It’s an old Star Trek cliché. Neelix and Tom don’t like each other, they are sent on a shuttle mission in ‘Parturition’, they end up best buddies. Got to have Seven and Chakotay bonking each other in the final episode? Send them on a shuttle mission together and have it crash in ‘Natural Law’ so they can gain an appreciation for each other's true natures. Or Miles O’Brien and Julian Bashir in ‘The Storyteller’ and ‘Armageddon Game’.



So why didn’t we see B’Elanna and Seven together in a peril episode? Do you think it’s because they’re both women that TPTB didn’t automatically think of them playing Butch Klingon and the Sevendance Kid? Instead we have one short scene in ‘Imperfection’ and that’s it.



Should there have been such an episode, and if so what do you think it should have been? Voyager in Jeopardy ™ or Stranded on an Alien Planet ™? Another shuttle crash? A tied-up tits-in-face scene like T’Pol and Archer in Enterprise? Should they end up buddies, or just an unacknowledged respect for each other (the ‘friends but they’ll never admit it’ approach)?