#* in character ┊ b’elanna torres.

[best-star-trek-character]

VOY Semi-Finals

[phoenixfeathersinfall]

Hello! ☄️ and 📚 for the ask game?

Hi hi friend, thank you so much for asking this! I had to think about it for a little bit! 🤔

Favorite Fic You’ve Read: I have so many, I re-read fics I enjoyed fairly often because I find it comforting, just like I do with my favorite published books! If you want to know more specifically about a show or pairing, just ask! One I come back to frequently because it ticks a lot of my boxes (feels like an episode, hurt/comfort elements, etc.) is “Standards of Care” by sahiya. A Dominion-engineered virus infiltrates the station and Julian works to find a cure at great risk to himself while Garak tries to protect him. Anything by this author is great, tbh, they always choose intriguing plots and they have such a wonderful approach to the characterization of all the Niners!

Headcanons: I will literally sit and consider headcanons as a form of amusement. Here’s a few!

Jadzia has so many hobbies (many of them niche) from all those lifetimes! Julian will try most any of them with her because that man is down to try most anything. They have a lot of fun!

Seven mentions that as a child, she wanted to be a ballerina, so I think it would be really neat if she had the chance to take up ballet as a sort of reclamation and a homage to the little girl Annika was 🥺

B’Elanna is such a romantic and she loves storytelling; I think she’d use some of her limited free time to write her own short stories or novels! They’d be very popular if she decided to share them, but these are just for her so she can explore anything she wants without judgement.

[autismtrek]

[shsy7573]

We’re in This Together - Ch. 12

For more info or chapter index, see overview post

WARNING: This chapter contains segments of character death. (SPOILER’S FOR CHAPTER : It’s fine tho I swear)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own own Voyager or any of the characters in this fic (except for the aliens. Those were my creation.)

*This story is not beta-read and has not been edited or proof-read in any way! This was just something I threw together over the past three days and decided to post as my first entry on this site!*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER TWELVE

B’Elanna watched Janeway’s laboured breathing as she slept. Even though she was sleeping, the Starfleet Captain’s expression was anything but peaceful. Her pain, it seemed, was potent enough to follow her into unconsciousness. Voyager’s Chief Engineer brushed her knuckles gently over the woman’s cheek, and watched as her expression softened ever so slightly.

The touch, despite how soft, was enough to jostle her from sleep. Her eyes face contorted as the full force of the pain came back. She opened her eyes a crack to see her Lieutenant smiling down at her.

“Sorry, Captain. I didn’t mean to wake you. You can go back to sleep if you’d like.”

Kathryn huffed, starting to sit up. Immediately she regretted it as the whole world went out of focus, and black dots danced at the edges of her vision. She fell un gracefully back down with a thump, and closed her eyes.

“That’s all right… I don’t… I don’t think… I’ll be going… back to sleep… anytime soon.”

Torres furrowed her eyebrows in sympathy. “Do you want a pain killer? We have used them for a while. I took one this morning when I woke up for my shift.”

Kathryn shook her head slightly, the best she could manage in her agony. “They don’t… help.”

The engineer placed a gentle hand on her Captain’s forehead. She winced at the heat of the Captain’s skin, and turned to pull out the woman’s water.

“Here,” she murmured, pouring some of the cold liquid onto the woman’s face, “this should help a little. Drink some too.”

B’Elanna helped sit Janeway up enough so that she could comfortably drink. When she’d had enough, the engineer set her bottle back down, and lowered the Captain into her lap.

“Thanks,” Kathryn breathed, blinking groggily up at her companion. The feeling of the cool water on her skin was an instant relief, but it was short lived as the area slowly warmed up again.

“Anytime.”

Kathryn closed her eyes again as her breathing returned to its heavy, slow rhythm.

“I wish there was something I could do to make you more comfortable.”

Janeway inhaled deeply before responding, “you’re… doing… your best… Voyager… be here… soon.”

B’Elanna couldn’t help but wince again as the Captain spoke. Every one of her words seemed to take a little more out of her. Torres couldn’t even begin to imagine what sort of pain the woman was in.

“Yes, they’ll be here soon. Just save your strength. I’m not going anywhere.”

The Captain hummed, and swallowed harshly in response.

“I hate to break it to you, Captain, but I don’t think you’ll be able to jump right into work after this. I know you really miss looking over the system's reports, but the Doctor’s gonna be on your ass about resting for at least a week.”

B’Elanna was reworded by a couple of small, barely audible chuckles that jostled the Captain’s body.

“I’m still looking forward to that sonic shower. And after that, you’re welcome to join me on the holodeck or you like. I was thinking of forcing Tom to write me a new program. Or, I supposed I could do it myself, but- who has the time for that? Nothing too spectacular, thinking a nice, long quiet beach with soft white sand, big blue waves, and no tunnels of caverns in sight. Maybe a couple people out in the water, just having fun and living in the moment.”

As Torres spoke, Kathryn allowed herself to get lost in the words. She imagined herself on such a beach, and the thought made her smile. The warmth of the sun on her, the cool breeze blowing in from the sea as the setting sun turned the sky pink. Big waves on the horizon, where you could just make out a couple of surfers getting the last of their waves in before turning in for the night. It was where Janeway wished she was right now.

“It sounds… nice…” she rasped.

“Yeah? I thought so too. With you on my side, maybe you can order Tom to make it.”

The Captain smiled at this, and B’Elanna took it as a win.

-

After a couple hours, the Captain’s breathing really started to shallow out. B’Elanna had taken to holding her hand firmly as she struggled to stay awake.

“Just hold on a little longer Captain. Help is on the way.”

The only sigh that Janeway both heard and understood the Lieutenant was a small squeeze of her hand. B’Elanna squeezed back, running a hand across the woman’s face.

“Give me one second, okay? I’m just gonna check to see if the homing beacon is still active.”

Gently, B’Elanna let go of the Captain, and took off her comm. badge. Amazingly, even after all the floods and spider-attacks and rock climbing they’d done, it had remained stubbornly pinned to her Starfleet uniform. Speaking of said uniform, it had seen better days. There were several holes in the fabric, the biggest ones being on her chest and around her back.

Upon inspecting her badge, she was able to confirm that the homing beacon was still indeed active. That was good. It meant Voyager would know just where to find them when it arrived.

She placed the badge back on her uniform, and grabbed the Captain’s hand again. Not even bothered with how covered in sweat it was.

“Good news, Captain. Looks like our luck hasn’t completely run out yet. The badge is still working.”

The woman’s lips twitched, B’Elanna took at as the best the attempt woman could muster at a smile. She brushed her thumb across Kathryn’s forehead, sending a silent plea to her ship as watched her energy dwindle. Please, Voyager. Hurry.

-

At this point, B’Elanna had given up on keeping track of the hours passed. All she knew was they had been sitting here forever, and there was still no sign of Voyager.

“I’m sure they’ll be here soon. They’re probably just trying not to overreact.”

B’Elanna was alarmed by the lack of response from Kathryn. She’d been chatting to her idly on and off for the last little bit, and the woman had always at least managed a twitch of her fingers. Now though, there was nothing.

“Captain?” She asked, giving the woman a slight jostle with her knee.

No response.

She tried again, pumping the woman a bit harder.

“Captain! I told you not to doze off on me again!”

But B’Elanna knew that wasn’t what this was. Not this time. As she watched the woman’s chest for any sign that she might be breathing, she was alarmed to be greeting by a complete and utter stillness.

“No!” She gasped, sitting up and laying the woman’s head on the ground beside her.

“No, no, NO!”

She started chest come pressions.

“Come on, Captain! Don’t do this to me again!”

Tears streaked her eyes as she pushed the palms of her hands deep into the woman’s chest. She knew she was probably going to break her ribs with pressure like this, but she would take broken ribs over a dead Captain any day.

“Come on, please! Please, you can’t leave me! Not now!”

Two inches deep, one hundred beats per minute.

“We’re in this together, remember?!”

Help will be here soon.

“You promised!”

They have to be here soon

“Please, just hold on!”

Then, the worst thing that could have possibly happened, happened. Faintly, at the very edge of her senses, she heard the sound of scuttling.

B’Elanna’s chest compressions stilled as she listened to confirm what she was hearing. 

No! Not now! Please, not now!

Fat tears dripped from her eyes, and down onto Kathryn’s face as she leaned over the dying woman. Desperately, she placed one hand on her cheek, and the other one in her hand. She leaned down until she was nose to nose with Janeway’s slack face. “I’m not leaving you,” she whispered. “You hear me? I’m not leaving you! So don’t you dare leave me!”

No response.

A sob racked her body as she pressed her hand firmly into Kathryn’s face.

“Please!”

No response.

She heard the sound of a hiss behind her.

All the despair in her face fell away at the sound. The tears still poured down her face as she drew her phaser and turned around.

Eight of the Arachnomen faced off against her. Each of their eyes locked on in hunger, madness, and intent to kill.

Looking at the creatures, B’Elanna was overtaken by a blinding, thick blanket of unimaginable fury. This, all of this was their fault. One of their kind had killed her Captain. Her friend and all these creatures cared about was food. They were disgusting, and retched, and the purest form of evil that, other than the Borg, no other species ever came close to.

And they were not going to take her Captain away from her when they were this close to getting home.

“YOU WON’T TOUCH HER!” B’Elanna roared, but the Arachnomen didn’t seem phased by her fury.

With one final hiss, the hoard lunged, and B’Elanna started firing.

In an instant, a cascade of pincers, hands and fangs engulfed B’Elanna and the Captain. The half-klingon fired her phaser like a mad woman, doing everything in her power to keep the creatures’ fangs from biting her, and to keep all of them away from the lifeless form of her Captain underneath her.

Pretty quickly, B’Elanna’s rage subsided just enough for her to realise that she could never right off all these aliens at once. So, thinking fast, she improvised.

The engineer shot her phaser right at the base of one of the stalactites. The large spike came crashing down, impaling one of the Arachnomen, and covering the area in a thick, quickly dissipating layer of debris.

Using the opening, B’Elanna threw Janeway over her shoulder and fled towards the nearest tunnel. Her feet carried her even faster than they had the day before. It didn’t matter anymore that Janeway was dead weight, Torres’s survival instincts were kicked into too high a gear for her to be slowed down.

The aliens ran after her as she clambered up the tunnel, dodging their long, outstretched limbs and shooting blindly behind her as she continued her beeline through the tunnels.

The Arachnomen were gaining rapidly, their brief moment of surprise not nearly enough to keep the Chief Engineer in the lead for long. She pushed her legs to run faster, practically throwing herself down the passageway as it began to twist and turn.

After five minutes of running for her life, B’Elanna’s felt her eyes widened as they gazed upon her next obstacle. The ground veered up in a sudden slope, approximately seven feet tall, and with very little ways to jump up it. Not unless you had spider limbs.

With a pounding heart, the engineer used all of her strength to throw Kathryn up the the top of the wall, before leaping up as high as she could and draping her arm over the ledge.

One of the aliens grabbed a hold of her leg, and began to drag her back down towards the ground. B’Elanna kicked and screamed as the others piled on. She managed to tear her leg free of one, and used the face of another to shove herself further up the ledge.

One of the aliens jumped up towards the ceiling, and made a frantic grab at her shoulder. It missed, however, and its long spider-limbed hand shot past B’Elanna and managed to grab hold instead of the Captain’s arm. It dragged her body backwards, and B’Elanna shrieked in protest as she held the body of her comrad on top of the ledge.

She rammed her arm out, smacking the spider's own limb hard against the corner of the ledge. It shrieked, letting go of the Captain in its pain.

As hard as she was fighting, Torres’ heart lurched as she felt the seemingly endless sea of grasping limbs starting to drag her back down the ledge. She clawed desperately to the tunnel floor, kicking mangled legs back at the spiders, but it was no use. There were too many of them.

Just as she was convinced that there was no way out of this, a voice came through on her comm.

“Voyager to away team, do you read me!”

B’Elanna kicked one of the aliens off her, giving her just enough leeway to reach up and press her badge. “Chakotay!” She shouted, her voice riddled with pure terror as she was pulled further away from Janeway, “I can’t hold them off anymore! You gotta get us out of here!”

“Stand by for transport.”

“Sick bay, Chakotay! Both of us!” B’Elanna ordered

“Acknowledged!”

B’Elanna screamed as she lost her grip on the tunnel ledge. Just as her body was dragged into the commotion of the Arachnoman’s frenzy, her and Janeway’s bodies dematerialized into the transporter beam.

[nightsung]

anyway since rox*nn is shitty as hell,  i have a new fc for b’elanna now 🥰

[clementine-kesh]

b’elanna torres is a character you really can’t fully understand without using a racial lens, and that means confronting the ways in which she’s constantly othered by those around her. if you’re ignoring the racism hoisted on her by tom, janeway, or the doctor you’re not going to get the full picture of how bigotry permeates her daily life and shapes her into the person she is. how bigotry isn’t just something enacted by nebulous, malicious actors, but by ordinary people in our everyday lives. you’re not going to be able to read as deeply into her character and give her the complexity and nuance she deserves

[trillscienceofficer]

from Cinefantastique Vol 30 #9-10, November 1998

ROXANN DAWSON: The actress who plays fiery Klingon half-breed engineer Torres on coping with the mommy track.

By Anna L. Kaplan

The fiery B’Elanna Torres, played by Roxann Dawson, found herself in a serious, adult relationship with Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) during VOYAGER'S fourth season. Their earlier friendship was heading in this direction during the third season, but finally blossomed into something else this year. As an additional challenge for the actress, Dawson had to play increasingly steamy scenes with McNeill while going through her first pregnancy. The writers opted to hide the pregnancy, with the exception of a special two part episode called “The Killing Game.” For the most part, Dawson found herself under a newly invented engineering smock, or behind a console, or shot in closeup. “Mostly I get knocked out in the first 10 minutes of the episode, and recover somewhere near the ending after all the action sequences have been shot,” she said. “That’s how we’re working around it.”

Dawson spoke about these challenges in November of 1997, having finished more than half of the season, and not knowing what would happen later. She was seven months pregnant at the time. She said, ‘I'm feeling great. I’ve had a good pregnancy so far. It’s only recently that I’ve been slowed down a bit.” She added some wishful thinking, saying, “If I’m late, which I probably will be, it will almost coincide with our hiatus, which is just a grand coincidence, and that would be great. Hopefully, they could at least get my presence in the last few episodes, if only just a little bit. So if everything goes well I won’t miss any episodes.”

Dawson enthused, “I love the scripts they’ve been coming up with. I love our new cast addition. I think it’s adding a little spice to all of the characters as we deal with Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). I’m just really impressed with the scripts. I think that they've been very strong this year and I like what they’re doing with my character.”

The episode “Day of Honor” brought Paris and B’Elanna together, while they were waiting to die, floating in space. It proved a difficult show to do. For one thing, the actors were shot against bluescrcen, visual effects to be added later. “I liked it a lot,” said Dawson. “It was all special effects. We also had to go in later on and loop every single line of that. Plus they needed to edit quite a bit because of the budget. It’s very expensive to do so many scenes in front of a bluescreen. I felt that it lost some of its bite because of these things. It’s tough enough doing emotionally revealing scenes, but to have the elements so working against you, I definitely felt that it was flawed.”

She continued, “There was more dialogue (originally). When I went in to loop it I had to rethink the way I was going to say things. Having to make those adjustments in post are never desirable, because they can never match what you may have done in actual production. They’re compromises that have to be made, especially when you’re working in a sci-fi series, but you hate it to have to happen on intimate moments. Perhaps for people who didn’t know what was missing, it wasn’t a big deal. But I sense it, and I know where I felt the beats should have been. I wasn’t completely satisfied with ‘Day of Honor.’”

In “Scientific Method” the romance progressed, but while the crew was under the control of alien experimenters. Tom and B’Elanna became passionate at some inappropriate times, leading to at least a little speculation about who was really in control. Noted Dawson, “When we were about to shoot it, I told Robbie that I felt that what we were doing was the real Tom and B'Elanna, but it’s sort of like after you've had a couple of drinks at a bar. The aliens supplied the liquor, and so it made [us] a little bit less sophisticated than we should have been. Basically everything was very real. We were just alien-tipsy, I guess. We talked a long time when we got those scenes, wondering, now is this really what we would do? Would we really risk this sort of thing when we have our own cabins? I thought, maybe if you had just a little bit of this alien liquor, that it would make you take that step you just normally wouldn’t. That probably fueled the fire, but the fire was definitely there.”

Some of the scenes advancing the Paris/Torres relationship were added on. "We’re all confused right now," said Dawson. “For example, we’re shooting additional scenes and reshoots for four episodes, so it’s hard to keep track of what’s going into which episode when they add these extra scenes. We’ve been coming up short on a lot of scripts recently, and I don’t know why. It’s causing us to have to take a day and actually add more material to a lot of the shows.

“What I have been missing in their relationship is what really makes them tick as people together. We’ve seen the passion, and we’ve had some superficial discussions, and we understand the attraction. I haven’t seen a lot of the real close friendship. Maybe in the first season in the episode ‘Faces’ where there was some discussion of our past and our parents. We just shot a really nice scene where you just see these two friends dealing with some very difficult situations. I love that they’re starting to explore that now in the writing.”

“Random Thoughts” focused on a telepathic society where violent thoughts are considered crimes. Torres is convicted of violent thought and sentenced to have her memory engrams purged. “One of the things I love about B’Elanna is that she is flawed,” said Dawson. “She’s got this temper. As much as she has become a better person since the beginning of the series, she still screws up, not that this is a complete screw up. It's very human to think negative things, but she definitely goes overboard in her images. It’s interesting, this whole discussion of thought police and what we are allowed to think and not think, and the kind of trouble that you could get in. It’s actually kind of contemporary.”

What exactly does B'Elanna think about to get into trouble? Dawson recalled, “It’s actually pretty minor. It’s innocuous. It’s somebody bumping into me at a market place, but because I have a temper my first instinct is to lash out until I realize that’s an irrational thought. But the thought is out there already. Because these people are very sensitive to these thoughts, that becomes a crime. It’s very tricky. I think it brings up a lot of interesting issues.”

Like many of the actors, Dawson believes that VOYAGER has often resolved conflict too quickly. She was happy to bring something back of the Maquis, when Chakotay (Robert Beltran) gets a message from the Alpha Quadrant in “Hunters.” Noted Dawson, “There was a really interesting scene with Robert Beltran when he reveals information to me about the Maquis. I have to spend the rest of the show trying to deal with this information. I love that they’re bringing that up again. It’s one of the things that I feel was dropped too early. I would love them to deal with it some more. There is some encrypted Starfieet message that still hasn't been decoded by the end of the episode. I would love it if they made a choice that Starfieet comes down hard in saying that, ‘Maybe all the Maquis should be thrown in the brig until we can get you home.’ I think it would be interesting to see how Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) deals with that, and what kind of upset it might cause among the crew. It’s an opportunity I'd hate for them to miss.”

In fact, the message was decoded with some complications in the season’s last show. “Hope and Fear.” Beltran wished the writers had used Dawson's idea, saying “That would have been very interesting, but it doesn’t say that.” Starfleet tells them they cannot help the Voyager.

On the show’s lack of conflict, Dawson noted, “I think they wanted us all to get along pretty quickly. I think the great thing about this year is that some of the friction is coming back. I think that we need that. I think that that’s perfectly human, it’s right, and it's dramatic, and it makes the show much more interesting. It’s so much more interesting for us to fight, and to figure out how to get along, rather than just getting along.”

Dawson talked about her work, saying, “I know that they’re really starting to phase me down quite a bit. I’m spending a lot more time in sickbay. We’re in a series of episodes where we’re dealing with an alien race that is in a five-episode arc. They are called ‘Hunters’ in that they like to go after their prey and torture them to death. This is what their entire existence is about.”

Dawson got into more of the action during both parts of “The Killing Game” in which the hunting Hirogen used the holodecks on Voyager to experience World War II. Dawson plays Bridgette, a member of the French resistance who has gotten pregnant by one of the Nazis and uses that to her advantage. “We’re being experimented on,” she said. “They get some information from our data banks, and decide to try to create a war among us by re-creating World War II. They allow me to be pregnant in that episode, which is a lot of fun, not to have to cover it up.”

Dawson commented on the current TREK women, saying with a laugh, “I think that we’ve changed a lot, and I think it’s terrific. I think we've done it in a really special way. I think that these characters that we have are very unique. If you go from Dax (Terry Farrell) to Kira (Nana Visitor) to B'Elanna to Kate's character, to Jeri’s character, I think that they haven’t just done this stereotypical woman-with-balls kind of thing. They’ve really made them individuals, and also still women, which is great. I think that it’s showing a certain amount of maturity on the part of the writers and the audience in terms of accepting us.”

In addition to acting, Dawson also writes, and at the time of this interview she was anxiously awaiting the publication of her first novel. She explained, “I’m working on a trilogy of sci-fi novels that Simon and Schuster commissioned me to do with another writer. We’ve completed the first book. We are waiting for its release. We're done with it. I’m very proud of it. And we've outlined the second book. The trilogy is 'The Tenebrea Trilogy’ and the first book is ‘Entering Tenebrea.’”

She continued, “I wrote a play which was produced at the University of Minnesota, and also workshopped at Circle Repertory. It was my first full-length play. I’ve had a couple of one acts produced as well. But I’ve never written in novel form, so this was really great. The writer that I’m working with, Daniel Graham, is wonderful. He’s got a scientific mind and knowledge. We work very well together. We sort of balance each other out. We completed [the book] probably five months ago, and it’s literally been sitting here waiting for them to bring it out. We’re just waiting for it to go.”

Dawson was also awaiting the arrival of her daughter. Emma Rose Dawson was born early, instead of late, on January 16, 1998, just after Dawson shot “Vis A Vis” and one scene of “The Omega Directive.” She missed only a few episodes, but returned well in time for the finale, as she had hoped. □

[asurprizinglysanefangirl]

Name meanings of Star Trek main characters

TOS –

James - Supplanter; Holder of The Heel

Spock – I don't know

Leonard - Lion Strength; Descendant; Lover

Nyota – Stars

(Bonus - Uhura – Freedom (crafted from the Swahili word uhuru for the show))

Mongomery - Mountain Belonging to The Ruler; Man Power

Hikaru – Radiance; Light

Pavel - Small; Humble, Modest

Christine - Follower of Christ

TNG –

Jean-Luc - God Is Gracious; Bringer of Light

William - Resolute Protector; Will, Desire; Helmet, Protection

Data - Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis

(Bonus - Soong – Grandson, Descendant (it's a Chinese surname))

Deanna – Valley; Devine; Goddess; Church Leader

Beverly - Beaver Stream, Meadow

Geordie - Land-Worker, Farmer

Worf – I couldn’t find anything for either his first or last name

Tasha – Christmas Day, Birthday (Of Christ)

Wesley - Western meadow

DS9 –

Benjamin - Son of The Right Hand, Son of The South, Son of my Days

Kira - Mistress, Lady; Beam of Light; Black; Glitter, Shining

(Bonus - Nerys – Noblewoman; Hero)

Jadzia - Princess

Julian - Youthful; Jove's Child; Downy Bearded

Odo – Nothing [Cardassian meaning] (The following is extracted from the ST Wiki -  "Odo's name stemmed from the Cardassian word for "nothing", Odo'ital, which was the loose translation of the "unknown sample" label in Bajoran on his laboratory flask. After he was discovered to be sentient, the scientists began jokingly referring to him as "Odo Ital", in a similar manner to a Bajoran name, which eventually got shorted into simply "Odo".)

Odo - Wealthy; Inheritance; Richness [Human meaning] (Because apparently it's also a human name!)

Quark - I couldn't find anything

Miles O’Brien - Soldier; Who Is Like God?; Merciful

Elim - Place of Strong Trees

(Bonus - Garak – To Sojourn, To Dwell. Check this article out for more information)

Jake - Supplanter; Of Jacob

Nog – Agriculture (it’s a Chinese surname)

Ezri – Helper, My Help

Voyager –

Kathryn - Pure

Chakotay – Man who walks the Earth but only sees the Sky

Tuvok – I don't know. (There probably is someone who knows the Vulcan meaning of Tuvok and Spock out there.)

B’Elanna – (Belanna is an actual name) A noble woman who is beautiful

(Another bonus - Torres - Towers)

Tom - Twin; Innocence

Harry – Home Ruler

The Doctor – The name Jason means Healer, so I sometimes think of that as his name

Neelix – It was created for the show

Kes – I couldn’t find anything

Annika (Seven of Nine) - Grace; Favor; Gracious; Elegant

[best-star-trek-character]

Quarter-Finals

[cornflakesdoesart]

So like, what if B’elanna and Kes dated each other, instead of their lousy boyfriends? Like what then?

My thoughts about them is under the cut, I just wanted to say some stuff in the tags but then I had too much to say :” D

[ID: digital drawing of B’elanna Torres and Kes from Star Trek Voyager, B’elanna is wearing her uniform with added elbow and knee patches and pockets to the design, Kes is wearing a multi layered green and purple outfit, they are sitting, embracing, looking at each other and smiling. The background is a lilac square, yellow stars and pale green flowers around the characters legs. End ID]

this is basically a crack pair lmao I think they never even interact in canon, but I had this ooold drawing of them that I wanted to redraw and then I had so much fun with it

Basically my thinking behind this was that I think their personalities have a nice contrast. At first I think B'elanna would think Kes is a bit of a pushover, but with time I think Kes would be someone B'ellana could feel safe with because she is so non judgemental, and that would be a good mix with how selfconcious B'elanna is of her klingon heritage and temper, that a lot of other characters give her shit for and neg her even when she is acting perfectly normal tbh. I think they would appreciate each other's work ethics and persistence slash stubborness when it comes to things they believe in. and I think Kes is maybe not written very consistently but I remeber her being very even tempered and I think maybe she could benefit from picking up some of B'elanna expressiveness or “temper’” so to speak. And yeah I think Kes could become someone B'ellana isn't constantly self monitoring and holding back in front of when they are together in fear that she is too much, too aggressive, too klingon, and maybe it could start that it's B'elanna who is helping out in the infirmary not Tom!

Basically their canon boyfriends are often/can be jelous, possesive, negging or controlling, especially and mostly Neelix, I wouldn’t say Tom is ever controlling and he gets pretty good as a husband, but still I didn’t really finish the series being swept up in their relationship so that’s probably why I was like but what if...women loving women? And you know if I was writing fic or could bend time continuum to my will and change the show I wouldn’t want Kes/B’ellana to be pure unproblematic fluff either cuz I do love some drama, but not the realisticly lousy boyfriend kind of drama I guess :”D

thank you for coming to my ted talk, and don’t take me too seriously, this is just a bit of fun :”))

[delta-queerdrant]

where are your troubles now? forgotten? (Resistance, s2 e12)

(POV you’re watching the Barbie intro but it’s Star Trek screenwriters. Please indulge me.)

Once, in another century, there was a show called Star Trek Voyager. (Cue 2001: A Space Odyssey music.) A lady and two dudes created it. Occasionally other ladies cowrote episodes. But by the time Season Two rolled around, there were not so many ladies. Actually there was just Jeri Taylor, and by god she tried. But one lady cannot be all things to all people.

Then in November 1995, a great miracle happened. A new lady was hired to write a teleplay. It was fresh, inventive! Something was happening!

Her name was (music crescendos)

L I S A K L I N K

I don’t know much about Lisa Klink, except that “Resistance” marks the beginning of her multi-season involvement in Voyager, and that she was a five-time Jeopardy winner. (I do not watch Jeopardy, I would not be good at Jeopardy, but Jeopardy people are nevertheless my people.) Mostly I know that I turned on “Resistance” and, despite my general disinterest in the show’s production history, immediately asked: who the FUCK wrote this?

“Resistance” is not a perfect episode, but after half a season of flailing, it is a revelation. Klink, writing the script for a story by Michael Jan Friedman and Kevin J. Ryan, has a clear vision of what Voyager can be - a show that’s grounded, emotionally resonant, and trusts its actors. 

I am partial to the gritty, Blade Runner-inflected, Firefly/BSG brand of science fiction television, so when we started in media res, our heroes in civvies doing deals in an outdoor market, I died and went to cyberpunk heaven. (Neelix’s coat alone is worth the price of entry.) Instead of swanning across the galaxy like tourists in a slightly under-resourced cruise ship, the Voyager gang are finally the scrappy underdogs they ought to be.

This is our second Janeway episode of the season, and the first episode, perhaps of the series, that really gives her a character mandate beyond “strong but feminine captain who loves her dog.” Mulgrew has her work cut out for her, acting against JOEL FUCKING GREY, but they’re both marvelous. Waking in the home of the enigmatically batty Caylem (in a claustrophobic sequence whose stagey absurdism recalls a Beckett play), Janeway slowly grows to understand that Caylem, who’s decided she’s his daughter, might be her best ally for escape. The growing emotional connection between the two is so tender and understated; as a writer, Klink has mastered the light touch.

Janeway and Caylem end up collaborating with the local resistance movement to rescue Torres and Tuvok, who have been imprisoned by the lawful evil overlords of this world. Our characters genuinely feel like they are in big trouble! Torres and Tuvok’s prison stint is rough. (I did enjoy B’Elanna’s beatnik dissident prison garb. She looks like it is approximately 1956 and she is a French student who has been arrested for throwing a baguette at a cop.)

The only weak sequence is the prison break itself, which feels too easy and relies on a tired “sex worker disguise” subterfuge. But the ending is so satisfying and will break your heart.

Once Janeway’s back in uniform, it feels like we’ve truly been on a journey, one that brings to mind iconic episodes like “The Inner Light.” Voyager is a long way from home, and I want these characters to go through transformative experiences. The boldness of this episode gets us a little bit of the way there.

A radical reimagining of Voyager, and the best episode of season two in my estimation. I award this one 4.5/5 melon hats.

[autismtrek]

[firstroseofspring]

tagged by @worflesbian yayyy thank you!

rules: make a poll with five of your all-time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone’s favourite!

this was so fun! :) that being said every show i’ve ever seen was wiped from my mind as i tried to make the list 😭😭 i definitely forgot someone!

i tag: @butchniqabi @mumintroll @hazystars @murcielagatito @applepreserves no pressure of course!!! <3

[suzteel]

✨ Challenge: Make a poll with five of your all time favourite characters, and then tag five people to do the same, and see which character is everyone's favourite! ✨

Thanks @cheresha for the tag!

Tagging @adanima @haloud @maeglinthebold @thatblackdress @becamitchell