What happened to Jennifer Lien?
- Thread starter Clym
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Jennifer didn't just "do drugs," her brain got fried by them. She's needed help for a very long time and never got it. The problem is that people's rights get involved, which hinders treatment. It's not like it was in the 50's, when you could just throw someone in a padded cell and give them shock treatment, until they recovered.
What she really needs is someone there 24/7 who can be responsible for her. Who can make sure she takes her meds and is a good, little girl, until she can be trusted to discern reality, again. She's finally getting some help, but whether it'll be enough is a good question. She went round the twist! And shots like that of her demonstrate that fact, very clearly.
Even if she should make a full recovery, this incident with exposing herself improperly will likely be with her for ... her entire life. She'll live to be 120 years old and during the little newscast on the event, they'll be certain to bring up about how "... back when Ms. Lien was 41, she exposed herself in front of her neighbor when children were present." It breaks the heart, but what can be done? Her fate has been left in the hands of a whackadoo, unfortunately ... herself!
What she really needs is someone there 24/7 who can be responsible for her. Who can make sure she takes her meds and is a good, little girl, until she can be trusted to discern reality, again. She's finally getting some help, but whether it'll be enough is a good question. She went round the twist! And shots like that of her demonstrate that fact, very clearly.
Even if she should make a full recovery, this incident with exposing herself improperly will likely be with her for ... her entire life. She'll live to be 120 years old and during the little newscast on the event, they'll be certain to bring up about how "... back when Ms. Lien was 41, she exposed herself in front of her neighbor when children were present." It breaks the heart, but what can be done? Her fate has been left in the hands of a whackadoo, unfortunately ... herself!
maybe she needs to be sectioned. I think in some places they do still administer Electro-convulsive therapy, despite its controversy. I don't think the multitude of dubious and powerful psychiatric medications we have today are any better than the treatments of the 50s to be honest - including lobotomies. The damage that some of these meds can do is horrific
I wonder if some of her former Voy cast-members have helped her through her problems, or did they abandon her when she left?
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I wouldn't care to hazard a guess regarding what appropriate treatment options might exist for Lien. I just feel, personally, that "the system" let her down by not making damn sure that she was good-to-go, before they just let her run amok to demonstrate her insanity in any variety of ways, both reported and unreported, to:
Family
Her Community
The Authorities
Thing is, Lien's just the poster child for this sort of thing. All kinds of people who really need proper care simply don't get any. They're just medicated and then dumped when their insurance runs out. It's infuriating. As to having made friends on VOY, I'm confident that Robert Picardo has been there for her over the years. In the early days, though, Jennifer was very loved by the cast. They all adored her. But over the years, people drift in and out of our lives and that may have been the case, here with some, or most of them. Jennifer hasn't been in the entertainment industry for a long time ...
Family
Her Community
The Authorities
Thing is, Lien's just the poster child for this sort of thing. All kinds of people who really need proper care simply don't get any. They're just medicated and then dumped when their insurance runs out. It's infuriating. As to having made friends on VOY, I'm confident that Robert Picardo has been there for her over the years. In the early days, though, Jennifer was very loved by the cast. They all adored her. But over the years, people drift in and out of our lives and that may have been the case, here with some, or most of them. Jennifer hasn't been in the entertainment industry for a long time ...
If anyone cares to do any groundwork on this well-hashed topic, see this thread:
http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/jennifer-lien-in-legal-trouble-again.275877/
Not sure why anyone would immediately assume it was a 20-year delayed reaction of employee disgruntlement. Nor why it needs a fresh heaping of schedenfreude at this particular time.
http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/jennifer-lien-in-legal-trouble-again.275877/
Not sure why anyone would immediately assume it was a 20-year delayed reaction of employee disgruntlement. Nor why it needs a fresh heaping of schedenfreude at this particular time.
I must point out that so far, it has been no evidence at all for any drug abuse.
I'm sure that if there had been any drugs involved when she was arrested, if she had been on something or she had stashed a lot of illegal substances at home, it would have been revealed in the media faster than I have written this commentary.
I'm not stating that she never have touched any drugs, I'm just stating that during all those years of rumors about why she was fired and during the events of recent years, nothing about drugs have been revealed.
Obviously she has a mental problem. Why, I don't know. I think that 2takesfrakes brings up a lot of valuable points in his post above.
But I wouldn't be surprised if being fired from Voyager for no apparent reason could have added more fuel to a possible fire.
I'm sure that if there had been any drugs involved when she was arrested, if she had been on something or she had stashed a lot of illegal substances at home, it would have been revealed in the media faster than I have written this commentary.
I'm not stating that she never have touched any drugs, I'm just stating that during all those years of rumors about why she was fired and during the events of recent years, nothing about drugs have been revealed.
Obviously she has a mental problem. Why, I don't know. I think that 2takesfrakes brings up a lot of valuable points in his post above.
But I wouldn't be surprised if being fired from Voyager for no apparent reason could have added more fuel to a possible fire.
was she fired or did they just decide to not renew her contract?
it wasn't for no apparent reason - she was let go because she was a weak actress, her character was unpopular and ratings were falling. They needed to inject some dynamism into the series and brought in the far more interesting character 7 of 9
IDK - I don't think she was fired because she was a 'weak actress' because if they did that on Voyager, they could have fired Garret Wang and Robert Beltran too. Brannon Braga wanted to 'sex up' Voyager for ratings (that much is clear); and they didn't need two main female alien characters - so Lien was let go and Jerry Ryan hired for two very large reasons.
Hate? If you read through the eariler thread on this matter, you'll read a outpouring of concern, sympathy and good wishes from the trek fans here.
Electro-shock treatment is still used, however unlike the past the power used is a small fraction of what was used a half century ago, and (maybe more importantly) the treatment is done under anesthesia.
Lien likely was let go from her contract. As I understand it, the original plan was to retain her and lose Wang, however he won a People's Magazines "award" (sexist man?) and someone had to be let go to make way for Jeri Ryan.
I did some research into what Lien is up to now and was a little surprised to find out she's become a total trainwreck - assualt, drugs, DUI, exposing herself in public!
and she now looks like Private Gomer Pyle:
all because she got fired from Voyager?
There was a lot of active discussion here in this forum about her legal troubles at the time. Some of it was fairly recent.
Kor
She was let go because Garrett Wang was on some poll of 'sexy actors'. He had been the original choice to be axed, but after the revelation they kept him on and sacked Jennifer Lien instead--why they immediately jumped to her though I'm not sure. Trek must have some rule about not allowing more than three women on the main cast.
This is all about semantics. If she was "fired" or "her contract was not renewed" is actually irrelevant because it's basically the same. If I have a workforce rebuilding my garage and they are on some sort of contract and I decide to keep them all except one when it's time to sign a new contract, the outcome is the same. The one pushed out would feel it as being fired. Let's say that half of the crew are female and I "decide to not renew the contract" for one of the females and replace her with a "Baywatch candidate", the change in the workforce would be rather obvious and people would start calling me a dirty old man behind my back- except if I was a producer, then they would call me a genious!
I don't think that Jennifer was a "weak actress". She did a great job in portraying Kes and really gave life to the character.
Stating that "her character was unpopular" isn't the exact truth either. I remember the debates on certain forums before Kes was dumped. The most unpopular character was Neelix who was severely criticized back then, followed by Kim who many found bland and, surprisingly Janeway who the fans either loved or hated. There wasn't much of debates about the others.
Sometimes I have a feeling that certain criticizm to Lien and Beltran in recent years is because Lien had the bad luck to be fired from the show while Beltran openly has criticized the producers of the show.
They did actually have the best characters possible in any of the Trek shows. Why didn't they use those characters if they wanted "dynamism"? Why didn't they come up with better stories. The authors of the Voyager books had no problem with that.
I'm not sure if Seven added that much to the show, except for the certain attributes she had. I do agree that Ryan is a very good actress but not so much better than the actors they already had. The ratings kept falling and were lower in seasons 4-7 than they ever were in seasons 1-3.
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if they had added Riley from "Unity" to the cast instead of Seven. Would she have been as popular and high-marketed as Seven even if she would have had exactly the same role in the series as Seven had.
I never liked Kes a bit and never heard of Jennifer Lien before VOY.
However, when I finally (only recently) finished watching the entire series, that episode where her body was possessed by the evil alien of the week, I was really impressed by her solid acting. (the one she wore a black leather jumpsuit, not "Fury"-- that sucked)
So it was juyt the Kes character that sucked ass. Poor actress. That must have hurt her career too.
However, when I finally (only recently) finished watching the entire series, that episode where her body was possessed by the evil alien of the week, I was really impressed by her solid acting. (the one she wore a black leather jumpsuit, not "Fury"-- that sucked)
So it was juyt the Kes character that sucked ass. Poor actress. That must have hurt her career too.
I wasn't a huge fan of the Kes character but that's because of the writers. They wrote a boring role for her, but despite that I do think Lien was a good actress and she did what she could to bring life to that character. It's unfortunate that they decided to "have to" let her go. They didn't have to, they could have kept her and Seven. Why not have them both on the show?
I read a article interview a few years back that stated the main reason they chose Kes departure was simply because the way her character alien species is written she would reach the end of her life status before the projected ending of the show Voyager, so it made more sense to exit that character.
And with 7 of 9 being introduced as a regular character and the recurring roles of the Borg survivor Children it made sense to not renew the contract for Jennifer Lien.
And with 7 of 9 being introduced as a regular character and the recurring roles of the Borg survivor Children it made sense to not renew the contract for Jennifer Lien.
No, it didn't make any sense at all.
Her lifespan could have been prolonged without any problem. According to the events in "Cold Fire" it was possible.
And, as pointed out in Finn's post above, the Borg children didn't show up until much later and they didn't last long on the ship.
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