Like you said, fans of horror can appreciate this in ways you might not.Getting back into this. I left off with Paris starting to get sick. So, I guess we're going to have to get Down with the Sickness! Cue Disturbed.
You know what else it reminds me of, since horror was brought up? Alien, when Kane got what he thought was "sick" and Parker was like, "Come on, the food ain't that bad!" When Paris and Torres in the Mess Hall, and Paris starts to feel the first symptoms, that has to be homage to the first Alien movie.
Where is that taking us? That's what we're going to find out as I put on the rest of the episode!
"Threshold" (2nd Part of the Review)
Unfortunately, once Paris is taken to Sickbay, can't breathe oxygen anymore, and has veins all over his face, that's when it starts to turn too silly for me. "RIP, Tom Paris. Beloved Mutant." If you're into horror and other weird stuff like this, I can see why you'd like it. But this isn't my type of thing. Then Paris talks about all kinds of random things.
Then he dies, comes back to life, his body changes faster and faster, and he looks like, well what I'd call that is not what I'd call evolved. He should be in a monster movie! This makes no sense, but we'll keep going.
Okay, keeping going. Every time Paris opens his mouth, he's all over the place. It really comes out when he's talking to Janeway. He gets it all out before... he literally takes out his tongue?
I forgot all about that.
Then he's still speaking after he takes out his tongue? That's not possible. You can't speak without your tongue! But anyway... Paris gets worse and worse. If I was watching this with someone else, I'd be completely embarrassed.
After a bunch of technobabble in Engineer to try to get Paris back to normal, Mutated Paris kidnaps Janeway, somehow still knows how to use a shuttle. Three days later, Voyager has located Paris and Janeway on a planet, and -- at the 40-minute mark -- I'm wondering when this is going to be over. Janeway and Paris are now salamanders.
This is an opening for me to weigh in on something: The Doctor says this is a future step in the stage of the evolution of Humans. Brannon Braga was being a contrarian when he wondered, "Who says we have to become more advanced as we evolve?" Now, I'll say that evolution is adaptation to your environment. Adaptation doesn't mean advancement, it only means changing to survive. But under no circumstance can I imagine Homo Sapiens adapting into salamanders. This isn't science-fiction because it's not remotely based on any type of science at all. It's nonsensical, irrational, and only being done because "Why not?" It's anti-science-fiction.
I already couldn't get behind Infinite Speed but was willing to set that aside. I also can't get behind Humans evolving into salamanders but I'm not willing to put that aside. That's a step too far. Losing our mental capacity and reverting into a salamander is NOT adapting to survive. I can't imagine any scenario where that could possibly happen. It only happened in this episode because Brannon Braga somehow thought it was cool.
And how does Janeway become a salamander? Oh wait. She was at "Warp 10" as well. Never mind. Mutated Janeway and Mutated Paris have Mutated Babies. Salamander Babies. After that, the Doctor is able to change Janeway and Paris back to normal.
Why did Jonas think it would be a good idea to report to the Kazon and Seska about Warp 10? Seska probably laughed it off as soon as she heard about what happened.
So, I hadn't seen this episode in 17 years, and now I think it'll probably be another 17. If ever. How do I rate this? Let's see...
I give the first 19 minutes a 6. Not bad, but I don't agree with the concept. High end of Mixed Opinion. I give the next 26 minutes a 1. I think it's completely stupid and ridiculous. So, now, when I put the two together and weight the averages proportionately, it comes out to a 3.1, which rounds down to a 3.
"What?! You give it a 3?!?!!" Yeah. That's a pretty "high" rating, considering that I went into this thinking I'd only give it a 1.
So, that's it. I've broken through the threshold and made it through "Threshold"!
I still stand by my statement of this being a good episode. It's a great Tom Paris character piece.
And The Doctor did say POSSIBLE later evolutionary stage.
I do agree that the babies they had at the end was unnecessary, and just adds an awkwardness to the last scene that wasn't needed.
But my score? "THRESHOLD" is a solid 8.25.
