Threshold

[EnriqueH]

Just saw it yesterday for the first time, and was absolutely floored.

For a few seconds, I had no idea if I had just seen something brilliant or brilliantly bad.

Something about it screamed "controversial", so I looked it up and it is an infamous episode along the lines of "Spock's Brain."

You know, as "bad" as it was, it did something right because I don't think I'm going to ever forget "Threshold".

There's a lot of "average" Voyager episodes in Seasons 1 & 2 that I'm sure are "better", but I've probably forgotten some of them. Janeway and Paris' on the planet...the children...wow. What in the world.

Talk about glossing over some potential ethical repercussions.

 

[stardream]

Spock's Brain, Sub Rosa, Profit and Lace, A Night in Sickbay. Each series has that 'one' episode that is remembered for all the wrong reasons.

However unlike those other episodes (Which I will NEVER watch again if I can help it) I can actually watch some of Threshold up to a certain point which is around the time when Paris 'dies'. Its about the first thirty minutes or so. After than I just can't bring myself to go on but its not because of bad acting. Its bad everything else.

The quote in my sig file is what Robbie McNeil (Paris) had to say about Threshold recently...the whole cast seems to have a sense of humor about it.

 

[MacLeod]

I'm only going to say this once in relation to this episode. It never happened.

 

[stardream]

I'm only going to say this once in relation to this episode. It never happened.

There was a scene in LOST that the fans telepathically agreed on never happened. We do not speak of it. For whatever reason it worked. I have never seen any reference to it again to this day. No its not the Niki and Paulo episode.

Sometimes I wish the same would happen with this episode. Just let it go.

 

[hux]

One of my favourites. Finally, a Star Trek episode that understands science, story telling and character. Only foolish people don't like it or embrace its brilliance.

I liked it best when Tom's tongue fell off.

 

[Lynx]

I'm only going to say this once in relation to this episode. It never happened.

I totally agree and quote my text on the Kes Website on the page "Voyager mysteries-and how to solve them":

It never happened! It was just a nightmare Paris had after eating too much Leola Root stew or drinking too much of Neelix’s coffee. The best evidence for this episode being nothing but a nightmare is the fact that no one ever mentioned the events in the episode in later episodes. I mean, Paris almost dies, turns into a lizard, abducts Janeway who is also turned into a lizard and they have lizard “children” and no one talks about it or jokes about it later!

However, I must also state that even if "Threshold" was bad and totally unrealistic, it was at least funny in some places.

"Threshold" isn't Voyager's worst episode. There is an episode in season 6 which is much worse. A lousy, rude, downright insulting episode which is the worst episode ever in the history of TV series.

Compared with that piece of crap is "Threshold" almost a masterpiece.

 

[stardream]

Now that I think of it...that one where Kim is on that planet full of DNA eating women was pretty bad.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Now you can forever wonder with the rest of us about what became of Janeway and Tom's offspring. Congrats.

 

[TheVortaKeevan]

Now you can forever wonder with the rest of us about what became of Janeway and Tom's offspring. Congrats.

Ah yes their mud pups. I use to have the action figure. I kept the mud pups, but threw Tom away years ago.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Now you can forever wonder with the rest of us about what became of Janeway and Tom's offspring. Congrats.

Ah yes their mud pups. I use to have the action figure. I kept the mud pups, but threw Tom away years ago.

You actually HAD that thing!?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I will now post this again.

(you knew it was coming)

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJ6dVMYuzc[/yt]

 

[Catarina]

Lynx> is it like voldamort and we dare not speak its name? *cough* Fury.

 

[Lynx]

Lynx> is it like voldamort and we dare not speak its name? *cough* Fury.

I got the idea from the former Oasis guitar player and band leader Noel Gallagher.

He's an ardent fan of a football (soccer) team called Manchester City. There is also a more succesful team in that town called Manchester United. When he was interviewed about that subject, he claimed that there is only one team in Manchester and that's City. "And then we have that other team" he said. During the whole interview he constantly referred to the rival team as "that other team", never mentioning the name.

"Good idea", I thought because that piece of crap isn't even worth mentioning.

Besides that, there is a very good Voyager book called "The Final Fury" which takes place in season 2 where the Voyager crew encounters a very dangerous species called the Furies. I don't want anyone to mix up that good book with that insulting crap episode.

Stardream wrote:

Now that I think of it...that one where Kim is on that planet full of DNA eating women was pretty bad.

I liked that episode. It was spooky and exciting.

 

[Lynx]

I will now post this again.

(you knew it was coming)

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJ6dVMYuzc[/yt]

My, oh my! This is brilliant!

If there ever will be anything which would make me re-think the whole scenario of "Threshold" being just a nightmare and instead being something that really happened, then it would be the scenario in that videoclip!

Amazing!

Not to mention that the lizard girls are beautiful too!

 

[Deks]

So... what exactly is 'impossible' with Threshold?
Trek did more wackier stuff, and I think a more reasonable explanation behind Tom's transformation wasn't the flight itself, but the point he was supposedly occupying every point in the universe simultaneously.

How many anomalies have affected SF crews mentally and physically since TOS again?
Several at least, and that's just in the small portion of the Milky Way... never mind the rest of the galaxy and the universe at large that could be home to trillions upon trillions of unidentified things that could affect his change.

Granted, the shuttle reaching Warp 10 however seemed a bit of a stretch because you'd supposedly need infinite energy reserves to travel at infinite velocity... but perhaps its not so much as 'infinite velocity' we dealt with here as much as it was 'really really fast' (as in 'its in a category of its own of FTL propulsion).
Therefore, you'd likely need a large energy amount to theoretically reach it, but once you do, you wouldn't necessarily need the same energy to sustain it - since its possible that the bussard collectors on the shuttle could have been doing their job and the energy they provided at Transwarp was much greater than what was thought possible - obviously modifications were done to the shuttle before the flight along with the dilithium crystals that stayed stable at higher frequencies.

As for the offspring... it wasn't Janeway and Paris that left them on the planet... it was Chakotay - initially.
I would imagine that the reason their off-springs weren't brought along was because they didn't carry any discernible amount of Human DNA (considering that their parents only had trace amounts of it left - Tom in particular would likely have a bit less than Janeway considering he was well along the transformation process by then, though he underwent that medical procedure in engineering which might have delayed the full onset of the transformation so he could eventually be restored).

 

[stardream]

Is it consistent with the' rules' of the Trek Universe? I'm not debating. Just asking. I think it was just so 'out there' even for Star Trek.

I sometimes take it personally when a favorite character gets a bad episode. I held a grudge against Mark Verheiden and Ron Moore for the BSG episode Black Market for a long time. Its a quirk of mine. Don't try to understand it.

 

[Tosk]

It's not as though an episode has to violate scientific principles to be considered shit.

 

[Terok Nor]

The premise of the episode came across like nonsense. That's quite a feat considering the premise of the entire franchise to start with. I think it's probably the dumbest episode ever made but not the worst. It had some good stuff like Paris undergoing his Brundle transformation and mating with Janeway. It's an episode that's remembered that's for sure.

 

[at Quark's]

I watch Star Trek to get entertained, primarily.

As such, stuff like plausibility or the correct use of scientific terminology in "science" extrapolated to the future, or even universe continuity take a backseat (though I like it when they get that stuff right, too).

And I must say that even though Threshold really is hilariously bad, at the very least it entertains me. More so, in fact, than many mediocre and unimaginative episodes (with a nasty alien of the week) that aren't even close to being as "bad" as Threshold. Those episodes are just ... bland.

So, to me it serves its purpose. Even though it has some of the worst science, and I would rather consider ït to have "never happened" from a continuity point of view.

(BTW I don't consider the episode to be detrimental to the characters of either Paris or Janeway, as they only started behaving strangely after some really outlandish stuff had happened to them).

 

[WoTe]

Tom got 3 out of 4 leading ladies on the show, and perhaps 7 would have been his if not that pesky marriage thing. And the EMH only daydreamed about it. Looks like Tom got one over the doc.