Whatever happened to Kes?

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Loved Kes in S1-3, loved her departure in "The Gift," evolving into an energy blob and sending Voyager 1/7 of the way home. "Fury" was fun, but that should have been a two-parter to give the store more time to work. Wasn't there talk of her being a recurring villain across S6? Anyway, at the end of "Fury," old Kes flies back home to Ocampa. At this point, she's what, 6 or 7 years old? She hasn't acquired the longevity that Suspiria's Ocpampa have benefited from. What do my fellow VOY fans think happened to Kes? Too bad Jennifer Lein can't reprise the role given what she's been through in life. If she were just retired from acting, maybe they could have cut a big check for a special guest appearance in one of the streaming shows?

 

[FredH]

Honestly, I assumed she died of old age.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Honestly, I assumed she died of old age.

By the time of the Picard show, probably.

 

[sonak]

This is an interesting topic. Are there books that go into what happened with her? I think it’s sad that her character was written off of the show. I think there was great story potential with having her continue to be “mentored” by Tuvok as her powers grew, and also in seeing where her friendship with the Doctor would go. She was unique as a series regular within Star Trek and they could have done much more with her character.

 

[Dukhat]

Honestly, I assumed she died of old age.

This, pretty much.

 

[Lynx]

Honestly, I assumed she died of old age.

No, she didn't!

Loved Kes in S1-3, loved her departure in "The Gift," evolving into an energy blob and sending Voyager 1/7 of the way home. "Fury" was fun, but that should have been a two-parter to give the store more time to work. Wasn't there talk of her being a recurring villain across S6? Anyway, at the end of "Fury," old Kes flies back home to Ocampa. At this point, she's what, 6 or 7 years old? She hasn't acquired the longevity that Suspiria's Ocpampa have benefited from. What do my fellow VOY fans think happened to Kes? Too bad Jennifer Lein can't reprise the role given what she's been through in life. If she were just retired from acting, maybe they could have cut a big check for a special guest appearance in one of the streaming shows?

What happened was that Kes was about to be turned into an energy being but was rescued by Q who saw her as a perfect candidate for becoming a Q and go to the Q Continuum.

However, Kes didn't want to do that. instead she managed to persuade Q to give her a human lifespan but keep the limited psychic abilities she showed up in episodes like Persistence Of Vision and Cold Fire.

Q accepted her wishes because it would help him to solve some problem with too many ships from the Alpha Quadrant causeing problems in the Delta Quadrant.

Then Kes was sent to a planet which was involved in a conflict with an expanding aggressive empire led by a ruthless dictator. Shortly after that Kes was abducted by pirates but was saved by members of a Maquis ship which also had been abducted by The Caretaker some time before Voyager's arrival. The crew onhe maquis ship was currently helping the friendly people on the planet to defend themselves against the empire they were fighting.

Later on, Kes and her new friends encountered Voyager and with a little help from Janeway and her crew they managed to stop the invasion which the dictator of the empire planned.

After some hesitation, Kes decided to stay on the Maquis ship where the crew had decided to stay a while longer at the planet to be sure that the hostile empire wasn't about to plan anew attack. The plan was to meet up with Voyager later on but that didn't happen. Instead, they managed to find a wormhole which led to the gamma Quadrant and from there, they could reach the Alpha Quadrant.

Kes and the members of the Maquis ship settled down on a planet between Bajoran space and the Tzenkheti Alliance where she lives a quiet life, sometimes interrupted with exploring space together with her new friends and exciting adventures. From time to time she run into her friends on the starship Voyager as well.

As for the horrible monster which showed up in an episode which never should have been made, that evil creature wasn't Kes.

It might have been Suspiria or some evil being from another dimension.


OK, that's the Startrek Universe explanation, here we have the Gray Universe explanation:

Kes was dumped from Voyager and the actress who played her, Jennifer Lien was bruatlly fired because the narrow-minded fools in charge of the show wanted a "sexy babe" in the show to boost the ratings.

The original plan was to dump Harry Kim and fire actor Garret Wang but when a silly inside poll among the staff of a glossy magazine placed Garret Wang among "the 50 most handsome", those in charge of the show changed their plans, fired Jennifer Lien and dumped Kes instead.

The episode in which Kes "left" called The Gift was a worthless piece of crap with a thin, unconvincing story which didn't make any sense at all. It looked as if the so-called "writer" had written the script for it while sitting on the toilet, using the paper to write on or during a five minute coffee paus.

Some seasons later, the arrogant people in charge of the show became annoyed by the fans who wanted Kes back and hadf staged a letter campaign for it. So they decided to give them a lesson.

What happened then was that they decided to totally destroy the character in a horrible, sadistic episode where Kes was portrayed as an insane monster who wanted to destroy the ship and kill her friends.

The plans were to kill off the character but jennifer Lien, the fired actress who all of a sudden was welcome to partictipate in that horrible destruction of her character made them change their mind about that so instead the character Kes was turned into a pathetic and crazy old wreck determined to ttavel back to Ocampa in a shuttle with no chance at all to manage with that.

By coming up with that insulting piece of s**t, the worst episode ever made in any TV series, those in charge managed to show the "finger" to those ungrateful fans who wanted Kes back, sort of:

"So you wanted your little favorite back? Well, eat this you scum! And don't you ever question our divine decisions because this is our show and we do what we want. Your only obligation is to sit in front of your TVs and say "yes" to everything we do and decide while filling our wallets by loyally watching our show".

The explanations for dumping Kes were also pathetic lies which have been changed from time to time.

Firts they told us that "Jennifer Lien had left of her own free will" which obviously wasn't too convincing.

So they changed their stiory to "We couldn't come up with good stories for the character" which was an even more ridiculous way to cover up their ghastly business. Can anyone believe that professional writers all of a sudden lose their abilities to write good stories for a character when they had managed to do that up to the last episodes in which Kes was present (with the exception for the episode which was written during a short visit to a toilet)?

Not to mention that there were talks about "mutual agreement" when Jennifer Lien was dumped.

Now, anyone who have the slightest knowledge about movies, TV series, music and showbiz in common knows that everytime the words "mutual agreement" are used, then foul play is involved.

So in later years they had to change the story again, now using actress Jennifer Lien's problems in recent years as some excues to fire the actress all those years ago.

Well, you know the old saying. "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" so what about "fool me three times........."?

As for a return of Kes in later series, I must admit that I wished for many years that she would return in some series or books.

But considering how bad and destructive the NuTrek movies and recent series like the crappy DSC and the downright lousy PIC have been and how the writers of the Star Trek books are doing their best to ruin, destroy and execute good characters from TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY, then I'm happy that Kes never have been brougt back to any gloomy 2020's series, book or movie.

Not to mention that it will be very hard to bring back the character without Jennifer Lien's participation. Back in the days when there still were some good acting here and there, I used to think of skilled actresses like Kirsten Dunst, Renee O'Connor, Laura Harris or even Nicole DeBoer as possible replacements if Jennifer Lien couldn't or wouldn't participate.

But as it is today, I have no intention at all to watch some third rate actress, some Melissa Spicegirl with big artificial lips ruin the character further than already have been done.

Due to the doom-and-gloom trend in the TV-series today, they would probably destoy aand ruin he character even more, most likely kill her off.

Thanks for your attention and have a nice day!

 

[Fuddles]

I have wondered what happened to Kes too.

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

In my fanfiction (which crosses over with Star Wars), Kes was encountered by Ahsoka Tano and she helped her by training her in Jedi ways, which allowed Kes to control her powers, rather than let them control her (which was what was going on in Fury in my fanfiction). Ahsoka also had Kes build her own lighsaber (with yellow - colored blade), as it is a primarily a defensive weapon. Kes eventually left ahsoka and, after going for some time on her own and later with Tandis, she returned to Earth and reunited with the former crew of the Voyager. She lived with Tom and B'Elanna.

Howevwer, this was in the altrnate timeline than the "prime" timeline as shown in Picard. However, since the timelines diverge after Ahsoka took Kes from this universe, in the prime timjeline, Kes is "missing". Well, either that, or she simply stayed with Ahsoka or something else happened to "prime Kes". Either way, I refure to leve her what that sSeason 6 episode leaves her! Maybe I should take what Lynx invented for the prime timeline...

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

What happened was that Kes was about to be turned into an energy being but was rescued by Q who saw her as a perfect candidate for becoming a Q and go to the Q Continuum.

What is this from?

Kes was dumped from Voyager and the actress who played her, Jennifer Lien was bruatlly fired because the narrow-minded fools in charge of the show wanted a "sexy babe" in the show to boost the ratings.

Was she brutally fired? Who's to say she wasn't "normally" fired? The producers wanted an ex-Borg, that was decided back in S3 before Jeri Ryan was even cast. It's why Harry was fatally infected by Species 8472 cells that were slowly killing him. They were setting up his death in S4. The change from Want to Lein happened over the summer when he ended up in a beautiful people magazine, and they didn't want the bad press of firing "the Asian guy" and looking racist. I believe it was always going to be "Harry or Kes" written out (in S4) as S3 was coming to a close.

The original plan was to dump Harry Kim and fire actor Garret Wang but when a silly inside poll among the staff of a glossy magazine placed Garret Wang among "the 50 most handsome", those in charge of the show changed their plans, fired Jennifer Lien and dumped Kes instead.

It wasn't silly, they didn't want to appear racist against Asians for firing the one Asian dude on the cast.

The episode in which Kes "left" called The Gift was a worthless piece of crap with a thin, unconvincing story which didn't make any sense at all. It looked as if the so-called "writer" had written the script for it while sitting on the toilet, using the paper to write on or during a five minute coffee paus.

It was written by Joe Menosky who wrote or co-wrote 12 episodes of TNG, 3 of DS9, with "The Gift" being his 10th Voyager episode. Your words are pretty harsh here. Now, being objective, I'll concede that a good writer for a TV series is not beyond writing a bad episode. That said... just.... come on, be nice.

Some seasons later, the arrogant people in charge of the show became annoyed by the fans who wanted Kes back and hadf staged a letter campaign for it. So they decided to give them a lesson.

What happened then was that they decided to totally destroy the character in a horrible, sadistic episode where Kes was portrayed as an insane monster who wanted to destroy the ship and kill her friends.

The plans were to kill off the character but jennifer Lien, the fired actress who all of a sudden was welcome to partictipate in that horrible destruction of her character made them change their mind about that so instead the character Kes was turned into a pathetic and crazy old wreck determined to ttavel back to Ocampa in a shuttle with no chance at all to manage with that.

They were trying to give us a nostalgic episode: Kes, Ensign Wildman, Janeway's granny bun, Vadiians, S1 time frame, and so on. On the S1 time frame, Chakotay had the slicked black hair and not the shorter speckled gray hair, B'Elanna was too nice, and the Doc had too much personality. Other than that, I thought they did a good job of giving us a S1 episode via time travel. I think the idea was that Kes was just old and had lost her way. Maybe the idea was that she had space dementia? I don't know. It's also possible they'd forgotten how she aged in "Before and After," continuity was a little sloppy on the show sometimes, and the producers have openly admitted that. It's going to happen sometimes on episodic shows.

I thought that was the plan, for Kes to be killed off, and I thought it was Lein who said she wanted the ending changed. I'm glad they did. Over on Starglate: Atlantis, what ended up being Dr. Weir's last episode had the actress recast, because she refused to do the episode when they wouldn't change the script. To me, "that" was worse than "Fury."

By coming up with that insulting piece of s**t, the worst episode ever made in any TV series, those in charge managed to show the "finger" to those ungrateful fans who wanted Kes back, sort of:

People make TV shows to make money, not to anger people. I can think of worse episodes from Voyager, other Star Trek shows, and TV in general.

"So you wanted your little favorite back? Well, eat this you scum! And don't you ever question our divine decisions because this is our show and we do what we want. Your only obligation is to sit in front of your TVs and say "yes" to everything we do and decide while filling our wallets by loyally watching our show".

I mean, no. People can change the channel and watch something else. "This episode sucks, I'll come back next week."

The explanations for dumping Kes were also pathetic lies which have been changed from time to time.

Firts they told us that "Jennifer Lien had left of her own free will" which obviously wasn't too convincing.

So they changed their stiory to "We couldn't come up with good stories for the character" which was an even more ridiculous way to cover up their ghastly business. Can anyone believe that professional writers all of a sudden lose their abilities to write good stories for a character when they had managed to do that up to the last episodes in which Kes was present (with the exception for the episode which was written during a short visit to a toilet)?

Not to mention that there were talks about "mutual agreement" when Jennifer Lien was dumped.

Now, anyone who have the slightest knowledge about movies, TV series, music and showbiz in common knows that everytime the words "mutual agreement" are used, then foul play is involved.

So in later years they had to change the story again, now using actress Jennifer Lien's problems in recent years as some excues to fire the actress all those years ago.

Well, you know the old saying. "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" so what about "fool me three times........."?

The story has always been: she was fired to make room for an ex-Borg character, can't afford 10 regulars. This was back in 1997 during the summer wait for S4. I don't know where the other stories came from, probably just bad gossip.

As for a return of Kes in later series, I must admit that I wished for many years that she would return in some series or books.

But considering how bad and destructive the NuTrek movies and recent series like the crappy DSC and the downright lousy PIC have been and how the writers of the Star Trek books are doing their best to ruin, destroy and execute good characters from TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY, then I'm happy that Kes never have been brougt back to any gloomy 2020's series, book or movie.

The Abrams trilogy were a reboot of Trek, so no Kes nor anything Voyager related here.
Discovery's set about a decade before TOS and then moves off to the 32nd century.
Picard isn't about Voyager, it's about Picard and his life. Seven was brought in, namely because there was an ex-Borg storyline in S1 and it just made sense to include her. She clicked so well with the cast of S1 that she came back as part of the main cast for S2-3. Like Disco (S1-2), SNW is also a prequel to TOS. From the modern productions, the only ones her return would make sense on would be the two animated shows, Lower Decks and Prodigy, both post-Voyager, both having dealt with elements from Voyager, Prodigy even returning to the DQ.

Not to mention that it will be very hard to bring back the character without Jennifer Lien's participation.

Not hard at all, just recast.

Due to the doom-and-gloom trend in the TV-series today, they would probably destoy aand ruin he character even more, most likely kill her off.

Not necessarily. Have you seen Prodigy?

 

[Lynx]

What is this from?

Guess!

Was she brutally fired? Who's to say she wasn't "normally" fired? The producers wanted an ex-Borg, that was decided back in S3 before Jeri Ryan was even cast. It's why Harry was fatally infected by Species 8472 cells that were slowly killing him. They were setting up his death in S4. The change from Want to Lein happened over the summer when he ended up in a beautiful people magazine, and they didn't want the bad press of firing "the Asian guy" and looking racist. I believe it was always going to be "Harry or Kes" written out (in S4) as S3 was coming to a close.

It wasn't silly, they didn't want to appear racist against Asians for firing the one Asian dude on the cast.

In that case it was really stupid, not being able to fire some person because he or she happened to be of another race or so. That's "reversed racism" and I'm against that as much as I'm against the common racism.

For me, the story and the chemistry between the characters are always the most important. I mean, if I were in charge of a big popular show and wanted to do a series about a ship with only white people in the cast, I would do that if that fit the story I was about to tell.

If I wanted to do a series about a ship with only black people in the cast, I would do that if that fit the story I was about to tell. it's the story and character interactions which matter, not how the characters look.

There was a very old German series from the 60's called Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol), it had only white cast members (logical sine there weren't so many Africans, Asians and other races in Germany back then) and it was excellent due to the interaction between the characters!

That's what i want, not some percentage counting about being Asian or whatever.

If Jennifer was fired because of being of the "wrong race", then it wasn't brutal but downright discriminating! I really hope that it wasn't the case, that it was only about greed and stupidity.

It was written by Joe Menosky who wrote or co-wrote 12 episodes of TNG, 3 of DS9, with "The Gift" being his 10th Voyager episode. Your words are pretty harsh here. Now, being objective, I'll concede that a good writer for a TV series is not beyond writing a bad episode. That said... just.... come on, be nice.

I'm just telling what I think of the episode, it was crap.

I have all respect for Joe Menosky and what he have done in Star Trek but as I wrote above, this episode was crap. OK, he probably had the order to come up with an episode to get rid of Kes as soon as possible but it was still crap.

It's the same with that author who destroyed Garak in a recent book. I have some of her earlier books and I really like them. But I can't accept how she destroyed Garak and therefore won't read any of her books she has written after that.

They were trying to give us a nostalgic episode: Kes, Ensign Wildman, Janeway's granny bun, Vadiians, S1 time frame, and so on. On the S1 time frame, Chakotay had the slicked black hair and not the shorter speckled gray hair, B'Elanna was too nice, and the Doc had too much personality. Other than that, I thought they did a good job of giving us a S1 episode via time travel. I think the idea was that Kes was just old and had lost her way. Maybe the idea was that she had space dementia? I don't know. It's also possible they'd forgotten how she aged in "Before and After," continuity was a little sloppy on the show sometimes, and the producers have openly admitted that. It's going to happen sometimes on episodic shows.

There are no excuses for such a disgisting and insulting episode, no excuses at all.

I thought that was the plan, for Kes to be killed off, and I thought it was Lein who said she wanted the ending changed. I'm glad they did. Over on Starglate: Atlantis, what ended up being Dr. Weir's last episode had the actress recast, because she refused to do the episode when they wouldn't change the script. To me, "that" was worse than "Fury."

That episode in Stargate Atlantis was terrible, the dark spot on an otherwise good show.

But it wasn't worse than what happened to Kes in that crap episode. It wasn't only about killing off the character, it was about totally destroying and humiliating the character, thus insulting her fans.

It's fortunate that jennifer Lien made them change the end of the episode. Even if that ending was downright sh***y, it was less worse than killing off the character.

But I have appreciated even more if jennifer had refused to take part of that insulting crap. In that case those in charge had been stuck with a third-rate actress with very little resemblance to Kes and been revealed as the evil people they really are.

As a matter of fact, I would never go back to a job which I had been fired from. I was actually in that position a few years ago and I told them where to go.

I want to add that I do give berman, braga and the others all credit for what they did on TNG and Star trek dooing that period. But the later part of VOY and ENT were.........hmmm, not what I liked and I find it hard to forgive them for the destruction and humiliation of Kes

[/QUOTE] People make TV shows to make money, not to anger people. I can think of worse episodes from Voyager, other Star Trek shows, and TV in general. [/QUOTE]
No, it was the worst episode ever made and I'm sure that they did it on purpose to annoy those fans who wanted kes back. Why woud they otherwise bring back a character which they had dumped three years earlier and done everything to make people forget.

Unfortunately, the Kes fans were a minority among the Voyager fans so they knew that they could insult them without risking to lose much profit.

I mean, no. People can change the channel and watch something else. "This episode sucks, I'll come back next week."

Star Trek fans aren't really like that. They like to make every episode make sense and are critical to episodes whic don't fit the concept or screw up the ongoing story, like Threshold.

The story has always been: she was fired to make room for an ex-Borg character, can't afford 10 regulars. This was back in 1997 during the summer wait for S4. I don't know where the other stories came from, probably just bad gossip.

No, they have actually came up with three different official explanations for firing Lien which I provided in the post you are quoting.

The one you are mentioning here is probably the correct one. So why did they have to come up with all that crap about "she left of her own free will", writers who couldn't write for the character, "mutual agreement" and that fairytale they told in that anniversary book or DVD or whatever when they took recent events in Jennifer's life as an excuse to fire her so many yeras ago?

The Abrams trilogy were a reboot of Trek, so no Kes nor anything Voyager related here.
Discovery's set about a decade before TOS and then moves off to the 32nd century.
Picard isn't about Voyager, it's about Picard and his life. Seven was brought in, namely because there was an ex-Borg storyline in S1 and it just made sense to include her. She clicked so well with the cast of S1 that she came back as part of the main cast for S2-3. Like Disco (S1-2), SNW is also a prequel to TOS. From the modern productions, the only ones her return would make sense on would be the two animated shows, Lower Decks and Prodigy, both post-Voyager, both having dealt with elements from Voyager, Prodigy even returning to the DQ.

I find almost all of it bad and gloomy, maybe with the exception of PRO and SNW.
It's actually ironic that I, who disliked Seven so much back then (fortunately I changed my opinion of her later on) find her as one of the few bright spots on PIC.

Not hard at all, just recast.

As I wrote before, I have no intention to watch some third-rate actress with gigantic artificial lips and no resemblance at all to Kes play her in some 2020's doom-and-gloom show.

I would only watch such a show if they bring in someone who really look like Kes and come up with a good story for her, no doom-and-gloom scenarios, no reference to the horrible episode in season 6 of VOY and no further destruction of the character.

Not necessarily. Have you seen Prodigy?

Not yet, only small parts on Youtube.
I find it OK, but it's still a cartoon, very far from series like DS9, VOY, TNG and TOS.

It's also a matter of money. I do have some channels which I pay for and I'm not too fond of paying for a streaming service in which 90% of the content is crap only to watch one series. Not to mention that I have had bad experiences with streaming, with series being cut off in the middle because "we don't have the rights to it anymore". In that case, I rather buy the series on DVD.

It's the same with SNW which I hope to get the chance to watch all of, maybe I have to buythat one on DVD as well.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Your post is very long, which is fine, but I'm going to # my points so mine is not even longer. I do enjoy our conversations. When you're long winded like me, it's nice to find someone who can keep up.

#1 As far back as the 90's, white employers firing a minority employee "looks racist" even if it's absolutely not. It's just the world we live in. If you're a single white male without kids in need of financial assistance, no one cares. If you're literally any other demographic, then you get help. Welcome to America.

#2 In the case of Voyager and Harry vs. Kes, I think it boiled down to a desire to shake up the cast and drive up the ratings to keep the show going. Let's evaluate. After the success of First Contact, it makes sense to add an ex-Borg to the show, similarly how DS9 added a Bajoran, Cardassian, and Ferengi as regulars (or semi in Garak's case) after these races being minorly featured on TNG. Similarly, Worf became a regular on TNG after the Klingons finally getting some real screen time in the 3rd movie. Voyager had a cast of nine. They're not going to write out Janeway and Chakotay - safe. They're not gonna write out the Vulcan or the half-Klingon - safe. They're not gonna write out Tom nor the Doctor as the characters and actors were also favored - safe. Neelix was just too much fun to have around - safe. Now it boils down to Harry and Kes. It's not surprising that one of them was going to be let go. Originally, the decission was Harry, then over the summer, they decided Kes. That's showbiz.

#3 Jennifer wasn't fired for "not being Asian." That's not what happened. Wang was kept, because "the producers would look racist for firing him now that everyone knows who he is, thanks to America's Most Beautiful People" magazine. Jennifer was fired because she was "the other character" considered for dropping from the show.

#4 I still refuse the notion that "Fury" was made to upset Jennifer Lein, destroy the character of Kes, nor to upset fans of the character Kes. Quite the opposite. The episode was made to invite Jennifer back to the show and give fans one more episode with Kes before moving into the final season. Now that said, I'm perfectly fine with you or anyone else taking the stance of, "This episode sucks, yuck!" There are TV shows I like with episodes that I don't like.

#5 I guess I'm not like most fans. I don't need to force everything to fit like a puzzle in-universe. Star Trek's not real. Sometimes, things just don't make sense, because productions, and because it's not a documentary, so things get forgotten, mistakes creep in, and when the episode airs... "Crap, maybe no one will notice." (Trekkies rage on the internet) Oh, and I like "Threshold," don't phaser me, don't Kes-power throw me across the hall.

#6 Recasting Kes doesn't mean casting Barbie, and it doesn't mean doom-and-gloom. I would have loved to see Kes pop up in Prodigy and maybe reveal the Ocampans turned out OK and survived the Kazon when their underground city ran out of power.

#7 Star Trek: Prodigy is streaming on Netflix, 2 seasons (40 episodes total), and the S2 finale works as a series finale if Netflix doesn't renew for S3. The first season is very much a spin-off of Voyager in the same way DS9 was spun-off from TNG. However, the show's 2nd season very much feels like VOY S8. Both seasons have a lot of direct connections to Voyager. I was always bitter than we never got a Voyager movie, but I understood the business reasons why that never happened. Prodigy makes up for that by a long shot. I recommend signing up with Netflix so you can watch the show. Check out what Netflix has to offer. When you finish the show, if you're not impressed with what Netflix has to offer regarding the subscription fee, you can cancel your subscription. Alternatively, you can do a "blind buy" and pick up the show on Blu-ray. There are three releases: S1 part 1, S1 part 2, and Season 2.

Questions about Kes leaving and coming back:
#1 Your anger is not over Seven coming in, but rather Kes leaving, is that right?
#2 You're angry that Kes came back for only one episode and not more, is that right?
#3 Going back in time to 2000: it's late-S6, and Jennifer Lein is being asked to come back for a nostalgia "Kes returns" episode. What story would you have wanted to see, and would you have made it a two-parter? For me, whatever the plot was, it should have been one of those big-bidget two-parters.

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

Well, I am not Lynx, but I would personally prefer for Kes to return to Voyager as an ally, maybe because she detected q larger threat and needs help, they together defeat said threat and she either stays or leaves, but she makes sure the crew knows she's all right. Maybe promises to come back one day.

Or, if she must be an enemy, give a better explanation for her change and give her a happy ending in the end. Just getting old is not a good enough explanation for me. It would work better if she "met something so terrified that it changed her so much" (Maybe she looked into a Medusan?) or was simply corrupted by her power.

 

[Dukhat]

Since there’s nothing canon to contradict that her natural 9-year aging process was changed, she died of old age a long time ago.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Well, I am not Lynx, but I would personally prefer for Kes to return to Voyager as an ally, maybe because she detected q larger threat and needs help, they together defeat said threat and she either stays or leaves, but she makes sure the crew knows she's all right. Maybe promises to come back one day.

Or, if she must be an enemy, give a better explanation for her change and give her a happy ending in the end. Just getting old is not a good enough explanation for me. It would work better if she "met something so terrified that it changed her so much" (Maybe she looked into a Medusan?) or was simply corrupted by her power.

It wouldn't really make sense for her to return as a recurring character like Seska in S2 as in later Voyager, shortcuts home would come and go. Is Kes just casually following Voyager in her shuttle with nothing better to do? UPN wouldn't let the do story arcs, either. If she returned to the ship as a recurring guest star, it still doesn't make sense that she'd only be in a few episodes.

Really, the only way to bring Kes back and it make sense is for it to be a major one-time event. This should have been an epic two-parter on par with say Equinox (S5 finale, S6 premiere) or Scorpion (S6 finale, S7 premiere). We had no S6 two-parter, Kes would have been perfect for this.

Regarding it not making sense for Kes to come back for anything more than one episode or a two-parter, here are some creative ways Kes could have come back.

"Year of Hell" - Imagine if in the revised timeline, Kes just magically appeared as if she hadn't left, in a relationship with Tom Paris, and we slowly realize this is another take on what we briefly saw in "Before and After." When the Krenim ship is gone again, Kes is gone, Tom and B'Elanna is a thing again too.

"Mortal Coil" - Kes could have returned to help Neelix. Is he hallucinating, is he just dreaming, is it really cosmic Kes returned to help Neelix? End the episode with Neelix not knowing, but whether real or imagined, Kes did help him, along with Chakotay.

That's three episodes in S4 she could have returned for, onto S5.

"Timeless" - replace Chakota's girlfriend with Kes. Why is she back, where did she come from? Just have her back with her cosmic powers as if she'd been running around with Chakotay and Kim for a while. Leave the audience confused on how she reunited with these two men over the 15-year gap between Voyager's crash and finding the crash site.

"Latent Image" - Are the flashbacks to before Kes left? If yes, here's another one she could have been in.

"Relativity" - During the scenes of Voyager in a space battle with the Kazon, imagine Kes helping Janeway and Seven stop Braxton. Why oh why did they not do this?

That's it for S5, onto S6. There's "Fury" (which should have been a 2-parter) and "Ashes to Ashes" if Linsey Ballad is from before Kes left, but dang, that means those aliens can just zip across the galaxy like Voyager zipping across a solar system. We're off to S7.

Where was Kes in "Shattered?" Imagine if it were the Chakotay-Janeway-Kes trio saving Voyager. Finally, in "Homestead," when Neelix settles with his new family by episode's end, it would have been nice if there were a picture of the S1-3 cast somewhere in the shot. Just saying.

In conclusion, there's 6 to 8 episodes (besides Fury) where Kes could have popped up through time travel and flashbacks. In the case of "Mortal Coil," leave the audience and Neelix not knowing if it was a cosmic visit or just his subconscious. Leave "Fury" as it is, but rework it into a two-parter, and rework it so Lynx is happy.

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

If she can only return for a single episode, I would have her return for the series finale, where she would return to Voyager help them with the Borg (she could even play the role of future Janeway in devising the plan and filling the voyager crew on the plan!), then return with Voyager to Earth, with the possibility of her appearing in future Stsr Trek films/series, since she would be on Earth. This way, she would not be a returning charater, but she would end up thye series on a positive note, and part of the crew. For me, it would be perfect solution, and woul;d fix the finale as well.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

If she can only return for a single episode, I would have her return for the series finale, where she would return to Voyager help them with the Borg (she could even play the role of future Janeway in devising the plan and filling the voyager crew on the plan!), then return with Voyager to Earth, with the possibility of her appearing in future Stsr Trek films/series, since she would be on Earth. This way, she would not be a returning charater, but she would end up thye series on a positive note, and part of the crew. For me, it would be perfect solution, and woul;d fix the finale as well.

You're suggesting drop the time travel stuff in favor of super-powerful cosmic Kes? This would be a fundamental complete bail on "Endgame" as it is. What story would you tell in its place?

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

This is just an idea. And not superpowerful. Maybe Kes should "see" the bad future throught her powers and come to Voyager to get them home quicker, also providing some alien technology she picked up in her previous journeys to help defeat the Borg... It's just an idea, but I think it's worh talking about.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

This is just an idea. And not superpowerful. Maybe Kes should "see" the bad future throught her powers and come to Voyager to get them home quicker, also providing some alien technology she picked up in her previous journeys to help defeat the Borg... It's just an idea, but I think it's worh talking about.

She evolved into a white energy blob and tossed Voyager 9,500 thousand light years (10 years off the journey) closer to home in just a few minutes. Love or hate "Fury," I absolutely loved that her return didn't "forget" that she'd have all these wacked out cosmic powers.

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

I don't propose that all her powers be removed (and the level of her powers is a bit inconsistent between The Gift and Fury anyway). I think having a similar level of powers as an average Force user in Star Wars would be fine, maybe with some added telepathy.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I don't propose that all her powers be removed (and the level of her powers is a bit inconsistent between The Gift and Fury anyway). I think having a similar level of powers as an average Force user in Star Wars would be fine, maybe with some added telepathy.

With cosmic Kes, I'm of the mindset: go big or go home. Pre-Gift Kes already had Force-powers. Cosmic Kes in "Fury" who could explode walls by just being angry, kill someone with an angry look, make herself look young for days, time travel on a whim, force-blasting Janeway with angry looks, and so on. I'd love to see Kes just beam into Borg HQ and chat up with the Queen. The Queen tries to assimilate Kes, but nothing happens, Kes just scratches her neck like a mosquito bit her. There's so much you can do with a different-plot, cosmic-Kes finale.