Star Trek will always be my favorite genre, and they tend to have some great sci-fi romances as well. Where would we be without Troi and Riker, or Kira and Odo? Definitely a little less entertained. In 2011, Star Trek magazine put out a special issue on the best romances in the Star Trek canon. I agreed with just about all of them, but one stands out to me: Paris and Torres from Star Trek: Voyager.
While many would stand behind Picard and Crusher or someone else, I stand with these two because their romance was one that that because a good addition to the show, and didn't disappoint. When the show first came on in 1995, I wasn't too impressed with it and wound up not watching it very often. Then, I saw the season 3 episode "Blood Fever" where they hooked up for the first time. My exact thoughts were, "Tom and B'Elanna? No way!" I was riveted to the couch with the episode, and the series after that. The series kept this relationship going and definitely appealed to the softer and more romantic side of Star Trek.
And here are my reasons why they are the best.
They Complement Each Other
When we first meet the crew of Voyager, it's definitely a motley one. 2/3rds of the crew is polished Starfleet, and the other third is comprised of the Federation resistance group Maquis and other aliens they bring along with them. You have Tom Paris, an admiral's son, who is the ship's pilot and was in a penal colony due to his brief association with the Maquis, given a chance to redeem himself by Captain Janeway. Then you have B'Elanna Torres, the half-Klingon ex-Maquis chief engineer who was kicked out of Starfleet due to authority problems.
Paris and Torres both have images to get past when they first start working together. Paris is sociable, has some immaturity issues and is somewhat of a bad boy and smarmy skirt-chaser. Torres takes longer to become a part of the group and tends to isolate herself, and still has problems with authority at the beginning. Though different, they are both, in a sense, unruly teenagers who still have a lot of growing up to do.
Now there was always some flirtation between the two, but it began to elevate in season 3. In such episodes as "The Swarm," Paris' flirting with Torres has the undertone of him wanting to get into her pants, and in "Alter Ego," he spends a good amount of time checking her out in that gorgeous tropical dress she wears, and then is clearly stunned when she walks off with Vorik instead of him. Then comes "Blood Fever." Torres, through an accidental telepathic bond, contracts the dreaded (at least on the Vulcan side) pon farr, when Vulcans have to have sex or die. She's half-Klingon, so she's obviously going nuts. And guess who she happens to find herself trapped with as her hormones are going nuts? You guessed it: Tom Paris.
In previous episodes, we've seen Tom fall for holograms, aliens, crew members, Kes, Sarah Silverman (*gag*) and even evolved into a weird kind of sausage-lizard with Janeway as his mate, which just so happens to create offspring ("Threshold"). He's ready for any woman to toss her panties at him. So you'd automatically think he'd jump at the chance to take advantage of a hot half-Klingon woman, especially when Klingons are reputed to be pretty darn good lovers. Right? Wrong!
Check out this clip here:
That's right, he's holding back on her. Earlier in the episode, he even tells her that he would be taking advantage of her and she would hate him for doing so, and friends don't do that.
B'Elanna is able to arouse the good guy in Tom. Most men would have taken advantage of her, but he doesn't. Instead, he's looking out for her well being over his. In the end, she winds up fighting Vorik, and that purges the blood fever (the lesser known and/or used method of curing pon farr). He doesn't get lucky with her that episode. The remainder of the season, however, had plenty of flirty scenes and even some awkward ones to hint at a burgeoning romance.
So now we know how she complements him. But how does he complement her? Well, she never quite gets over her temper in the series. But despite her immaturity, she does have a very grounded sense of morality. When faced with a moral crisis, she will always do the right thing ("Prototype" and "Remember" to name a few). Tom isn't quite there with his moral compass. He often has to consult his friends and/or superiors when he is faced with a difficult decision.
As stated before, these two start out with the behavior of teenagers rebelling against their parents. Paris grows up a little bit quicker than Torres, but it's a journey they ultimately complete together. Torres still struggles with insecurity and mistrust based on her strict Klingon mother's upbringing ("Day of Honor," "Barge of the Dead"), and being let down by friends (including Seska from seasons 1 and 2, and Max Burke from "Equinox"). Even before Tom puts the make on her, he tries to bring her out of her shell.
Tom takes time to study Klingon lifestyle and traditions to make her happy. Though she resists, he is still dogged, trying to show her that her Klingon lifestyle is nothing to be ashamed of ("Displaced," "Day of Honor"). He is also there to cheer her on when she feels like giving up ("Displaced" again). He believes in her, and he won't let her give up, no matter how physically worn out she is, how frustrated she is, or how much she wants to deny herself. He is her number one supporter.
Their Relationship is Realistic
What relationship is perfect? None. These two have a realistic relationship in a fantasy future, where everything should be hunky-dory. But Tom and B'Elanna, while they complement each other personality wise, are also two very hot-headed characters. They fight. A LOT.
Sometimes it's over little things. Other times, it's problems that do threaten the relationship. Tom fights with B'Elanna in "Vis a Vis" when she asks him why he's avoiding her, which he turns around completely on her and claims she is "interrogating" him. In this episode, he is being an extreme slacker in every aspect except for that delicious 1969 Camero in the holodeck (doggonit, I want that car!), and she isn't even looking for a fight, but genuinely worried about him. In the episode "Extreme Risk," she is also battling her own demons and withdrawing from him and the rest of the crew. Once again, he is genuinely worried about her, and while she doesn't have much of a drive to fight as much as normal, she still avoids him. Arguments are also mentioned in episodes that we don't get to see ("Someone to Watch Over Me").
However, their relationship isn't all fighting. These two are passionate about each other. She confessed her love to him when it appeared they were going to die out in space together ("Day of Honor"). After they were rescued, she tried to explain that she doesn't expect him to feel the same.
Well, let this clip do the explaining:
Though he doesn't outright declare his love for her, it's certain that he is not going to let a good thing go.
They also have somewhat of a geeky side that helps as well. Tom is big on 20th century pop culture. Though he never gets B'Elanna in on his "Captain Proton" holodeck programs (now that was quite a shame), he does get her into watching old cartoons ("Memorial") and B movies in 3-D ("Repression"). They also have quite the physical relationship too, as seen here:
I can only imagine what goes on in deck nine when this sort of stuff happens. These two have a give and take relationship that not only makes everything exciting, but also brings them closer and helps them to grow up. Which brings me to my final conclusion on why they are the best couple.
They Don't Give Up On Each Other
The episode "Scientific Method" shows that the crew of Voyager has been used as a giant lab for invisible aliens to perform experiments on, and Paris and Torres have had their hormones tampered with. Though it is unknown how long exactly the aliens have been tampering with them, they come to this conclusion:
They're still going for it. Tom has demonstrated in the past that he thinks that B'Elanna is worth the trouble, and when they both make the decision to keep going even though they may have been manipulated into their relationship, they show that they both believe in each other.
Tom and B'Elanna survive a number of fights that would sink a normal couple. And then there are beautiful moments that they share that shows just how strong the relationship really is. Unfortunately, a clip of this moment is unavailable, but in the episode "Hunters," Voyager is able to get letters from the Alpha Quadrant. She gets her own share of bad news, and Tom finds that a letter from his estranged father is coming to him. The array that transmits the letters is destroyed before she can retrieve his letter, and in the touching scene when she brings him the news she tells him that he can believe that his dad told him that he loves him. She is also able to pull him back from the brink of insanity when he is partially possessed by the AI of a new ship he has revamped called Alice (episode of the same name). She ain't giving up her man without a fight.
B'Elanna was also a character who had a tendency to get into trouble. In "Random Thoughts," she gets arrested and threatened with a lobotomy that Tom is only too willing to rescue her from. When she attempts to seek her mother in Klingon hell and though he tries to talk her out of it, stays by her side the whole time when she refuses to back down ("Barge of the Dead"). And when she finds herself the prisoner of rogue holograms, who is it that first sets out to find them ("Flesh and Blood")? That's right, Tom. He also did his best to locate her in "Muse," but that one was mostly spearheaded by Tuvok. But he wouldn't have been as successful without Tom egging him on to find her.
Another instance where B'Elanna was voluntarily in trouble but still needed rescuing was "Unimatrix Zero, part 2." With the help of Janeway and Tuvok, this saucy wench infects the Borg collective with a virus! But then there are problems (as always), and she finds herself stranded on the Borg ship. She instead sabotages the ship while she waits for rescue, and the look on her face when she sees that Tom is coming for her is priceless. Not to mention the episode "Drive," where they finally do get married after she suckers Tom into taking her with him on an deep space drag race.
Their relationship also transcends their reality. Kes experiences an alternate timeline in "Before and After" where she winds up marrying Tom and having a kid with him. As she keeps going backward in time, she finds out he had been in love with B'Elanna before she was killed along with Janeway. When he reveals this to her, though it's been years ago and he's married to Kes, you can see that he still feels remorse at her loss. In the episode "Course: Oblivion," Tom and B'Elanna had copies made of themselves and those copies married before the real couple did. Although they aren't the original couple, the love these two shared was just as real. Since they are unaware they are copies and their bodies begin to deteriorate, B'Elanna's copy dies and Tom's copy is never the same. For the rest of his existence on the the dying copy of Voyager, his heartbreak over her death never goes away. He merely exists until he dies too. His reaction to her death is utterly heartbreaking. And though they are just copies, there's no doubt that the real Tom would have the same reaction in that case.
Then there's the episode of "Lineage," where B'Elanna finds out she's pregnant (in one of the funniest ways to find out that only sci-fi can pull off), we also learn that her Klingon insecurities have not gone away. She tries to have her baby's genes altered so that she doesn't come out with too much Klingon in her. When Tom interferes with the procedure, she reveals to him that she is afraid that he will leave her. Instead of thinking her crazy, he instead listens to her fears and promises her that he will never leave her. Now that's devotion right there. And when they run afoul of Klingons believing that their child is their savior ("Prophesy"), Tom picks up a bat'leth and dukes it out for his family's honor.
In my opinion, the best moment of their relationship happened in the episode "Workplace, part 2." The entire crew with the exceptions of Chakotay, Neelix and Kim, has been brainwashed and put to work on a planet without knowing their true identities. These aliens are cruel enough to separate Tom and B'Elanna even though she is pregnant with his child. The boys decided to rescue her first and work on restoring her memory when they are successful is retrieving her. As she start to regain her memory, she accesses Tom's personal logs to see what he says about her. As she reads them with Neelix nearby, the look on her face as she tells him how much Tom really loves her shows that what he feels for her is strong enough to motivate her to fight for something that she can't remember. Now that's something strong right there.
So those are my reasons on why I believe that Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres have the best love story in Star Trek history. Though she is constantly getting into trouble, and he fathered at least 5 kids during the show (human, alternate realities and otherwise), their devotion to each other shows just how strong they became, and how they will be in the future.
And now, I leave you with a tribute music video.
