Voyager Flashback: Blood Fever

As more and more Star Trek spin-offs arrive, different segments of fandom debate the degree to which each new incarnation of the franchise should be bound by the continuity of what's come before. It's hardly unique to the modern Trek series. In its third season, Star Trek: Voyager made an episode basically only because the original series compelled them to do so: "Blood Fever."

Vorik is experiencing the Vulcan mating urge of pon farr, and through a brief telepathic connection, passes the condition onto B'Elanna Torres. Each seeks their own way to purge the "disease," Vorik through stoic Vulcan privacy (in which even Tuvok is reluctant to interfere), B'Elanna by fixing her amorous eyes on Tom Paris.

"Amok Time" is among the original Star Trek episodes most beloved by fans. It's been a very long time since I've watched it, but I certainly agreed with the masses the last time I did. And yet... back up for a second and imagine describing the plot to someone who, say, isn't into science fiction. The emotionless alien character goes into heat, as his species does every 7 years. If he doesn't take a mate, he's literally going to die. It sounds ridiculous, the product of a sex-crazed 1960s writer who couldn't make science fiction look sillier if he tried. (I would submit that, in a vacuum, only the premise of "Spock's Brain" sounds more laughable.) And yet, nearly 30 years later, we need to dust that off and make a sequel?

Well... yeah. Because from basically the first moment Trekkers saw another Vulcan character on a series, they were asking "when is pon farr going to come up?" And the writers of Voyager knew that, which is part of what took them so long: they were reportedly looking for a surprising angle into the story. Their solution was to not use Tuvok (protecting the married character), and to instead have B'Elanna experience the Vulcan urge.

The result is somewhat novel, but also still a bit silly. The Doctor becomes a sort of holographic pimp. We get performative foreplay from biting to almost literal rolling in the hay. Every line about how a character needs to "resolve" their pon farr skates right along the line of comedy. It's all the cliche scene setups from a porno with the actual sex removed. And it ends with three guys all standing around sort of creepily watching a "couple" fight each other. So, yeah... let's just stipulate right now: if you were to choose just one episode of Star Trek to convince someone of the merits of the franchise, you would never pick "Blood Fever."

But also, Voyager kind of did need to do this episode. And they did do some interesting things with it. The constant commentary on how illogical it is for Vulcans to be so private about this is fun. (Embarassment is an emotion, people!) Roxann Dawson really "accepts the assignment" fully and brings a wildly unrestrained energy to her performance as B'Elanna. The until now barely simmering romance between Tom and B'Elanna is put on the fast track.

The good performances might be thanks to director Andrew Robinson, better known to Trekkers for playing Garak on Deep Space Nine. He really gives the actors room to play, and covers the action mostly with long takes that don't interrupt the performance. Particularly striking is a scene where Tuvok and Vorik speak in profile to one another without meeting each other's eyes. Also, the fight at the end has surprisingly few cuts in it. My only complaint here: some of the work inside the caves may be a bit too underlit.

Other observations:

• Harry Kim is absent from this episode, with some random extra taking what likely would have been his one or two lines. According to Garrett Wang, this was another episode he missed owing to depression he was experiencing at the time.

• Adding to the "classic Star Trek" vibes here, the aliens on the planet seem like literal rock monsters when they're first encountered.

• We learn lots of random tidbits about characters that we didn't know before. Neelix worked in a mining colony. Tom Paris has rock climbing experience. Tuvok has an implant in his elbow.

• Reportedly, this episode was extensively rewritten at the last minute. It was to have been B'Elanna and Tuvok stranded together in a cave, him drawing on his Vulcan experience to talk her through pon farr. The writers then decided it would be a good opportunity to push the Paris relationship by putting him in that situation instead.
  

• TV trope: stopping the elevator to have a conversation, as no one in real life ever does.

• The episode ends with a tease of the Borg, another moment calibrated for the long-time Star Trek fans.

Yeah, this episode is pretty fun if you're already inside the Star Trek tent. But it's also kind of silly. I give "Blood Fever" a B-.