46 replies to this topic

[LwaxanaLover]

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[knightone]

The Ocampa live for nine years.

Kes didn't die, in fact she returns for a guest shot toward the end of the series.

[slayerone76]

---SPOILER ALERT---






As Kes was removed from her environment of reliance on the Caretaker (and what help he left when he died), her mental powers got more powerful and so she was able to survive longer. At one point the Voyager comes across the female Caretaker and a small group of Ocampa who live much longer and have terrific mental abilities - this is the 'true' start of Kes' new powers. She enlists Tuvok on her quest to understand herself and, in a blaze of super-mental glory brought upon by species 8472, leaves Voyager on a shuttle to keep from destroying the ship. She transcends what we know about space and time and, as a gift for their kindness, throws Voyager almost 10,000 light years closer to home. Later, Kes returns as a bitter, much older version of her former self and threatens to destroy Voyager and stop their influence on her life - she is having trouble adjusting to her new abilities. In the end, Janeway and Voyager diffuse her and her rage and Kes returns to 'normal.'


Please feel free to correct me, I am doing this from memory. LOL

[JMW326]

That sounds pretty dead on to me. You did that all from memory? Nice...

[slayerone76]

LOL Yeah, all from memory ...

[LwaxanaLover]

...

[Artistix]

A character with soo much potential....a super being that only lived for several years.

Now that was a waste. Good writers could have done amazing things with her.

Was her departure still put down to substance abuse? or was that proven false?

[Chalksquared]

Was her departure still put down to substance abuse? or was that proven false?

I read quite a few interviews with Rick Berman saying that they just wanted to bring on a new character so they had to let one go because a cast of 10 would be too big.

Don't go confusing Janice Rand with sweet little Kes!!!

[Wildcard]

^Exactly....there was no substance abuse involved. Jennifer WAS rather unsatisfied with the way her role was being underutilized. Being on contract with a series means you can't do any other work while the regular season is being shot. And since she wasn't being used, she was quite frankly bored and feeling very stagnat professional speaking.

I hated to loose her character and Jennifer as an actress. I agree, stronger story lines could have saved her looong before 7of9 was ever even thought of. And 10 characters really wasn't THAT much....it CAN be done, but Jennifer should have been dropped down to a supporting/recurring character rather than a starring (look at Garak, Rom, and Nog on DS9 or Ro and Pulaski on TNG or Chapel and Rand in TOS for role models).

[Artistix]

I agree, stronger story lines could have saved her looong before 7of9 was ever even thought of.

Do you think so?

Stronger storylines would have made us happier with the character overall, but I don't think they would have saved her.

No matter what interesting scenarios or slinky catsuits they put Jennifer in later on, she was still no Jeri Ryan.

You can't sacrifice Neelix or Kim, that leaves too many women. You can't get rid of B'Elanna, she's too cool. And obviously they weren't going to kill off Janeway. That left Kes.

I can't wait for Voyager figures

[Wildcard]

^Actually, Kim was the other character that was on the chopping block when they were in negotiations with the studio to bring in 7of9 and shake up the cast. What's funny was that the actress who played Dr. Leah Brahms was the favorite of the Producers (including Berman) to play 7of9. It was the suits @ Paramount who insisted on Jeri Ryan for her....umm....assets LOL. I will say that as an actress I did find her very talented.

And yes, I do think they could have kept Kes on...granted not as a "starring role" but as a recurring supporting role ala Nurse Chapel. Would Jennifer have gone for it? I don't know. But there was soooo much more potential to do with the Kes character, and I'm sad that no author since has done anything about it. There's an entire saga of her life left to be revealed.

[Chalksquared]

^Actually, Kim was the other character that was on the chopping block when they were in negotiations with the studio to bring in 7of9 and shake up the cast. What's funny was that the actress who played Dr. Leah Brahms was the favorite of the Producers (including Berman) to play 7of9. It was the suits @ Paramount who insisted on Jeri Ryan for her....umm....assets LOL. I will say that as an actress I did find her very talented.

I think some of your info is a bit off, Wildcard. I know that the actress who played Leah Brahms was constantly being pushed for the Janeway character, to the point where they did some shots of her AS a Janeway to convince the suits, but it came down to her looking too young to be a captain.

[Wildcard]

^No, I'm right about the 7of9 info. It was in Berman's interview in the new Star Trek magazine, issue 3 US edition (sorry UK folks, I'm not sure what issue it is).

I hadn't heard about her being up for the Janeway character though. That's news to me.

[Artistix]

^Actually, Kim was the other character that was on the chopping block when they were in negotiations with the studio to bring in 7of9 and shake up the cast. What's funny was that the actress who played Dr. Leah Brahms was the favorite of the Producers (including Berman) to play 7of9.

I know that the actress who played Leah Brahms was constantly being pushed for the Janeway character.

Interesting.

I can barely remember what Leah Brahms looked like...but I'm kinda glad they went with Kate Mulgrew & Jeri Ryan

I had heard Kim was also considered for firing. I agree it would have been a good idea to do the sort of 'Guinan' thing. Pop up 4 or 5 times a year...when they need you. I would have liked that....& I wasn't particularly impressed with the ending of 'Fury'...even the concept of the episode sorta bugged me. It didn't seem to suit the character.

[Chalksquared]

I had heard Kim was also considered for firing. I agree it would have been a good idea to do the sort of 'Guinan' thing. Pop up 4 or 5 times a year...when they need you. I would have liked that....& I wasn't particularly impressed with the ending of 'Fury'...even the concept of the episode sorta bugged me. It didn't seem to suit the character.

I agree, but I thought it was a great way to have the character return AND an interesting twist on her. It would have been nice to see her show up in a few other episodes, like "Shattered" and "Relativity".

[kodiak8658]

My wife didn't like the monotone way that Kes delivered her lines. That may have something to do with her leaving the show. My wife's favorite character was Seven of Nine though. She loved everything about Seven...but who didn't?

[Wildcard]

^Monotone? I thought Jennifer Lien had one of the best delieverance voices on the show. There was a lot of passion and sincerity to her words. Granted she usually got a lot of lines that were what I call "quickfire" (i.e. "Captain, I can't find the Doctor's program anywhere. Can you send an someone down to look for him? I'm afraid we've lost him.") so there's not a whole lot you can do other than sound urgent. But I liked her. She had a delicacy about her and she knew how to work the camera for closeups....believe it or not that's actually a hard thing to do. Whoopi Goldburg is another actress who knows how to do that really well.

[Artistix]

^Monotone? I thought Jennifer Lien had one of the best delieverance voices on the show. There was a lot of passion and sincerity to her words.

I found her way of portraying the character excellent. I don't know if it was stated that Kes was to be a soft spoken, kind & timid creature (at times), but thats how it came off with Lein playing the role...& those are the aspects of Kes I loved the most.

It was nice to see her harden up a bit for the 'Warlord' episode...it's always cool to see the episodes where people have to alter their characters due to...well, whatever. The Mirror episodes, 'Power Play', 'Living Witness'....love it.

[slayerone76]

I agree that Lien was a bit weak and I hated her scream. LOL I still loved her character and wish they would have played her up more.

[Wildcard]

^Oh yeah, I hated her scream too. It always sounded metallic. I wonder if they did that in post production or if it really sounded that way?