Hello all, RIc here and this time fulfilling a requested Personnel File, on one
B’Elanna Torres of Starfleet, then the Maquis, then Starfleet again. As usual in this series,
I will draw from the primary continuity of the shows and then bring in some apocrypha where
applicable, so long as it does not contradict with on screen canon. But first up, there is a bit of
a discrepancy around her birth year, and when exactly her father left based on what has been
stated on screen. In this instance, books and the like have not helped either as several go
with one answer and others choose a different one, but we’ll get into that as we look at her record.
She was born on Kessik IV in 2346, the daughter of a human father, John Torres and a Klingon Mother,
Miral. Miral was the only Klingon resident of Kessik which she often found ostracising.
Other records have her being born in 2349, but it’s the least used and the ages line better
with the 46 year. So we’ll go with that. In 2351, John Torres left when she was 5,
and the young B’elanna suspected that he did so because he could not handle both her
and her mother’s Klingon temperaments. This caused her to begin to resent her Klingon heritage,
an anxiety which would stay into her adult life. At some point around this time, she also drowned
at Sea of Gatan on Betazed, but was resuscitated by her mother.
In 2354, she saved the life of Evra Konal in a fire chute cavern on Kessik, however this
source also lists John leaving during this time, which would have made her 10. The only canon fact
we have is that B’elanna was 5 when it happened. Around 2355, she was in Grammar school, when she
tampered with a playground gyro-swing that severely hurt Daniel Byrd,
before assaulting him for bullying her. After 2355, her and her mother moved
back to Qo’Nos for a time and B’elanna was withdrawn from her from Federation schools.
In 2366, at the age of 20, she left her mother and home behind, enlisting in Starfleet Academy.
Here she studied with the intent to pursue an engineering position,
taking, Astrotheory alongside engineering courses, the mandatory courses such as Survival Strategies
and Interstellar History, of which she almost failed. Outside of study, she also enrolled in the
decathlon team and was a very promising student. In 2368, she left Starfleet academy,
citing the rigid structure as the cause of her distress. Files list her as 19 during this,
but she would more likely have been 22. It is noted however that Professor P. Chapman
made an addition to her record, supporting any reapplication to Starfleet, should she choose to
return. She did not return to Qo’Nos however, as she did not talk to her mother since the
day she left for Starfleet. So what exactly she gets up to in this time, is her own buissness.
In 2370, two years later, the paramilitary organisation known as the Maquis officially
formed, revealing itself to the Federation in opposition to the Cardassian-Federation
Demilitarized Zone treaties of 2367. This organisation recruited many disillusioned
Star Fleet officers, displaced colonists and had many sympathisers. One such recruit was Torres.
A few months after its formation, former officer Chakotay rescued B’elanna from a Bolian freighter
that had been attacked by Cardassians and took her to Riva Prime where Torres joined up.
She joined up with his resistance cell and crew of the SS Liberty as chief engineer.
When that ship was destroyed, they transferred to the Geronimo, then to the Spartacus.
This ship too was eventually destroyed and B’elanna followed Chakotay to the SS Val Jean,
continuing to serve as his constant chief engineer. She may have even served alongside
Tom Paris’ only mission, but that’s unclear. 2370: On her first command mission for the
Maquis, she was trapped in a cavern system with her team for 3 days after
mistaking ambient energy for signs of the industrialisation of a Cardassian outpost.
Her technical skills came into use this year when the Maquis captured the ATR-4107 smart
missile and reprogrammed it. She set the target as Aschelan V, but it passed through
the Badlands and not seen again, later to have been found snatched up by the caretaker array.
In 2371, the SS Val Jean was chased into the Badlands by Gul Evek and was
also claimed by the Caretaker array. After arriving in the Delta Quadrant,
the Val Jean was lost, but the crew transferred to the USS Voyager NCC-74656 and B’ellana Torres
was granted the provisional rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade and assigned to the engineering team.
Here she operated under Lieutenant Joe Carey’s team who was acting-chief engineer after
the former chief was killed. During this time, she assaulted him breaking his nose.
Despite the reprimand, she was assigned as Chief Engineer due to her experience
and ingenuity by Captain Kathryn Janeway. This year she was captured by Vidiians who
separated her Klingon and Human DNA into two entities for a cure to the phage. The
Klingon B’elanna DNA was recombined back into Human one, restoring her back to herself.
Also during this year, she and several other members of the crew violated the Prime Directive
by trying to acquire a Sikarian Spatial Trajector illicitly.
In 2372: she was tasked with repairing the Pralor and Cravic units and
learnt a great deal about robotics. This year she also reencountered the
Dreadnaught missile that had been caught in the Badlands and had to neutralise it.
In 2374: Torres was arrested on Mari for sharing violent thoughts
but was proved innocent and released. 2375 saw her become the host for a
Cytoplasmic lifeform which attacked her and used her as life support until it was removed.
She also developed a habit of putting herself in dangerous situations,
such as the holodeck with no safety protocols active in an attempt to deal with grief.
This year she helped design the Delta-Flyer shuttlecraft too.
In 2376, she had a near death experience that took her (maybe) to the realm of Gre’thor.
In 2377 she Married Lieutenant Tom Paris. In 2378, the USS Voyager arrived home
through a Borg Transwarp conduit and she gave birth to her daughter, Miral Paris.
Upon returning to the Alpha Quadrant, Torres and most of the Voyager crew were pretty much
celebrities for their epic journey they had made, and her position in Starfleet was officialised,
her time in the Maquis excused and she was promoted to Lt. Commander.
That year however, she and Paris took leave and travelled to Boreth to reunite with her mother,
Miral. Unfortunately she had to perform the Klingon ritual of
Hegh’bat on her mother after she was fatally injured by a beast she had been hunting.
She and Tom Paris moved to Boreth for a time to learn about the prophecies
surrounding their daughter, the young Miral, who matched the foretelling of the Kuvah’Magh.
In 2380, Miral was kidnapped by a Klingon sect and became the focus of
much controversy for a time. In 2382: they may have had a
second child, Michael Owen Paris, but this has not been mentioned on screen,
and we are entering territory that the canon is still writing now, so that’ll do for this video.
The biggest issue B’elanna has faced in her career is her own disruptive behaviour
holding her back. This is exacerbated by her denial over her Klingon heritage,
which caused her to supress those aspects of her personality she dislikes, namely her temper. This
faded with time however as she grew and she is also completely aware of her own shortcomings,
makes an effort to eventually embrace them and allowing her to form a more complete identity.
Torres has a strong “problem solver’s” mind-set to her as she does enjoy
tackling engineering conundrums and finding creative solutions. This does lead her to
become both frustrated and obsessive when answers elude her and she has been known to forgo sleep,
in favour of spending hours or more trying to fix things. She is very competitive, resenting
losses almost as a personal affront, whether professional, recreational or even personal.
This obsessive streak often meets with her stubbornness which has
led her to act out on her own, regardless of orders, weather Starfleet or Maquis.
Although these rogue elements can bring her into conflict with authority, she often feels guilty
for undermining those she respects and makes an effort to uphold their values as part her own.
She is generally honest and upfront with her opinions and feelings, but far more
evasive when it comes to personal matters and defensive of people trying to psychoanalyse her.
Eep. It seems that placing too many operational restraints on B’elanna and
demanding conformity from her is the quickest way to force her into becoming uncooperative.
Doing the opposite allows her to best flex her own creative ingenuity and intellect.
In terms of hobbies, she embraces most physical sports, having shown great promise in them
at the academy, despite this; she often avoids stereotypical Klingon activities, such as combat
programs. Which is pretty ironic considering that she is quiet capable of holding her own in a fight
and (if in a bad mood), is also quite capable of picking one. The only time we get a good look at
her hobbies however, is during the episode, “Extreme Risk” which can hardly be said to be
her usual pick, considering her state of mind at that time. During this time, she was struggling
with the depression of losing the Maquis and that too became an ongoing part of her development.
After long rejecting her Klingon heritage and writing off most of it as superstition,
postulating and even barbaric, she begins to show an interest out of respect
and acceptance in Klingon culture after a time, often in the more spiritual aspects. This
ultimately led her to have a greater understanding of Klingons, her mother in particular and herself,
but this is not a short change. It is an on-going challenge for her spread over the entire series;
a strong example of character growth and like many things that she chooses to tackle,
it has to be on her terms. She has admitted to deliberately pushing people away before they can
leave her because it protects her from being hurt, but eventually finds happiness and acceptance with
not just Tom Paris, but the Voyager crew. For some B’elanna specific episodes,
“Day of Honor” shows her initial attitude towards Klingon tradition,
relationships and loss and a good episode to get a handle on her own internal struggles.
“Dreadnaught” is a good example of how her priorities have shifted with time and
“Lineage” is a pretty good display of where she ends up towards the end of the series.
Of course, there are many more examples of B’elanna and alongside Paris, she undergoes
a coherent and well shown character development throughout the entire series, appearing in most
episodes. So thanks for watching this file, usually I like to add more beta content, but I
could really find much else outside of the info in the shows outside of the Voyager relaunch series,
which is probably… very much its own canon by now. Thanks again and let me know what this
file glosses over, there is always something so until next time, I’ve been Ric, goodbye!