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B'ELANNA TORRES The Chief Engineer has a facade that's worked well for her: tough, knowledgeable, able to take care of herself, bothered by nothing. In fact, beneath the surface, there dwells a person confused and at war with herself. B'Elanna has a mixed heritage - Klingon and human - that she deplores. Her Klingon side is disturbing to her; she makes every effort to suppress it, preferring to develop her human side. She distrusts the feelings her Klingon blood produces, and wishes that, like Tuvok, she could achieve total control of them.
B'Elanna's attitude stems from a complex mix of factors: Her Klingon mother and her human father separated when she was young and vulnerable, and she grew up not knowing her father. Consequently, he was transformed by her into a fantasy image: the perfect daddy-prince, an idealized figure who stood for all that was good and valuable. She and her mother lived, not on the Klingon Home World, but on a remote colony which was largely human and where the young child inevitably grew up feeling like the "other." As she grew older, the feelings began to solidify: being Klingon was equated with alienation and loss, and being human represented everything that was desirable. The turning of her back on her Klingon side was epitomized when she was accepted at Starfleet Academy where she excelled in the sciences. But even then she struggled with the structure and discipline demanded of the students. After graduation she joined the Starfleet Engineering Corps, but her conflict with the Starfleet way of life continued. Her brief career was stormy; she was at odds with her colleagues over almost every aspect of Starfleet life. She quit, with great regret, once again feeling that she didn't fit in - and blamed this, once more, on her Klingon side. As a member of the Maquis, B'Elanna had finally found an outlet for many of her frustrations - a tangible enemy against whom she could fight. She was a courageous soldier, and either didn't realize or didn't acknowledge the fact that warring on the Cardassians, allowed her Klingon warrior's blood to course freely and unashamedly. Now, on Voyayer that foe has been taken away, and her own inner frustrations are thrown into marked relief. Without an enemy, B'Elanna is forced to deal with angry parts of herself that no longer have an appropriate outlet. It is through Tuvok's calm counsel that she is learning to accept herself. B'Elanna has grown into a fetching young beauty with an incandescent sexuality. She turns many heads, but the person she has designs on is Tom Paris, who won't clutter their professional relationship by having an affair with another officer. NOTE BY JANET: Certain aspects of the personality and certain back-story elements did not end up included in the series, while others were added during the series and thus do not appear in the above text.
Picture: publicity shot. Text sources: VC, Poe. Thanks to Juliomac for the background tile (shown at reduced size) and Eos Development for the text background tile from the set 'Traceries'.
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