Star Trek: Voyager’s chief engineer comes down to Earth for an adventure on the high seas

In her role as ex-Maquis rebel and half-human, half-Klingon Lieutenant B’Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager, Roxann Dawson has spent the past five years following Captain Kathryn Janeway’s orders while learning how to conduct herself as a Starfleet officer.

A New Task

Back in October, the actress had the chance to sit in the captain’s chair when guest-starring as United States Navy officer Commander Keagle on UPN’s popular Time travel series Seven Days. According to her, cruising the waters off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia was a bumpy but welcome respite from warping through the Delta Quadrant.

“I’m used to working on a soundstage where everything is calm – there is no weather in Space – and suddenly I was out on a naval vessel in the middle of a storm,” says Dawson. “So that took some getting used to, but I still enjoyed myself. It was nice not having to wear the Klingon make-up that I do on Voyager. That allowed me a great deal of creative freedom that I haven’t felt in a while as an actress.

“Besides the make-up, Keagle is quite unlike B’Elanna in that she comes from a different background and has her own life and set of goals. Yes, she’s a military officer and the only female on an all-male ship, so I suppose some of the job-related challenges she faces might be similar to those B’Elanna experiences on Voyager. However, I still feel that there are more differences than similarities between them and that’s part of what made Keagle so refreshing to play.”

In the second-season Seven Days episode Saving the Admiral, Frank Parker (Jonathan LaPaglia) is reunited with his old flame Commander Keagle during a Back-Step mission in which he must undo the misguided handiwork of a psychotic Joint Chief of Staff who is aboard her ship. “The story is written in such a way that the relationship between Keagle and Parker is hinted at but not actually spelt out in any great detail,” notes Dawson.

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