Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Thirty Days (1998) User Reviews

Janeway's inconsistency drives me crazy

[tessarek · 7/10 · 6 June 2019]

In the beginning of the episode we witness Tom's demotion. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but suffice it to say, he did not violate the Prime Directive. If you really think about it, you will come to the same conclusion. It was merly bending the spirit of the law. Funny fact, the Prime Directive did not even apply in this situation.

Janeway's irrational and overly dramatic punishment for Tom is nothing more than another sign of her holier-than-thou mentality. Otherwise she would have had to demote Tuvok in the first season's episode "Prime Factors" and put him in the brig for longer than 30 days. However, she did not, which only proves my point.

Other than that I really enjoyed this episode, which develops Tom's character even further.

30 Day Martyr

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 5 September 2018]

Tom Paris is seen having his insignia removed and being broken to Ensign at the beginning of this episode. He is also sentenced to 30 days of solitary confinement. He then recounts and a letter to his father what got him in this predicament. It turns out a planet has been found that is entirely covered with water. It has produced an interesting race that lives beneath the ocean. But through foolish overuse of oxygen generation, the ocean is being depleted. The government stands in the way of circumventing this problem and Tom, in his insubordinate way, disobeys orders and finds himself in the brig. The story is interesting and I think the conclusion is the way it should be. Janeway and crew acted in a positive way assisting the aliens, but they needed to be the ones to take the advice.

Reasonably good Tom episode

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 16 September 2023]

Tom is demoted and sent to the brig for 30 days, but why?

I think how much you enjoy this depends upon you accepting certain aspects of Tom's character that come out of the blue due to the episodic nature of the writing (obsession with seafaring). Plus it helps if you are interested in more drama centred around his behaviour, conduct and backstory.

There are some good themes relating to the prime directive. It is ground that has been covered by the franchise before but this is a different context given Voyager's situation and Tom's position on the ship.

Robert Duncan McNeil and Katie Mulgrew are the standouts in this one as their characters have the best material. I find the 'alien-of-the-week' characters to be slightly irritating.

Visually it is refreshing to see a different type of environment used to good effect. The effects used to bring this to life are very good and hold up by today's standard.

6.5/10 for me but I round upwards.

Tom is in trouble

[Tweekums · 6/10 · 27 February 2010]

This episode opens with Lt. Paris being demoted to ensign and sentenced to thirty days in the brig for offences which are as yet unknown. As he settles down for his month in solitary confinement he starts to dictate a letter to his father which explains how he came to be there. As he dictates the action switches to show the events he was talking about; Voyager comes across an unusual planet, it appears to be made entirely of water. As Voyager nears the planet it is intercepted by ships that launched from under the surface. It turns out that it is inhabited by a species who settled there a few centuries before and are mining oxygen from its waters. They have a problem though, the ocean is slowly being lost to space. Tom and one of the aliens take the Delta Flier down to the centre of the planet where they find a device that provides the gravity needed to hold the watery world together. Unfortunately the mining activities have changed the water density to such an extent the device can't hold it in place any more and the planet will be lost within five years.

When they get back to Voyager and tell a local administrator about it he says he will pass on the information to the relevant authorities but it is clear nothing will be done. Tom is not impressed with their blasé attitude and even though ordered to do nothing takes the Delta Flier and sets off with a local scientist to destroy the mining facility. Janeway is willing to do anything to stop him, even destroying the Flier with Tom in it.

This was a fairly average episode; while the idea of telling the story in flashback with Tom in the brig was interesting it meant there was no sense of threat as we knew he was alive and well. The aliens were also fairly forgettable

30 Days in the Hole

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 12 October 2013]

I can't help it, I either like something 100% or I hate it 100%, very rarely do I go halfway. I have been watching Voyager for the first time since I saw it first-run, my memories of these episodes don't jibe with what I am seeing now.

In fact, I don't remember seeing this one, it slipped through the cracks. A friend of mine, when missing an episode of some show we were watching would always say "I'll catch the Re-Runs this summer" - But that doesn't happen anymore, and I don't think it was happening much during Voyager's first Run through UPN13-space.

As far as this episode goes, I like the way it has been told "In Flashback". Tom is being properly sanctioned and demoted due to rank insubordination.

This is something I would have expected to happen in the first season when he was still a bit disorderly, but in fact, his behavior from Voyager's first day in the Delta Quadrant had been exemplary.

In Season Two, he took on a role of insubordination but we finally learned it was a trick to get Info from our Favourite Cardassian Mole, Seska.

So that it happened here in the middle of the 5th Season was something of a surprise. I had figured he had done something completely irascible, but that is not the case.

As far as "Out of Character" goes, Harry, innocent little Harry, has a Date with the Delaney Sisters in Tom's "Captain Proton" Holo-Serial. I wonder if Republic made those? Actually it's just another example of Harry picking the Wrong Girl to go Bugsputz over (again). A Dead Girl, Seven, an Alien Chick who made his skin glow, this is par for Harry's long line of infatuations. But The Delaney Sisters looked great, didn't they?

Voyager finds an Ocean floating in Space, meet a race of people who have been living there. Nobody knows how it got there, until they send the Delta "Flying Sub" down to the core and find a huge reactor that's holding the Ocean in place, but not much is holding the reactor in place.

In fact it is failing because the people who live there are ruining the ecology, so it is not a matter of 'if' the whole place will dissipate molecule by molecule, it's a matter of when this will happen, which will be soon.

Tom befriends one of the scientists of this race, who shares his concern, and they conspire to blow up one of the Oxygen-Mines which is wrecking the place.

Janeway, as much as she agrees, cannot interfere and has to stop him. This is a very different Tom Paris than the one we met in the Pilot Episode, that man did not care about anything, not even himself. But seeing this floating Ocean has ignited his love of all things Maritime that he had since Childhood, and he is compelled to act.

Some times we just have to do things that are not strictly legit. I understand Tom's desire to preserve something wonderful that had been created long ago. But when the race of people who would ultimately benefit from this do not care one iota, it is not clear if this kind of action is warranted. But we know this is something Tom had to do, even when it meant being Demoted to Harry's Rank.

So now B'Elanna can order Tom around.

More than anything else, this is character development- If Tom will sacrifice his rank to benefit someone other than himself, then maybe being on Voyager has changed him irrecoverably from that guy who didn't give a veQ 'ay'

Tom, the man-child, gets in trouble.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 26 February 2015]

Tom Paris was always a thrill-seeking, immature sort of man-child on "Star Trek: Voyager". In other words, instead of being an adult, he often acted like a 10 year-old in a man's body. This has created a lot of problems for him in the past and would seem to be why he is in trouble at the beginning of the show. He's apparently been demoted to ensign and is in the brig for 30 days. So what exactly did he do?

The show begins with Paris being placed in the brig. He begins to dictate a letter to his father and the rest of the show is a giant flashback. You then see Paris and Ensign Kim playing Captain Proton but fortunately this doesn't last very long and the story actually begins. Voyager finds a planet completely covered by ocean and is shocked when folks on the planet hail them. Apparently, there are folks living in cities under the sea! The Moneans are wary at first but soon warm to the Federation visitors. However, when Paris helps one of their scientists investigate why the ocean level is changing, the real problem begins--and you'll just have to see the show to see what I mean.

To me, this plot seems like a way for the program to address Global Warming or Global Cooling (I cannot remember which concept was in vogue at that time). Overall, it's interesting and it's interesting that for once, someone is more sanctimonious than the Captain!

One of my favorite Voyager episodes.

[Dropkickmeelmo · 9/10 · 12 April 2020]

Much like Tom Paris - I was always fascinated with exploration as a kid. Air, sea, space you name it, I loved it. Seeing the Delta Flyer turn into a submarine for this episode and the Monean's whole under sea civilization reminded me of Sea Quest (another 90s show I loved; until they jumped the shark).

This is one of my favorite episodes of Voyager that I missed during its first-run. When I found it when I watched the show for the first time since it's first run about 10 years ago - I couldn't believe it I had missed it.

If you have an interest in the oceanic exploration, Jules Verne, Robert Ballard (guy who found the Titanic), or anything of that nature (you've obviously gotta be a Trekkie too), you'll love this episode.

Tchüss!

Space greenpeace.

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 16 April 2022]

Maybe I got it wrong but this episode seems to be a commentary on fanatical greenpeace environmentalist bombing polluters.

Who knew Tom Paris was an environmentalist?!

This episode is well executed but the suspense and tension is nullified by knowing that Tom gets 30 days in solitary from the beginning of the episode.

I can't find a coherent message in this episode.

If you do what you believe in you might get punished?

Maybe what I needed was for Tom to make friends with one of the gungan ocean creatures? I need something more substantial that really enjoying stories about the sea to get me invested and rooting for Tom Paris and his ecoterrorism adventures.

Maybe the message is about tempering your passions? Ah, I give up. I don't know what this episode is attempting to say.

This starts out great.

[smiledaydream · 8/10 · 20 February 2021]

This starts out great. I'm in the first few minutes and I am going to start this review because I'm really enjoying the way this starts. They keep really great writers for the show. Not every show is the best which only means it's great because it's Star Trek but it's not as great as every other Star Trek. But this is really fun. Still great fun. OK I have to watch. ... It plays out OK but it doesn't stay as great as the first five minutes. But it's a solid story. It stays in line with the rest of the show. It doesn't violate any of the characters personalities. It was fun seeing Stanford Blatch.

30 days with a 5 o'clock shadow

[mcpuffin-27569 · 1/10 · 5 October 2017]

How is it that Paris had a 5 o'clock shadow for 30 days straight, not shaving. How can anyone make such an unimaginably moronic mistake as that? I mean seriously! He grew a 5 o'clock shadow (stubble) within the first day and it never grew anymore for the next 29 days. That is honestly the worst writing I've ever seen.

Tom joins Extinction Rebellion

[tomsly-40015 · 4/10 · 6 January 2024]

This is a lame "protect our planet" episode which just isn't very believable to me. Voyager has explored so many planets and met so many civilizations - if they would take meassures in their own hands all the time, if alien species pollute their planets or treat their citizens badly, then they would not have come very far. Take the Malon waste disposers for example. Tom didn't invade their planet to destroy their cargo vessels!

In this episode Tom is determined to take meassures in his own hands when an alien race, that lives on a artifical ocean planet, is about to slowly destroy their homeworld by using their industrial facilities to produce oxygen. While Voyager gives the officials information about how to use a different technology to save their planet, they don't seem to be willing to act quickly. Tom is upset and wants to destroy some of those facilities on that planet to force the alien officials to rebuild them - with new technology that won't destroy their planet anymore.

This whole "Eco Robin Hood" image doesn't fit Tom Paris. I did not believe a word. Also, how comes he always has hobbies and is interested in things, that are currently needed in an episode? Of course Tom is also an aficionado of the ocean, marine life, aquatics, the navy... Janeway later demotes him to ensign because of insubordination. At least that was satisfying to watch.

When Tom is in the brig for 30 days I wondered: Where is the toilet? It is just a tiny room with a bunk. No toilet, no washbasin, no shower, not even PJs... what do they do if he needs to pee? Lower the force field and accompany him to the restroom? By the way - I never have seen any restroom on the Voyager! Also, even worse than being bored in the brig for 30 days must be, to be the prison guard in the room next to the brig. This poor guy has to stand at his console without any diversion and watch Tom in the brig the whole day. What a lame job.