Should Wesley have been kicked out of the Academy?

[Dukhat]

Locarno covered up the accident that got a cadet under his command killed, and had other members of his squad do the same. He didn't come forward... he was forced to admit what happened. He didn't have remorse, he was only sorry he got caught. Plus, he was trying to shift the blame on Albert's death on Albert himself... definitely a lot of ego here, too. Especially considering he was in command, and if he knew one of his cadets possibly couldn't handle the maneuver, he shouldn't have tried to do it, never mind the fact it was banned already. He wanted to graduate in a blaze of glory.

Paris covered up an accident that got others killed. He did it on his own (as far as we know), but he came forward on his own and admitted his guilt. He had remorse, otherwise he likely would have gotten off with no one being the wiser.

Locarno: hubris. Paris: humility. The latter is definitely far more likeable and more redemptive than the former.

Well, all they did was tweak Locarno's backstory for Tom's so that Paris didn't look like a total asshole from the start, which made it easier to forgive him. In other words, they sugarcoated it. But to take someone who even the audience might think was completely irredeemable and turn him around...that's good writing. But obviously the UPN-hired writers weren't going to be tasked with going down that road. So they came up with a less offensive character that was easier to write for.

 

[Nerys Myk]

UPN-hired writers

Is that a thing? The network hiring writers. Seems below their paygrade. Or is that " snarkasm"

 

[Dukhat]

Is that a thing? The network hiring writers. Seems below their paygrade. Or is that " snarkasm"

This is UPN we're talking about.

 

[Maurice]

n the end Locarno showed selflessness to his classmates by insisting that everything was his idea and that they should not be punished for HIS actions.

Or, Locarno knew he was toast, and figured that shouldering the blame made for better optics, and he might get some leniency by admitting it. People are sometimes "honest" for self-serving reasons.

 

[Nerys Myk]

This is UPN we're talking about.

Were they that hands on with their programing?

 

[Farscape One]

Or, Locarno knew he was toast, and figured that shouldering the blame made for better optics, and he might get some leniency by admitting it. People are sometimes "honest" for self-serving reasons.

Bingo.

Given Locarno's obvious ego, that is almost certainly the case.

Well, all they did was tweak Locarno's backstory for Tom's so that Paris didn't look like a total asshole from the start, which made it easier to forgive him. In other words, they sugarcoated it. But to take someone who even the audience might think was completely irredeemable and turn him around...that's good writing. But obviously the UPN-hired writers weren't going to be tasked with going down that road. So they came up with a less offensive character that was easier to write for.

That single tweak makes a big difference. And this was VOY we're talking about here. The show that completely forgot about the Chakotay/Paris stuff in the pilot by the next episode, didn't really do much with their Starfleet/Maquis conflict part of the premise, would get severely damaged and would look it but look pristine in the next episode, etc.

VOY was fine with some things, but it was hardly capable of turning Locarno into someone redeemable and would root for.

 

[SatrianiRules]

But to take someone who even the audience might think was completely irredeemable and turn him around...that's good writing.

Artemis Entreri.....

 

[Shawnster]

Were they that hands on with their programing?

I want to say yes, but I don't have data to support it. Someone else might.

What I do have is UPN gained the rights to air WWE (or was it WWF at the time?). In order to cross-promote they directed Voyager to write a wrestling episode and hire The Rock to play a role.

 

[Dukhat]

VOY was fine with some things, but it was hardly capable of turning Locarno into someone redeemable and would root for.

I think they could have succeeded in the first few seasons, which I generally felt had better writing and more ensemble character-driven plotlines. But once it became the Doctor & Seven of Nine Show, all that went off the table.

 

[Some Sort of Lemur]

iirc per The Fifty-Year Mission the writing team was all Taylor-Piller-Berman’s choosing based on how they’d split up the remaining TNG staffers with DS9, with Braga getting into VOY, Naren Shankar being dropped because Jeri Taylor thought he was too young (or maybe using that as an excuse for just not liking him). UPN wouldn’t micro-manage to the level of staffing—their involvement would come in looking at what they’d written and providing notes at that stage.

I’m not sure if I believe the whole rights thing—wouldn’t Locarno be Star Trek’s property, not Moore and Shankar’s? We never hear this with respect to any other character—nothing about royalties owed towards the character of O’Brien, for instance (and who created him? Gene and DC Fontana in “Farpoint” or whoever first named him?), nor for any of the guest stars DS9 brought back again and again. It might be something as basic as just not wanting to be held back by any backstory, or trying to avoid the impression that they’re giving their viewers homework via excess continuity.

I don’t think we ever really learn enough details about Paris’s past wrt his relative “redeemability,” or not directly. If anything I think the big difference between the characters comes from elsewhere—Locarno’s a born leader who makes an immoral decision but owns up to it in the end. Tom, though, has (or is revealed to have) a lot more insecurities, which makes his character easier for the audience to approach.