History

Life Before Voyager

B’Elanna was born in 2349 on Kessik IV, to Miral (a Klingon) and John Torres (a Human). Her father left for Earth when she was just five years old, and did not attempt to make contact with her for over 20 years. B’Elanna blamed herself for her father leaving because she looked Klingon. She attended a federation school until her mother pulled her out and sent her to a Klingon Monastery.

In 2366 B’Elanna began attending Starfleet Academy. During her brief time at the academy she had multiple disciplinary hearings and suspensions, and started several brawls. She was very talented and bright, but was troubled and soon dropped out of the academy at the age of 19 (2368).

In 2370 B’Elanna joined the Maquis after Chakotay, a former Starfleet Officer saved her life. They remained close friends from that time on. Chakotay taught Torres spiritual techniques to help calm the violent Klingon side of her personality. In 2371 the ship she and her fellow Maquis were on, was transported from the Alpha Quadrant to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, along with the U.S.S. Voyager. Soon the two crews join forces and agree to all make up the new crew of Voyager, with the goal of making back to the Alpha Quadrant, their home.

The Voyage Home

Over the next 7 Years aboard Voyager, many things happened to B’Elanna which helped her develop as a strong willed person. B’Elanna became a Lieutenant and the Chief Engineer on-board. Early on in her time on Voyager she was kidnapped along with Tom Paris by the Vidiians. They kidnapped them for Organ donations to help deal with the Phage (A disease plaguing their people). The Vidiians extracted the Klingon DNA from B’Elanna and created two individuals: A fully Human B’Elanna who was emotionally unstable and weak, as well as a fully Klingon B’Elanna who was overly aggressive. Her Klingon half was experimented on in an attempt to find a cure for the Phage since Klingons have a high resistance to the disease. After escaping, the Doctor was able to restore both halves to create one B’Elanna.

Later on a Vulcan engineer, who was experiencing pon farr triggered B’Elanna’s Klingon mating instincts when he initiated a sort of telepathic bond with her. When she and Paris became trapped on a planet together she wanted him to mate with her, but he would not. Eventually she and Vorik (the Vulcan engineer) fought and the fever that accompanied the mating instincts passed.

B’Elanna developed relationships with various crewmates, despite her standoffish and aggressive qualities. Most notably, she became involved with Tom Paris, and in 2374 when they were near death she confessed that she loved him. Eventually their relationship matured and they wed in 2377.

She soon became pregnant. The pregnancy was not easy for B’Elanna since she had fears of Tom rejecting her daughter for being a Klingon as she felt her father had done to her. She asked the Doctor to remove the ridges from her unborn daughter’s forehead, but eventually with the help of Captain Janeway and Tom she came to terms with her abandonment issues and accepted her Klingon/Human pregnancy with Joy. The next year (2378) she gave birth to their daughter Miral Paris (named for her mother) on stardate 54973.4 as Voyager was approaching Earth after their long Voyage home.

Notes

• The character was originally intended to be Ro Laren from Star Trek TNG, but changed when the actress refused.