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Tom and B'Elanna - When did the Relationship Start

As someone who studied Voyager from a writing aspect (and pitched to it six times), I found the relationship almost as abrupt as Chakotay/Seven.

I think it's easy, afterward, to pick out moments from previous seasons and believe them to be "the beginning", but I honestly don't believe they were intended as groundwork. We could just as easily find moments to set up almost any other pairing, had it happened.

The Tom/B'Elanna relationship (in terms of series character arcs) just really hit me as being from left field.

--Ted
Really? Wow, I'm sorry but I was fourteen and I saw it coming since I was eleven.
 
As someone who studied Voyager from a writing aspect (and pitched to it six times), I found the relationship almost as abrupt as Chakotay/Seven.

I think it's easy, afterward, to pick out moments from previous seasons and believe them to be "the beginning", but I honestly don't believe they were intended as groundwork. We could just as easily find moments to set up almost any other pairing, had it happened.

The Tom/B'Elanna relationship (in terms of series character arcs) just really hit me as being from left field.

--Ted
Really? Wow, I'm sorry but I was fourteen and I saw it coming since I was eleven.

Yes I agree with you. I was older than 14 when it first was on television:alienblush: but I think it was pretty obvious that they were going to make Tom and B'Elanna a romantic couple.

Does anyone else wonder how their relationship might have developed differently if Vorik had not interfered with them in Blood Fever?
 
As someone who studied Voyager from a writing aspect (and pitched to it six times), I found the relationship almost as abrupt as Chakotay/Seven.

I think it's easy, afterward, to pick out moments from previous seasons and believe them to be "the beginning", but I honestly don't believe they were intended as groundwork. We could just as easily find moments to set up almost any other pairing, had it happened.

The Tom/B'Elanna relationship (in terms of series character arcs) just really hit me as being from left field.

--Ted
Really? Wow, I'm sorry but I was fourteen and I saw it coming since I was eleven.

I was eleven, too, when Voyager started airing and I distinctly remember watching Faces and just knowing those two were likely going to end up together after watching them interact. In fact, I noticed the chemistry and build up of their relationship long before even Janeway/Chakotay caught my attention.

I did like Tom and B'Elanna together, but I always though Harry and B'Elanna should've gotten together. What an odd pairing that would've been! I mention that only because they seemed to bond in Caretaker, when they were kidnapped by the Caretaker and the Ocampa. -- RR

OMG. I'm not the only one! I didn't notice when Voyager first aired, but in revisiting my dvds, that potential always strikes me when I watch Caretaker now, too. I do wish they would've followed up on that, even if it didn't last. It would've forced the writers to make poor Harry into a more interesting character and less of a weenie. In turn, he likely would've had a more calming effect on B'Elanna than Tom ever did (not that I dislike P/T either, because it's actually my second favorite relationship after J/C).
 
They started laying the groundwork for it in season 3, starting with Tom asking her out while o a shuttle mission in "The Swarm." Some flirtation happened toward mid season, then we had "Blood Fever" and other episodes with them having scenes tgether either inching it forward, or keeping it in our minds.

I agree with this being the start of the possible romantic relationship that was to come. However, I do agree with another poster that "Faces" was the start of a friendship between them.
 
According to a book written by the lady that wrote the voyager series, Tom saved Lanna's life on the planet in the badlands, before he went off on the mission that landed him in prison.

I'm pretty sure that it started way before blood fever. Lanna, Tom and Harry just kind of ended up as friends. I wouldn't be surprised if their feelings started shortly after caretaker, but as for when they actually got together, it was close to day of honor (if I'm remembering right, I think it was in the ep Demon).
 
I kind of thought they related to each other in 'Faces'. I mean not every previous scene was a prelude to their attraction but in Faces there was a sensitivity there. However, I still think Tom and Kes could have been an option in the writers minds around that time too.
 
I kind of thought they related to each other in 'Faces'. I mean not every previous scene was a prelude to their attraction but in Faces there was a sensitivity there. However, I still think Tom and Kes could have been an option in the writers minds around that time too.

That's a possibility, since Tom was with Kes in before and after
 
I kind of thought they related to each other in 'Faces'. I mean not every previous scene was a prelude to their attraction but in Faces there was a sensitivity there. However, I still think Tom and Kes could have been an option in the writers minds around that time too.

There was something there in faces also, but I think it's started earlier than that.
 
It was clear they would pair up in Faces in season 1

Something that I noticed in Faces, was that the human Lanna told Tom about her dad leaving, and feeling like it was her fault. However, in linage, she tells him basically the same thing, yet it's more emotional, and seems to go a bit deeper (aka, she assuming that he will leave one day). It was interesting to see the difference, though it seems as if Tom forgot about the conversation from faces, in lineage.
 
Agreed. Kes literally experienced a whole relationship with him.
It's always been my "head canon" that she remembered more than she let on. Although didn't she say she only recalled bits and pieces?

It was interesting to see the difference, though it seems as if Tom forgot about the conversation from faces, in lineage.
She really didn't go into a lot of details about what happened in Faces. Did you notice in Faces she says she was five or six years old when he left? But in Lineage she looks about 12.
 
It's always been my "head canon" that she remembered more than she let on. Although didn't she say she only recalled bits and pieces?

I think that she remembered everything, and covered it up. Case en point, the look that she gave Tom and Lanna at the end, she definitely remembered, and didn't want to tell them.

She really didn't go into a lot of details about what happened in Faces. Did you notice in Faces she says she was five or six years old when he left? But in Lineage she looks about 12.

Yea, I noticed that. She says she was 6 when he left in extreme risk also, but i always thought that she looked much older in the flashbacks in lineage. But then again, Naomi looks a lot older, and she's only around 6 in season 7, so maybe hybrids look or develop older then humans in the same age range?
 
Yea, I noticed that. She says she was 6 when he left in extreme risk also, but i always thought that she looked much older in the flashbacks in lineage. But then again, Naomi looks a lot older, and she's only around 6 in season 7, so maybe hybrids look or develop older then humans in the same age range?
Well based on Alexander (Worf's son) from TNG, he seemed to age faster.

The thing with Naomi was weird, her mom gestated her longer than a full human pregnancy. But after she's born, she ages quickly. I wonder how it would have been if Seska's baby had been Chakotay's. I think I read on this board that it was intended that he would be Chakotay's son. They cast a baby who looked like he could have been his son. But then they changed their minds.

Based on another thread about Voyager not taking chances. Maybe that's a chance they could have taken but didn't. It's one thing to have a minor character have a child. But Chakotay was a main character. Maybe that's one of the reasons they didn't do it.
 
Kes did not experience a whole relaionship with tom. She started at the end with no memories and worked backwards. She had no memories of B'Elanna dying, tom grieving, comforting him, dating, falling in love, getting married, deciding to have a child, watching that child grow up
 
Yea, I noticed that. She says she was 6 when he left in extreme risk also, but i always thought that she looked much older in the flashbacks in lineage. But then again, Naomi looks a lot older, and she's only around 6 in season 7, so maybe hybrids look or develop older then humans in the same age range?
With Naomi the doctor said she ages faster and it was also established in TNG with Alexander that Klingon children age faster. Since the doctor said that klingon dna can remain dominant for several generations it is a fair assumption that B'Elanna also aged faster and at 5 looked like she was 12 in human terms
 
With Naomi the doctor said she ages faster and it was also established in TNG with Alexander that Klingon children age faster. Since the doctor said that klingon dna can remain dominant for several generations it is a fair assumption that B'Elanna also aged faster and at 5 looked like she was 12 in human terms

I haven't watched those eps of TNG in years, so I don't remember, but that's good to know, :). Wasn't Alex a Klingon human hybrid also?

If so, that would prove the hybrids grow faster theory.

You know, Lanna's dad annoys me, he knew that he couldn't handle two Klingon's, yet he married her anyways, and then just up and abandons his kid (and his wife). So much for being an honorable guy...
 
Kes did not experience a whole relaionship with tom. She started at the end with no memories and worked backwards. She had no memories of B'Elanna dying, tom grieving, comforting him, dating, falling in love, getting married, deciding to have a child, watching that child grow up

True, I forgot about that, but at the end, I'm pretty sure that she remembers enough to tell that she's lying, at least about the part with Tom. It's just the look that she gives them both, before saying that she doesn't remember anything else, when it's clear that she does.
 
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