Tom and B'Elanna - When did the Relationship Start

I've always found the Tom and B'Elanna relationship to be one of the more interesting aspects of Voyager, but where in the series was the first hint of it? This week I was watching episodes like Drive (Which still has one of my favorite images in all of Trek with the two cuddled and toasting Champagne) and Day of Honor but I have a feeling it started earlier than that.

 

I think it started early; Blood Fever (Third Season) plants the idea of them together, and I like it, too.

From Memory Alpha, Blood Fever
Tom and B'Elanna's first kiss

 

Beautiful pic!

 

So it wasn't really that far off from Day of Honor than. For some reason I thought it was, like maybe in the second season. It was such a subtle change from when they first met.

 

^ ^ Blood Fever and Day of Honor are 13 episodes apart (57 and 70 in broadcast order), and also different seasons. Day of Honor is Season Four.

Isn't it? I thought it was gorgeous; again, thanks to Memory Alpha. Great screen cap choice.

 

It wasn't "Blood Fever" and it certainly wasn't "Day of Honor." It was "Faces". Just for a second, I saw it, and they spend the next two years building this friendship. I thought what I saw during "Faces" was crazy, until "Blood Fever", but I rewatched it recently and they really do have a moment, when HumanB'Elanna is talking to Tom about how she wanted to be human when she was a kid.

 

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.

 

Oh I agree completely. I hoped they would become a couple after watching Faces and seeing their great chemistry. I would definately say Faces is the beginning of their relationship

I did enjoy very much the way their relationship was shown. I enjoyed watching them go from bickering to building a friendship, to dating, to getting married and having a baby. It was very well done and was the most realistic couple I've ever seen in Star Trek.

 

I didn't mean to imply that Blood Fever was the first inkling. I only meant to show the first kiss and that gorgeous picture.

 

Totally. The one thing I've never had any complaints about with Voyager.

 

The Swarm shows Tom teasing B'elanna about Ensign Freddy Bristow when they're on an away mission and then he asks her to join him on the holodeck, that's episode 3x04. They then have a scene together in Alter Ego on the way to the Luau on the holodeck where Tom compliments her before Vorik takes her away. After that it's Blood Fever.

 

When do they start talking when Tom's faking being unhappy so he can leave the ship for that undercover mission? I'd say that's the start. Is it before Blood Fever, though? Otherwise, I'd say Blood Fever.

 

That was toward the beginning of season 2, so yes it was before Blood Fever. I still vote for Faces though, and that was Season 1.

 

Yes, I think that it was Faces too. According to the book Pathways Tom liked B'Elanna when they were in the Maquis on Chakotay's ship

 

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

 

I disagree. It was easy to watch them develop their friendship and then move into dating. For example in the episode Displaced which takes place before Day of Honor is a good example of their relationship developing, particularly in the end of the episode.

 

I can accept Faces as the starting point--maybe that's where they got the idea, then they developed from there. The chemistry was apparent in Faces, so it just grew thereafter.

 

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

 

I'm another one in the Faces camp, there just seems a little something there.

 

The Chakotay/Seven relationship is about as abrupt as abrupt can get. As for Tom & B'Elanna the groundwork was laid gradually so if you watch the episodes in order you can see see how the relationship was built. They went from mistrust with occasional honest scenes like in "Faces" to a tentative friendship then dating. I personally thought it was well done.