FEVER FEBRUARY DAY 5: Smutty Saturday!!
“Are you saying I’m impossible to resist?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.“
“Good.”
🔥💋Happy Blood Fever Day! 💋🔥
25 years ago, on 5 February, 1997 Blood Fever aired. In late October through early November 1997 I’m going to bet that a whole lot of ‘oops!’ babies were born! They’re 24 (& 1/4) now, and Blood Fever is still as sexy as it was when it first aired. Part funny, part serious, part shocking, part poignant, part sad, and a whole lot of sexy, this episode took a dude-bro trope and ran with it, and it still holds up. It still sparks arguments conversations about consent and how we define rape. (Look, if you want to insist that Vorik is a rapist for forcing a mindmeld on B’Elanna while he’s under the influence of pon farr, then you can’t say B’Elanna is purely a victim and give her a pass for her behaviour towards Tom. 🤷♀️ Sauce/goose/gander.)
We cheer for B’Elanna when she punches an overly amourous Vorik, and are angry when he faces no repercussions - other than a broken jaw and bruises from landing on the deck in a heap at her feet - for his assault on her. (And we have to defend our stance that he’s a victim of pon farr too).
We’re amused as B’Elanna baits and pushes Tom before they beam down to the planet, and when he’s distracted by the ruins they find there.
We’re confused by B’Elanna’s egregious reaction to Neelix’ fall (but love how Tom walks right past a moaning, collapsed Neelix to see if fuming, pacing, not-really-injured B’Elanna is okay). And we gasp in shock when she bites Tom on the jaw. We remember our Klingon Customs 101 and we all know what it means when a Klingon bites someone on the face!
And here our play really begins - everything else was just set up - and we get to appreciate the devine serendipity of the anniversary of the first airing of this episode landing on Smutty Saturday. A flummoxed, embarrassed B’Elanna runs off to find the galicite myself! and Tom is torn between following her and staying with a badly injured Neelix until a rescue party arrives. Mister Standup Starfleet Field Medic stays. By this point, B’Elanna has pretty much proven that she can take care of herself.
But Tom Paris, ladies man, former ne’re-do-well and good-time-guy, does track her down as soon as he possibly can, and here is where he becomes the hero of this little opera. Tuvok fills her in on her condition, she denies that there’s anything wrong with her, the inhabitants of the planet show up and confront them, the cave is shaken by a tremor, rocks fall, and Tom & B’Elanna become separated from their rescuers. Then they argue over a tricorder, and antsy, concerned Tom snaps at her, provoking her now infamous response: you’re using it wrong!
It can be argued that, since the episode stops short of Tom & B’Elanna having intercourse, he does indeed use it wrong. Or maybe he uses it wholly right? He wants her, there’s no doubt of that. He’s been flirting with her for a while now & he’s asked her out on a date before. He’s maybe still smarting from Vorik snapping her up from under his nose at the luau a few weeks ago. And here he is, trapped with her in a cave system while visions of mating imperatives and death dance in his head.
What’s a fly boy to do? Well, unfortunately Tom does the completely wrong thing that you should do when trapped with an amorous Klingon: he pisses her off by commenting that this pon farr thing explains the way she’s been acting. When B’Elanna wants to blast her way out of a sealed tunnel, they tussle over a weapon, but we all know what the gun represents. B’Elanna wants it and tries to aggressively take it from Tom, but he’s holding on & holding back.
“B’Elanna, stop it! This isn about the gun. This is about sex. But that’s not going to happen.”
“I think it is. See, I have picked up your scent, Tom. I've tasted your blood.“
“No. No. I'm your friend, and I have to watch out for you when your judgement's been impaired. If you let these instincts take over now, you'll hate yourself, and me too for taking advantage of you. I won't do that.”
This is an episode about Vulcan customs, yes. And it’s an episode about B’Elanna’s struggle with her Klingon side and all of it’s base, uncontrollable darker emotions. And yes, it’s about sex. But it’s also about desire, and longing, and need. It’s about want, and being handed the thing you think you want, and reconsidering it’s implications on your future happiness.
When their tussle turns into a prolonged seduction attempt, Tom realizes just how serious this situation has become, and he has a decision to make: give in and save her life, but also possibly wreck any chance he has of having a real relationship with her, or resist her and face the fact that he may be condemning her to die. Really, the whole thing is exactly as ridiculous as he thinks it is.
He resists her. She pours honeyed words into his ear - words he’s been hoping to hear from her - but he still resists. He doesn’t trust that she truly means what she’s saying, and isn’t willing to gamble on her later wrath and resentment if he does give in. Tom struggles through her blatantly stalking him from one end of that cave to another, through her gut-wrenching, honest calling him out on his own desire for her, through her meltingly seductive kisses. And he does give in, for just a moment. I imagine his kissing her back as his little reward—and self-fladulation—for being such a stand-up guy. He knows that, even if she does mean what she‘s saying to him, she’s in no condition to consent to or control her own actions. I feel for him. I really do.
The shit sprinkles on his fuck me (but don’t really!) cake comes when they finally reach the surface and Tuvok orders him to help her or she’ll die.
For me personally, the sexiest parts of this entire episode are the almost kisses: Tom moving his mouth away from hers, but just slightly, as he fights his own desire to give in to her seduction. Her kissing/chewing on his wrist when they’re on the surface.
His skimming his lips along her throat. Their sheer joy when she pins him to the ground, and he reciprocates, flipping her onto her back and holding her down.
Then Vorik shows up again and interrupts them, and B’Elanna gets to defend herself! thankyouverymuch, and she once again pounds the little snot into the ground. Don’t get me wrong, I love Vorik. And love this episode. And I’m grateful that Vorik directed his attentions to B’Elanna, because this whole thing served to show both Tom and B’Elanna what - and who - they actually wanted.
This episode is about desire and the denial of it. It’s about violence and restraint. It’s about longing and logic, and illogic. Control and the loss of it. All of that is inherently sexy. It launched a thousand fics: sexy, sweet, raunchy, violent, tender, sad, and yes, smutty. Some people like to mock this episode, which has its roots in TOS’s Amok Time. I think they just don’t get it. Blood Fever vies for the best Tom & B’Elanna episode, imo, because it illustrates who they really are and who they can be, together. Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill, Alexander Enberg, writer Lisa Klink, and director Andrew Robinson handle a 90’s frat-boy giggle-fest (fuck or die!!) with delicacy, intimacy, and respect. They lift it from what it could have been to something more. And Tom’s blunt confession in the closing scene:
“Yeah, I know. You’re afraid that your big, scary Klingon side might have been showing. Well, I saw it up close and you know , it wasn’t so terrible. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing it again sometime.”
—illustrates his acceptance of all of her, not just the competent officer she likes to put on display for everyone else. And her rejoinder, “Careful what you wish for, Lieutenant.” holds a promise for him and every P/Ter out there. Blood Fever was perfect the way it was. And the copious amount of fanfiction and gifs it inspired just made it better.
