The Twin Tragedies of ‘Voyager’’s Kes and the Actor Who Played Her
Mismanagement of the Ocampa just one of a number of missteps on the series
Star Trek: Voyager is home to two of the worst tragedies in the franchise, one which spilled over on-screen and the other, which didn't.
The mishap which could be seen on-screen was in the development of the alien, Ocampan character of Kes, while the off-screen bad fortune involves the actor who played her.
Sadly — and despite all the hate that so-called “Nu Trek” which often gets thrown its way — Voyager is really the most mismanaged and poorly utilized series in franchise history.
Despite hiring some of the best actors Star Trek has ever attracted — in particular, Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ, and Bob Picardo — as well as the most unique premise to that point in the franchise — that of a Starfleet crew stranded decades away from the Federation, fighting their way home — Voyager nonetheless suffered from multiple missteps behind the scenes.
Most of those unforced errors have been well-documented before, so I won't delve into them in-depth. But they included:
A completely unrealistic level of reset aboard ship, for a Starfleet vessel which often endured the conflict with alien species which it did, and doing so entirely removed from the abilities of any Starfleet facilities;
Creating interesting dramatic conflict in having to meld Starfleet and Maquis crew members aboard Voyager — but completely forgetting about that conflict just two or three episodes in;
Creating an American Indian character, but then hiring as your consultant to realistically and respectfully develop that character an individual who had already been outted as a fraud and a fake a full decade before hiring him; and
And developing as your initial main antagonist an alien species so stupid and devoid of value that even members of your main cast felt were useless and wanted written off the series. (The in-joke becoming that this species is acknowledged to be so worthless that even the Borg refused to assimilate them.)
But among those serious screwups by the showrunners and those developing the series was the mistakes they made in forming the character of Kes.
Kes was a member of the Ocampa, the species at the very center of the series premiere, “Caretaker.”
The most unique and defining characteristic of the Ocampa was their very short lifespan of no more than nine years.
That distinctive feature could have — should have — become something that the series used as a storytelling device to examine any number of issues and ask a variety of profound questions about the human condition.
Instead, it got touched on — sort of tangentially — just once: in the rather confusing time-travel episode, “Before and After.”
Worse: producers paired this super-young — and initially, prepubescent — character with a separate, much older character from an entirely unrelated species.
More than even that, that relationship was always very ill-defined. Sometimes, it was more romantic, and other times it was presented as more paternal.
Whatever it was, it was really 100-percent icky. Neither Jennifer Lien playing Kes, nor Ethan Phillips in the role of Neelix were at fault. Rather, the blame rested entirely with the producers and writers crafting the episodes.
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Then there’s the even worse — and all too real — tragedy which befell Lien personally, off-screen.
She and her character were written off the series and replaced by the former Borg drone played by Jeri Ryan starting in Season 4.
Lien would continue working in Hollywood for a time — including a co-starring role in the acclaimed film American History X, which also featured fellow Star Trek alum Avery Brooks — before retiring to rural Tennessee and intending to work as a nutritionist.
However, she would begin years of public struggles with her mental health. She faced several serious run-ins with the legal system for a few years.
We were told for decades now that Lien was dismissed from Voyager due to ratings and issues with the character.
It's only been much more recently that executive producer Jeri Taylor revealed the truth, that Lien’s struggle with her mental health began much earlier — during her time on Voyager, in fact. (It's very much an echo of the truth Babylon 5 showrunner J. Michael Straczynski shared several years ago about the departure of that series’s original lead, the late Michael O’Hare, over his own battle with mental illness.)
We’ve had no further news reports of Lien getting into public trouble since 2018, although she also lives a very private life with no interviews or public appearances, and she is notably absent from social media.
And maybe she wants to be left alone. That would be entirely valid and ought to be respected.
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Wil Wheaton experienced his own set of personal problems for a time and was estranged from the Star Trek community.
Ultimately, of course, he was welcomed back into the fold, so much so that he not only had a nice return cameo as Wesley Crusher at the end of the second season of Star Trek: Picard, but Wheaton hosts Paramount Plus’s Star Trek aftershow, The Ready Room.
With so many other legacy characters returning to appear in various Star Trek series, could there be an opportunity for Lien to return even to voice Kes in one of the animated series, either Star Trek: Lower Decks or Star Trek: Prodigy?
But even if an on-screen return to the franchise isn't what Lien wants, she should never be forgotten or cast off as part of the family of Star Trek.
And we as a community that values optimism, inclusion and compassion should be readily available to help her — or anyone else from the franchise — whenever we have the opportunity and they might want or need a little assistance.
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