Barge of the Dead
[ Spoilers Guide ]
An episode dealing with B'Elanna and this year's Day of Honor. B'Elanna is critically injured in a shuttle accident, and for a brief period of time, dies, finding herself on the Barge to Gre'thor, the Klingon version of Hell. While there, she discovers that her own dishonor and the failure of her mother to raise her in the Klingon way has condemned her mother's soul to reside in Gre'thor as well. Before B'Elanna can do anything about it, she's revived by the Doctor. Disturbed by her visions of the Klingon spiritual world, she asks the Doctor to help her go back in order to help her mother reach Sto-Vo-Kor. Earlier episodes of Voyager and Jeri Taylor's Pathways suggested that B'Elanna's mother was still alive. It is possible that she is alive in this episode as well, but is brought to Gre'thor in some other manner. This episode features the most expensive set ever constructed for a Star Trek episode. The Klingon Hell set will apparently be very spectacular, although very noisy. B'Elanna goes on an ancient ritual which allows her to look inside the Klingon spiritual world, only to find herself winding up in the Klingon version of Hell. Features B'Elanna's mother, Miral. Says Brannon Braga, We're going to Klingon hell in the third episode. Torres will have a spiritual experience in which she ends up on something called 'the Barge of the Dead,' which is filled with dishonored Klingons on a river Styx on their way to Klingon hell. That's going to be a very ambitious, sort of bizarre episode. Guest Starring Eric Pierpoint (Alien Nation) as the Klingon barge operator. Pierpoint said at a convention that his character is the First Klingon, the Klingon who according to legend (as stated in You are Cordially Invited), who killed all of the Klingon gods. As a result, he is doomed to ferry the dishonored dead for all eternity on the barge. Apparently, this episode is very weak and may be delayed in order to conduct re-shoots of this episode.