Tom Paris vs Nicholas Locarno

[Jeffe525]

Before he was Lt. Tom Paris, Robert Duncan McNeill played Cadet First Class Nicholas Locarno in TNG: The First Duty. Aside from their names and a couple of very minor background details, these two characters are nearly identical.

I've read several articles claiming that the producers' original plan to put Locarno in the driver's seat of Voyager was changed to Tom Paris to avoid paying royalties to the writers of The First Duty.

Really? Really?

First, I wasn't aware that royalties worked this way when dealing with a collaborative staff of writers working for a TV show. Is this really the reason or has anyone ever heard of another explanation?

Second, if royalties was really the reason, are these superficial changes enough to "legally" distinguish the Paris character from the Locarno character?

If money was the reason, I would think The First Duty writers would be calling foul.

 

[Melakon]

The story has always been that to use Locarno, the writers who created him would have to be credited and/or paid, for every episode using him, even though it looks like the in-house staff wrote that episode. Perhaps one of them was still a freelancer at the time. It may have been a case of Writers Guild West rules.

 

[Kor]

It's similar to the way T'Pol was originally intended to be T'Pau on Enterprise.

Kor

 

[Melakon]

There's at least one freelancer from TNG crawling around on this board, perhaps they can confirm.

 

[Corran Horn]

The story has always been that to use Locarno, the writers who created him would have to be credited and/or paid, for every episode using him, even though it looks like the in-house staff wrote that episode. Perhaps one of them was still a freelancer at the time. It may have been a case of Writers Guild West rules.

Well--there's also the story that the character of Locarno was considered sullied by the events in the episode and would be irredeemable. That's in the Voyager Companion, I think.

Vorik/Taurik was a blatant case of what you're describing, I'd say.

 

[Lynx]

The story has always been that to use Locarno, the writers who created him would have to be credited and/or paid, for every episode using him, even though it looks like the in-house staff wrote that episode. Perhaps one of them was still a freelancer at the time. It may have been a case of Writers Guild West rules.

Well--there's also the story that the character of Locarno was considered sullied by the events in the episode and would be irredeemable. That's in the Voyager Companion, I think.

Vorik/Taurik was a blatant case of what you're describing, I'd say.

I've read that too.

Those in charge thought that Locarno was too much of a bad guy to make him a hero in the upcoming series and therefore settled for a new character instead. Unfortunately they didn't rewrite his background enough, the two accidents were too similar, not to mention the look of the characters.

According to both Memory Alpha and Memory Beta, Locarno and Paris were two different characters who just happened to be lookalikes. I have another theory:

Nick Locarno was the result of a a love affair between Admiral Paris and another woman than his wife. The old Admiral helped Nick Locarno to be accepted at Starfleet Academy where he screwed it up. The similar accidents Nick and Tom had were coincidents. Tom's hatred to his father was because he found out about Nick Locarno's existence during his time at Starfleet Academy.

As for Taurik and Vorik, I see them as the same character. For some reason Taurik began to refer to himself as Vorik between his assignment to the Enterprise and his assignment to Voyager.

 

[Jeffe525]

Well--there's also the story that the character of Locarno was considered sullied by the events in the episode and would be irredeemable...

I find this hard to accept, since Paris's background included time with the Maquis. How is lying about an adolescent mistake less redeemable than being a former terrorist?

 

[stardream]

I've always wanted to know more about that. Confirmation or denial...I don't care which. I've also heard different versions of how Robbie McNeil came to get the job. One said he just showed up, another that they went looking for someone who was his 'type' and they couldn't find anyone to fit the bill and just called him back. I always wondered how he felt when he saw the role was so similar to the earlier one.

I think McNeil said that Larcarno gave the impression of being a good guy who made a mistake when in reality deep down he was a bad guy whereas Paris was the other way around. He said he did wonder if they were ever going to make an episode that revealed that they were the same person.

I have a few clear memories of watching Voyager during its original run and seeing Paris for the first time was one of them. I was almost totally unspoiled. All I knew was the show would have a woman Captain. I remember reacting to the first shot of Paris (ok...I admit my very very first reaction was 'He's pretty') but then almost immediately it was..."Wait a minute. Wasn't he that guy who almost got Wesley in trouble a few years ago?" Wasn't just me. People watching with me remembered. And then the scene with his backstory confused us even more. I remember all during the first season asking "Why didn't they just use the same character?" I can't remember when I first heard the whole 'royalties' explanation.

 

[Melakon]

'He's pretty'

If you thought he was pretty then, you should see McNeill in 1987's Masters of the Universe, when he was still playing juveniles at 23.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Well--there's also the story that the character of Locarno was considered sullied by the events in the episode and would be irredeemable...

I find this hard to accept, since Paris's background included time with the Maquis. How is lying about an adolescent mistake less redeemable than being a former terrorist?

Well, first of all, Paris was only in the Maquis for the thrills. He didn't really believe in the cause. He wasn't a "real" terrorist.

Secondly, Locarno was a jackass who deliberately tried to cover up the truth and get his crewmates to do the same. Paris initially tried that, but he later came clean and admitted his own fault - something Locarno would never do.

As for the royalties thing? Yeah, it pretty much does work that way. It's why we got Locarno/Paris, Taurik/Vorik, T'Pau/T'Pol, etc. It also sometimes pops up in the Law & Order universe - in the original series we used to see the same actor play like 4 or 5 different defense attorneys, or judges, or whatever. There'd be no in-universe REASON to do this, but when different people write every episode, AFAIK they all are entitled to royalties for characters they create.

 

[Lynx]

Well--there's also the story that the character of Locarno was considered sullied by the events in the episode and would be irredeemable...

I find this hard to accept, since Paris's background included time with the Maquis. How is lying about an adolescent mistake less redeemable than being a former terrorist?

Well, first of all, Paris was only in the Maquis for the thrills. He didn't really believe in the cause. He wasn't a "real" terrorist.

Secondly, Locarno was a jackass who deliberately tried to cover up the truth and get his crewmates to do the same. Paris initially tried that, but he later came clean and admitted his own fault - something Locarno would never do.

As for the royalties thing? Yeah, it pretty much does work that way. It's why we got Locarno/Paris, Taurik/Vorik, T'Pau/T'Pol, etc. It also sometimes pops up in the Law & Order universe - in the original series we used to see the same actor play like 4 or 5 different defense attorneys, or judges, or whatever. There'd be no in-universe REASON to do this, but when different people write every episode, AFAIK they all are entitled to royalties for characters they create.

Well, I'm still a bit p***ed over the fact that they didn't name Danny Pino's character Scotty Valens in "Law And Order SVU" instead of Nick Amaro, especially since there were some cooperation between the "Cold Case" cops (where Valens was at that time) and the SVU team (before Amaro showed up).

On the other hand, such events triggers my imagination and make me come up with silly or funny explanations to the problems.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I'm not aware of any crossover between the L&O and Cold Case universes..

 

[Tosk]

Paris was so Locarno that the photo Admiral Paris keeps on his desk is of Locarno. And the writers even forgot Paris' backstory at one point and accidentally used Locarno's instead. (In "Drive", Torres mentions that Paris was expelled from the Academy. But that was Locarno. Paris graduated and was subsequently kicked out of Starfleet.)

 

[stardream]

Paris was so Locarno that the photo Admiral Paris keeps on his desk is of Locarno. And the writers even forgot Paris' backstory at one point and accidentally used Locarno's instead. (In "Drive", Torres mentions that Paris was expelled from the Academy. But that was Locarno. Paris graduated and was subsequently kicked out of Starfleet.)

I think some fans retconned that to mean that he was expelled at least once but was allowed back before he graduated. I know...its weak.

 

[hux]

I can't believe Tuvok was a human who tried to steal the Enterprise then died but was then later reanimated and genetically altered to become a Vulcan.

Wait, what are we talking about?

 

[Kor]

As far as royalties go, how much money are we talking, so that it's so prohibitively expensive to turn somebody's secondary character from one episode of an earlier series into a regular character on a later series? Hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode, or what?

And would there also be a glut of paperwork every time the same character is used, wasting everybody's time?

Kor

 

[Jeffe525]

Well--there's also the story that the character of Locarno was considered sullied by the events in the episode and would be irredeemable...

I find this hard to accept, since Paris's background included time with the Maquis. How is lying about an adolescent mistake less redeemable than being a former terrorist?

Well, first of all, Paris was only in the Maquis for the thrills. He didn't really believe in the cause. He wasn't a "real" terrorist.

What? Ok, try that one again, except replace "Paris," "Maquis," and "Starfleet" with "Abdullah," "Taliban," and "U.S. Army." You see where the problem is here. Terrorists are never excused, whereas liars, save-asses, and adolescent idiots are given redemption all the time.

Secondly, Locarno was a jackass who deliberately tried to cover up the truth and get his crewmates to do the same. Paris initially tried that, but he later came clean and admitted his own fault - something Locarno would never do.

This is comparing apples to... well, just other apples.

One episode, just one episode of royalties... They just had to quickly explain how Locarno changed his name to Paris after his father disowned him (or whatever). Done, and done. That's all it would've taken.

 

[Melakon]

As far as royalties go, how much money are we talking, so that it's so prohibitively expensive to turn somebody's secondary character from one episode of an earlier series into a regular character on a later series?

I don't know specific numbers, but there's the initial payment when it airs, additional residuals for X number of network rebroadcast airings, then X number of syndication broadcasts, and probably a proviso for internet streaming these days. There's also probably a clause for home video. Depends on the contracts. Union regulations only cover mandatory minimums.

 

[stardream]

I wonder....Why did they want to bring back that particular character ?

 

[Lance]

Before he was Lt. Tom Paris, Robert Duncan McNeill played Cadet First Class Nicholas Locarno in TNG: The First Duty. Aside from their names and a couple of very minor background details, these two characters are nearly identical.

I've read several articles claiming that the producers' original plan to put Locarno in the driver's seat of Voyager was changed to Tom Paris to avoid paying royalties to the writers of The First Duty.

Really? Really?

First, I wasn't aware that royalties worked this way when dealing with a collaborative staff of writers working for a TV show. Is this really the reason or has anyone ever heard of another explanation?

Second, if royalties was really the reason, are these superficial changes enough to ''legally'' distinguish the Paris character from the Locarno character?

If money was the reason, I would think The First Duty writers would be calling foul.

I've never quite understood why they didn't. Because there's certainly enough evidence that Paris was supposed to be Locarno with the names changed for them to take Paramount to arbitration, not least that the earliest Voyager production documents actually had Locarno in them, not Paris.

Locarno was a jackass who deliberately tried to cover up the truth and get his crewmates to do the same. Paris initially tried that, but he later came clean and admitted his own fault - something Locarno would never do.

It's a blurry line enforced by later ret-cons though, which softened his character. Sure, we all think of Tom Paris as 'a nice guy' who had his father issues and who somewhat atoned for his crimes (which were watered down to being essentially more like an accident, rather than Locarno's deliberate actions). But go back to ''Caretaker'', and we can see there's a reason why Chakotay is so hostile towards him, and why even Tom himself warns Harry Kim to stay away from him. He was a much more murky character at the beginning, much more in the Locarno mold. But then again, there was a lot more shades of gray in Voyager's early seasons.....