Editing B'Elanna Torres (section)

==Character overview==
{{In-universe|subject=Star Trek|category=Star Trek|date=July 2010}}
B'Elanna was born in 2346 on the Federation colony Kessik IV. Torres had a troubled childhood; her human father, John Torres, and [[Klingon]] mother, Miral, often fought. At the age of 5, she overheard her father expressing his unhappiness in the home of two [[Klingon]]s and she would attempt to run away. In a later confrontation with him, she bitterly told him to leave. John Torres left when B’Elanna was twelve years old.   He returned to [[Earth in fiction#Star Trek|Earth]] days later, leaving her to be raised by her mother. In season 7, he contacted her through Starfleet Command and asked to resume a relationship to which she agreed.

Being both Human and Klingon, Torres is shown as prone to aggressive outbursts. She once attacked her schoolmate Daniel Byrd after he repeatedly taunted her, calling her "Miss Turtlehead" due to her cranial ridges. Torres retained this aggressive behavior throughout her life, but she eventually learned to control it.

===Starfleet Academy and Maquis===
While attending Starfleet Academy, B'Elanna was constantly having trouble with the Starfleet's rules. This resulted in her getting four disciplinary hearings and one suspension. Torres dropped out of [[Starfleet Academy]] in 2365 at age 19. Before doing so, Torres was a valued member of the academy [[Sport of athletics|athletics]] team, competing as a [[Decathlon|decathlete]]. Her decision to leave the academy upset the track and field coach, as well as other professors.

A few years later she became a member of the [[Maquis (Star Trek)|Maquis]] renegade group and began developing a profound hatred of the [[Cardassian]]s. Torres became associated with a Maquis captain named [[Chakotay]] and was serving as chief engineer on his ship, the ''Val Jean'', when they were brought to the [[Galactic quadrants (Star Trek)#Delta Quadrant|Delta Quadrant]] by "The Caretaker".

During her time with the Maquis, Torres reprogrammed a Cardassian [[missile]] known as "[[Dreadnought (Star Trek: Voyager)|Dreadnought]]". The missile, built with [[artificial intelligence]], was originally targeted at Maquis installations. Torres reprogrammed it on a course for a Cardassian installation, but "Dreadnought" was swept into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker.

===USS ''Voyager''===
When the crews of the [[USS Voyager (Star Trek)|USS ''Voyager'']] and the ''Val Jean'' were taken to the Delta Quadrant, [[Harry Kim (Star Trek)|Harry Kim]] and Torres were transported to the [[Kes (Star Trek)|Ocampa]] home world while their respective crews set out to look for them. Being the only two people from their region of the Alpha Quadrant, the two quickly formed a relationship and she nicknamed him "Starfleet" for his faith in the [[United Federation of Planets|Federation]] and Starfleet. This relationship would carry on throughout the series as the two would more than occasionally work on tasks together, allowing Kim to prove his intelligence to the whole crew.

In 2371, B'Elanna Torres joined the ''Voyager'' crew with the rest of the Maquis from the ''Val Jean'', as Captain [[Kathryn Janeway]] offers them the opportunity. She was placed in the engineering department. As the original chief engineer was killed during the trip to the Delta Quadrant, Captain Janeway promoted Torres to the position based on Chakotay's recommendation. Initially, Torres was very outspoken in her disapproval of Captain Janeway's decision to destroy the Caretaker's array, which had the ability to send the ''Voyager'' back home from the Delta Quadrant, and carried a small grudge against the captain. Over the first few months, Torres began respecting the captain and her decisions based on Janeway's strong leadership and their shared interest in science.

Shortly after becoming chief engineer, Torres disobeys the captain's orders when ''Voyager'' encounters a race known as the Sikarians. The Sikarians have advanced [[transporter (Star Trek)|transporter]] [[technology]] that could drastically shorten their 70-year journey, but Sikarian law prohibits the ''Voyager'' crew from obtaining it legitimately. Torres becomes involved with a small group of officers who obtain the technology on the Sikarian [[black market]] and perpetrate a failed attempt to integrate it into ''Voyager'''s systems.

Torres, along with [[Tom Paris]], was later kidnapped by the [[Vidiian]]s. A Vidiian scientist extracts the Klingon [[DNA]] from Torres, splicing her into two separate people: one human, one Klingon. He believed the Klingon DNA had a specific biochemical property that could lead to a cure for the [[Phage (Star Trek: Voyager)#Plot|Phage]], a [[disease]] affecting his people. The human Torres is portrayed fraught with fear but having strong technical expertise, while the Klingon Torres is shown as aggressive and impatient. After her escape from the Vidiians the Klingon Torres suffered a fatal wound from the Vidiian energy weapon and died, but the [[Doctor (Star Trek: Voyager)|Doctor]] used her DNA to restore the human Torres to her original half-human/half-Klingon state, as her cellular structure needs the Klingon DNA to survive.

In the episode "[[Persistence of Vision (Star Trek: Voyager)|Persistence of Vision]]," it is revealed that Torres at the time had a romantic interest in Chakotay.

In 2373, Torres was the target of [[Telepathy (Star Trek)|telepathically]] inspired dreams from a member of a race called the Enarans. The dreams were actually memories of a great [[wiktionary:massacre|massacre]] that took place on the Enaran [[homeworld]] and were the elder Enaran's method of making sure that the [[memory]] of this massacre lives on, even if in the mind of an [[Extraterrestrial life in popular culture|alien]].

Later that year, [[Vulcan (Star Trek)|Vulcan]] engineer [[Vorik]] triggered Torres's  mating instincts when he forcibly initiated a telepathic bond with her while he is experiencing the ''[[pon farr]]''. Torres and Tom Paris later became trapped on a planet together during an [[Star Trek: Away Team#Overview|away mission]], and Torres attempted to get Paris to mate with her, but he resisted. Eventually, [[Vorik]] and Torres engaged in ritual battle to purge the blood fever.

Torres later began a relationship with Paris after a complicated and stormy courtship. During an incident in 2374, Torres confessed her love to him when they were left floating in space in environmental suits, with almost no hope of rescue ("[[Day of Honor (Star Trek: Voyager)|Day of Honor]]"). Although ''Voyager'' was soon able to rescue them, Torres realized that her courage in admitting her love had brought her one step closer to discovering what she considered true honor. Their relationship first flourished on screen during "[[Scientific Method (Star Trek: Voyager)|Scientific Method]]". They married in 2377 and their [[honeymoon]] was aboard the ''[[Delta Flyer]].''

When Torres and Paris conceived their daughter, Miral, in 2377, she learned from [[Doctor (Star Trek: Voyager)|the Doctor]] that the child would have distinct Klingon cranial ridges as well as other Klingon traits. Torres, remembering painful events from her own childhood, urged the Doctor to perform [[gene therapy]] to reduce this [[phenotype]], and even went so far as to reprogram him to do so. Paris and Captain Janeway both disagreed and prevented the Doctor from performing the genetic modifications. When Paris got her to open up, she admitted that she was afraid her husband would find living with two Klingons too difficult and leave her the way her father did. Once he allayed her fears, he admitted wanting even more children just like their mother, and Torres was finally enjoy the pregnancy ("[[Lineage (Star Trek: Voyager)|Lineage]]").

When a group of Klingon radicals spent time aboard ''Voyager'' ("[[Prophecy (Star Trek: Voyager)|Prophecy]]"), Torres began opening herself to more Klingon beliefs and, for the first time since childhood, was able to pray for her grandmother, L'Naal, and her great-grandmother, Krelik. When communications with Earth became available ("[[Author, Author (Star Trek: Voyager)|Author, Author]]"), she reached out to her estranged father, John Torres.

Miral Paris, named after B'Elanna's mother, was born at the beginning of 2378, during ''Voyager''{{'}}s trip through a [[Borg (Star Trek)|Borg]] transwarp conduit back to the [[Galactic quadrants (Star Trek)#Alpha Quadrant|Alpha Quadrant]]. In an [[Alternate history (fiction)|alternate timeline]] where ''Voyager'' made it home by different means, Miral was shown as an adult serving in [[Starfleet]], with the rank of [[Ensign (Star Trek)|ensign]].