“People could identify with her plight and the things she was going through.”
When Star Trek: Voyager debuted in January of 1995, it was the third television Trek to be released during the vaunted Berman Era. And up to that point, with the exception of mostly memorable villains, the definitive, heroic Klingon was none other than Michael Dorn’s Worf. Enter Roxann Dawson.
Dawson portrayed the half-human, half-Klingon chief engineer aboard the USS Voyager, B’Elanna Torres. And today, over 30 years after making her first appearance on the must-see sci-fi series, the actor explains why it “was such a gift” to play B’Elanna in an interview (per The Transporter Room). The video, which fans can watch below, is from the upcoming documentary To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager.
What I love most about this short sit-down is how Dawson touches on the number of people who have contacted her over the years. So many of those Trek fans went on to work as engineers because of B’Elanna. It’s just like DeForest Kelley used to say about young doctors and medical students who would come up to him at conventions and tell him how they ended up studying medicine because of his character, Dr. McCoy.
For me, I loved all the Voyager characters, particularly Seven of Nine. However, there was something so special about B’Elanna finding love with Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill). And it meant so much to me, as a viewer, that they had the opportunity to not only escape the Delta Quadrant, but that they got married and had a child, too.
What was your favorite part of Roxann Dawson’s short interview? Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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