The Ladies of Star Trek: Voyager

Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres

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Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres, the daughter of a human father and a Klingon mother,  is Chief Engineer on the USS Voyager.  She grew up on Kessick IV, a remote colony far from the Klingon home world.  She and her Klingon mother lived on Kessick IV, alone among humans after her father, a  human Starfleet officer, left them when she was 5 years old.  A former engineering student at Starfleet Academy, B'Elanna dropped out during her second year after several disruptive episodes and because she felt stifled by the rules.  She then followed her Klingon warrior instincts and joined the rebel group, The Maquis, in its early stages.  A Maquis base was targeted in 2370 by Dreadnaught, an intelligent Cardassian weapon (Dreadnaught).   Torres deactivated and reprogrammed the weapon, sending it after a Cardassian installation instead.  Chakotay, a former Starfleet Commander and present captain of the Maquis ship, reprimanded for her unauthorized action.  Dreadnaught went off course and into the "Badlands".  She was at that time acting as Chief Engineer on Chakotay's ship.  She is very intelligent and independent, but is tortured by the inner conflict between her Klingon warrior side and her human side.  Lieutenant Torres has been split into two personalities (Faces); and was driven by guilt to stop The Dreadnought, the code name of a Cardassian doomsday missile she reprogrammed while a member of the Maquis in 2370 (Dreadnaught).  She has also been chosen by aliens to preserve their holocaust memories (Remember), and was rescued by Captain Janeway from an alien prison (Resistance).  Her Klingon mating urges were triggered by a brief  link with a Vulcan in pon farr and she almost disrupted an away mission (Blood Fever).  She and Lieutenant Tom Paris recently declared their mutual love (Day of Honor).   When she turns to recreation as an outlet, she has been know to play both hoverball and Parrises Squares.  Captain Janeway, referring to B'Elanna Torres, said, "I have never regretted my decision to assign her the rank of lieutenant or to make her my Chief Engineer.  She is tough, knowledgeable, and independent, and sometimes seems an echo of myself at her age."  But her mixed heritage has manifested itself in a state of confusion and denial that I hope is not personally insurmountable.  Now that B'Elanna is unable to release her frustrations through fighting the Cardassians, she must learn to accept herself and her conflicting heritage."

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Roxann Dawson, formerly known as Roxann Biggs-Dawson, is Chief Engineer Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager.  She was born on 11 September 1964, in Los Angeles.   "B'Elanna is strong willed, independent, and confused," Roxann says.  "Caught between two worlds, she attempts to deny and suppress her powerful Klingon side."   Roxann, a beautiful and talented actress, was a Theater Arts major at the University of California at Berkeley, who found her first acting job nothing short of remarkable; she landed the role of Diana Morales in the Broadway production, A Chorus Line.   Her theatrical credits performances in numerous plays as a member of the Circle Repertory Company, and in Accelerando at the American Contemporary Theater.  Her off-Broadway experience includes The Tempest, for the Classic Stage Company.   She was a regular in the NBC series Nightingales and The Round Table, and had leading roles in USA Network's movies-of-the-week, Mortal Sins and Dirty Work, the NBC television film, Broken Angel, and the syndicated movie-of-the-week, Pointman.  She has also guest starred in various television series including, The Untouchables, Jack's Place, and Equal Justice.  Roxann also appeared in the feature films, Guilty By Suspicion and Darkman II.   She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, casting director Eric Dawson, and their new daughter, Emma Rose, born on 16 January 1998.

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