#help me tuvok!!!!

[maliciousalice]

Beautiful @baylardo got me a birthday treat!!!!!

[bumblingbabooshka]

St Voyager Crew's Casual Chats: X

[muffinrag]

Tuvok is such a fucking wife guy. "my wife" "i have a wife" you know what i have? an in love with you

[baylardian-1]

i might flesh these out more i might not lol. some of them i felt INSPIRED on and some i didnt. :V also had names in mind for some of them and not for others lol. generally speaking the idea is that the voyager crew and the maquis are like, two groups in conflict. starfleet is a warren, and the maquis are just a bunch of deserter rogue bunnies causing problems who janeway (Haven) is set out to capture. ummmm i figureeeed MAYBE that the caretaker plot would be that a small group from each side gets captured by the "caretaker" and they get transported somewheeeere like a lab or something and then they have to work together to escape and find their home (or make a new one together *winks mysteriously*).

Janeway: Haven - Captain of her warren's Owsla, sent to capture the rogue rabbits, becomes a respected leader for the band of homeless bunnies, and eventually is regarded as their chief rabbit.

Chakotay: Hawk - A big buck that got his name from the other maquis rabbits by fighting off an elil (hawk lol). He has a sick scar from the fight on his head. Serves underneath Haven and comes to respect her and her leadership, keeps everyone in line since she's so little.

Paris: Buttercup - A free spirit, pretty carefree for a buck and it almost always gets him into trouble. Deserted from the warren, deserted from the rogues, just wants to roam and do what he wants. Considered to be rather fast and brave, if reckless; believes he can outrun anything.

Tuvok: Orchid - Orchid's secretly still a part of the warren still but infiltrating the band of rogues, part of the Owsla in their warren, serves under Haven devotedly. Doesn't say much. Haven blathers for the both of them.

Torres: 🤷 - Not a lot of ideas here sadly lol, her design's very filler I just couldn't think of anything to do. :'U Still debating on giving the girlypops hair. Just an angry doe with daddy issues, serves under Hawk, takes a while to warm up to Haven, thinks she could easily take her in a fight.

Doctor: Doc - I figure Doc and Seven would probably be like, lab rabbits that join the band at the Caretaker's establishment or whatever. So Doc comes across as very spoiled and whiney and pampered (And kinda overweight lol BUT LARGE AND NOT MALNOURISHED). Has a weird knack for cleaning wounds given his upbringing.

Seven: Seven - MAYBE a bred Blanc de Hotot. Built different. Doesn't say a lot. HUGE for a doe, similar to Doc. Has a lovehate thing with Doc, they probably were raised around each other, Seven takes to the wild a lot more naturally than he does.

Kim: 🤷 - Just a lil fella! I'm not sure if he'd have been in the Owsla or not prior to adventuring out with Haven and her group. Maybe he's training to join the Owsla. He's just happy to be here. :)

[youngpettyqueen]

ohhhhhh Tuvok is crying about opera singing. is it Pon Fa-

oh and now the Doctor is. singing at him. ok. ok. what is happening here

[table-top-romulan-playing-games]

Rewatching The Search For Spock has made me remember how Star Trek introduced us to the trope of "If I Don't Fuck, I Die" with Pon Farr, and how after Amok Time, not a single other mention of Pon Farr has been remotely Not Gross...

[queerliquidstuff]

i started to watch voyager and what can i tell you.... TUVOK

[clementine-kesh]

my vision for the voyager crew’s response to b7 is that b’elanna and seven start having wild illicit hookups in the jeffries tubes like full on sweaty, disheveled, hands clamped over mouths kind of sex and b’elanna has no idea what to do about it and doesn’t want to talk to anyone about it outright so she sort of hints about it to tom and harry like “what would you do if you were hooking up with your rival” and tom’s like “well it’s not gay if it’s your rival” to which b’elanna’s like “who said anything about it being gay or not” and harry just stares off into the distance thinking about the time he had gay sex with his rival (wesley crusher) at the academy. and like harry could probably help b’elanna out but he’s too caught up thinking about wesley at the moment because like three months ago wesley materialized in his quarters to be like “remember that time you said the theory i proposed for breaking the warp 10 barrier was flawed? well guess what asshole i’m omnipotent now and know all the secrets of the universe and i was right” and harry was like “yeah well we tried that and it turned our pilot into a fucking lizard” and wesley was like “a what” and harry was like “a lizard, dude, i thought you were omnipotent” and wesley just 😐🫥 and disappeared without even offering to use his traveler powers to help voyager out. ok sorry this post got away from me i got distracted imagining stupid gayboy beef. anyways none of this is actually helpful to b’elanna so she goes to chakotay instead and he’s like “don’t worry about it too much that’s completely normal for rivalries, tuvok and i have sex all the time”

[isagrimorie]

People give Janeway guff about not giving Kazon replicators and transporters. Still, it's proven repeatedly that giving one Kazon faction an advantage over the other would be mixing it up in an internal war that would LITERALLY shift the balance of power.

Klingons at least know the technology they have engineers, even as it's becoming a dying breed over Warriors.

TLDR in Alliance Chakotay and Tuvok convinces Janeway that making an alliance with a Kazon faction is the way to go.

And so she does finally concede on this little experiment but with a lot of reservations going in: That once they leave the infighting will go on, and might actually have been worse.

Tuvok naively thinks it might help and bring about a Federation.

B'Elanna then pushes forward Harry's sarcastic comment about forming an alliance with Seska and then at the first sign of this, Chakotay balks.

And then Janeway says something that I feel is her guiding principle in dealing with hard decisions:

Janeway: "You can't have it both ways Commander. If you want to get in the mud with the Kazon you can't start complaining that you might get dirty."

Again, this is what I love about Janeway -- she gets flack for it but when Janeway makes a decision no one else wants to make it.

As I've mentioned in another post in tags: #right or wrong#i admire how janeway is always the one#who goes#the buck stops with me#she makes the hard choices on voyager#especially during debates#when the staff just goes around and around in circles#like in memorial where she starts just in the background#listening to the senior staff debate#from how janeway started in episode 2 of season 1#where she's presented with the horrific#sophie's choice of neelix dying because he has no lungs#and then subjecting another person to the same fate#to the (now boring debate about tuvix)#to this moment#to the moment on the memorial episode#she will take on that burden#and she will always stare at the hardest choice unflinchingly#because someone has to#as the 12th doctor once said#sometimes all your choices are bad ones#but you still have to choose#

In this episode, she allowed herself to be persuaded but she's not sold on it. But she's letting her crew run with it -- okay so we do this, but if we do this, we commit to it. And yet, at the first uncomfortable decisions... there's already balking. This was Janeway testing the waters if any other person on her senior staff could carry water about making the hard choices.

So far the ones who have stepped up were B'Elanna, Tom, and Neelix.

Anyway, I wish there was more fallout on the whole Kazon vs Trabe conflict because that was actually interesting.

But also Voyager had a Doctor Who problem -- if they meddle in the affairs of a spatial politik, they don't know the repercussions of their actions and just look at Living Witness and the reputation Voyager gained simply by doing a bit of a trade deal.

Voyager can help when they can, see: helping Brenari refugees escape the Devore. (Counterpoint).

But they can't and shouldn't really interfere with internal politics. They're not like DS9 where they can stay in one place and fix things permanently. They're just passing through.

This is also why I think she wasn't really considering Tuvok and Chakotay's thing during the Void episode where they raid another ship's resources. (Also, because after Ransom and Equinox, she knows what faltering in the Federation principles can do).

Crucially, she's also known both Chakotay and Tuvok enough that while she loves them -- Janeway knows neither men have the stomach for their proposals.

The Alliance episode was one example of that already.

Janeway, though, if she is pushed to make that commitment and there was absolutely NO way they can prevent raiding others-- Janeway would have committed to that action 110%. This is why I feel Janeway would actually come to a similar conclusion as Sisko in In the Pale Moonlight.

Especially, if she gets daily reports of Starfleet casualties. I have a feeling, there would be less kicking and screaming when Garak finally does his reveal.

Janeway has rules for a reason. She is fastidious about it. For a reason. Because once she commits to an action, it will take both hell and high water to take her off that course.

/edited

[bumblingbabooshka]

This version of T'Pel reminds me of that one Bratz video: X

My current favorite part of the episode-by-episode full-series re-write of Voyager that only exists in my head is having T’Pel on board.

You may recall she talked to Janeway about the mission to pick up Tuvok shortly before they left…. She missed him and was concerned for him….

I know allowing her to come with the ship on the mission isn’t likely behavior for Janeway’s FIRST DAY as Captain BUT

1) I want her there

2) She has almost no characterization, leaving it up to me, and from her checking in right before they leave I have already groundlessly extrapolated an incredibly meddlesome personality that would have no trouble inserting herself in this or any other situation she desires.

The T’Pel in my mind sees no reason not to provide assistance in navigating personal social issues of the people around her. If she has relevant insights surely she must share them.

Unlike most vulcans we know who have a stiff, uncomfortable dignity around personal matters, T’Pel has no such sensitivities. With her vulcan turbo autism power she knows no taboos, no awkwardness, and no limits.

Of course, this started because I desperately desire Tuvok’s participation in the older crew polycule as well as a woman who is not a crew-member onboard who Janeway can have a romance with, but now I am fully enamored with this T’Pel in my mind. She……

[ex--astris--scientia]

C'Thia, Surakian Philosophy, and Vulcan Polytheism

While most would consider Surak to merely be a philosopher and reformer, thereby removing any hint of religion from the discussion and forming instead an idea of both Surak and his philosophy as being, at best, atheistic or agnostic, and at worst, being anti-theistic, I have to strongly disagree with this assessment. Especially when it's used as proof to claim that modern, post-Awakening Vulcans are also at best atheistic or agnostic, and at worst anti-theistic. I believe this comes about due to a commonly held misconception that religion in and of itself is anathema to science, to progress, to intelligence, and therefore, to logic itself. This is, of course, a blatantly false binary and we are shown over and over again in canon that while Vulcans place a great importance on science, education, intellect, and logic, they are also a very spiritual people. Most of the important locations on Vulcan that we see in canon tend to be temples, sacred mountains, or holy ruins. Leaders tend to be high priestesses. Meditation is almost universal for Vulcans, and while it can be argued that it is very much a mental discipline as well, meditation was birthed, and continues to find its roots, in spirituality, and at its heart, is a spiritual discipline. Meditation, after all, was not invented by scientists, but by monks.

In the episode of the Animated Series, "Yesteryear", Spock tells Sarek that he is merely passing through ShiKahr on his way to the family shrine to "honor our gods". This one line proves to me that, at least for Spock, there is no incongruence between his modern Surakian belief and practice of C'thia (commonly this is translated as just "logic" but a more accurate Vulcan translation is "reality-truth") with that of traditional Vulcan polytheistic religious practice. One can assume that this is not, however, unique only to Spock, seeing as shrines require some semi-regular maintenance and he very rarely visits his father's homestead so it is unlikely that Spock alone is the one who maintains them. Sarek also is unsurprised by Spock's actions, which suggests a kind of normalcy to it. One does not get the impression that Spock is doing something rebellious by performing religious rites to Deities.

Likewise, in the Voyager episode, "Hunters", Tuvok receives a letter from his wife. In it, she tells him that she and their children have asked the priests at the Temple of Amonak to say prayers for Tuvok's safe return from the Delta Quadrant. Prayer requires something to which a person prays to and the assumption here is, again, the existence of Vulcan Deities as well as devotional practices targeted toward them existing even until the time of Voyager. While one of the purposes of prayer has to do with the person praying, as in, a benefit to prayer is that it gives the praying person something to do when they may not be able to do much else about a situation, and therefore T'Pel and her and Tuvok's children may be using it as a kind of meditative practice meant to give their grief and worry about Tuvok's safety somewhere to go that may then help them control it, I believe even this would still imply belief in the existence of Deities. One could meditate without the use of prayer involved but that was not the course of action that T'Pel took. She specifically made a trek to a sacred temple with the intention of saying prayers for Tuvok and told him about it, again, just as with Spock and Sarek, showing that there is something normalized about the action. Belief in the Gods and religious practice utilizing them is, therefore, not something performed only in the dark or in secret.

So, Vulcan polytheistic spiritual practice has continued past the Awakening and into the Vulcan Reformation. Is it the same as what it looked like to pre-Reform Vulcans? What's different? I wish we got more glimpses of Vulcan religion beyond mostly backdrop (while we are explicitly shown rituals and ritual locations in episodes like "Amok Time", "the Gambit" and many places in Enterprise, and in movies like "the Motion Picture" and "Search for Spock", very rarely do we see explanations for what the Vulcan lay people and priest(ess)es are doing and why) but that simply means that I instead get to make things up. Which is my favorite thing to do. So while the entirety of this post is built on a core of canon and information from Memory Alpha and Beta, as well as the Vulcan Language Database, most of what follows is my own musings and thoughts.

Firstly, in my research I've established that there seems to be two major pantheons within Vulcan spirituality, the Ka-ta-pak, or Inner Chorus, and the grouping I've named Ek-tam'a-ta, which is where I've placed every other named Deity not belonging to the Inner Chorus. The Inner Chorus, being made up of Deities that seem much more akin to emotional archetypes, become a much more thorny topic to consider when it comes to reconciling the worship, or, at the very least, acknowledgement of these Beings with the rigorous control of emotions that is to be expected within the Surakian cult of C'thia. As such, they are what I plan to focus on here.

The Inner Chorus is made up of the following Deities: Tel-Alep and Alep-Tel, Kir-Alep and Alep-Kir, Valdena and Dena-Vel, Kal-ap-Ton and Tyr-al-Tep, and Ket-Cheleb. Other than the last Deity, each is a part of a pairing where one represents the lighter, more acceptable form of a suite of emotions, whereas the other is the darker, shadow side. It's a concept similar to reading Tarot cards, where a card's reversal typically points to the darker reading of the themes the card communicates when right side up. For example, Valdena is famously the love Goddess and rules over emotions such as joy, beauty, fullness, pleasure, etc, whereas Dena-Vel, her shadow twin, rules over the darker side of love, namely concepts like possessiveness, covetousness, envy, domination, etc. What I would posit as probably one of the fairly radical reforms within Surakian thought, is the idea that C'thia is meant to subjugate and control both sides of what the Inner Chorus represents, not just the shadow side.

Isn't it illogical, however, to worship archetypal manifestations of emotions that one is trying to suppress? This was the big question that came out of my exploration of Vulcan Deities and led me to conclude that there is a difference between how Vulcans interact with Ek-tam'a-ta Deities vs the Ka-ta-pak, wherein the former is treated much more like how one stereotypically interacts with Gods, ie with reverence, worship, offerings, prayers, etc, as well as an understanding of the Deities being Beings outside of the mind in their own rights, while the latter is much more localized and symbolic. The Ka-ta-pak are not so much outward Beings, as they are emotional symbols and touchstones, metaphors to be focused on in meditation rather than as Gods to be worshipped.

Even the name, the Inner Chorus, suggests this kind of community of emotional beings, of aspects of the interior Vulcan mind, and furthermore, points to a need for a harmony amongst them. It is my thought that the Ka-ta-pak are less like sentient beings with personhood and more like the Platonic ideal of the emotion they represent. They are the emotion in its most perfected form and by experiencing this, experiencing the presence of this being, this outward-focused inner spirit, in the relative safety of meditation, the average Vulcan is able to meet that emotion and learn how it manifests within their own body and mind. In this meeting, they are able to name the emotion, learn it, experience it, and understand how to master it so that when they experience it outside of meditation, they need not be conquered by it and brought into chaos but instead are able to hold to order and logic in the face of it.

In the Enterprise episode, "Fusion", we are shown that Vulcans don't typically dream and that meditation has usurped the role that dreaming would usually take in the Vulcan psyche. It follows, therefore, that they process the emotional stimuli of the day through meditation and that symbolism, which is an important language for the sub-conscious and the language that dreams are written in, would probably play a role in that. Thus, the use of the Inner Chorus as a symbol of focus, as the emotional tangle that one seeks, through meditation, to sort out and bring order to, makes sense. I believe that this constitutes some of the work of t'san s'at, or the intellectual deconstruction of emotions that Surak preached. T'san s'at is the study of one's own emotions, and the effects these emotions have over one's actions. The peace and tranquility that lies at the end of t'san s'at is the goal of every Surakian Vulcan, and is a lifelong aspiration. It is through working with the Ka-ta-pak with this goal in mind that brings these ideas together.

Another idea I found interesting about the Ka-ta-pak is that the names of the Deities match the names of the other planets within the Vulcan solar system (according to the Memory Beta article that I believe is based on a Trek inspired ttrpg). A solar system, with its constant routine of stable orbits and cycles, would be an obvious metaphor for the idea of Order. The Inner Chorus strikes me, then, as the microcosm within the Vulcan mind/spirit as connected with the macrocosm of the living universe around them. It is the connection between the Vulcan mental and katric interior space and the exterior physical space. Just as the solar system is in constant harmony, subjugated to the laws of gravity, order, and simply the natural mechanisms of the living universe, one's own interior system should likewise be ordered. That it is called an inner chorus is very telling to me, since when choruses are working correctly, they are making music in harmony, just as the broader cosmos makes the music of the spheres, which is the sound of mathematics purified. It is the goal of every Surakian Vulcan to harmonize their inner chorus (part of which involves meditating on the form of the Inner Chorus) with the music of the macrocosm. In this, I believe the mind, or the reasoning capacity, represents a kind of conductor, who directs the inner chorus of emotions to properly allow for the production of music. The music produced by this harmony is C'thia, which is the same substance that keeps the planets in their orbits and the universe ticking onward.

This post is getting a bit long but there's one last thing I want to talk about and that would be Surak himself. As mentioned earlier, there is a common misconception I've seen that, again, makes Surak some kind of radical atheist philosopher who, in stomping out the violence and ignorance that marked the culture of his planet, must also have gotten rid of its religion, not just superstition or conservativism but religion more generally. Again, this comes more from the mistaken belief that spirituality and science are necessarily at odds. But what we see of Surak doesn't actually support this erroneous belief. Instead, one of the things that Surak is famous for is his pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a religious journey undertaken for religious purposes. Surak set out to visit many religious orders and temples, before traipsing into the wilderness in places like Vulcan's Forge and Mount Seleya, to learn from and connect with the various priest(ess)es, as well as to connect in solitude with his own mind. C'thia is always shown as a revelation. Surak perceives it for the first time and discerns its meaning while on pilgrimage, while in meditation, while studying spiritual truths. He discovers it, not in a laboratory, but in deep contemplation on a mountain peak. Thus, Surak strikes me as much more akin to a Hindu yogi or an enlightened New Age seeker than he does a Richard Dawkins type. He doesn't dismiss the spiritual lessons he learns from visiting the other religious orders but instead incorporates them into his new cult. I think it's this incorporation of c'thia with traditional polytheism within Surak's own spirituality that allows for modern Vulcans to do the same.

In conclusion, anyone who claims that the post-Reform Vulcans shown in canon are atheists have not been paying attention to the actual canon, first of all, and secondly, are doing nothing more than showing their bias toward the science vs religion binary. I think the Vulcans are a little too smart to fall for this dichotomy, and they are certainly aware of the need for a philosophy to be an open one, if it's to be sustainable at all. I think having access to the neverending mystery of space, peopled as it is with many different kinds of beings, has allowed the Vulcans to be open-minded toward religion and the existence of Gods and other numinous beings. After all, they fully accept the existence of katra and thus, souls, spirits, and the idea of beings existing without bodies. It is not an illogical leap to suppose that since animating spirits (ie souls that are housed by and animate a body) exist, other kinds might also, including Deities. And since Vulcans possess a psionic system, capable of the extrasensory perceptions involved in their version(s) of telepathy, they may be able to perceive these spirits telepathically, even when psi-null folks may not be able to.

So, I don't think Vulcan polytheism is relegated to some point in the planet's distant past but instead continues, alive and well, into the post-Awakening world.

[insanewaykathy]

Maybe you haven't noticed this:

Before, when Janeway had an idea for a crazy suicide mission, only Chakotay would object, Tuvok rarely took sides, and when he did, it was much more subtle. One day, Chakotay asked Tuvok to back him up if she wanted to do that kind of thing again (I think it was in the episode NIGHT, or the episode after). Apparently he convinced Tom to help him too, because Tom offers to go with her, and watch when he leaves, the look he gives Chakotay as if to say (count on me to protect your girl). THIS IS ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE! When I say that if it weren't for Chakotay, Janeway would be dead, I'm not kidding! He was an excellent first officer, friend, and husband.

[bumblingbabooshka]

Trans Girl Icheb & The pain of coming out and hearing your elders say "It's too late for me, go on without me, I sincerely hope you're as happy as I could have been. Don't look back, just keep running!" [Patreon | Commissions]

[fate-motif]

VOYAGER CHARACTERS RATED BY HOW LIKELY THEY ARE TO GO TO THERAPY, AND HOW THAT GOES DOWN

harry: don’t be deceived, this doesn’t mean harry would go to therapy willingly. but i am 90% sure at that whatever posting he took after voyager, he was asked to do therapy and he scoffed because he didn’t go through the dominion war, why would he need therapy? but he’s still convinced to do it to go with the flow, you know, make everyone else feel a little less bad for needing therapy. but no matter how he ends up in therapy, that therapist is just shocked by all the shit harry’s telling him, and he can tell harry’s not telling the whole truth, but because he can’t make harry tell him anything he doesn’t want to, especially if it’s about the others’ insane psychological issues, that therapist needs to start getting therapy themselves. i’m half convinced this was migleemo and this is how he ended up on the cerritos.

chakotay: he’s perfectly well aware that he needs therapy, but he puts it off successfully for a long time by justifying that with so many dominion war veterans, he does not want to take away their more urgent care when he’s relatively well off in terms of functioning. of course, he’s hiding the trainwreck of a personal relationship he had with seven, and by the time he takes the protostar posting he’s like, okay, alright, i’ll take a therapist with me on the protostar, this is going to help. and then he vanishes. and the therapist probably dies. rip.

tuvok: tuvok’s first inclination is to look for a psychiatrist, not a therapist. he can compartimentalize his trauma so much easier if he just points to any kind of damage he might have incurred between all those mind melds and head trauma in between missions. this lets him look a lot saner than most of the voyager crew who refuse to see any kind of professional but eventually t’pel outs her foot down and confronts him with the fact that his time on voyager has had a lasting impact on his rationality and control and he Requires assistance in addressing it. even then it’s most likely some kind of spiritual guidance, which is pretty close to therapy for vulcans considering their spirituality revolves around psychological control and all that, but he still dodges the needing therapy allegations publicly like a pro.

the emh: he recognizes that he needs therapy, would most likely want it, but he doesn't last more than a couple of weeks with anyone he tries because he thinks they're too dismissive of his issues because he's a hologram, so he tries to pour out his issues into trying to defend the right to mental healthcare for holograms while avoiding any kind of therapy himself because he doesn't want to go through all of that again.

seven: the federation has universal healthcare so therapy is available to seven, but she still refuses mental health care services when she realizes what the attitude towards xBs is in the federation. the closest she ever came was considering couples therapy when she was still with chakotay but that was a passing consideration and it was the prelude to her breaking away from the federation entirely after she broke up with chakotay. if she has received any kind of therapy afterwards it’s unlicensed, highly questionable, and probably self-managed which really shouldn’t have been the case. 

tom: he’s fully well aware he needs therapy, but he refuses to on the principle that he knows the therapists are going to blame his issues on voyager when clearly it all started with his dad and his unfair expectations of him and — but he does end up going to therapy specifically as couples therapy when his relationship with b’elanna was beginning to fall apart. the therapist recommends they both go individually for their own issues and they reject that vehemently. they probably continue to attend just for the insane task that is co-parenting miral between the two of them and they continuously rotate their therapist when they start getting into voyager a little too much.

b’elanna: it’s a miracle tom even got her to couples therapy at all. in the meantime, she’s mostly journaled, read books about therapy, done everything in her power to prove to everyone that she has her own mental health in her own hands and she’s doing great, but she can’t engineer her way out of depression since the age of 6 so you know. it would take a huge crisis for her to finally end up caving to suggestions that she go to therapy.

janeway: everyone who’s worked with her since voyager is telling their therapist about janeway and the way she is. no one directly asks her to go to therapy and the few people that do get shut down because clearly she’s keeping everything together, right? but the psychology academics’ circle of the federation and probably beyond know that they need to be ready for the day kathryn janeway gets therapy. they’ve been talking amongst themselves about who’s going to do it, who’s ready for it, how the dsm is going to have like 42 new mental illnesses at the end of it all and how they’re going to divide the work when they all start working on the scientific papers that make their careers based on how this woman’s brain works.

[trillscienceofficer]

from Star Trek Monthly, March 1997

From Make-Up to Director's chair: lan Spelling meets the woman behind the Klingon forehead and finds out what's in store for the feisty B'Elanna Torres aboard the U.S.S. Voyager

“I'm sort of calculating the number of hours of my life that I've spent sitting right here, in this chair,” says Roxann Dawson with a laugh that rings simultaneously of amusement and resignation. Here, this chair, is in a make-up trailer on the Paramount Pictures studio lot, just a stone's throw from the sound stages and sets of Star Trek: Voyager. It is here that Dawson's daily transformation from pretty and petite actress into formidable half-Klingon/half-Human begins and ends. Truth be told, Dawson would probably need a calculator to figure out just how many hours she has actually spent in the chair.

As a make-up man alternately dabs at her face with a cotton swab and uses a blow dryer to set the make-up in place, Dawson chats away amiably about things past and to come on ST:VOY. “Several years have gone by already, haven't they?” she asks. “You know, it doesn't feel that way at all, to me, at least. Our first season was very short. We didn't do a full year of shows. The second season flew by. And right now, we're only part of the way through the third season. So, to me, it's still sort of new. Although I feel I know B'Elanna much better than I did at the very beginning, the whole idea of the show is still fresh for me. It's all still new. I like feeling that way. It means that I'm still challenged and interested in what we're doing on the show, in what I'm getting to do as this character.

“I love B'Elanna as a character. She's different from any Klingon we've ever really seen on a Star Trek series before. Being half-Human and half-Klingon gives her a lot of dimension. I think she's developing quite nicely, that the writers are constantly finding different layers of her to explore. I sometimes feel they're reading my mind, that they're doing the kinds of things that I'd imagined for her. They're exploring not just her tough and strong sides, but her feminine side, her vulnerable side. We've seen a bit of humour here and there, too, and I think we're going to see her romantic side. They are allowing me to stretch in a lot of ways, which is a real pleasure for me as an actor to be able to try.”

B'Elanna, of course, has figured prominently in a number of major episodes over the last two seasons, perhaps most notably Persistence of Vision, Prototype, Dreadnought, The Thaw, The Swarm, Remember and Blood Fever. Throughout these shows, viewers have seen B'Elanna seduced by Chakotay (Robert Beltran), witnessed her battle robots, deal with a computer that spoke with her voice, come face-to-face with an evil clown, develop a new respect for the Doctor (Robert Picardo) while trying to help him recover his damaged programming, and handle the implications of terrifying dreams. Blood Fever, perhaps the best of all the so-called B'Elanna episodes, finds the chief engineer not only experiencing the Klingon version of heat, but delving deeper into a relationship with shipmate Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill).

Dawson reports that she is pleased with the development thus far of B'Elanna's relationships with the other characters aboard the U.S.S. Voyager. She considers B'Elanna's bonds with Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and Chakotay quite close. She thinks there have been a handful of nice moments for B'Elanna with Kim (Garrett Wang), Tuvok (Tim Russ), the Doctor and Neelix (Ethan Phillips). She's hopeful that the writers will eventually get around to giving B'Elanna more interaction with Kes (Jennifer Lien). But it's the relationship with Paris that has Dawson—who dropped her maiden name [sic, it wasn't actually her maiden name], the Biggs part of Biggs-Dawson, from her professional name just before the third season of ST:VOY commenced—most intrigued at the moment. “I really like the way that they're developing it. I'm actually here at the studio today because we're tacking an extra scene onto Alter Ego,” she explains of the episode in which Tuvok and Kim both find themselves attracted to a holodeck-generated woman (Sandra Nelson), who turns out to be a lonely alien that infiltrated the ship's computer system. “When they put the show together (in the editing room), they realised it came in about a minute short. So Robbie and I and Bob (Picardo, who is directing the episode) are back here shooting a short scene in which Paris sort of compliments B'Elanna as they're walking down a corridor. It will help set the stage for what happens in Blood Fever, which was definitely one of my most interesting episodes.

“B'Elanna goes through a lot in that show, and you get to see a few sides of her that we either hadn't seen at all before or that wed only hinted at in earlier shows. As far as Paris goes, what the writers are doing, which I really like, is they're exploring the process of the relationship rather than trying to define it right away. Is it going to be a love interest situation? Will B'Elanna and Paris wind up just being friends? The answer is I really don't know. There are so many ways we can go with it and I love that I don't know for sure where it's going to go. Hopefully, that will continue. I'll get a script and say, ‘Oh, we're going to do THAT!?’ As an actress, I like that element of surprise, and I think our fans will too. At least, I hope they will.”

Throughout her days on ST:VOY, Dawson has been put through her paces by a number of actors-turned-directors. Star Trek: The Next Generation veterans Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton have helmed episodes, as have co-stars McNeill and Picardo, Tim Russ is gearing up to direct an episode next season and, guess what? So is Dawson. Smiling broadly, the actress explains that she has “always” wanted to direct and that she had previously called the shots on a few stage shows. She's smiling so much, in fact, that her make-up man grimaces. “I'm sorry,” she says to him softly and apologetically. “I know. No smiling or laughing.” She glances at her interviewer and explains. “If I smile or laugh it makes the make-up crinkle if it's not dry yet.”

To prepare for her stint behind the Star Trek: Voyager camera, Dawson is in the show's training programme, watching other directors at work and picking their brains for advice and suggestions whenever she can. If she's really going to do it, she wants to do it well. “I'm so excited and so frightened, and I want to be perfect, I think,” she says. “I respect people that do it well so much. I respect the art of directing, and it really is an art. I want to make sure that I feel I'm ready to handle it. Hopefully, the producers will feel at some point soon that I am ready and perhaps it will happen. I'm looking forward to that day. I really am. It'll probably happen next year. I guess my ultimate goal as a director will really be to bring to life whatever script they hand me.”

Clearly, Dawson seems content with her life in the Star Trek Universe, although she's looking forward to outside projects—the actress recently starred in a short film called Seeing Through Walls, playing a scientist who implants a knowledge chip into a prisoner's brain. The film will air on the US public broadcasting system sometime in 1997.

Dawson sounds ready for another couple of years spent aboard the U.S.S. Voyager. “Oh yeah, definitely,” she says, fighting a smile. “If they keep me on my toes as much as they have been, why would I want to leave? It's always been a pleasure to have a character to hold onto, to create over a period of time, to keep exploring the different facets of.

“I'm having so much fun with this character. Also, I love the people around here, the other actors, the producers, our crew. It's a great group. So, I'm just having a ball.”

[curator-on-ao3]

Again, cool response to the last question, so I'll let you pick from these options:

And there are things I have fan-fixed in my head to the point that I have to remind myself that the fix-it isn’t part of the actual canon: favourite one of these?

Or

Your/a favourite part of actual canon. Like, maybe something little but it's just so lovely and fitting to you and you're just happy that it exists?

I’ve been a little down on Trek lately, so I’m going to type as fast as I can to brain-dump, in show order, the first things that pop into my mind that I absolutely love in Trek canon:

Kirk calling Nomad his son, the doctor

Christine Chapel’s snark to Roger Korby about schtupping the androids

Mark Leonard’s performance in Balance of Terror

the Horta (a great mama)

“Edith Keeler must die.”

Captain John Christopher, United States Air Force. Serial number 4857932.

Tribbles

the lesson of The Cloud Minders that we must have empathy and listen to others when they tell us about their lived experience in an environment unlike our own

the cheap-ass animation of TAS

Q

Bynars and Minuet

Beverly Crusher’s frustration in Arsenal of Freedom (and the episode’s Good Ship Lollipop joke)

Picard shooting the other version of himself in Time Squared (to clarify: out of respect for those times when we have to stop ourselves from getting caught in loops/doing stupid stuff and we summon up the courage to break a bad cycle and move forward)

K'Ehleyr

Picard out-lawyering the Sheliak

Rachel Garrett; Yar and Castillo

Lal (but I can’t watch the end anymore, it hurts too much)

the Shakespeare and “Set a course for Betazed. Warp 9.” comedy in Ménage a Troi

Best of Both Worlds, I and II (Shelby inclusive)

every conference table discussion in all of TNG

Beverly’s jump in Remember Me (such a damn good episode)

the reveal in Future Imperfect (which one? all of them)

The Dancing Doctor tap dancing with Data

Darmok. And Jalad. At Tenagra.

Ro Laren

Troi saying, “You could have easily been right” to Ro in Disaster

Hugh, Third of Five

the fact that The Next Phase has so many plotholes and they’re forgivable because the episode is so fun and great

Scotty on the holodeck version of the TOS bridge and Picard joining him

Rascals!

Deanna’s “Ancient West” outfit

the Jefferies tube music and make out session in Lessons

Attached. Oh, my heart.

the Enterprise with three nacelles … and that absolutely perfect last shot of the series

“You exist here.”

Sisko’s casual, everyday affection for Jake

“Old Man”

Rejoined. Lenara Khan. The love. That kiss. The emotional stakes. All of it.

the three Ferengi hitting their own heads to try to fix their universal translators so the 20th century Earth military people mimic the movement to try to communicate

every second of Trials and Tribble-ations including Sisko working overtime to stop fuckmaster Dax, tossing the tribbles, Sisko meeting Kirk, “We do not discuss it with outsiders,” and so much more

Kira blaming Bashir for putting the baby inside her when … you know … behind the scenes

The Sons of Mogh helping with the harvest in Children of Time

Far Beyond the Stars — some of the best if not the best science fiction I have ever seen

the monster fakeout (and kindness) in The Sound of Her Voice, even though the end makes me cry

“Computer, erase that entire personal log.”

Solok

Sisko and Kassidy discussing their comfort levels about a simulation in which the reality was segregation

Janeway waterfalling off the sofa to be closer to Mark on the screen

“Warp particles!”

the lizard babies

the two Janeways in Deadlock

Remember (a painfully good Holocaust episode that doesn’t get enough credit and, yes, I know the path the script took and I’m glad it ended up as a B’Elanna episode)

“I don't know what I'm seeking.” “Then I believe you are ready to begin.”

“The child you spoke of, the girl. Her favorite color was red.” Also, Tuvok’s meditation lamp in the window for Kes.

hot damn, Counterpoint, yaaas

everything in Relativity

“The Yankees, in six games.”

Janeway going after Seven in The Voyager Conspiracy

“This is Lieutenant Reginald Barclay at Starfleet Command.” “It's good to hear your voice, Lieutenant. We've been waiting a long time for this moment.” “The feeling is mutual. Unfortunately, the micro-wormhole is collapsing. We have only a few moments.” “Understood. We are transmitting our ship's logs, crew reports, and navigational records to you now.” “Acknowledged. And we're sending you data on some new hyper-subspace technology. We're hoping eventually to use it to keep in regular contact, and we're including some recommended modifications for your comm system.” “We'll implement them as soon as possible.” “There's someone else here who would also like to say something.” “This is Admiral Paris.” “Hello, sir.” “How are your people holding up?” “Very well. They're an exemplary crew, your son included.” “Tell him, tell him I miss him. And I'm proud of him.” “He heard you, Admiral.” “The wormhole is collapsing.” “I want you all to know we're doing everything we can to bring you home.” “We appreciate it, sir. Keep a docking bay open for us.”

“Nice hair.” (Live Fast and Prosper)

Janeway and Jaffen in Workforce

the spot-on legal concerns of Author, Author

“Set a course. For home.”

(Nothing from Enterprise or Prodigy only because I haven’t watched enough of Enterprise or any of Prodigy)

Burnham and Georgiou forming the delta with their footsteps

the CGI on only the shields protecting Burnham from space

“Are we in session? Because I didn't know you were practicing again. Because if I have your undivided attention for fifty minutes, I can think of a whole bunch of other things we could be doing.”

“That's as depressing a trait as I've ever heard.” “I don't give a damn … I still don't give a damn.”

Cornwell beaming in, phaser aimed, taking command of Discovery

Cornwell phasering the fortune cookies

Cornwell’s voice breaking: “So my Gabriel is dead.”

Detmer’s little bounce when Emperor-as-Captain Georgiou takes command

Pike beaming aboard and instantly being all like MOJAVE to prove to the audience he’s the guy from The Cage

New Eden. Everything. Oh my God (pun intended). The visuals. Owo’s backstory. Pollard patching Pike up after he’s shot. The light at the end. Oh my God, yes. That episode. Yes.

Number freaking One beaming aboard and having her lunch briefing with Pike (Chris and Una’s decades-long friendship wasn’t canon yet, but it shows here so beautifully)

Gabrielle Burnham

“In case the shit hit the fan.”

Michael Burnham on truth serum

Book

Laira Rillak, everyone!

Q&A

season 1 Raffi Musiker

Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief Kirsten Clancy

“You owe me a ship, Picard.”

“You need a feather in your hat.”

Riker greeting Picard

Hugh greeting Picard

the separate trio of Raffi, Clancy, and Deanna all telling Picard he’s shit

Rios singing in Spanish

President Annika Hansen

everybody finding each other in the Confederation Universe

Liam Shaw — a character with incredible highs and lows

Majel Barrett as the computer voice when the crew gets to the Enterprise D

“Somehow I figured you might.”

everything in Ghosts of Illyria

Spock and La’an’s mind meld

Spock and T’Pring in Spock Amok

“You cannot resign. The loss to Enterprise would be unimaginable. To me.”

“If you’re going to steal a starship, do it correctly.”

Neera Ketoul

La’an normalizing needing to eat all the time as a teenager (especially important for girls to hear)

Pike and Una visually checking in with each other so often that it’s in their cartoon versions (that whole episode, actually, including, “Riker!”)

That’s scrolling through episode titles and jotting down stuff I love off the top of my head, fam.✨

Thank you so much for this ask, anon! ❤️ I needed this positive energy in my life.