30 Years on, Voyager‘s B’Elanna Split Episode Remains Fascinatingly Fraught

Star Trek has ever been fascinated with the thought of characters pulled betwixt 2 worlds. Spock’s exploration of his quality heritage, Worf’s presumption on TNG arsenic an aboriginal illustration of post-peace Klingon integration with the Federation, adjacent Sisko’s presumption arsenic a Starfleet serviceman thrust into the simultaneous roles of guiding diplomat, subject leader, and spiritual emissary—time and clip again the bid has been drawn to this quality archetype crossed ideas of contention and status.

Early Star Trek Voyager was nary objection with its involvement successful B’Elanna Torres, 1 of the show’s aboriginal breakout characters. The Maquis rebel turned main technologist who embodied this trope not conscionable done her ain travel arsenic an ex-guerrilla, but besides arsenic a half-Klingon woman—and the show’s archetypal existent effort to research that latter, 30 years agone contiguous successful “Faces,” had to tread fertile, yet highly contentious ground.

“Faces” was the 14th occurrence of Voyager‘s debut season, and saw the return of the Vidiians, a contention of aliens forced to harvest organs and assemblage parts from different taxon to effort and debar being ravaged by a horrifying plague. Having captured a fistful of Voyager unit portion they were connected an distant mission, B’Elanna included, a Vidiian idiosyncratic anxious to research the imaginable interaction of regenerative elements successful Klingon DNA successful battling that plague uses his people’s precocious aesculapian exertion to scope an unorthodox conclusion: divided B’Elanna into 2 people. Completely separated down to the familial level into abstracted quality and Klingon individuals (both played by Torres histrion Roxann Dawson, with the assistance of photograph treble Joy Kilpatrick), some B’Elannas yet person to flooded their differences to find a mode to flight the Vidiians alongside their chap captured crewmates.

The thought makes literal Star Trek‘s aforementioned fascination with characters who conflict to reconcile being from 2 precise antithetic backgrounds, but by making B’Elanna’s archetypal existent exploration of her biracial individuality connected the amusement truthful literal, “Faces” has to skirt immoderate beauteous chaotic lines that it tin ne'er truly rather interrogate. Much of the struggle betwixt the quality B’Elanna and the Klingon B’Elanna is derived from what is yet presented by the occurrence arsenic genetically derived traits. Human B’Elanna is physically and emotionally weaker, repeatedly incapacitated by fearfulness arsenic she struggles to accommodate to being held captive by the Vidiians. Klingon B’Elanna, meanwhile, plays up the established Klingon caricature of unit and choler issues, an underlying arrogance that sees her question struggle earlier thing else.

© Paramount

It’s made particularly fraught fixed the post-TNG re-imagining of the Klingons distant from their archetypal (and similarly racially fraught!) depictions and toward a contention of astir exclusively dark-skinned humanoids, alongside different Afro-inspired traits similar textured hair. The representation of a flimsy light-skinned quality B’Elanna (for what it’s worth, Dawson is of Puerto Rican descent) cowering successful the beingness of her aggressively framed, dark-skinned Klingon aforesaid is brought up clip and clip again successful “Faces,” arsenic the 2 reason with each different implicit being “cursed” with the antagonistic traits of the other, quality B’Elanna lamenting her Klingon temper arsenic being the crushed she yet near Starfleet Academy. Even though by the extremity of “Faces” the 2 travel to an understanding, and the Klingon B’Elanna is allowed to sacrifice herself to support the quality B’Elanna she had admonished arsenic her lesser, it’s inactive presented successful much of a mode of the noble savage trope than it is simply a peculiarly enlightened re-imagining of their bond.

But portion “Faces” yet concludes that the 2 B’Elannas enactment amended together, it doesn’t precisely interrogate the racialized constituent astatine play betwixt them successful presenting her interior struggle implicit her biracial individuality arsenic an outer one. Even the climax of the episode, erstwhile B’Elanna has reached that aforementioned knowing with her Klingon self, handles it successful a compromised manner—her re-embrace of her Klingon broadside is done arsenic overmuch retired of immoderate benignant of acceptance arsenic it is the information that she’s told that she has to re-integrate with her Klingon DNA, without which she won’t survive. The episode’s last moments are intriguingly framed: the still-human-appearing B’Elanna tells Chakotay arsenic she sits successful Voyager‘s sickbay waiting to acquisition country that portion she present appreciates and admires aspects of her Klingon self, she is besides reckoning with the information that she volition combat that mentation of herself for the remainder of her life, earlier stroking her creaseless forehead successful solitude for 1 past clip earlier the carnal reminder of her interior conflict returns.

For overmuch of the remainder of Voyager, the series’ exploration of B’Elanna’s radical individuality volition beryllium explored done her damaged narration with her Klingon mother, alternatively than her ain interior attitudes to being part-Klingon. That is, with 1 significant, arsenic chaotic exception: the play 7 occurrence “Lineage,” which sees a recently large B’Elanna effort to genetically change her kid in-utero to guarantee they are calved afloat human.

It’s fascinating that overmuch of the show’s exploration of her individuality is bookended with these episodes that are broadly successful speech with each other, and not needfully successful the champion of ways. “Lineage,” portion providing a level of knowing for B’Elanna’s choices, is astatine slightest overmuch much definitive successful its presumption that her apprehensive presumption of being part-Klingon is misguided, and her actions successful the occurrence are equivocally successful the wrong. Perhaps then, “Faces” walked truthful it could run—and supply a accidental to bash a spot much close by a quality Voyager had been profoundly funny successful from its earliest beginnings.

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