VOY: “Blood Fever” and “Unity”

Date: October 24, 2020

Season 3, Episodes 16 and 17

Musical Accompaniment: Ambient Worlds presents The Matrix

Interstellar News: The weather is beautiful and I’m stuck inside because I am so damn exhausted.

“Blood Fever” in TL;DR: Voyager finds a deserted planet with gallicite, so Torres gets to work. Before she can, however, Vorik proposes marriage and tries to show her how strong he is. She clocks him, they wind up in sick bay, and then she gets ready to go on the mission. Vorik is in the grip of pon farr and can either fuck, meditate, or kill, so the EMH confines him to quarters so Vorik can meditate it out. Torres, Neelix, and Paris go down to the surface where Torres is acting manic and bites Paris, quite playfully. Tuvok realizes that Vorik accidentally transferred his pon farr to Torres and now they’re both in its grip.

Tuvok and Chakotay go to rescue Torres, Neelix, and Paris. Neelix is transported to sick bay, Tuvok and Chakotay are captured by the Sakai who are living in the caves, and Torres keeps making passes at Paris, who tells her no each time as she’s “under the influence”. The EMH convinces Vorik to try his holodeck sex program as therapy. It totally works, except it absolutely doesn’t because Vorik disables Voyager so he can beam down and fight Paris, except he and Torres fight instead and the pon farr dissipates after a good sparring match. Chakotay helps the Sakai camouflage themselves better so no one will come looking for them, in exchange for some gallicite of course, Paris and Torres have an awkward turbolift ride, and it’s brought to light that the Borg were the invaders of long ago.

Favorite Quote:

EMH: For such an intellectually enlightened race, Vulcans have a remarkably Victorian attitude about sex.

Tuvok: That is a very human judgement, Doctor.

EMH: Then here’s a Vulcan one. I fail to see the logic in perpetuating ignorance about a basic biological function.

The EMH does not give a fuck, pun not at all intended, and just wants to help. It’s biology people, sigh.

“When we get back, I’m sure Starfleet medical will… never hear about your personal experiences from me.”: I am so fucking glad that Paris takes informed consent so seriously. While he’s been a bit of a womanizer and a sleaze in some past episodes, he really seems to take to heart that Torres is not in her right frame of mind. It’s only at the end where she seems to be a little lucid that he even considers it, but in the end her and Vorik duke it out and that’s so satisfying to watch her defend her own honor in some Vulcan mating ritual. Torres all but screams “I’m not a prize to be won”, and it’s wonderful. We all talk about how much Kim is growing up before our eyes, but so are Paris and Torres in their own ways.

The EMH was also fantastic, as always, not being there to judge but being there to help in any medical way he could. He also geebles about mating rituals in the most pure way possible, I mean… it’s FOR SCIENCE! I also LOVED that there was no hint at who the invaders were until the very last shot and BOOM, now the Borg are the next big bad. It was very skillfully done. So the thing I’m curious about, in regard to the pon farr, do Vulcans only mate with people their own age? Do Vulcan siblings only happen once every seven years? I need to know!!!! 7 rounds in the boxing ring for this one, it was wonderfully fantastic.

“Unity” in TL;DR: Chakotay and Kaplan are, wait for it, lost… in… space. They answer a distress call and are attacked, Kaplan dies but Chakotay is cared for by another faction on the planet. A human woman named Riley explains how she, and others, came to this planet (similar to the 37’s) and they are trying to build a new cooperative and could use medical supplies and technology. Meanwhile Voyager finds a dead Borg ship, the EMH does an autopsy, and Chakotay finds out the people who rescued him were captured at Wolf 359 and assimilated. They were caught in a lightening storm which shorted out the cube and they came back to themselves. Unfortunately some of them don’t want to be friends, sigh. They heal Chakotay using Borg technology, Voyager finds them, Riley talks to Janeway about what she wants, and Janeway ultimately refuses but does provide them with supplies. Unfortunately they brain-jack Chakotay, reform the Borg collective (a friendlier I don’t want to assimilate you kind), and then let Chakotay and Voyager go.

Favorite Quote:

Janeway: I don’t know. I’m not saying I’m happy about what happened, but so far they haven’t acted like typical Borg. They saved us from that Cube, and they let you go.

Chakotay: But they didn’t hesitate to impose their collective will on me when it served their interests, did they?

Janeway: No, they didn’t.

Chakotay: I wonder how long their ideals will last in the face of that kind of power.

With great power, comes great responsibility.

“That depends what you mean by lost, sir.”: Well it didn’t take long for Voyager to encounter the Borg after the last episode and boy was I SHOCKED when Riley and the cooperative turned out to be Borg. I get what they were trying to do, but assimilation is assimilation no matter if you are trying to take over the world or build one big, hippie commune. There are a few things that I don’t understand, though. Like how were they abducted at Wolf 359 and brought out to the DQ? Wouldn’t it have made more sense for the humans to at least have been from the Enterprise during the first Borg encounter? I also don’t understand how they reactivated Chaktoay’s mind-meld thing after they took the device off him and also how they severed it… or did they really? It’s not had to see how enamored Chakotay was with Riley and the collective, as it brings him back to his roots as an Indian, but I’m wondering if it was an act or if Riley really liked him. Still, an overall fun episode where Chakotay gets to knock boots with a pretty Borg lady. 6 avocados, nice and ripe.

TA Out!