Blood Fever

Andrew Robinson played one of my favorite characters on "Star Trek: Deep Space 9", Garak. Interestingly, Robinson directed this episode of "Star Trek: Voyager"--and he also directed one other as well as a "Deep Space 9" show as well. There certainly is precedent for this, as LeVar Burton and Jonathan Frakes (both from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" both directed quite of few episodes of the various Trek series.

When the show begins, Vorik* is entering the Pon Farr--the Vulcan mating season. Like Spock in the classic episode of "Star Trek", this is a highly illogical and violent period. In Vorik's clumsy attempt to begin the mating ritual with an uninterested B'Elanna, however, it sets of a HUGE problem that only becomes apparent later- -it creates the same Pon Farr rage within her! To make things much worse, this becomes obvious on an away team mission and she is one frisky and out of control woman! Her crazed state soon results in not only creating enemies with a new race they encounter but she and Paris become stuck in a cave after a cave-in and there's no telling what is next! However, I was very happy about the closing scene where a really, really interesting enemy's presence in the Delta Quadrant is introduced!

This is a pretty exciting episode of the series--well directed and full of enough action and mayhem to keep the viewer's interest.

*I have no idea why Vorik was introduced on the show but it seemed very awkward. While he'd never been a presence on the ship before, only a few episodes back (in the midst of season 3) he suddenly becomes a somewhat regular member of the cast. I wish they'd introduced him better and more realistically instead of acting as if he was ALWAYS there!