"Faces" is an episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet and Maquis crew of the starship after they are stranded in the Delta Quadrant, far from the rest of the Federation. The fourteenth episode of the first season, first broadcast by UPN on May 8, 1995. "Faces", was developed from a story by Jonathan Glassner and Kenneth Biller, Biller also wrote the teleplay, which was directed by Winrich Kolbe.
In this episode, a Vidiian scientist named Sulan (Brian Markinson) captures and performs medical experiments on the half-Klingon, half-human B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). He separates her into a full-blooded Klingon and a full-blooded human to find a cure for a disease, known as the Phage. The Voyager crew rescues Torres and restores her to her original state, while she attempts to reconcile with her identity as a half-human half-Klingon. The episode guest stars Rob LaBelle as an unnamed Talaxian prisoner. Actress Joy Kilpatrick was cast as Dawson's photo double to avoid a reliance on split screen.
"Faces" was developed as a character study to further explore Torres' internal struggle with her identity. Dawson was originally resistant to the episode, but later identified it as one of her favorite performances, which deepened her understanding of the character and strengthened her acting. Human Torres and Klingon Torres were treated as two separate characters during the development and filming of the episode. Michael Westmore designed the characters' makeup to emphasize the differences between them.
The episode received a Nielsen rating of 6.1/10 ratings share; a drop from the episode broadcast the previous week. "Faces" was generally well received, and Dawson's character and performance were praised. Some critics had a more negative response to the script and the final sequence; fan and reviewers felt Voyager's crew showed a lack of empathy for Torres in the ending. The episode has also been the subject of academic analysis on race.
Plot Crew members Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres, and Peter Durst have gone missing on a mission. They have been captured by the Vidiians. Vidiian Chief Surgeon Sulan has conducted a procedure on Torres, changing her from a half-human, half-Klingon hybrid into two bodies (a full-blooded Klingon and a full-blooded human). He infects Klingon Torres with the Phage, a deadly disease that afflicts his species but to which Klingons have a natural immunity, so he can study her genetics. Commander Chakotay, Security Chief Tuvok, and Ensign Harry Kim form a search party but are discovered by the Vidiians and beam back to the USS Voyager. Sulan examines the Klingon Torres while she experiences pain from the Phage. Klingon Torres expresses pride in her Klingon identity, though she remembers hiding her Klingon heritage as a child. Recognizing Sulan's attraction to her, she tries to seduce the scientist and escape, but his desire to find a cure overcomes his lust. The human version of Torres is kept imprisoned with Paris and Durst. Human Torres is characterized as weaker and more timid than her Klingon counterpart, and is deemed too ill to work in the mines. She secretly works on a security console in the barracks in an attempt to contact Voyager but is caught.
Meanwhile, Sulan kills Durst and grafts his face over his own to appear more appealing to the Klingon Torres. Klingon Torres escapes from Sulan's laboratory, and rescues her human version. After arguing about their respective weaknesses, and past expulsion from Starfleet Academy, the two halves formulate a plan. Human Torres suggests shutting down the shields for the complex so that Voyager can transport them to the ship, while the Klingon Torres deals with guards. Chakotay, disguised as a Vidiian guard with the help of the Doctor, breaks into the facility at the same time Torres deactivates the shields. Klingon Torres sacrifices herself to protect the rest of the crew members from Sulan. Transported back to Voyager, Klingon Torres refuses medical help to die an honorable death. The Doctor explains that Human Torres would not survive without her Klingon half and restores her to her original self by reintegrating the Klingon DNA. Human Torres admits to feeling incomplete without her Klingon half. After being restored, she realizes that she will spend the rest of her life dealing with her inner conflict.Ruditis (2003): pp. 4142.
Production Development
"Faces" was pitched by writer Jonathan Glassner, and was later revised by executive story editor Kenneth Biller.Gross & Altman (1996): p. 145. In an interview with The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, Biller said that the only similarity between the original pitch and the final copy was that the episode deals with the character B'Elanna Torres being split into two parts. In the episode's first draft, aliens used a machine to separate Torres into human and Klingon halves as part of an experiment attempting to achieve purity within a species. Executive producer Michael Piller described the draft as originally focusing on "somebody's idea that this could be the result of a hideous concentration-camp kind of experiment, that is, genetic demonstration of some sort".Gross & Altman (1996): pp. 145146.
Biller and executive producer Jeri Taylor were critical of Glassner's pitch; Biller found it to be "very melodramatic and hokey", and Taylor called it "a tired idea" and "too on the nose for B'Elanna". Producer Brannon Braga explained that the decision to purchase the concept was to do a storyline involving an evil twin in the show's first season, and "get it out of the way". He did feel that the concept could be a mistake, and compared it negatively to a hypothetical storyline in which Star Trek: The Next Generation character Data (Brent Spiner) would be made human. Piller said the episode was almost abandoned, but he believed that the conflict between Torres' human and Klingon halves, and her identity as a woman, would make a worthwhile storyline.
Writing The series' writing team were concerned that the episode would be compared to two episodes from Star Trek: The Original Series ("The Enemy Within" and "The Alternative Factor"). Piller added: "[w]e knew we could not do the evil-versus-good story that the original Star Trek had done." Biller was assigned to write the script as his second writing assignment for the series; his first had been for "Elogium". Biller attributed his interest in the episode's concept to his personal experiences with his younger, adopted brother's struggle to understand his biracial identity. Even though Biller was initially critical of the pitch's melodrama, he felt that his version had the melodrama expected of a Star Trek episode. The final draft of the script was submitted on February 24, 1995.
Biller incorporated the Vidiians into the episode, believing that their technology would present a conceivable method by which Torres could be separated. The Vidiians were featured in an earlier season one episode titled "Phage".Ruditis (2003): pp. 4243. Biller explained that Klingons were shown to be more resistant to disease than other species in previous Star Trek installments, and reasoned that a Vidiians scientist would view them as a promising way to discover a cure for the disease. Biller said that he had difficulty writing Sulan as a sympathetic villain. He looked to Gene Roddenberry's approach to portraying antagonists in the Star Trek franchise: "[A]liens should never be patently evil. They may have a set of values that differ from our own, but be careful of making them mustache-twirling villains."Poe (1998): pp. 135136.
Biller viewed the interactions between Sulan and the Klingon version of Torres as being inspired by the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. He considered a Klingon's strength to be the ideal beauty for a Vidiian, and that Sulan would develop an attraction to Torres. Biller said that the Klingon version of Torres was more manipulative than Beauty from the fairy tale because she uses her sexuality to convince Sulan to follow her demands. Biller believed the episode added more elements of horror to the series, and pointed to the moment when Sulan grafted Durst's face over his own as a "sick moment of inspiration" and a "classic horror movie moment". He felt that Sulan's discomfort with his appearance helped round out his character.
Casting and filming Brian Markinson was cast as Sulan, the episode's primary antagonist. Owing to the sequence in which Sulan attaches Durst's face to his own, Markinson was also given the role of Durst.Okuda & Okuda & Mirek (1994) The character was introduced in the preceding episode ("Cathexis") so that he would be a familiar face to the viewers.Jones & Parkin (2003): p. 280. Rob LaBelle, who was a close friend of Biller, was cast as an unnamed Talaxian prisoner but he concealed the connection during his audition to avoid preferential treatment. LaBelle later appeared in the series as the Takarian servant Kafar in "False Profits" and Talaxian settler Oxilon in "Homestead".
Because of budgetary concerns, "Faces" was produced near the end of the first season. It was originally going to be set in a jungle, but the location was changed to caves after director Winrich Kolbe calculated that the former idea would exceed the episode's budget. "Faces" was the fourth episode of the series Kolbe directed, and he said that everything ran smoothly despite his lack of familiarity with the story arcs and characters. The sets for the Vidiian mines were constructed on Paramount Stage 18. Materials used to create security consoles in the Vidiian laboratories were previously used for the construction of Klingon starships.McIntee (2000): p. 46 The prosthetics and make-up for the Vidiians were handled by make-up supervisor Michael Westmore. The episode (with the rest of the first season) earned a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series for the 47th Primetime Emmy Awards, but lost to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Cast members have commented on their performances in the episode. Robert Beltran, who played Commander Chakotay, said he felt uncomfortable acting in the facial mask worn for his character's Vidiian disguise. He described the prosthetics as "that raw, wounded face, which made me feel very vulnerable as a person", and viewed it as an acting challenge. Garrett Wang, who portrayed Ensign Harry Kim, said that his role in the episode was restricted to technobabble. Robert Picardo, who played the Doctor, appreciated the interactions between Torres and his character as they represented how he was originally "just a functionary doing his job". Picardo added that his scenes showed that it was too soon for his character to understand the importance of his operation on Torres, or to develop any sort of relationship with her.
Various bloopers occurred during the filming of the episode. The first take of a scene in which Chakotay, Tuvok, and Kim encounter two Vidiians was interrupted when Beltran forgot his line and improvised a joke about the aliens' appearance. Kolbe was dissatisfied with several of the following takes and told the actors to "put a little acting into this one, please". During another sequence, Nana Visitor, who played Kira Nerys in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, walked on set by accident.
Separation of B'Elanna Torres