Thirty Days (Star Trek: Voyager)

"Thirty Days"
Star Trek: Voyager episode
Tom Paris serves 30 days in the brig
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 9
Directed by	Winrich Kolbe
Teleplay by	Kenneth Biller
Story by	Scott Miller
Featured music	Paul Baillargeon
Production code	202
Original air date	December 9, 1998 (1998-12-09)
Guest stars
Willie Garson - Riga Benjamin Livingston - Burkus Alissa Kramer - Jenny Delaney Heidi Kramer - Megan Delaney Warren Munson - Admiral Paris David Keith Anderson - Ens. Ashmore
Episode chronology
← Previous "Nothing Human" Next → "Counterpoint"
List of Star Trek: Voyager episodes

"Thirty Days" is the 103rd episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the ninth episode of the fifth season.

Plot

Tom Paris's retells the events of a mission on a water world in a letter to his father while he is in Voyager's brig.

The episode begins with the Voyager's meeting with a new race that originates from an ocean planet. They find out that the "planet" is losing mass at an alarming rate, and will be destroyed in 5 years if nothing is changed. The inhabitants believe that something at the center of the planet is responsible for its destruction; however, their best ships cannot reach that depth. Tom Paris eventually convinces the captain to allow him to take the Delta Flyer into the center of the planet. Paris tells the captain that he often read Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea when he was a child.

The Delta Flyer's journey is cut short when an undersea animal, similar to an electric eel, attacks it; however, it is determined that the reason for the planet's loss of mass is the mining of oxygen from the planet.

When Paris reports back to Captain Janeway, he is told that the planet's government will do nothing about it, and they must stop because of the Prime Directive. Paris then disobeys the captain's orders and returns to the planet to destroy the oxygen-mining facility. Before he can, Voyager fires a depth charge at the Delta Flyer, disabling it.

Tom Paris is then reduced to the rank of Ensign and sentenced to thirty days in the brig for disobeying Captain Janeway.

Notes

• The original shoot of this episode was wholly the scenes of Tom Paris' adventure on the planet. When test screened the episode lacked the mandatory time length and so the brig scenes of the episode were formulated by Robert Beltran (Commander Chakotay) and added.

• The Monean scientist's instrument shown in the episode "Thirty Days" is the same prop described in the later episode "Dark Frontier" where it is described by Harry as a Borg "autonomous regeneration drone."

External links

• Thirty Days at the Internet Movie Database
• "Thirty Day" at TV.com
• Thirty Days at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Thirty Days at StarTrek.com