It really seemed like the writers wanted pon farr to both be a mental illness that can be overcome internally and also have it be a physiological condition that must be dealt with or you die. This is only made worse by the fact that pon farr is also transmissible via psychic touch even between species which seems extra unlikely. Also it wasn't clear to me why Paris was so unwilling to have sex with Torres. I totally get him not wanting to take advantage of her, but she will literally die if you don't, I kinda suspect she will forgive you for that one later. Unfortunately the very best part of the episode is the last shot of the decaying borg corpse.
We open with the discovery of a large deposite of materials needed to overhaul the warp engines and they plan to go in and gather some. Torres is put in charge and she and Ensign Vorik work on a plan. There are unstable tunnels under the surface leading to the deposits so Torres says they will bring Neelix for his mining experience and Paris for his rock climbing knowledge. Paris' inclusion visibly upsets Vorik who cuts to the chase and proposes marriage to B'Elanna. She not shockingly turns him down so he grabs her but she fights him off breaking his jaw in the process. It turns out he is suffering pon farr and while he has an awkward conversation with the Doctor. On the surface they find the ruins of a civilization but Torres aggressively pushes for them to get on with the mining, but as soon as they get started Neelix fails to use a piton correctly and almost kills Torres in a fall which also breaks his leg. Rather than stick together Torres bites Paris on the face and runs off.
Tuvok gets consulted about pon farr and while he doesn't want to do anything for Vorik he realizes it is a real crisis for Torres who somehow got it from when Vorik grabbed her. Vorik gets sent to his quarters to meditate it away but it doesn't work. The Doctor proposes some holo-sex and talks Vorik into giving it a try. Chakotay and Tuvok beam down and get Neelix to safety before joining Paris to find Torres. She finds the metal but it is part of an active power system and as soon as they are all together aliens appear with guns. Chakotay gets them to calm down by handing over his weapon by Torres freaks out and attacks one of them as an quake hits. She and Paris get separated with the gun while Tuvok and Chakotay end up negotiating with the aliens.
Torres is in bad shape and really wants to have sex with Paris to get things working for her again but he refuses. Eventually Chakotay convinces the aliens they are in fact peaceful and offers to help them hide even better in the future. They link up with Paris and Torres but when they get to the surface comms are down. To save her life Paris finally agrees to have sex with Torres but before they can get it on Vorik shows up. He is the one who disabled the comms and also transporters and the shuttlebay. He demands to mate with Torres but she says no so he challenges Paris to a fight to the death. Torres steps in though and demands she be allowed to fight and Tuvok says that is allowed. Chakotay tries to stop the fight but Tuvok convinces him it is the only way. They fight and Torres wins which I guess completes pon farr for both of them. On the ship we learn they got the metal they need. The episode ends with the discovery of why the locals hid so well, they find a borg corpse on the surface.
Review: This is an alright episode. Not great, but not horribly embarrassing either. It could have used some work on the Torres pon farr bits, but it doesn't make the whole thing too bad.
5 out of 10
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