After quite a long hiatus, Ian Spelling has written a new edition of his syndicated 'Inside Trek' column, this time featuring an interview with Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris).

In the interview, McNeill mostly talked about the upcoming episode 'Prophecy', which will air on the 7th of February. In it, Tom Paris will be doing combat with a bat'leth for the first time. "I'd never worked with a bat'leth before, because it's not exactly Tom's thing", said Paris. "I went to work with Dan Curry, who actually helped create the bat'leth for `Next Gen,' and is also a collector and a master swordsman. [...] I just took to it, I guess and Dan was very complimentary about my natural ability to work with the bat'leth. I really got into it - the whole elegant flow of the movement, the turning and the spinning of the bat'leth."

Handling the bat'leth wasn't the only pleasant surprise McNeill had this season, and in the interview he talked at length about the many new things his character has been able to experience in Voyager's final year. "Before the season started, I met with (producer) Ken Biller and said, 'So what's going on with the character?' and he said, 'Well, you are getting married in episode two, B'Elanna will be pregnant by episode six and you are going to ... ' He went through the whole thing, and I really though he was joking. [...] Then he said, 'No, I'm serious.' Once I actually took a breath and thought about it, I realized it was a great way to go."

In the full interview, McNeill also talks about the work he's been able to do outside of Star Trek, and what he would like to do after Voyager ends. Thanks go out to James Garza for pointing me to this!

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