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OK. This was originally a question about Owen Paris before I edited this post, but I think I got the situation under control now.

Never mind.

Heh. I couldn't really help much since I don't know the show very well ...

Don't worry about it. I was just wondering how much of a butt monkey I should make him in my story. He's turing out to be a very gifted butt monkey indeed I'd love to get him and Captain Archer in the same room together so they can have a poo flinging contest.

(oh no.... Usually when I say stuff like that I end up writing it later on.)

Owen Paris? He doesn't turn out to be such abad guy in the end of the series. I haven't read "Homecoming" yet though.

^ I've read the first two chapters and it didn't strike me as that interesting. So I stopped reading and picked up another book.

As far as Owen Paris is concerned...

He was an abusive old man.

Towards the end of the series (Pathfinder, Endgame, etc...) he appeared a competent, even pleasant, Admiral with decent people skills which is to be expected considering Janeway has always had respect for the man and even served with him with no complaint. I would think he behaved the same way with non family members the whole time Tom was growing up.

However. His relationship with Tom was never resolved. Sure, in Pathfinder he had a picture of "young academy Tom" on his desk (ala ST:TNG First Duty), and he did seem concerned that Tom was lost in the DQ and he missed him. But that much is to be expected even in an abusive situation. We were never really given enough information about his character to really know for sure if he had ever really stopped being a buttmunch. I'm sure when he spoke with Tom through the Data streams he was pleasant and kind, but I can't even bring that into account because he was never around him long enough during the day to see what his life was really like in the DQ.

I decided to write him like a mild version of "Cogenitor Archer". Or maybe not so mild depending on what happens. In my story, Tom had been in the Alpha Quadrant for almost a year which would give the old man time to fall back into old habits.

By personal experience, this seems plausible to me especially if things were never really hashed out. I left my home when I was 18 because of my parents - moved to South Carolina for a year. They were nice to me over the phone, but when I returned, right after the "Reunion" period they fell right back into old habits so I ended up moving out for good.

I hated that about face on Owen Paris. To me they should have kept him evil. Tom had gone through so much growth culminating in that letter in Thirty Days and then they invalidate it by making Owen like Ward Cleaver? SAY WHAT!!! Imagine Malcolm saying I need to give my Da a bear hug! YUCK!

Wow, it must've been a lot longer since I've watched Voyager than I thought. I SO don't remember Owen Paris being a nice guy. Maybe I missed that episode??? It's very possible...our UPN affiliate was always preempting Trek for stupid hockey, so sometimes you could never figure out when the hell it really was going to be on.

The last half of season 6 it is revealed that Owen Paris is head of the Pathfinder Project, tiressly working to find VOY and bring home his son. And he's oh so wonderful!

Buttmunch? Haven't heard that expression before but its beautiful. I like characters that are multifaceted so I guess Owen Paris could be decent to career peers and a bastard to his family. Often parents expect to much of family, like "the kid has my genes and to screw up (in my opinion) is an insult to my genes". Or something like that. It is too bad they didn't have an episode where Tom lets his dad know what an ass of a father he was. Or did they and I missed it? Don't think so though.

No they didn't. Then again B'Elanna had to forgive her jerk of a dad without giving him a piece of her mind either. Oh well, in that case ST is a little "too perfect" real people have to vent before they forgive. But then with baby Miral on the way, they might just think it's too unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

I got the impression that John Torres had a long way to go, in B'Elanna's mind, but then she'd also gotten to the point where she didn't need him, if that makes any sense.

Yeah it does. She had Tom, he proved himself when she was terrified of having the baby. Which I think its safe to lame those hybrid hormones and the trauma of what happened to her. Most men would have left, he didn't. John Torres doesn't have control anymore, not that he gave any indication that he knew how badly he'd messed her up.