Star Trek: Voyager EP On The Show’s Worst Episode Ever

Brannon Braga was one of the strongest voices in the Star Trek franchise during its 1987-2005 television run. That includes seven years of Braga working on Star Trek: Voyager, and while the series is well-liked by fans, not every episode was a winner.

At this year’s Star Trek Las Vegas convention, Braga touched on what is considered to be a low point in Star Trek: Voyager‘s run.

“There’s an episode of Voyager called ‘Threshold’ which is considered to be [trails off], now when I was writing it I thought, ‘This is the coolest thing ever!’ It was just awful at the end of the day, and everyone hates it,” Braga said (via Trek Movie).

Having an idea that seems great while he’s writing become a misfire once realized is something that’s happened to Braga more than once, as the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise turned out the same way.

“Threshold” is actually an Emmy-winning episode of television, having won the 1996 award for Outstanding Individual Makeup for a Series, but considerably less loved by fans.

“Threshold” was a second season episode of Star Trek: Voyager that saw Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) become the first known pilot to achieve Warp 10, thus breaking the transwarp barrier and a long-standing Gene Roddenberry rule maintaining Warp 9 as the absolute limit of space travel.

The event had some unexpected effects on Paris. He began to transform, evolving – or de-evolving – into an amphibious lizard of some kind.

Braga and the other staff members have discussed the episode in DVD commentary and interviews before, saying even then that it was a disappointing episode that lost much of its purpose in last minute rewrites.

AFter the topic of “Threshold” came up, a fan asked Braga why he keeps showing up to Star Trek Las Vegas when there’s so much criticism levied against him for that episode, as well as the Star Trek: Enterprise finale and Kirk’s death scene in Star Trek: Generations.

“It’s the reason I’m here right now, the Star Trek fan base, you’re great people, you’re intelligent, you’re thoughtful, some of you are mean, but I know it comes from a place of passion,” Braga replied. “It’s just fun to interact, Star Trek was a huge part of my life and I miss it, and it’s nice to reminisce about it with fans.”

Braga is now working as an executive producer on The Orville, Seth McFarlane’s comedy-tinged Star Trek homage.