Barge of the Dead (6 Oct. 1999)

When her shuttle crosses paths with an ion storm, B'Elanna Torres is severely injured and slips into a coma. She envisions Klingons killing her crew mates and her, and then finds herself on... See full summary »

Director:

Michael Vejar

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman (creator),

Stars:

Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Kate Mulgrew	...	Captain Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran	...	Chakotay
Roxann Dawson	...	B'Elanna Torres
Robert Duncan McNeill	...	Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips	...	Neelix
Robert Picardo	...	The Doctor
Tim Russ	...	Tuvok
Jeri Ryan	...	Seven of Nine
Garrett Wang	...	Harry Kim
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sherman Augustus	...	Hij'Qa
Karen Austin	...	Miral, B'Elanna Torres' Mother
Eric Pierpoint	...	Kortar
John K. Shull	...	Brok'Tan
Mark Tobin	...	Klingon

Storyline

When her shuttle crosses paths with an ion storm, B'Elanna Torres is severely injured and slips into a coma. She envisions Klingons killing her crew mates and her, and then finds herself on the Barge of the Dead traveling to Gre'thor, the Klingon version of hell. Just before the dream ends her Mother appears on board with the rest of the damned souls. When she regains consciousness in sickbay she experiences a crisis of faith. Despite the support of the friends B'Elanna is convinced that her Mother is dead and suffering dishonor because her daughter never embraced her Klingon heritage.

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Plot Keywords:

24th century

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Klingon

Release Date:

6 October 1999 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mark Tobin, who plays an unnamed Klingon in this episode, previously played a Klingon in the TOS episode Star Trek: Day of the Dove, as well as Khan's right-hand man Joaquin in Star Trek: Space Seed.

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Goofs

When B'Elanna puts the Klingon metal slab on the table, she imagines blood spewing from the Klingon emblem onto the table, and the blood appears red, just like human blood. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country had established that Klingon blood is purplish in color, not red like humans.

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Quotes

Tuvok: Defend yourself!

User Reviews

Science fiction AND fantasy

This episode is packed with Klingon religious mythology. While B'Elanna is in a near death experience, she has visions of the Klingon afterlife. She comes out changed. Tom Paris asks her "Why have you become a born-again Klingon?" If you are the kind of fan who hates fantasy or anything religious or mythological in your science fiction, steer clear of this episode. But, if you believe, like Chakotay says here, that, "not everything in the universe can be scanned with a tricorder," you might find this episode worth a look.

Without going into the storyline, it has some good dramatic tension in it. The reality of the mythic appearances is ambiguous; and at a deeper personal level, this episode is about B'Elanna coming to terms with her Klingon identity, as well as resolving—or at least making a decisive turn—on some big internal issues she has about her mother.

In some ways this episode is a couple of scoops of the California Religion, but in other ways I found it interesting. While Karen Austin, as B'Elanna's mother, is given some really horrible pieces of script to deal with, we see Roxanne Dawson doing some of her best work, at least that I've ever seen. And I have to say, drawbacks aside, Ronald Moore & Co. were trying to deal with some big and serious issues here, and got a lot done in 45 minutes. I think that fans who dissed this episode by giving it low stars did so because of the Klingon religious elements; without that, I think they would have easily bulked the stars up to 8 on this one, for its acting, storyline, and even for the special effects.