Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About B'Elanna Torres

Voyager pioneered its way to its novel stay in the Delta Quadrant with the first female captain to helm a Star Trek show. In point of fact, and we all know the Bujold story by now, Kate Mulgrew as Captain climbed aboard extremely late in the process. The very first person "to sign on the starship Voyager," according to Cinefantastique (Vol 27, No. 4-5), was Roxann Dawson, who had also been one of the first to read for the part of B'Elanna Torres. B'Elanna would then become the first female chief engineer series regular character.

B'Elanna was not the first Klingon-human character in Star Trek (although first as a series regular) — that distinction goes to K'Ehleyr, ambassador and mother of Alexander Rozhenko. According to Cinefantastique (ibid.) once more, Voyager producers, not wanting to re-do Worf, took inspiration from K'Ehleyr when they were coming up with B'Elanna. As the Star Trek: Voyager Series Bible states, much like K'Ehleyr, "B'Elanna has a mixed heritage—Klingon and human […] Her Klingon side is disturbing to her; she makes every effort to suppress it, preferring to develop her human side".

Over the years, many have come to identify with this aspect of B'Elanna in particular. In the Voyager season five DVD special features, Roxann Dawson recalls the letters she received from fans:

Some […] dealt with struggles for people who were racially mixed and were struggling with which race they felt they should identify with. Other people were dealing with their own psychological issues — a dark side and a light side that they felt was warring inside of them.

It was in episodes like Barge of the Dead, Lineage, and Extreme Risk that we would see this inner turmoil play out to the greatest effect (and affect).