Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres went on a turbulent journey of self-discovery during her time on the Voyager, the lost Federation ship that spent seven years adrift in Star Trek’s Delta Quadrant. Not only did she have issues controlling her anger, but she also suffered from a crisis of identity, struggling to reconcile her Klingon heritage with her human socialization. She also had a romance with Lieutenant Tom Paris, a relationship which proved to be worthwhile after many emotional ups and downs.
Star Trek has had a few central Klingon characters, like Worf, and some inter-species hybrids, like Spock. B’Elanna was both, in addition to being formerly Maquis on a Starfleet ship. She began as a defensive, mistrustful character who eventually grew to appreciate the crew of the Voyager, especially after years of being each other’s only family. Over seven seasons, B’Elanna’s development can be charted over episodes in which she takes the center stage.
S1 E14: Faces
Horror both psychological and physiological lurks in every moment of this episode, which sees Torres, Paris and a Lieutenant Durst kidnapped by the Vidiian Sodality. The government has been abducting people from other races in the hope of finding a cure to the phage, a plague that has been destroying their society for generations.
One of their scientists discovers that Torres’ Klingon ancestry gives her a form of immunity to the phage, and he hopes to harvest it by bringing out that side of her. Torres gets split into a human version of herself and a Klingon version, which results in conflict between them. Both versions eventually work together to escape, learning some tolerance in the process.
S2 E13: Prototype
Torres’ engineering acumen is put to the test when a lost robot is brought aboard the Voyager. However, it soon becomes a test of her morals. The Voyager crew finds a broken robot body, which Torres fixes, bonding with him as she does so. She learns that he wants her help in building more robots like him, an experiment to which Captain Janeway objects, on the grounds of adhering to the Prime Directive.
When Torres refuses to help the robot, he abducts her, taking her back to his original ship in order to force her to comply. The robot tells her that his people were created to be soldiers in a war between two other races, until the robots rebelled and killed their ‘owners.’ Torres manages to build a new version of the robot, but destroys it just as she’s rescued, leaving the original model to the same fate when an enemy ship arrives. Torres is upset by her last-ditch effort to stymie the robots’ war, especially as it goes against everything that makes her an engineer and a Starfleet officer.
S4 E03: Day of Honor
This episode revolves around Torres’ heritage, and a Klingon holiday that makes her re-evaluate her values. Torres spends most of this story unbalanced, as she fails to celebrate the Day of Honor in the traditional way of sparring and eating Klingon cuisine. She later has a hard time connecting with Paris, feeling uncertain about the blurred lines of their friendship. She finds herself reluctant to work with Seven of Nine, whose history is still a point of contention for her.
An ejected warp core, a recovery mission and a demolished shuttle results in Torres and Paris being stranded in space, which in turn leads to expressions of genuine feeling. Torres realizes where she truly finds her honor, and strengthens her relationship with Paris.
S7 E12: Lineage
Torres goes through severe emotional turmoil in this episode, in which she and Paris discover that she is pregnant. Torres has a fraught history with her identity, mostly due to how she grew up. She spent her childhood in a human-centric colony, with the only other Klingon there being her mother. Her family suffered ostracization, especially after her father abandoned them, and this has haunted Torres well into adulthood. She wants to erase her child’s Klingon genetics, making her fully human, but Paris objects on ethical grounds.
The couple disagree strongly on whether to alter their child to fit societal norms, and Paris insists things will be different on Voyager. He’s able to reassure Torres of his commitment, and Torres accepts that her mixed race won’t be an obstacle for her child’s happiness.
S6 E03: Barge of the Dead
There are elements of the spiritual and the supernatural in this episode, a story that details Torres’ religious beliefs and family trauma. After an ion storm leaves Torres in a coma, she starts seeing the crew of the Voyager acting like Klingons, celebrating the culture in a way she never has. She also sees her mother in these visions, being transported to Gre’thor (the Klingon hell) for being dishonorable. When Torres awakes, she demands to be placed back in a coma so she can find her mother, since she believed the visions to have a grain of truth. Torres surrenders herself to judgment in the place of her mother, proving that despite reservations, she does have some belief in Klingon spirituality. She shares a moment of reconciliation with her mother before coming out of the coma, and promises to find her again.
Much like other Star Trek characters who struggle with their identity, B’Elanna Torres has a tough time figuring out which side of herself to show to others. Spock tried to live as a pure Vulcan for a long time, and Data attempted to mimic human behavior in the hope of being more than an android; neither found easy answers to their dilemma. Torres has the advantage of coming to terms with her racial identity among friends, on a ship where the crew turns into a family. Many of the episodes that focus on her have this process as a central theme, showing Torres become more trusting and tolerant, and less self-deprecating. She is a strong, brave character who lives up to her full potential in Star Trek: Voyager, and it is done through hard personal work.