Star Trek doesn’t have a lot of happy, successful couples in most of the franchise.
Star Trek: Voyager had one relationship that made it all the way to the end of the series, that of Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and Lt. B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). In the final episode, the couple even had a child together. Now, twenty-two years later, IDW Publishing and the new upcoming Star Trek graphic novel might be changing all of that as Bleeding Cool shared an image of the cover of the novel that is upsetting fans. The image is a framed photograph of Torres holding a baby in the background with Paris in the foreground, and the glass covering the picture is shattered.
Even Roxann Dawson herself had a disbelieving moment when a fan shared what might be happening along with a look at the cover art for the upcoming graphic novel.
What?? pic.twitter.com/iVMcb1lPmy
— Roxann Dawson (@roxdaws) July 24, 2023
Star Trek has gone down many unpopular roads with fans, but this one might be enough to cause some to stop reading the graphic novels.
In fact, in the comments underneath Dawson’s response, many fans are declaring their intention to stop reading the novels if a break-up is going to happen between the couple. But some are offering alternatives to a break-up, suggesting that this might be an alternate universe, simply a broken picture from the result of a battle, or that the image fell off a shelf.
Whatever this novel has within its pages, it could spell the difference between another succesful tie-in to the franchise and some really unhappy fans who could possibly refuse to pick up another novel. There are simply some things in the Trek universe that should not be tampered with like Captain Sisko and Kasidy Yates’ love, Will Riker and Deanna Troi’s marriage, and Lt. Parris and Lt. Torres’ happy family.