Of course, the sci-fi series Star Trek: Voyager also produced some stinking episodes over its seven seasons. This is completely normal and to be expected. But only one episode is considered (unofficially) non-canon and so memorably wrong that even a day named after her is.
So, among some Trekkies with a sense of ironic humor, January 29th is celebrated as Threshold Day – the day on which the episode Threshold aka The Threshold was first broadcast in 1996.
That’s why The Threshold is considered one of the worst Star Trek episodes of all time
In the story by screenwriter Michael De Luca and Voyager showrunner Brannon Braga, the crew around Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is still trying to get back to the distant Alpha Quadrant. This is how you tackle it without further ado Break through the maximum warp 10 speed thresholdwhich would essentially require breaking the laws of physics. No problem, think the crew members around spaceship pilot Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), who shortly afterwards carries out the first manned shuttle test flight with the new technology.
The problem, it turns out, is not how to solve a mathematical and physical impossibility, but what happens to the pilot during a Warp 10 Plus flight. This travels to every single point in the universe at the same time – and then turns into a lizard. Logically, one could have figured it out.
But it gets even better: The mutated Mr. Paris quickly kidnaps the captain in order to subject her to lizard evolution via Warp 10… and on a nearby planet Baby lizards to do with her. Although they could have landed anywhere in the universe according to the rules that have just been established, the crew of the USS Voyager locates them without any problems. The Doctor (Robert Picardo) then transforms them back into humans just as easily. Lucky again.
Of course, having seen the entire universe and being a lizard who had children with the captain doesn’t stop a crew member of the spaceship Voyager from carrying on as before in the next episode.
The Voyager episode The Threshold doesn’t have many fans – but it does have an Emmy Award
Fascinatingly, the infamous Voyager episode breaks the threshold of badness so much that it ends up in the So Bad, It’s Good-The area advances and everything is fine again. A few years ago, ScreenRant ranked it as the 5th worst Star Trek episode of all time – right between Spock’s Brain from the original Star Trek and Ronin from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which belong in the same category of entertaining accidents.
What The Threshold has over the other episodes: She amazingly won an Emmy. Not for the episode itself and of course not for the story, but in the technical category for best make-up.
Speaking of the spaceship Voyager: The sci-fi series from the 90s was also the subject of the most recent podcast episode from the Moviepilot editorial team:
Podcast: Which series made us series fans?
The Moviepilot podcast is celebrating its 5th anniversary and on this festive occasion we reveal which series have had a significant impact on our childhood and youth. Sci-fi, fantasy, hospitals or agents? Everything included.
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Our personal, early series hits range from traumatic experiences in When the Animals Left the Forest to newly discovered worlds in Firefly. But whether mothers breathing loudly, poor television reception or the hurdle of a TV-less household: nothing could stop us from watching our early favorite series.