by Chris Snelgrove
| Published
Disney is probably the last thing you think about while watching Star Trek. After all, what do fairy tales and talking animals have to do with The Final Frontier (please don't say Worf was a talking animal, he finds those comments hurtful)? However, one of the most horrific and terrifying episodes of the series was secretly inspired by a fairy tale made even more popular by Disney. Writer L Star Trek: Voyager The episode “Faces” ended up being based on the story of a captor who falls in love with his captive beauty and the beast.
beauty and the beast
“Faces” was written by Ken Bieler, and thanks to its crazy plot, most fans wouldn't associate it with any fantasy story (Disney or otherwise). This is the painful story of Alien Who uses terrible technology to split half-Klingon, half-human Voyager engineer B'Elanna Torres into two separate people. It's all an experiment to help the alien discover a cure for a genetic disease afflicting his entire race, but once he develops affection for her fully formed Klingon persona, Torres must use her built-in feminine wiles to pull off a dramatic escape.
One of the reasons why most fans will never connect with this Star Trek: The traveler The episode with beauty and the beast is that this is basically a horror episode. There are some basic body horror elements when it comes to Torres' struggle between the two sides and the Rot Race Aliens (Vidiians) is pretty scary in itself. But none of that holds a candle to the scene in which the scientist tries to woo Torres by killing her colleague and then mutilating his face. This was before Bryan Fuller wrote the show, but this scene would have fit perfectly with his later scene Hannibal series.
Despite these horror elements, “Faces” writer Ken Beller insists that this Star Trek episode shares a lot of DNA with beauty and the beast. He later said he quoted that fairy tale because “it occurred to me that if you came from this culture, your ideal beauty might be someone who was imposing and physically strong, like a Klingon.” For a stillborn alien (like, even more so than the rest of us), the powerful Klingon language was a real fantasy creature, and the writer liked the idea that the scientist “would be attracted to B'Elanna and might use her.” The Klingon race to get him to do what she wanted.
Now, Star Trek nerds tend to be very literary, so it's worth emphasizing that Biller doesn't explicitly mention his name Disney When compared to him Voyager ring for beauty and the beast. However, Disney's popular animated film of this classic 18th-century French tale was released in 1991, just four years before Faces. Considering that it could have been written earlier, we're betting that all of Quark's Latin has rubbed off on him, as Beller hummed “Be Our Guest” at least once while writing this memorable episode.
As mentioned earlier, Star Trek and Disney rarely overlap, however beauty and the beast Contact in “Faces” proves that it should happen more often. Beller has done what some of the best writers do: take inspiration from something old to create something vital and new. Plus, if Trek fans are okay with it Captain Kirk Complete termination The original series Play the movie with Peter Pan Quote, It's too late for any of us to say we're too cool to appreciate a good fairy tale reference from our favorite sci-fi franchise.
