B'Elanna as a full Klingon

[donners22]

I've just watched Faces (slowly working through the Borg Cube set), and was rather taken aback by Dawson's performance of B'Elanna as a full Klingon.

It was a cringe-worthy, painfully stilted performance for the most part, with dialogue sounding like a...bad...SHATNER...TAKE...off. Yet when she breaks free and faces her human side, the dialogue from the Klingon is delivered at a normal rate, with a bit of extra force - a much better effort.

Now, did the director finally realise that the original performance wasn't working (after it was too late to re-shoot it), or did those scenes with both B'Elannas feature a different actress for the Klingon?

 

[Guy Gardener]

I found it hilarious when she took 5 minutes to describe how good a lay she is inbetween the hyperventilating.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Guy Gardener said:
I found it hilarious when she took 5 minutes to describe how good a lay she is inbetween the hyperventilating.

Yeah, we which half was B'Elanna's slutty side.

Of course, had it been up to me, I'd have killed off one of the B'elannas and kept the other as pure human or pure Klingon. But WE MUST HAVE A RESET BUTTON.

 

[Anwar]

If you did that, the casual viewer who had seen one ep with her as a halfbreed, missed this one ep and then tuned in later to see her as either one or the other would have no idea what happened.

 

[Smiley]

Anwar said:
If you did that, the casual viewer who had seen one ep with her as a halfbreed, missed this one ep and then tuned in later to see her as either one or the other would have no idea what happened.

That's okay. If you missed "Future's End," then you would have no idea where Doc got his mobile emitter from.

 

[Anwar]

But Future's End was a big hyped up 2-parter, not some small insignificant episode like "Faces".

It's like Farscape and the 2 John Crichtons, they never hyped that episode or anything. They just did it and moved on. Cool move but it would never work on a show that UPN was trying to use to draw in casual viewers.

 

[Lady Conqueror]

donners22 said:
Now, did the director finally realise that the original performance wasn't working (after it was too late to re-shoot it), or did those scenes with both B'Elannas feature a different actress for the Klingon?

I think it was supposed to be stilted to show she was suffering from the Phage while her body fought it off. once she got her strength back then she managed to escape and was fine so back to speaking normally.

 

[Ezri]

What did they do with the body of B'Elannas full Klingon after her death. The doctor said he had to remove something from her body. That is all that I recall

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Ezri said:
What did they do with the body of B'Elannas full Klingon after her death.

Neelix made a big pot of chili con klingon for the crew.

"Meat's meat, the crew's gotta eat!"

 

[Ezri]

MeanJoePhaser said:

Ezri said:
What did they do with the body of B'Elannas full Klingon after her death.

Neelix made a big pot of chili con klingon for the crew.

"Meat's meat, the crew's gotta eat!"

B'Elanna had a big meal ...

 

[DumbDumb2007]

would hav worked. as a half klingon the character was a waste.

 

[Red Ranger]

MeanJoePhaser said:

Ezri said:
What did they do with the body of B'Elannas full Klingon after her death.

Neelix made a big pot of chili con klingon for the crew.

"Meat's meat, the crew's gotta eat!"

D'oh! Shades of Sweeney Todd! And Neelix as Mrs. Lovett! Yikes!

I actually just saw the ep last night on YouTube -- have my own posting about the ep, actually -- but I do think it would have been interesting if (a) it was only the fully Klingon B'Elanna who survived, or if (b) (highly unlikely to happen) both halves survived.

If it were the fully Klingon B'Elanna who lived, would she have accepted the human DNA to revert her to her hybrid status? Or would she have rejected it as her "weak" side? I wonder!

Red Ranger

 

[Ezri]

Having the same woman play her own twin on the show would be a cheap way to add a second character. Anyway, what ever hapen to those twin sisters that Tom was dating at the same time ... oh ya ... they were dropped. Having a woman play both characters as twins is lame. It has been done, it was lame, it was a bad memory.

 

[Kegek]

^
It's a pretty cool idea. I always wanted one of the doubles the show often gave us to actually stick around for a while and see what happens to th dynamic as a result;

Spoiler: [i

Farscape[/i] S3]Which is exactly what Farscape did with its twin Crichtons.

 

[Red Ranger]

Kegek said:
^
It's a pretty cool idea. I always wanted one of the doubles the show often gave us to actually stick around for a while and see what happens to th dynamic as a result;

Spoiler: [i

Farscape[/i] S3]Which is exactly what Farscape did with its twin Crichtons.

A bit off-topic, but that was one of the things I loved about "Farscape". They often took story cliches -- like the one-ep doubles plot -- and turned it on its ears. Too bad VOY didn't try that! -- RR

 

[Kegek]

^
Absolutely.

Now, to merge this conversation with the others, I think Anwar is partly right, that the two halves are parts of a whole. But it's human Torres, not Klingon Torres, who we're to empathise with when they're having conversations, and we get the sense that human Torres is the whole Torres as a whole identifies with more - she does try to ignore and suppress her Klingon heritage, only letting it through with her characteristic anger, as the episode itself notes. That's part of the reason that human Torres seems more like Torres normally.

 

[stj]

A shrimp like Dawson would be at the bottom of the Klingon pecking order. About all she could do in the warrior society was show enthusiasm for rough sex. So it makes perfect sense that Torres would reject her Klingon heritage, no matter what Paris says.

The human half being the smart, sensitive one while the Klingon half was the strong, sexy one was awfully close to rather crude racial stereotypes. If you saw the episode where she wants a blond blue eyed child that impression would be even stronger I think.

Of course, what they should have done was have both human and Klingon Torres die, while the only real Torres was in stasis the whole time. Instant adult semiclones would have been tough to swallow but it's still easier than splitting one person into two!

 

[Red Ranger]

stj said:

The human half being the smart, sensitive one while the Klingon half was the strong, sexy one was awfully close to rather crude racial stereotypes. If you saw the episode where she wants a blond blue eyed child that impression would be even stronger I think.

Of course, what they should have done was have both human and Klingon Torres die, while the only real Torres was in stasis the whole time. Instant adult semiclones would have been tough to swallow but it's still easier than splitting one person into two!

Stj,

Hmm, an interesting notion. I think you may have hit on something I once read about the Riker TNG ep, "A Matter of Honor," where one of the producers compared Riker interacting with the Klingons to the culture shock some white people who've never interacted with a group of black people feel when thrust into a situation where he/she is the only white person around.

As for your idea of two clones created from the real B'Elanna, that would be quite a scientific feat. But it would kind of defeat the purpose of having one survive having gone through the experience.

Red Ranger

 

[Kieran]

donners22 said:

It was a cringe-worthy, painfully stilted performance for the most part, with dialogue sounding like a...bad...SHATNER...TAKE...off. Yet when she breaks free and faces her human side, the dialogue from the Klingon is delivered at a normal rate, with a bit of extra force - a much better effort.

Yes... I...Found...Dawson/Torres...Performance...Stilted.

However, Kate Mulgrew's performance as "Janeway" was "over-acted" as well during the first half of season 1. Over time, Voyager became my favorite version of Trek after TOS and TNG.

 

[AlxxlA]

I thought she sounded like that because she was struggling against the restraints while she was talking.