Fun fact: Tom Paris was originally intended to be Nick Locarno, until they realized they would have to pay the writers of that episode royalties every single episode… At which point they just filed the serial numbers off and we got “this guy who totally isn’t Nick Locarno.”
Surely they could have just negotiated a deal with the episode writer for one reasonable up-front payment to buy out the rights? The Voyager producers held all the cards - either the writer take the deal or they would (as they did) invent a new character with some superficial similarities played by the same actor.
Fun fact: Tom Paris was originally intended to be Nick Locarno, until they realized they would have to pay the writers of that episode royalties every single episode… At which point they just filed the serial numbers off and we got “this guy who totally isn’t Nick Locarno.”
Yeah. That still bugs me. They should have paid up.
Surely they could have just negotiated a deal with the episode writer for one reasonable up-front payment to buy out the rights? The Voyager producers held all the cards - either the writer take the deal or they would (as they did) invent a new character with some superficial similarities played by the same actor.