Star Trek: Voyager Sets Up Tom Paris’ Great Romance Earlier Than You Think

Star Trek: Voyager set up Tom Paris’ (Robert Duncan McNeill) greatest romance as early as season 1. Tom was the USS Voyager’s helmsman and occasional medic, initially recruited by Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to help track down the Maquis ship she was on a mission to find in Voyager‘s pilot episode. After Voyager became stranded in the Delta Quadrant, Janeway promoted Tom to Lieutenant, and he became a valued member of the crew and experienced substantial character growth and change over the course of Voyager’s journey home.

One of the biggest ways Tom changed during Voyager‘s seven seasons was his attitude towards romance and women. Initially a notorious ladies’ man, Tom ended up as one half of Voyager‘s only long-term couple. The other half was B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson), Voyager’s half-Klingon Engineer and a former member of the Maquis. Tom and B’Elanna’s relationship didn’t fully materialize until season 4, but although the two weren’t exactly set up as a couple from the start, the seeds of their later relationship were actually planted very early on.

Voyager Set Up Tom And B’Elanna’s Romance As Early As Season 1

Voyager season 1, episode 14, “Faces,” provided the first hint at Tom and B’Elanna’s chemistry, even though it would be nearly three more seasons before romance was officially on the table. During “Faces,” Tom and B’Elanna were captured by the Vidiians. In an attempt to determine if B’Elanna’s Klingon DNA was resistant to the Phage, the Vidiians ended up splitting B’Elanna into two separate people, one fully Klingon and the other fully human. Although Tom and the Klingon B’Elanna barely interacted, he and her human version shared a lot of screen time and provided the first look at their future relationship.

“Faces” was the first time Tom and B’Elanna had interacted much, and right from the start, their chemistry was evident. The two shared several heart-to-heart talks over the course of the episode, with B’Elanna divulging some hard truths about her childhood and Tom encouraging her to not give up when she was experiencing nearly paralyzing fear as a result of their situation. Although there was no overt romantic tension between the two, “Faces” absolutely showed the potential Tom and B’Elanna had. The episode ended up being an important one for their relationship and clearly telegraphs where the couple was headed when looked at retroactively.

Tom And B’Elanna Were Voyager’s Most Stable Couple (Despite Early Tension)

One of the reasons Tom and B’Elanna’s relationship on Voyager seemed to happen quickly was because the two characters had relatively few interactions in early seasons of the show. On top of this, many of Tom and B’Elanna’s early interactions were not positive. One of their earliest exchanges involved B’Elanna calling Tom a “pig” after being the recipient of a sexist remark from a holodeck character he’d created. Outside of this, seasons 1-3 of Voyager generally focused on Tom and B’Elanna’s relationships with other characters on the show, not often pairing the two together for episodes.

However, when Tom and B’Elanna’s relationship did materialize, they quickly became Voyager‘s most stable couple. The show wasn’t a particularly romantic series to begin with, and other early couples within Voyager‘s main cast of characters, like Neelix (Ethan Phillips) and Kes (Jennifer Lien), didn’t last long for a variety of reasons. In later seasons, however, Tom and B’Elanna became the romantic element that Voyager needed, and their relationship is one of the Star Trek franchise’s few romance success stories. Star Trek couples often don’t end up working out, but by the time Star Trek: Voyager ended, Tom and B’Elanna were happily married with a child.