158 – Lineage

Grade: A

Summary

B’Elanna is unusually happy today, and nobody seems to know why. However, she makes her way over to engineering and nearly collapses there. Icheb scans her and finds an alien parasite. Seven scans her and finds out she’s pregnant.

Even though B’Elanna and Tom want to keep it a secret, it’s not very long before everyone on the ship knows and they’re all congratulating them. However, B’Elanna is not thrilled that her daughter will look like a Klingon.

Commentary

I loved this episode. It was full of great character moments, and if you’ve read a few of my reviews, you’ll know by now that I prefer stories that have character-defining scenes. By now in the series, it’s obvious to anyone watching this that B’Elanna is embarrassed of her Klingon heritage. She does exhibit many stereotypical Klingon traits, but she really isn’t interested in Klingon culture or history. So it wasn’t a surprise to me at all that she would be disappointed that her daughter would look like a Klingon.

That part of the story was predictable. It was probably also predictable how she decides to deal with it. But what makes this such a great story is what happens next. B’Elanna’s concerns start from a place much deeper than just her daughter’s outward appearance. Deep down in her heart of hearts, B’Elanna seems to believe that what happened to her mother is also going to happen to her. I was surprised by this – I didn’t see it coming, but it’s something that I definitely could understand.

This is a very personal story, and it’s one that really solidifies and defines the Paris/Torres relationship. I don’t think they could have made this story work earlier in the series, because we needed some character depth before we could have this story. And yet, it’s one of the things that makes the Paris/Torres relationship so much stronger and realistic than most other relationships in Star Trek.

Voyager has had few really great episodes. I consider this to be one of them – maybe even the best.

Of Note

I really couldn’t believe it when the Doctor says “genetic modification” is the preferred treatment for a spinal problem. On DS9, Doctor Bashir’s genetic modifications were a huge scandal. Has the Federation changed its mind, or are Voyager’s writers uninformed?