Thirty Days (9 Dec. 1998)

In a letter to his father, Tom Paris tells the story of the events leading up to his demotion to Ensign and sentence to thirty days in Voyager's brig.

Director:

Winrich Kolbe

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman (creator),

Stars:

Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Kate Mulgrew	...	Captain Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran	...	Chakotay
Roxann Dawson	...	B'Elanna Torres
Robert Duncan McNeill	...	Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips	...	Neelix
Robert Picardo	...	The Doctor
Tim Russ	...	Tuvok
Jeri Ryan	...	Seven of Nine
Garrett Wang	...	Harry Kim
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Keith Anderson	...	Ensign Ashmore
Majel Barrett	...	Voyager Computer (voice)
Willie Garson	...	Riga
Alissa Kramer	...	Jenny Delaney
Heidi Kramer	...	Megan Delaney
Ben Livingston	...	Burkus (as Benjamin Livingston)

Storyline

In a letter to his father, Tom Paris tells the story of the events leading up to his demotion to Ensign and sentence to thirty days in Voyager's brig.

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Plot Keywords:

24th century | number in title

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Release Date:

9 December 1998 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Did You Know?

Trivia

Robert Duncan McNeill's pants actually caught fire from the jet pack while filming the Captain Proton series.

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Goofs

After Tom is released from his 30 days solitary, he returns to his quarters. B'Elanna contacts him and says "I hear you're free for dinner; 07:00hrs, my quarters". 07:00hrs is 7am - she surely meant 19:00hrs - which is 7pm.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Captain Janeway: Lieutenant Thomas Eugene Paris. - I hereby reduce you to the rank of ensign, and I sentence you to thirty days solitary confinement. Take Ensign Paris to the brig.

User Reviews

Tom is in trouble

This episode opens with Lt. Paris being demoted to ensign and sentenced to thirty days in the brig for offences which are as yet unknown. As he settles down for his month in solitary confinement he starts to dictate a letter to his father which explains how he came to be there. As he dictates the action switches to show the events he was talking about; Voyager comes across an unusual planet, it appears to be made entirely of water. As Voyager nears the planet it is intercepted by ships that launched from under the surface. It turns out that it is inhabited by a species who settled there a few centuries before and are mining oxygen from its waters. They have a problem though, the ocean is slowly being lost to space. Tom and one of the aliens take the Delta Flier down to the centre of the planet where they find a device that provides the gravity needed to hold the watery world together. Unfortunately the mining activities have changed the water density to such an extent the device can't hold it in place any more and the planet will be lost within five years.

When they get back to Voyager and tell a local administrator about it he says he will pass on the information to the relevant authorities but it is clear nothing will be done. Tom is not impressed with their blasé attitude and even though ordered to do nothing takes the Delta Flier and sets off with a local scientist to destroy the mining facility. Janeway is willing to do anything to stop him, even destroying the Flier with Tom in it.

This was a fairly average episode; while the idea of telling the story in flashback with Tom in the brig was interesting it meant there was no sense of threat as we knew he was alive and well. The aliens were also fairly forgettable