& Star Trek the Next Generation “The First Duty” S5 Ep19
Using an Assumed Name
When Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor were creating Voyager, the character of Nick Locarno was a BIG inspiration for the character of Tom Paris. Enough to the point that the backstories are nearly interchangeable. Robert Duncan McNeill was always going to be brought back for the role in Voyager.
The official story as to why the character was Tom Paris instead of Nick Locarno is that Berman, Piller, and Taylor felt that the Nick Locarno character was irredeemable whereas Tom Paris was not. Unofficially, rumors have surfaced that Paramount wanted to avoid paying Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar (writers of “The First Duty”) royalties for the entire run of Voyager. My head canon is stated here in the meme.
Yes, I know that season four of Lower Decks completely invalidates this nit. The meme was originally put together in 2019.
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