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| Tom tries to restrain B'Elanna, under the influence of pon farr. |
THE PLOT
Voyager finds an apparently uninhabitated planet that contains gallacite, the desperately-needed Mineral of the Week that will probably never be mentioned again. Torres and Ensign Vorik (Alexander Enberg), a Vulcan, begin preparations for a mission to retrieve the gallacite. Out of nowhere, Vorik suddenly proposes to Torres. When she gently refuses, he attacks her.
Yes, that's right: Vorik is going through pon farr, stuck on a ship far from home with no mate lined up for him.
The thick veil of Vulcan secrecy surrounding this issue makes it maddening for the Doctor to attempt to treat Vorik, who insists on confining himself to his quarters and trying to meditate his mating urge away (You can guess how well that goes). Meanwhile, B'Elanna, Tom Paris, and Neelix beam down to pursue the mission.
But B'Elanna is not herself. She is behaving with unusual violence and aggression. After Tom contacts the ship, Tuvok is able to determine that Vorik forged a momentary psychic link with B'Elanna - meaning that she is going through pon farr as well!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Gets very little to do this episode. That said, Kate Mulgrew has some fun with Janeway's reactions to the Doctor's enthusiasm at the prospect of comparing mating rituals.
Torres: Though Blood Fever is not a good episode, it does act as a showcase for the ever-reliable Roxann Dawson, who is given license to emote and chew scenery. Possibly recognizing the trap of becoming tedious with so many outbursts in one episode, she varies the emotions: Rage, fear, desperation, self-pity. It's not as good a performance as in Remember, but that episode encouraged subtlety and naturalism - qualities this script has no use for. Given the level of the material, Dawson is able to deliver a surprisingly good performance.
Tom Paris: This is also a solid episode for Tom, who is paired with B'Elanna for the bulk of the story. We've seen hints of Tom's attraction to her in past episodes. Here, he is given what he wants in the exact wrong way, with the object of his desire effectively under the influence. He comes close to giving in at one point, but is firm in his refusal to exploit the situation, telling her that she would hate both herself and him if he allowed her to give into this moment of weakness.
The Doctor: Points to the Doctor for being the only person in this episode to have enough common sense to think of the holodeck as a solution to Vorik's problem. It seemed so blindingly obvious to me that I was yelling at the screen from the teaser onward for someone to at least mention the possibility. Sure, it didn't work... But for it to take more than half the episode for anyone to even consider trying something so obvious leaves me wondering if the crew of Voyager are stupid, fanatically puritanical, or both.
THOUGHTS
"This isn't about the gun, this is about sex!"
-Tom Paris delivers one of the more bizarre lines of his Voyager career.
If this episode sounds dizzyingly stupid, rest assured: It plays out even dumber. From the opening minutes, as soon as I realized this was going to be a pon farr episode, I braced myself. And while Blood Fever is not as embarrasingly bad as Enterprise's pon farr episode, it is still dizzyingly stupid and, worst of all, boring.
My problems with the script begin almost immediately. Vorik and Tuvok both block the Doctor's efforts to treat this condition on the grounds of personal privacy. Never mind that Vorik is on an enclosed ship, with knowledge and physical strength to do a lot of damage very quickly - something he's liable to be inclined to do while in an emotional and irrational frame of mind. I'm all for personal privacy... but as the saying goes, your right to privacy ends where my right to safety begins, something neither the Doctor nor any other character in the episode ever even mentions.
Then there's the new wrinkle added to the pon farr mythology, with Vorik using his Vulcan Voodoo to infect Torres with it. This makes minimal sense, and seems to spring from a need to get Roxann Dawson acting feral as fast as possible. Speaking of which, Torres is already behaving strangely when the mission begins. You'd think this would prompt some concern on Tom's part or Neelix's about proceeding.
It all just continues getting dumber and dumber as it goes. Tom and Torres spend about half the episode in the Star Trek cave set, alternating between delivering bad dialogue and pawing at each other. When they get out, Vorik - who has somehow disabled the ship single-handed - booms out a challenge, and Tuvok gravely informs us that he sees "no alternative but to follow Vulcan tradition" and allow a big fight scene.
Keeping this out of the "1" range are a few good bits involving the Doctor and the performances of Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill. Dawson and McNeill do all in their power to lend something resembling credibility to this inane situation.
There's also an ending sting that promises the next episode will be better than this one - At least, I certainly hope so!
Overall Rating: 2/10.
Previous Episode: Coda
Next Episode: Unity
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