is that because the condition was reversible, they could have adapted the ship, went home, and reversed it.

Don’t know why Voyager got a bad rep in Trek social circles. Was the best out the lot of them. I even thought there would be a spin off series when she meets the Federation Timeship of the future. Not just boldly going in space but also in time. I would’ve watched that. Big up all the cast and Crew of the USS Voyager.. Cmon guys. Enuf reminiscing. As old as they are now, I’d still watch new episodes any day. 😉

For me, the worst episode of Voyager is “The Fight”. It was the only episode that was such a struggle to get through. Interesting idea, but the execution was just awful. I felt embarrassed for the actors, especially Chakotay

I think I agree with you! I hated “The Fight” and “False Profits.” Those were the weakest ones in my book. “Threshold” is still entertaining, and Robert Duncan McNeill did a great job with it.

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Recap / Star Trek: Voyager S2E15 "Threshold"

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Here lies Thomas Eugene Paris. Beloved mutant.

This episode provides examples of

• Aliens Made Them Do It : Paris and Janeway are accidentally transformed into nonsapient animals, mate and produce a litter of offspring. Probably the most bizarre way of getting two main characters to make out in sci-fi history!
• Artistic License – Biology : The episode features a notoriously bad depiction of evolution . According to the script, not only can individual beings evolve into a completely different form, but the path of that evolution is laid out by fate.
• The Atoner : Tom thinks that being the first to breach the Warp 10 barrier will make up for his being a failure in life.
• Big "NO!" : Tom shouts one as he begins his transformation.
• Body Horror : Paris's mutation causes his DNA to break down, gradually making him look less human and more alien. At one point, he spits out his tongue , thus making talking difficult for him. Unsurprisingly, the episode won the Emmy for Best Makeup Effects.
• Contrived Coincidence : Warp 10, according to this episode, makes you somehow everywhere in the universe at once. So how convenient that Tom rematerializes right back near the ship! And on mutant!Tom's second attempt with Janeway, they just wind up on a nearby planet, makin' salamander babies.
• Cool Ship : The squat Type 6 shuttlecraft is replaced by the sleek Class 2, dubbed the 'Speedboat Shuttle' by the production staff and fans.
• Creator Provincialism : Janeway says Tom will be joining the likes of Orville Wright, Neil Armstrong, and Zephram Cochrane. Many viewers noted the oddity of her not mentioning the actual first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Not to mention that all of these are Humans.
• Danger Room Cold Open : The episode opens with Tom in a shuttlecraft that breaks up as he hits the Threshold. We then cut to Tom sitting on the floor of the holodeck . B'Elanna: You're dead.
• Death Is Cheap : Tom dies, his cells so damaged the Doctor doesn't try to revive him past the first attempt . Then he comes back to life again. He and Janeway mutate into lower lifeforms and are brought back to perfect health.

• Easily Forgiven : Tom Paris because he was literally Not Himself at the time, what with being a catfish and all. As for the kids, Janeway jokes that it might have been her idea.

• Famous, Famous, Fictional : Janeway tells Tom that by being the first man to breach the Warp 10 barrier, he'll be joining the ranks of Orville Wright, Neil Armstrong, and Zefram Cochrane. This case differs from the usual trope in that Cochrane is from already established Trek canon (he invented the warp drive on Earth, and thus the Vulcans decided it was time for First Contact ), rather than a completely made-up name.
• Foreshadowing : Janeway says that the ability to fly at warp 10 will change the nature of humanity's existence. Yeah, turning into a catfish will do that...
• Forgotten Phlebotinum : Even ignoring the lizard-fication, it's mentioned that the experimental shuttle's computers were jam-packed with helpful navigation aids and maps — which are never mentioned again.
• Formerly Sapient Species : Tom Paris's "accelerated evolution" into a non-sapient salamander-like creature. The writer of this episode has stated that his idea was that in the distant future, humanity would evolve beyond the need for sapience due to technology providing for all our material needs.
• FTL Test Blunder : Paris figures out transwarp traveling, which might get the ship back to the Alpha Quadrant. After a seemingly successful test, he has an allergic reaction to water and starts de-evolving into a salamander/lizard/catfish creature. And then things get very weird.
• Golden Moment : At the end of the episode, Tom realises that doing something famous is not going to solve his issues.
• Gone Horribly Wrong : Just for starters, Tom, upon returning to the ship, becomes allergic to water. Somehow, it goes downhill from there.
• If I Do Not Return : Tom's last words before he (temporarily) dies. Tom: Do me a favor. When I'm gone, call Starfleet Headquarters and tell Dad that I did it. Tell him...
• I Just Want to Be Special : What drives Tom into this whole mess.
• Impossible Genius : Quite a few reviewers wondered why the crew didn't just transwarp back to the Alpha Quadrant regardless , given the Doctor's miraculous ability to restore them from an amphibious state. Though given the stress the transwarp flight put on the shuttle, it's possible Voyager wouldn't have survived.
• The Infinite : Tom Paris designs and builds an engine to go To Infinity And Beyond!! As a drive the infinite turns out to be improbable though.
• Just Think of the Potential! : Why, they could get home instantaneously, change space travel forever, but most of all, let Tom work out his daddy issues!
• Last Kiss : Tom asks for a last kiss from Kes, but she points out that he'll die if they let down the medical forcefield. After Tom dies anyway, a distraught Kes kisses him on the cheek.
• Subverted when we find the reason Tom found Neelix's special blend so disgusting is that he's allergic to the water due to the changes in his body.
• Ludicrous Speed : Doesn't even begin to describe it.
• Men Don't Cry : According to Admiral Paris, apparently. Tom doesn't buy it.
• Mistaken for Gay Tom: Kiss me! Doctor: What?! Tom: (indicating Kes) Not you! Her!
• The Mole : Judas...err Jonas transmits details of the Warp 10 experiments to the Kazon. Unfortunately they didn't turn themselves into catfish trying it out.
• Tom is shouting "I'm breaking up!" accompanied by Explosive Instrumentation , then we Smash Cut to B'Elanna and Harry looking bored on the holodeck, with Tom sitting on the floor.
• Tom himself is this In-Universe ; he goes from afraid to angry, to meek and pleading then back to belligerent again, sometimes mid-sentence.
• Mundane Solution : After the Doctor confirms Tom is only unconscious, Janeway says to wake him up. Instead of the expected hypospray of stimulant, Doc leans down to his ear and shouts, "Wake up, Lieutenant!"
• Not Himself : Mutant!Tom lashes out verbally at Captain Janeway, accusing her of wanting him dead as he's an embarrassing failure.
• Ominous Hair Loss : Right after coming back from the dead, Tom finds himself losing clumps of hair, the prelude to the next stage of his mutation.
• Our Dark Matter Is Mysterious : One of Neelix's anecdotes about losing a nacelle passing through a dark matter nebula gives Tom and Harry inspiration to finish their transwarp drive.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here : Chakotay, having retrieved Janeway and Paris, apparently decides this about the lizard babies.
• Ship Tease : This episode marks the first time its hinted that B'Elanna may be starting to consider Tom more than a crewmate.
• Passing through all points of the universe simultaneously, causing ridiculous things to happen, sounds a lot like the Infinite Improbability Drive . Well, it did turn Ford into a penguin... but he got better.
• Tom comes back to life with a changed face and two hearts .
• Snark-to-Snark Combat Paris: You're losing me, aren't you? I'm going to die. Doctor: You're too stubborn to die, Mr Paris. Paris: Here lies Thomas Eugene Paris. Beloved mutant. Doctor: A fitting epitaph, but I don't intend to let you use it just yet.
• Snowy Screen of Death : Mutant!Tom's escape is only shown by Doc and Kes watching it on the viewscreen . Phaser beams can be seen cutting across Engineering until one knocks out the screen.
• Swiss-Cheese Security : Tom is able to break out of his chamber, take out the security officers guarding him, screw up the internal sensors, abduct Captain Janeway and steal the Warp 10 modified shuttle without any problems. And all this after Tuvok promised Janeway there wouldn't be any more shuttle-stealing incidents in " Maneuvers ".
• Tainted Veins : When Tom first collapses in the canteen.
• Take Our Word for It : The mutated Tom breaks out of his restraints and starts a huge fight with the security team. None of this event makes it on-screen. Instead we have Torres telling the Doctor what is happening.
• Techno Babble : When Tom and Harry have their "Eureka!" Moment . Neelix: I have no idea what they just said.
• That Didn't Happen : Chakotay wonders how the hell he's going to explain in the log that a Starfleet officer abducted the captain, evolved into a lower lifeform and had babies with her. Captain Janeway however takes the matter in stride, suggesting the sex might have been her idea.
• Timey-Wimey Ball : Implied with Tom's incoherent explanations. "The present, the past, they're both in the future. The future is in the past."
• Title Drop : "I'm approaching the Threshold!"
• Too Much Information : Tom discusses how he lost his virginity at 17 while his parents were out of the house. Doctor: I'll...note that in your medical log.
• Too Strange to Show : What Past-Warp-10 looks like. We only see Tom's face when he does it the first time, and the second time, we only see the multi-colored streaks of hundreds and thousands of stars streaking by at super-warp, before the screen fades entirely to white.
• Touch of the Monster : Mutant!Tom carrying Janeway in his arms as he places her in the shuttle.
• Unable to Cry : Tom says that B'Elanna won't be crying at his funeral as she never cries.
• Weaksauce Weakness : Super-evolved catfish things get put down pretty quickly by basic phaser fire.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy : Tom's last words before he dies are to let his father know he crossed the Threshold.
• What Happened to the Mouse? : We see the mutant children of Tom and Janeway enter the slimy pool and...they're never mentioned again.
• Whole-Plot Reference : Brannon Braga wrote the episode as a homage to David Cronenberg 's The Fly .
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form : Tom finds it difficult to explain what traveling through every point in the universe is like.
• You Talk Too Much! : Not imminent death, mutation, or even the loss of a tongue stops Tom from rambling away. Tom: Doctor, I need to talk! Doctor: So I've noticed.

Chakotay: I... don't know how I'm going to enter this into the log. Tuvok: I look forward to reading it.

• Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 14 "Alliances"
• Recap/Star Trek: Voyager
• Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 16 "Meld"

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Happy 25th Anniversary to Star Trek: Voyager’s Infamous Lizard Sex Episode, ‘Threshold’

“Threshold” is considered one of, if not the , worst episodes of Voyager and it’s honestly a little hard to refute. Things start well enough in a traditional S tar Trek -ian manner: Tom Paris takes an experimental voyage in an attempt to become the first being to ever cross the Warp 10 barrier. He briefly succeeds, discovering it essentially sends his consciousness to every point in the universe simultaneously for a tiny bit. When he recoalesces, he’s a little discombobulated, and then he starts mutating, and gets much more discombobulated.

(Just in case you didn’t watch the entire video above, I do need to inform the mutation causes Paris to vomit out his tongue, which is quite something!)

During a potential treatment to return him to human form, Paris breaks out, grabs Janeway, steals a ship, and escapes at Warp 10 again. A few days later, the Doctor (Robert Picardo) finally has a theory about what’s happening to the former flight officer, which is essential to understanding why this “Threshold” is so infamous: The Doctor believes that achieving Warp 10 hasn’t caused Paris to mutate, but evolve at an astonishing rate — he might be reaching an evolutionary apex that the rest of humanity won’t achieve for millions of years. It’s weird to think humans would eventually grow out of a need for tongue, but evolution can be wacky that way. Still, when the stolen craft is found on a remote planet, evolution has been far, far wackier than anticipated:

Yes, humanity’s future will be as amphibious, quadrupedal lizards. Not lizard men , lizards. With catfish whiskers. But there’s one thing evolution hasn’t changed: The desire to keep one’s species alive. So lizard-Janeway and lizard-Paris lizard-fucked, lizard-Janeway had lizard-babies, and the non-lizards on the Voyager crew grabbed their former fellow officers and abandoned those lizard-babies as quickly as humanly possible.

I’m an extremely casual Trek fan at best, but it does strike me that leaving creatures that are technically children of two Voyager crewmembers on a planet that they’re not from — and could be in danger of getting killed or destroying the native eco-system — jibes with the Prime Directive. It’s even weirder when you wonder that, since Janeway and Paris can be (and are) turned back into humans, those are three potentially human children being ditched on the side of the galactic road. Then there’s, you know, the whole fact two main characters on the show turned into lizards and had sex of extremely dubious consensuality.

But the craziest part to me is the show’s absolutely bananas theory that these things are humanity’s evolutionary future. It turns out that wasn’t originally the idea for the episode, though. Longtime Trek producer and screenwriter for the episode, Brannon Braga said in Captains’ Log Supplemental: The Unauthorised Guide to the New Trek Voyages (as recorded by Memory Alpha ):

It’s very much a classic Star Trek story, but in the rewrite process I took out the explanation, the idea behind the ending, that we evolve into these little lizards because maybe evolution is not always progressive. Maybe it’s a cycle where we revert to something more rudimentary. That whole conversation was taken out for various reasons, and that was a disaster because without it the episode doesn’t even have a point. I think it suffered greatly.

The salamanders had a purpose in Star Trek: Voyager’s Threshold

By rachel carrington | oct 24, 2023.

Anyone who watches Star Trek: Voyager’s Threshold for the first time is generally creeped out by the salamanders

The second season episode of Star Trek: Voyager starts off with Lt. Tom Paris intent on breaking the Warp 10 barrier. He knows it’s dangerous, but he’s determined to prove himself. Then he does, and the consequences are more than gruesome, causing Paris to devolve into an amphibian, take Captain Janeway (who becomes a salamander as well) captive, and have a little family with her.

It sounds as gross as it came across on screen. No one understood the point of Paris turning into a salamander, but amazingly, Brannon Braga, who wrote the episode actually did have a reason for including the creatures. The explanation was just left out of the final script.

Threshold’s inclusion of the amphibians made a little more sense in the original script.

In The Captains’ Logs Supplemental—The Authorized Guide to New Trek Voyages, Jeri Taylor, co-creator of Voyager, said that, in the writers’ room, they kicked around the question of how does going warp ten affect you. And the group came up with the idea of evolution, thinking they could bring things back full circle by having Paris and Janeway devolve back to the water rather than growing more sophisticated.

"Jeri Taylor: Then the question is ‘What happens if you do go warp ten, how does that affect you?’ So we all sat in a room and kicked it around and came up with this idea of evolution and thought that it would be far more interesting and less expected that instead of it being the large-brained, glowing person, it would be full circle, back to our origins in the water. Not saying that we have become less than we are, because those creatures may experience consciousness on such an advanced plane that we couldn’t conceive of it. It just seemed like a more interesting image.”"

Brannon Braga, on the Season 2 DVD of Voyager admitted that he didn’t know where the idea of “de-evolving into a lizard thing” came from. He postulated that he was trying to make a statement about “evolution not necessarily being evolving toward higher organisms, that evolution may also be a de-evolution. You know, we kind of take it for granted that evolution means bigger brains, more technology, you know, more refined civilization. When in fact, for all we know, we’re evolving back toward a more primordial state. Ultimately, who can predict?”

Braga had gotten a note that the explanation wasn’t necessary and so, on during the rewrite, he removed it, including the idea behind the ending. Later he admitted that the episode was a disaster, without it, as it didn’t make sense and didn’t have a point.

"“That whole conversation was taken out for various reasons, and that was a disaster because without it the episode doesn’t even have a point. I think it suffered greatly. I got the note that it wasn’t necessary, but in fact it really had a lot to do with what the episode was about. Big mistake taking it out.”"

I’m not sure fans would have seen this the same way Braga saw it in his mind anyway. The idea that going at such a velocity could cause a person to devolve was still a little on the shaky side. Honestly, is there any reason that would make viewers accept the salamanders and their babies?

Next. Watch: Hilarious parody about Star Trek: Voyager’s Threshold. dark

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

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The warp 10 barrier is a theoretical barrier for a starship with warp drive . Warp 10 is regarded as infinite velocity, so theoretically any vessel travelling at warp 10 would exist at all points in the universe at once, the scale is asymptotic, so Warp 9.99999 is many times faster than just Warp 9.9

• 1.1 Alternate reality
• 2 Background
• 3 External link

History [ ]

In 2267 , the USS Enterprise exceeded warp 10 (old scale) during its encounter with the Nomad probe . Upon hearing that the ship was traveling at over warp 10, Montgomery Scott stated that it was impossible. ( TOS episode : " The Changeling ")

Later that year, the Enterprise was attacked by an Orion scout ship that was traveling at close to warp 10. ( TOS episode : " Journey to Babel ")

In 2268 , the Enterprise once again approached warp 10, after being commandeered by Bele . ( TOS episode : " Let That Be Your Last Battlefield ")

The Daystrom Institute 's transwarp project was designed to break the warp ten barrier. Torias Dax was critically injured during a test of the technology aboard the shuttlecraft Infinity . ( DS9 - The Lives of Dax short story : " Infinity ")

In 2364 , the USS Enterprise -D travelled at speeds nearing warp 10 when it was caught in a gravimetric wave . It was only able to break free by using the slingshot effect . ( TNG - The Space Between comic : " History Lesson "). It also appeared to travel in excess of Warp 9.99999 repeating during the Kosinski experiments ( TNG - " Where No One Has Gone Before ")

In 2372 , the warp 10 barrier was broken by Lieutenant Tom Paris using the shuttlecraft Cochrane and a rare form of dilithium that was discovered in the Delta Quadrant by the USS Voyager . While Paris successfully broke the barrier, it was later discovered that the effect caused hyper-evolution in the humanoid body, and later tests were abandoned. ( VOY episode : " Threshold ")

Alternate reality [ ]

In the Kelvin timeline created by Nero , Section 31 agent, Lieutenant John Harrison was able to revamp the USS Vengeance 's warp drive to give it unprecedented capability. Lieutenant Yuki Sulu estimated that Harrison's work made it possible for Vengeance to get close to warp 10. ( TOS - Khan comic : " Issue 4 ")

Background [ ]

The Enterprise 's rate of speed on stardate 5630.7, estimated at the "old scale" of warp factor eleven, is approximately warp 8 by 24th century standards. ( TOS episode : " Is There in Truth No Beauty? ", ST reference : The Star Trek Encyclopedia )

By the 25th century , in an alternate universe warp (or transwarp ) engines have the capability to reach factors in excess of Warp 9.99999. Other drives such as a Transwarp Drive and Quantum Slipstream drive use a different scale. ( TNG episode : " All Good Things... ")

External link [ ]

• Warp 10 article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 The Chase
• 2 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 3 Preserver (race)

Screen Rant

Voyager's salamander episode was a "disaster", says star trek writer.

Star Trek: Voyager's season 2 episode "Threshold" was critically panned, but writer Brannon Braga explained why the episode was such a disaster.

• Star Trek: Voyager's Brannon Braga regretted removing the evolution concept from "Threshold," believing it robbed the episode of its point.
• "Threshold" fell apart due to its strange final arc focusing on Paris and Janeway's salamander transformation.
• Despite being one of Star Trek's most controversial episodes, "Threshold" has gained a cult following over the years.

Star Trek: Voyager writer Brannon Braga called the episode "Threshold" a disaster for a very specific reason. "Threshold" was episode 15 of Voyager season 2, and is to date one of the most controversial episodes in the Star Trek timeline . The episode revolved around Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) on a mission to break the Warp 10 speed barrier, something that had been established in Star Trek: The Next Generation . However, when Paris succeeded in surpassing Warp 10, he began mutating into a salamander-like creature that kidnapped Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and mated with her on an alien planet.

Although the premise of "Threshold" held promise, and Paris's de-evolution after breaking Warp 10 was interesting in theory, the episode fell apart in its final arc. The revelation that both Paris and Janeway had turned into salamanders and Janeway had given birth to three babies in the time it took Voyager 's cast of characters to locate them caused "Threshold" to become too strange for critics and audiences alike . Brannon Braga, the episode's writer, had often cited "Threshold" as one of his worst outings for some particular reasons.

Every Voyager Character Who Has Returned In Star Trek (& How)

Brannon braga’s “big mistake” turned star trek: voyager's salamander episode into a "disaster".

In Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, Braga discussed the writing of "Threshold," and revealed that he had originally intended for the episode's ending to be a little more high-concept. Braga stated that he had wanted to center the discussion of evolution as the episode's focal point , but had eventually taken this idea out in rewrites. However, he believed unequivocally that "Threshold" suffered because of this decision. Read Braga's full quote below:

"It's very much a classic Star Trek story, but in the rewrite process I took out the explanation, the idea behind the ending, that we evolve into these little lizards because maybe evolution is not always progressive. Maybe it's a cycle where we revert to something more rudimentary. That whole conversation was taken out for various reasons, and that was a disaster because without it the episode doesn't even have a point. I think it suffered greatly. I got the note that it wasn't necessary, but in fact it really had a lot to do with what the episode was about. Big mistake taking it out."

Braga is correct in stating that "Threshold" was " very much a classic Star Trek story ." In fact, it was not even the first Star Trek episode to deal with human de-evolution. The Star Trek: TNG season 7 episode "Genesis," which saw the USS Enterprise-D crew de-evolve due to a botched medical treatment, had a very similar concept at its core. However, "Threshold" choosing to center Paris and Janeway's strange salamander affair rather than keeping it focused on the evolution premise was where things ultimately fell apart. Adhering to Braga's original story plan might have made "Threshold" much less controversial.

How “Threshold” Became A Cult Classic Star Trek: Voyager Episode

"Threshold" is undeniably still contentious, but something interesting has happened in the years since its release. The episode has become a cult classic among Star Trek: Voyager audiences in the same way that fringe films often achieve this status. Many viewers have latched onto the strangest parts of "Threshold," namely the salamander de-evolution, Paris and Janeway's affair , and their erstwhile children, and come to love these plot elements precisely because of their weirdness . "Threshold Day," the anniversary of the episode's airing, has become almost a niche holiday for some Voyager fans, with dedicated feeds on websites X and Tumblr.

In general, a cult following is not uncommon for out-there movies or shows, such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Twin Peaks . However, it is interesting that cult status should be achieved by one specific Star Trek episode that was so derided at the time of its release. Other unpopular Star Trek episodes have never achieved the same level of status that "Threshold" has, and there have certainly been some strange concepts explored within the franchise. Ultimately, "Threshold" will always be Star Trek: Voyager 's weirdest episode, and both hated and loved for it.

Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+.

Source: Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman

Star Trek: Voyager

How One Of Star Trek: Voyager's Weirdest Concepts Wound Up In Lower Decks

In the first episode of the fourth season of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," called "Twovix," the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos has been given a delicate mission. It seems that the U.S.S. Voyager, having returned from the Delta Quadrant only a few years prior, has now been converted into a flying museum commemorating that ship's many adventures. The Voyager must be accompanied to Earth, where it will be opened to the public, and the Cerritos has to oversee the transport. The old Intrepid-class starship contains mannequins wearing mission-worn uniforms and touts periodic diorama-bound exhibits explaining some of the Voyager's more outlandish shenanigans. "It's Voyager," one of the Cerritos crew members fliply points out, "S*** got crazy."

One of the stranger exhibits features a pair of outsize, orange animatronic salamanders that will be instantly recognizable to "Star Trek: Voyager" fans. In the episode "Threshold" (January 29, 1996), the Voyager crew discovers a way to break the Warp 10 barrier and achieve infinite velocity. This would allow them to pass through every point in the universe simultaneously, and would certainly help the lost ship return home to Earth. However, when Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) tests the technology on a modified shuttlecraft, he returns changed. His body begins mutating like in David Cronenberg's "The Fly." It seems that breaking the Warp 10 barrier caused Tom to hyper-evolve.

After he has partially transformed into an amphibian, Tom kidnaps Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and also takes her on a Warp 10 flight. The pair are later discovered on a nearby planet, having fully transformed into four-foot salamanders ... and having mated.

The director of "Twovix," Barry Kelly, recently discussed the references to "Threshold" with MovieWeb . He noted that turning the old episode's odd story into a new in-universe animatronic was a challenge.

The challenges of an animatronic salamander

Kelly felt that Tom Paris and Captain Janeway did not evolve into salamanders in "Threshold" but into reptiles. Regardless, it's a strange story and one that is made all the stranger by the fact that Tom and the Captain mated while in their animal form. When the two officers are rescued by their fellow Voyager crewmates and transformed back into humans, Janeway notes that she sometimes envisioned having children ... though not quite under those circumstances.

"Threshold" was weird enough that Kelly required references to it for "Twovix." He said:

"There were some challenges in ['Twovix']. In 'Star Trek: Voyager,' there was an episode where Tom Paris and Capt. Janeway hyper-evolve into lizards and it's just such a weird concept. And we couldn't have a 'Voyager' episode without it. So, we wanted to make something like a museum exhibit that has these lizards as animatronics on display. But we wanted it to look like a specific animatronic you see at Disney or something."

This, of course, is a sci-fi anachronism. In a future full of elaborate hologram technology and life-like intelligent machine species, is a quaint, Disneyland-style animatronic really going be to built? Probably not, but it provides for a cute gag and an amusing reference. The future anachronism can be forgiven. Kelly noted that the salamanders had to look artificial, so he made them look clunky, low-tech, and a little, in his words, "dumb":

"We had to give it joints and make it kind of walk dumb. We tried to make it like a dumb robot, and then it gets hacked. So, we have this threat, [then] these holograms that are classic, and then 'Voyager' episode characters come in."

Clarity is key

Of course, clarity was key for Kelly. Unlike in an explanatory article on /Film, he didn't have the space or the time to explain the references or where the salamanders came from. The gag plays better if a viewer is familiar with "Star Trek: Voyager," but Kelly was more concerned with viewers who weren't. As such, when an obscure returning character appears on "Lower Decks," he needed to include quick visual shorthand for who they were and if they posed a threat or not. The "Voyager" references were particularly hard to deal with as "Voyager" was a wild show, complete with 1930s-style holographic villains, sexy Irish boyfriends from the 19th century, and hyper-evolved salamanders. Kelly said:

"For us, it's always about nailing those weird concepts and making sure that when the audience is watching it, they understand what they're looking at. That was one of the challenges, but it was a fun one. I can't always say, like, I need to make an evil robot lizard in every TV show I work on."

One might hope that some of the oddball ideas in "Twovix" might translate to younger viewers wanting to go back and watch "Voyager." Of the extant "Star Trek" shows, "Voyager" had some of the stranger and more ambitious stories. It wasn't always a great show — "Threshold" is often cited as one of the more outlandish episodes of the series — but one can admire its ambition and temerity. When it comes to "Voyager" references on "Lower Decks," the show's writers all must face a similar challenge to Kelly's. Namely: How do we make these weird-ass stories feel natural in the world of "Star Trek?"

10 Biggest WTF Moments From Star Trek: Voyager

1. the first warp 10 flight.

Words simply cannot describe the pain of having to watch Threshold . This episode took a cool concept, the idea of warp ten, and took it in a direction that nobody could've predicted (or wanted).

Voyager conducted some experiments on a shuttlecraft to achieve warp 10, the theoretical limit to the warp speed scale, which would allow the ship to occupy every point in space simultaneously. Of all things that could've happened, the writers decided that going at infinite velocity would have the unintended side effect of accelerating the traveller's evolution. Paris (the first to travel in the warp 10 ship) started losing his mind and transforming into a lizard upon returning, because of course Humans would turn into lizards over time, why wouldn't they?

Paris then kidnapped Captain Janeway aboard the warp 10 shuttle and subsequently mutated her into a lizard as well. The shuttle landed and the two of them mated and made creepy Human lizard babies, who Voyager left behind in the Delta Quadrant after finding their crewmates and changing their bodies back (though a similar creature was seen in Lower Decks, so it's possible their children were eventually found, or maybe somebody else accidentally went too fast and met the same fate).

Threshold managed to misrepresent evolution, warp physics, and basic logic all at once, giving us an episode that leaves us screaming WTF from start to finish.

Marcia Fry is a writer for WhatCulture and an amateur filmmaker.

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WTF Moments: The craziest thing Star Trek: Voyager ever did involved lizard sex

Credit: CBS

In hindsight, we can say that Star Trek: Voyager absolutely got away with some crazy s**t.

Think "splicing Vulcan Tuvox and Talaxian Neelix into Tuvix" crazy. Or a scene in the pilot, which aired 25 years ago this week, where cocky helmsman Tom Paris — trapped in a cave — asks his Native American colleague "Isn't there some Indian trick, where you can turn yourself into a bird?" They even had an empathic serial killer aboard.

But the craziest thing to air on Voyager — and from Star Trek in general — has to be Season 2's "Threshold." The one where Paris breaks the impossible Warp 10 speed barrier, devolves into a lizard, has sex, and makes babies with Captain Janeway… who is also a slug lizard.

Yup. You can practically smell the crazy on this one.

What the ship's doctor, an Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH), calls a "future stage in human development" looks like rejected concept art from the original V miniseries, as Paris escapes from Voyager's sickbay and hunts down Captain Janeway . Outside a turbo-lift, Paris gets the drop on Janeway and abducts her. Why? So he can smuggle her aboard a special shuttle refitted to go Warp 10, turn her into a lizard thing, too (off-screen), and then mate and procreate with her and have tiny lizard babies.

(I mean, who among us has not set out to break the laws of physics so we could impregnate a superior officer with our space iguana spawn?)

Eventually, members of the Voyager crew find Paris' shuttle on a jungle planet. They soon discover he, their captain, and their offspring in the form of palm-sized lizards. Back on the ship, the EMH is able to eradicate this mutation from both Paris and Janeway's genome (because science!) and restore them to their human forms.

Janeway confronts Paris for what he submitted her to. She had never had children before, and now the ones she did have — she was forced to leave them behind on a planet 75 light years from Earth. From there, an ashamed Paris resigns his commission and waits for Janeway to forgive him and — nope! Sadly, none of this happened... minus the leaving the kids behind bit.

Instead, "Threshold" ends on the emotionally dishonest note of Janeway and Paris having the briefest conversations about their de-evolution. With a smirk, Janeway remarks, "I thought about having children, but I never considered having them with you." And then, as a joke, Braga has Janeway flippantly dismiss what happened to her, without her consent, with the line "sometimes it is the female of the species who initiates mating." *forehead, desk*

"It's a terrible episode," Braga says on the 2003 DVD set for Season 2, nine years removed from the making of what fans consider to be among the worst hours of Trek ever produced.

24 years after it aired, he and the fans are not wrong.

• Star Trek: Voyager
• WTF Moments

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