{"id":1118210,"date":"2026-01-31T09:43:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=520026"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:43:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:43:26","slug":"the-best-star-trek-fan-event-of-the-year-joyfully-celebrates-the-franchises-worst-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-best-star-trek-fan-event-of-the-year-joyfully-celebrates-the-franchises-worst-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"The best Star Trek fan event of the year joyfully celebrates the franchise\u2019s worst episode"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Star Trek fans celebrate a lot of holidays. There\u2019s Star Trek Day on Sept. 8, the anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: The Original Series<\/em>. There\u2019s First Contact Day on April 5, the anniversary of the fictional date on which humanity made first contact with Vulcan visitors. One might even celebrate Captain Picard Day<\/a> on June 16, the Gregorian calendar date that corresponds with a yearly tribute put on by schoolchildren living on the Enterprise-D. <\/p>\n

But none of them are quite like Threshold Day, a yearly social media extravaganza \u2014 primarily held on Tumblr \u2014 that features gifs, memes, and lots and lots of fan art of three enormous, juvenile salamanders. Because Threshold Day, held on Jan. 29, joyfully celebrates the anniversary of what\u2019s widely regarded to be one of the worst episodes of Star Trek<\/a> ever made. <\/p>\n

With this year\u2019s ninth annual Threshold Day gaining acknowledgement from sources as diverse as Tumblr\u2019s official trends blog<\/a> and Captain Janeway actor Kate Mulgrew herself<\/a>, Polygon reached out to Sif, who originated Threshold Day through their Trek-themed Tumblr blogs, to see if we could discover the true meaning of Threshold Day season and better keep it in our hearts year round. <\/p>\n

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I have been informed it is Threshold Day \ud83e\udd8e\ud83e\udd8e\ud83e\udd8eA day of unmitigated lust!But such darling baby lizards\u2026<\/p>\n

— Kate Mulgrew (@thekatemulgrew.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-01-29T19:36:29.977Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201c[Threshold Day] really started as me being a contrarian,\u201d Sif told Polygon via email. \u201cI was in a Voyager rewatch late 2015\/early 2016 and I found the negativity surrounding Threshold to be bothersome. There is room for as many opinions in a fandom as there are Trekkies, of course. But the general consensus seemed to be that the episode was so bad that we should scrub it from canon. As the 20th anniversary was coming up [on Jan. 29, 2016], I instead decided to have a day<\/a> only<\/em> about Threshold<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bonkers idea \u2014 spending a day blogging only about an episode that creator Brannon Braga himself called \u2018A royal, steaming stinker\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

We asked Sif if they could sum up the plot of \u201cThreshold\u201d in a single sentence and they replied: \u201cLocal man experiences rapid personal and physical growth \u2014 does not care for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That really sums it up, but let\u2019s go into the details anyway. \u201cThreshold\u201d is the 15th episode of the second season of Star Trek: Voyager<\/em>, written by staff scribe Brannon Braga and directed by Alexander Singer, that premiered on Jan. 29, 1996. It largely focuses on hotshot pilot Lieutenant Tom Paris, who devises an untested method to allow Voyager to reach warp 10, thought to be a \u201cthreshold\u201d too dangerous to cross. (The definition of warp 10 has changed over time, and this writer, while a big Trek fan, is simply not of the specific variety of Trek fan who can unpack why<\/em> reaching warp 10 is dangerous.) <\/p>\n

The potential of this discovery is particularly important, given that the entire conceit of Voyager<\/em> is that even at its maximum speed, the titular ship faces a 70-year-minimum journey home to Federation space. Paris\u2019 breakthrough could potentially allow the crew to return home instantaneously<\/em>. And so, against medical advice, Paris outfits one of Voyager\u2019s shuttles as a test craft and successfully breaks the warp 10 barrier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Which is where things start to get really, really weird. Apparently, breaking warp 10 has some knock-on effects on an organism, and Paris begins to undergo a grotesque transformation. His tongue and hair fall out, his skin grows sallow and spotted, he becomes allergic to water, he stops being able to breathe oxygen, and he begins behaving irrationally. Later, the ship\u2019s doctor outright calls this a natural, albeit accelerated, arc of human evolution, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s possible that Mr. Paris represents a future stage in human development, although I can\u2019t say it\u2019s very attractive.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the climax of the episode, an unrecognizable Paris abducts Captain Janeway, hops into the test shuttle, and zips off at warp 10. In the final five minutes of \u201cThreshold,\u201d the Voyager catches up with them in the jungles of an unnamed planet and uncovers shocking results: Paris and Janeway have not only both transformed into enormous salamander\/lizard-type creatures, they\u2019ve procreated<\/em>. <\/p>\n

First Officer Chakotay recovers Paris and Janeway, the doctor reverses their transformations without ill effects, the Voyager leaves three evolved human-salamander-lizard\u2026 infants? behind on the planet, and none of the characters ever talk about this again<\/em>. <\/p>\n

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