Star Trek Why Tom Paris & Voyager Actors Returned (But Not DS9’s Cast)

Star Trek: Why Tom Paris & Voyager Actors Returned (But Not DS9’s Cast)

Tom Paris on Star Trek: Lower Decks makes Robert Duncan McNeill the latest Voyager actor to return to Trek but where is the cast of Deep Space Nine?

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Star Trek Why Tom Paris & Voyager Actors Returned (But Not DS9’s Cast)

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 3 – “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2 features the return of Star Trek: Voyager’s Robert Duncan McNeill as Lt. Tom Paris. This makes McNeill the latest Voyager cast member to return to the franchise, which further highlights the glaring absence of the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from Paramount+’s ever-growing fleet of Star Trek shows. McNeill’s guest spot on Lower Decks joins Jeri Ryan, who reprised Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Picard, while Voyager’s Captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew, and Commander Chakotay, Robert Beltran, will voice their iconic characters on Star Trek: Prodigy.

Tom Paris’ arrival on the USS Cerritos is the highlight of Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2, episode 3, which is literally titled for the intrepid helmsman of the USS Voyager – “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris.” In the episode, Voyager fanboy Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) is thrilled that one of his heroes is dropping by his starship, and Brad plans to have Voyager’s pilot autograph his Tom Paris commemorative plate. When Boimler gets trapped in a Jeffries tube, he even images the photo of Paris on his plate giving him a pep talk. Unfortunately, Bradward gets disheveled when he escapes the bowels of the Cerritos, and Lt. Paris hilariously mistakes him for a Kazon, one of Star Trek: Voyager’s alien villains. Poor Boimler is literally pummeled by his idol in a case of mistaken identity.

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It’s amazing to see so many actors from Star Trek: Voyager beaming aboard the franchise’s booming renaissance on Paramount+, but Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans have a right to feel left out. Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager’s characters are well-represented on the new Star Trek shows but no one from DS9 has made an appearance. While Star Trek hasn’t given a reason for why DS9’s cast has been left out in the cold, it’s possible that the Star Trek shows’ creative teams are simply bigger Voyager fans and are bringing in their favorites as a result. Instead, DS9 fans have to settle for Easter eggs like Quark’s (Armin Shimerman) Bar franchised on alien planets and a shout out to DS9’s holographic crooner Vic Fontaine (James Darren) in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris.”

Both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager concluded their macro stories at the end of their 7th seasons, but DS9’s ending was more definitive than Voyager’s. Certainly, there are lots of questions about what happened next to DS9’s beloved cast that fans want to be answered, but Voyager’s conclusion – Captain Janeway’s starship arrives on Earth after seven years lost in the Delta Quadrant – is more open-ended and begs for more follow-ups.

Seven of Nine is now a series regular on Star Trek: Picard but Patrick Stewart’s series is set over 20 years after the USS Voyager returned and there are plenty of unanswered questions about what happened to Voyager’s crew after the series ended. Tom Paris’ appearance on Star Trek: Lower Decks is set just a couple of years after his homecoming so he’s the first of Voyager’s cast to receive an update in the aftermath of Star Trek: Voyager’s finale. One obvious change is that Paris now wears Starfleet’s grey and black uniform with a red turtleneck as seen in DS9 and the final three TNG movies instead of the uniform he wore on Voyager.

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It may also be easier to recruit Star Trek: Voyager’s cast to join the new Star Trek shows since many of them retained their ties to the franchise after the show ended. Aside from participating in the DS9 documentary What We Left Behind, the cast of DS9 overall left Star Trek behind and moved onto other things. Meanwhile, Robert Duncan McNeill, for example, became a director and helmed episodes of the prequel series, Star Trek: Enterprise. Still, it’s hard to believe that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s cast wouldn’t be open to reprising their characters if asked, and DS9’s fans continue to patiently wait for their favorite space station’s crew to be invited to the USS Cerritos or to meet Admiral Picard.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/star-trek-lower-decks-voyager-cast-return-not-ds9/

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