Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review Admiral Owen Paris, who is Tom Paris's father and a recurring character form Voyager.
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp264
Owen Paris is a senior Starfleet officer by the time we see him on Voyager, but he was previously the captain on the USS Al-Batani. Kathryn Janeway was the science officer on that ship, and as such, she learned a great deal from Owen Paris. This led her to track down Owen's son Tom in a penal colony when she needs a pilot and expert on navigating the Badlands. She gives Tom a chance where other captains may not thanks to the former mentor relationship with his father.
In reminiscing about Owen Paris, Tom noted that his father was always pressuring him to excel, likely as a result of the strong self drive the Admiral has. Owen was a firm proponent of the Prime Directive as a leading principle to guide space exploration, and he was believed to never change an opinion once he finalized his opinion on a matter. He cares about family, and he cares about excellence in performance.
With this background, it should come as no surprise that Owen Paris leads the successful Pathfinder Project to establish contact with the lost Voyager ship and to help bring his former colleague Janeway and his son home from the Delta Quadrant. In this role, we see Admiral Paris interact wit the quirky Reginald Barclay. While the Admiral is inclined to be harsh when Barclay does not follow orders, he sees the brilliance and promise in Reginald's ideas, and lets those blossom into the successes of the Pathfinder Project.
Owen Paris is a senior Starfleet officer by the time we see him on Voyager, but he was previously the captain on the USS Al-Batani. Kathryn Janeway was the science officer on that ship, and as such, she learned a great deal from Owen Paris. This led her to track down Owen's son Tom in a penal colony when she needs a pilot and expert on navigating the Badlands. She gives Tom a chance where other captains may not thanks to the former mentor relationship with his father.
In reminiscing about Owen Paris, Tom noted that his father was always pressuring him to excel, likely as a result of the strong self drive the Admiral has. Owen was a firm proponent of the Prime Directive as a leading principle to guide space exploration, and he was believed to never change an opinion once he finalized his opinion on a matter. He cares about family, and he cares about excellence in performance.
With this background, it should come as no surprise that Owen Paris leads the successful Pathfinder Project to establish contact with the lost Voyager ship and to help bring his former colleague Janeway and his son home from the Delta Quadrant. In this role, we see Admiral Paris interact wit the quirky Reginald Barclay. While the Admiral is inclined to be harsh when Barclay does not follow orders, he sees the brilliance and promise in Reginald's ideas, and lets those blossom into the successes of the Pathfinder Project.
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Much like Kelby, who we covered last week, Owen Paris is a recurring character who is highly memorable as a result of the important episodes he appears in, but his main contribution is to provide significant background and color to explain why Tom Paris ends up on Janeway's ship, and the motivations of these two main characters. This is precisely the type of recurring role that makes Star Trek great. And hey, he's not a total jerk admiral, so that's a change of pace.
Owen Paris was played by Richard Herd, who has not really had any leading roles in a 50 year acting career, but has a great niche as a recognizable face thanks to his authoritarian look and stance. He played the recurring character Wilhelm in Seinfeld, and he recently appeared in this year's critically acclaimed movie Get Out. He overcame bone marrow cancer as a child in the 1930's, and briefly served in the Army during the Korean War, before living the life of a stage and film actor.
Much like Kelby, who we covered last week, Owen Paris is a recurring character who is highly memorable as a result of the important episodes he appears in, but his main contribution is to provide significant background and color to explain why Tom Paris ends up on Janeway's ship, and the motivations of these two main characters. This is precisely the type of recurring role that makes Star Trek great. And hey, he's not a total jerk admiral, so that's a change of pace.
Owen Paris was played by Richard Herd, who has not really had any leading roles in a 50 year acting career, but has a great niche as a recognizable face thanks to his authoritarian look and stance. He played the recurring character Wilhelm in Seinfeld, and he recently appeared in this year's critically acclaimed movie Get Out. He overcame bone marrow cancer as a child in the 1930's, and briefly served in the Army during the Korean War, before living the life of a stage and film actor.
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