kes leaves voyager episode

Kes' emotional farewell to Voyager was more about saying goodbye to Jennifer Lien

S eason four of Star Trek: Voyager brought changes to the series, beginning with saying goodbye to Jennifer LIen's Kes. Lien was being written out and essentially replaced by Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine. To say that many people were disappointed by the loss of Kes is an understatement. The cast had an especially difficult time with saying goodbye to her as Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill shared in The Delta Flyers' podcat. [ via Screenrant ]

"The Gift," the second episode of season four marked Lien's final appearance as a series regular, and the emotional scenes that played out between Captain Kathryn Janeway and Kes were more about Kate Mulgrew saying goodbye to Lien.

"[For] both of them ... This had nothing to do with actual Kes or Janeway."Garrett Wang

Wang admits that he gets emotional watching the scene as between Mulgrew and Lien was emotional as well. It was a difficult time for the cast as clearly everyone had grown to love Lien. Though Voyager's showrunners have said in the past that her character had "reached a creative dead end," [ via Heavy ], we all know there was more to her departure.

The decision to terminate Lien was a difficult one, and according to Star Trek: Voyager: A Celebration by Ben Robinson and Mark Wright, it had nothing to do with Jeri Ryan, contracts, or budget constraints. Jeri Taylor did say in the book that they "knew something was going on [with Lien], but she wouldn't talk about it or let us offer to help."

Lien's final episode as a series regular was a touching send-off, and she played it well even knowing it was her last time working with the cast. (At the time, she didn't she would return in the season six episode, "Fury.") For all everyone knew, this was the last time they'd work with her on Voyager.

"Kes tells Janeway that this is her time to leave, and all those lines? Forget about those lines. All the lines that were said in this scene were basically Kate Mulgrew telling Jennifer Lien, 'I'm gonna miss you. I can't believe production has let you go,' basically, is what this entire scene was. This was the emotional one for me. This is the one where I started getting emotional just watching this, just knowing, you know, that this was--"Garrett Wang

"Well, Kate was very emotional, and you could see Jennifer was very emotional."Robert Duncan McNeill

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as Kes' emotional farewell to Voyager was more about saying goodbye to Jennifer Lien .

This story contains discussions of mental health. If this discussion affects you or someone you know, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

The "Star Trek: Voyager" unique character Kes (played by Jennifer Lien) offered many interesting opportunities for the series, but unfortunately, it didn't come to fruition.

Kes, known for her telepathy and nine-year lifespan, was written out of the series after three seasons, a departure the cast and crew lamented.

At the time, the reasons for Lien leaving the show were a little murky. Writers confessed to feeling they wrote themselves into a corner with her character.

However, later producers disclosed that her increasingly unstable mental health forced them to let her go. Producer Jeri Taylor expounded on this in a 2020 book about the series.

Taylor explained, "She wouldn't talk or let us offer to help." With no other foreseeable options, showrunners decided to write her out of the show.

Unfortunately, problems persisted for Lein after “Voyager.” She was arrested for indecent exposure in 2015 and again in 2018 for driving on a revoked license.

Star Trek: Voyager - Why Jennifer Lien's Kes Left in Season 4

Kes was a member of the Star Trek: Voyager crew, but in Season 4, the character departs the show after the introduction of Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine.

Star Trek: Voyager premiered in 1995 and as the fifth installment in the franchise. The show, which ran for seven seasons, follows the adventures of Captain Katheryn Janeway ( Kate Mulgrew ) and the crew of the USS Voyager, who are stranded 70,000 light-years from Earth in the Delta Quadrant. On their journey home, the crew meets many allies and enemies , including an Ocampan named Kes (Jennifer Lien) and a Talaxian named Neelix (Ethan Phillips), who later became valued members of the crew. However, in the show's fourth season, Kes is written out the series and replaced by Jeri Ryan's popular character Seven of Nine , an ex-drone rescued from the Borg Collective by Voyager. Here's who Kes was and why she left the show.

Who was Star Trek: Voyager's Kes?

Kes is a telepathic humanoid species with a nine-year lifespan called an Ocampan. Kes lived in the Delta Quadrant and are cared for by an entity known as the Caretaker. When the Voyager crew encounters her, Kes is a captive of an aggressive species of warriors known as the Kazon. With help from Neelix, the crew rescues Kes and welcomes her as one of their own. It took some time for Kes to adjust to this new life in space, but she was always willing to lend an ear to any crew member who needed it, and she sometimes accompanied Janeway and the other officers on away missions due to her knowledge of the Delta Quadrant. Kes wanted to contribute to the crew, so she introduced the hydroponics bay and grew fruits and vegetables. She also began studying medicine under the ship's holographic Doctor (Robert Picardo), and her kindness and positive outlook helped the Doctor develop a friendlier nature.

Related:  Star Trek: The Next Generation - Why Denise Crosby's Tasha Yar Left After Season 1

One of Kes' most significant storylines came from her acquisition of various mental abilities thought long lost by her people, including telepathic visions and telekinesis. The ship's science officer, a Vulcan named Tuvok (Tim Russ), helped Kes study and hone her newfound powers. When Voyager enters Borg space, the crew encounters both the Borg but also a lifeform called Species 8472, which inhabited an area of fluidic space and engaged in a war with the Borg when they attempted to invade and assimilate them. Kes makes a telepathic connection with Species 8472, who probe her mind and unlock even more abilities for the Ocampan. Unfortunately, this proved too much power for Kes to handle, and she began to destabilize, accidentally destroying parts of the ship. Janeway  helps Kes escape from Voyager , and the Ocampan uses the last of her powers to push the ship beyond Borg space and over 9,000 light-years closer to home.

Why did Jennifer Lien leave Voyager?

Lien left the show because Kes's character wasn't working the way producers Rick Berman and Jeri Taylor initially envisioned. According to Taylor, the studio also weighed in on her fate. "The studio felt that we had too many characters," she said in Braving the Unknown , a special feature on the fourth season DVD. The size of the cast became a problem when Voyager introduced Seven of Nine to help boost declining ratings. During the 2014 VegasCon, producer Brannon Braga said Kes' departure was a failure of imagination on the writers' part. "We were running out of things to do with Kes. We had to make room in the budget for a new character in the cast so there was a pragmatic reason but it was primarily a creative decision," he said.

An angry and older Kes would later return in Voyager's sixth season. In an episode called "Fury," Kes attempts to change the timeline, blaming Voyager for leaving her alone and frightened in the Delta Quadrant. In the end, Janeway (and a younger version of Kes) helps her see what a valued member of the crew she was during her time on the ship and that leaving her behind was a difficult decision. Kes and Janeway have an emotional  goodbye, and she departs the ship once and for all to return to her people.

Keep Reading: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Why Diana Muldaur's Katherine Pulaski Left After Season 2

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Recap / Star Trek: Voyager S4E2 "The Gift"

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Childhood [ ]

Kes as an infant

Kes was born on Ocampa in 2369 . She belonged to a species that had telepathic abilities and a normal lifespan of only nine years. Kes' father , to whom she was very close and whom she considered the greatest inspiration in her life, died not long after her first birthday. She still thought about him and often felt his presence when she needed guidance. ( VOY : " Caretaker ", " Elogium ", " Dreadnought ", " Before and After ")

When she was born, her mother expressed a wish that she would one day see the sun . Like most Ocampa, Kes was brought up underground, as her planet's surface had became a barren wasteland due to a catastrophic event and was unsuitable for habitation. ( VOY : " Caretaker ", " Before and After ")

Kes as a child in 2370

About 500 generations ago, a race of explorers from a distant galaxy , called the Nacene , had inadvertently damaged the atmosphere of the planet so badly that all nucleogenic particles were lost, thus rendering the atmosphere incapable of producing rain . The Nacene deeply regretted what they had done and left two of their kind behind to protect and provide for the Ocampa. While the female Nacene settler left in order to further explore the galaxy, the male Nacene, known as the Caretaker , stayed. He built a vast underground city, provided the Ocampa with food, entertainment and water from subterranean sources, as well as energy from the Array in space. The Ocampa civilization was sealed in by the Caretaker with a force barrier, and the ruling Elders were subsequently charged with discerning the wishes of the Caretaker, who had attained an almost godlike status among the Ocampa. The Ocampa remained in this state for five hundred generations.

Over the years, some had found a way to circumvent the energy barrier and reach the surface. They were part of a rebellious minority who wanted to explore other possibilities, and no longer wished to remain dependent on the Caretaker. Among them was Kes. She was frustrated that the Ocampa had been dependent on the Caretaker for so long that they couldn't even think for themselves anymore. She knew that before they had given up their independence for comfort and security, they had been a people with full command of their minds' abilities, abilities they had lost because they stopped using them and began to just take what they were given. Kes did not want to walk the path the Caretaker had set for her and other Ocampa anymore; she believed her people needed to evolve, and that they could only do so by learning to survive on their own and on their own terms.

Kes in 2371 , after having been tortured by the Kazon

Her yearning to see the outside world led her to leave the city in 2371 through some ancient tunnels. However, upon reaching the surface, she was captured by members of the Kazon-Ogla sect, who had established a camp near the city. There, she was mistreated and tortured for information regarding the entrance to the city. The Kazon were a crude and rather technologically deficient race and finding a way to the fruitful underground oasis of the Ocampa city would have provided them with abundant resources.

During her time with the Ogla, she met the Talaxian Neelix and the two fell in love. Neelix promised to rescue her. He managed this with the aid of Captain Janeway 's USS Voyager and Chakotay 's Maquis crew that had been transported to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker's Array. In return, Kes agreed to help them retrieve crewmembers that had been sent to the Ocampa city for care, after the experiments the Caretaker had done on them.

Kes after joining Voyager

After the Array – which could have taken Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant – had to be destroyed by Janeway so that the Ocampa would not fall victim to the ruthless Kazon, Kes and Neelix asked to join the Voyager crew on their journey, promising to serve the ship and its crew as valuable crewmembers. ( VOY : " Caretaker ")

Aboard Voyager [ ]

The first year [ ].

As one of her first acts on Voyager , Kes volunteered to establish a hydroponics garden in cargo bay two in order to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to allow for more variety in meals for the crew. Her requirement of nitrogenated soil for her garden from sickbay started her friendship and sympathy with The Doctor . ( VOY : " Parallax ")

Kes, in the midst of her first expression of mental ability

Shortly after joining the crew , Kes began to exhibit some of the mental powers her species had long since lost. She experienced a telepathic vision of the devastation of a nearby planet by a polaric ion explosion. She also started to exhibit temporal telepathy while investigating the disaster, eventually locating the exact spot where Captain Janeway died. Even after the explosion was averted and the timeline containing the disaster completely unraveled, her vision not only remained, but became more vivid. ( VOY : " Time and Again ")

Kes quickly settled in to life aboard Voyager and began growing vegetables in her hydroponics bay. She also began to study medicine under The Doctor in order to become The Doctor's nurse . When Neelix was attacked by the Vidiians and they removed his lungs, she donated one of her own to save his life. After the operation, The Doctor allowed her to commence training to become his medical assistant . ( VOY : " Phage ")

Soon Kes started to help The Doctor in sickbay. She was shocked at the way The Doctor was treated by the crew. After explaining the situation to Captain Janeway , the captain agreed with her. Janeway told The Doctor that he was a member of the crew and she gave him control of the deactivation of his program. The Doctor found Kes' intellectual curiosity intriguing, and in the course of instructing her in her medical studies, he postulated that Kes had an eidetic memory . ( VOY : " Eye of the Needle ") With Kes acting as his medical assistant, this gave Voyager a physician that could act as a medic in cases where patients couldn't be immediately transferred to sickbay, also allowing The Doctor to be kept offline rather than be constantly activated to deal with any minor injuries. Despite her respect for his lessons, Kes also lectured The Doctor on his bedside manner; when The Doctor programmed a holographic "flu" to better his bedside manner, Kes secretly modified it to last longer than the expected duration, telling him that "it wouldn't be an effective lesson" if he knew when his illness would end. ( VOY : " Tattoo ")

Kes realizes she has been eating the spawn beetles in her airponics bay

In late 2371 , Voyager encountered a swarm of space-dwelling lifeforms whose presence resulted in increased electrophoretic activity in the atmosphere. At the same time, Kes began exhibiting strange behavior, such as developing a big appetite and eating copious amounts of food – from mashed potatoes , flowers , to the dirt from soil and even the bugs she used in her airponics bay for cross-pollination. Neelix caught her devouring a combination of these foods and was worried that she might have poisoned herself. She resisted being taken to sickbay , stating that she just couldn't stop eating. The Doctor examined her and discovered that she had an elevated temperature and increased electrophoretic activity. However, he was unsure as to what exactly was causing her symptoms.

Kes goes through the Elogium

Before long, Kes barricaded herself behind a force field in The Doctor's office, running a dangerously high fever and developing a growth on her back. Captain Janeway, whom Kes trusted the most, was called in. She explained to her that the growth on her back was the sac where her child would grow. She revealed that she was going through the Elogium , a time of change, during which her body prepared for fertilization. Janeway tried to explain to her that Humans go through a similar process called puberty , but Kes was panicking because she was simply too young for the Elogium, as it usually happened between the ages of four and five and she wasn't even two years old yet. As Janeway tried to console her, Kes pointed out that the Elogium only occurred once – and if she was ever going to have a child, it had to be now. This left Kes and Neelix with the tough decision of deciding whether to have a child. Neelix in particular was unsure whether he was ready to be a father, which in turn left Kes somewhat disappointed because she wanted to mate with him. Even though Kes later decided to not conceive, The Doctor believed that the Elogium was a false alarm, probably set in motion by the swarm they encountered, and that she was still able to conceive again at the right age. ( VOY : " Elogium ")

The second year [ ]

In 2372, the Bothans attacked Voyager with a bio-electric field that caused the crew to experience hallucinations. It put the crew under some kind of psychoactive trance which disabled the ship. Kes' telepathic abilities allow her to resist the Bothans and to restore the crew to normal. ( VOY : " Persistence of Vision ")

Later that year, Voyager found a second Ocampa colony in a second array under the guidance of Suspiria , the Caretaker's female counterpart. These Ocampa had advanced telepathic abilities and their leader, Tanis , tutored her while secretly plotting with Suspiria to take Voyager . When she demonstrated her new skills to Tuvok, she accidentally boiled the water in his body and he was severely injured. Nevertheless, he said she should continue her training under Tanis, who told Kes to join them. Tanis encouraged her to pursue destructive abilities, inducing her to incinerate the plants in hydroponics. When Suspiria attacked the crew in revenge for the Caretaker's death, Kes attacked Tanis telepathically and Janeway deployed a non-lethal toxin to disable her. Being shown mercy caused Suspiria to leave with Tanis; his departure caused Kes' power to return to its previous level. She was disturbed by the harm she did with her enhanced abilities; Tuvok told her that she must learn to control, rather than fear, such impulses. ( VOY : " Cold Fire ")

Voyager passed through a divergence field that caused all sensor readings to double and every particle on the ship, except antimatter, to duplicate forming a second Voyager and crew. The field caused extensive damage to the first Voyager . Kes vanished in a mysterious void, Harry Kim was sucked out into space and Samantha Wildman 's baby died. Kes led Janeway back to the void to take her back to her ship. When the Vidiians attacked, they killed the duplicate Kes and they themselves were destroyed when the duplicate Voyager self-destructed, but not before Kim returned with Wildman's baby to the other Voyager . ( VOY : " Deadlock ")

Kes, along with the rest of the crew, was marooned on Hanon IV after the Kazon had captured the ship. She was captured by the primitive tribe on the planet who were amazed at her blond hair and light skin. Chakotay later rescued her. ( VOY : " Basics, Part II ")

The last year on Voyager [ ]

On a visit to the Nechani homeworld, Kes was struck by an energy burst that put her into a coma . She had wandered into a sanctuary into which only monks were allowed. She was saved by Janeway, who went through a series of tests of faith. ( VOY : " Sacred Ground ")

Tieran, as he appeared in his mental confrontation with Kes

One of the most troubling episodes in Kes' life occurred in 2373, when her body was taken over by the Ilari Tieran . Although he found her physically weak, he discovered that he was able to put her budding psychokinetic abilities to dangerous uses and grew fond of her body. For the first few days, he concealed his presence and even ended Kes' relationship with Neelix.

After killing the Autarch 's representative and Ensign Martin , he returned to Ilari and staged a coup , killing the ruling autarch. During the next few days, Kes fought him mentally, causing increasingly erratic behavior. She even surfaced at one point, with the help of Tuvok, but she was unable to remove Tieran's influence.

Kes-Tieran slowly getting to Tuvok

As a civil war broke out on the planet, the crew of Voyager rescued Kes but failed to prevent Tieran from taking Ameron as a new host, although he was driven out of Ameron and destroyed a short time later. Kes found the experience difficult to comprehend and blamed herself for the high death toll. It was clear that her time with Tieran had shaken her badly. ( VOY : " Warlord ")

Possibly as a result of her experience with Tieran, Kes began to question her continued presence on Voyager . She chose not to restart her relationship with Neelix and began to pursue other relationships instead. The first of these was with a Mikhal Traveler named Zahir . She fell in love with Zahir during a stay at one of their outposts , and seriously considered his offer to explore space with him rather than stay on Voyager . Meanwhile, The Doctor, who was experimenting with his matrix, caused an evil side to emerge. He became jealous of her suitor, attacked Zahir, and kidnapped Kes. During their time together, Kes realized that the "dark Doctor" was not truly evil; despite his claims that all organics were pathetic, he seemed to care for Kes in a twisted manner. Despite this, when cornered by an away team searching for them, rather than be captured, the 'dark Doctor' jumped off a cliff with Kes. They were saved by the transporter beam as the dark subroutines in The Doctor's program finally collapsed, resulting in him being back to normal when he returned to Voyager . Eventually, she decided to remain with her friends. ( VOY : " Darkling ")

Leaving the ship [ ]

A few weeks later, Voyager entered the core space of the Borg and stumbled across the Borg-Species 8472 War . As a result of the telepathic nature of Species 8472 , Kes began to experience visions of the future, and later began to communicate with the race. When they realized her nature, Species 8472 began reading Kes' memories. The communications ceased when the species retreated from the Delta Quadrant. ( VOY : " Scorpion ")

Kes becomes non-corporeal

Only a few days later, Kes began to undergo a massive surge in her mental powers. Although it was theorized that the exposure to Species 8472 caused these changes, there was little evidence for this. For whatever reason, Kes became telekinetic and was able to carry out delicate surgical procedures using only her mind. Unfortunately, she rapidly started to destabilize at the subatomic level and was causing massive damage to Voyager as a result. Taking a Class 2 shuttle , she left the ship to explore her new condition and, as she left the corporeal world behind, pushed Voyager out of Borg space, 9,500 light years closer to Earth , as a parting gift. ( VOY : " The Gift ")

Return to Voyager [ ]

Kes in 2376

In the original sequence of events in 2376 , Voyager received a distress call from a small ship . Sensors revealed that the ship had one Ocampan lifeform on board. It was an aged Kes, who requested to be beamed aboard Voyager . When Janeway questioned her motives, Kes responded by ramming Voyager with her ship and boarding the Starfleet vessel. In her old age, Kes had forgotten she had chosen to leave Voyager and thought the crew had abandoned her when she had become too troublesome. Subsequently, she hunted down Voyager , seeking revenge. She made her way to engineering , using her powers to cause extensive damage along the way. When she reached engineering, Kes murdered B'Elanna Torres and used the warp core 's energy to enhance her powers and travel back to 2371, shortly after Voyager had become trapped in the Delta Quadrant. She attempted to prevent her younger self from developing her powers, making a deal with the Vidiians to attack and capture the ship, while taking the younger Kes back to Ocampa. This attempt was thwarted by Captain Janeway, who had been alerted to the possibility of time travel as Tuvok had been experiencing 'flash-forwards' due to exposure to tachyon particles caused by the presence of the future Kes, ranging from mentioning the Delta Flyer around four years before its construction or witnessing Naomi Wildman before her mother announced her pregnancy. In a confrontation in the airoponics bay, Janeway was forced to kill the older Kes when she was knocked off-balance during a Vidiian attack. She and Tuvok subsequently explained the situation to Kes of the present, who recorded a hologram that would dissuade the Kes of 2376 from making the time jump.

Kes returns to Ocampa

In the new version of 2376, Kes once again assaulted the ship, but Janeway was able to divert the crew from Kes's path, minimizing the damage she inflicted on the ship. When she reached engineering, she found the warp core off-line. A hologram that Kes had recorded of herself before leaving Voyager was activated. The holographic image reminded her that she was responsible for her own fate. Kes responded emotionally and ceased hostilities. Janeway offered her a place on the crew but she refused, opting instead to return to her homeworld. ( VOY : " Fury ")

Telepathic abilities [ ]

Tuvok and Chakotay were attacked by an alien while returning from an away mission . After the two were beamed aboard, strange things started happening to the ship, with different crewmembers implicated as the culprits. Kes informed Janeway that she sensed an alien on board. Tuvok attempted a mind meld with her to help with her telepathic abilities in order to find the alien. It ended in failure when both were disabled by an energy surge like the one that hit Tuvok and Chakotay (although, this was later revealed to be a lie; in reality, Kes had been knocked out by Tuvok, who was possessed by an alien being at the time). ( VOY : " Cathexis ")

Kes marvels at the Ocampan-accelerated growth rate of her plants in the airponics bay

Kes' native telepathic powers continued to grow during her time in space, and she received training from Tuvok to control her powers. When Voyager encountered another group of Ocampa and the entity Suspiria , Kes' powers increased so fast that she began to lose control of them, incinerating the hydroponics bay and nearly killing Tuvok due to her new power of pyrokinesis. Fortunately, she saw how twisted these Ocampa had become and used her powers to fight them off. With the escape of Suspiria, her powers returned to their normal levels. ( VOY : " Cold Fire ")

In an artificially-created hallucination, it was Kes who telepathically sensed that Janeway's spirit was still present on Voyager , but attempts by Tuvok and Kes to make contact with her failed. Janeway soon learned that she was simply being pursued by an alien who was trying to convince her that she was dead and wanted her energy to feed off. ( VOY : " Coda ")

At the end of the year during the battle with the Borg and Species 8472 , she could sense Species 8472. She warned an away team that they are about to be attacked by the aliens, and was able to determine that Species 8472 was planning an invasion of the Delta Quadrant . ( VOY : " Scorpion ")

Personal relationships [ ]

Romance [ ].

Although initially her relationship with Neelix was a romantic one, it seemed to cool during the trip on Voyager . Neelix was the first non-Ocampa that Kes met and she was enthralled with the stories he told about his adventures.

Her friendly behavior with Paris initially caused a confrontation between Neelix and Paris, the former being driven by a somewhat irrational jealousy towards the latter. While stranded together on a planet termed " Planet Hell " after a shuttle crash, they resolved their differences and began a solid friendship. Kes was aggravated by Neelix' jealousy and hurt by the implication that he didn't trust her or would suspect her friends of getting between them. ( VOY : " Parturition ")

During late 2372 , Kes suffered a major personal loss after a transporter accident claimed the lives of Neelix and Tuvok. In their place was a new combined entity that called himself Tuvix and declared his love for Kes. Though deeply troubled by the loss and by this declaration of love, she worked hard to become friends with Tuvix. When Captain Janeway and The Doctor found a method of separating him, Tuvix asked Kes to intercede in an effort to save his own existence. Ultimately, Kes asked the opposite, giving in to her desperation to have Neelix and Tuvok back. ( VOY : " Tuvix ")

Alien creatures that attached to Voyager had strange effects on Kes. She became prematurely fertile, which Ocampa do only once in a lifetime. If she ever wanted a baby she had to conceive while she was in this cycle. Neelix's reluctance to start a family upset Kes because she had always assumed she would have a child someday; Neelix, with his itinerant lifestyle, had never seriously considered the possibility. However, Kes began questioning her own readiness to become a parent even as Neelix came around to the idea. The elogium ended when the creatures were returned to their mother and The Doctor hypothesized that Kes would be able to reenter the elogium at the normal time. ( VOY : " Elogium ")

Following her possession by Tieran , Kes and Neelix broke up; although this was initially caused by Tieran, it has been speculated that Tieran was partially motivated by Kes' own subconscious desires, explaining why she never got back together with the Talaxian. Despite this, the two remained close friends. Neelix later joked that Kes broke up with him because of his cooking. ( VOY : " Warlord ", " The Gift ")

Kes encountered Zahir , one of the Mikhal Travelers , while visiting their outpost in 2373. Clearly attracted by his youthful good looks, intelligence, sensitivity and bravery, she spent much time with him – including a moonlit walk and at least one shared kiss – to the detriment of her duties aboard Voyager .

Zahir was equally attracted to Kes and invited her to travel with him aboard his ship for a few weeks, and initially she accepted his offer despite concerns on the part of Captain Janeway, who reminded Kes of her obligations as Voyager' s assistant medical officer, and Lieutenant Tuvok, who questioned Zahir's choice of route and his apparently reckless approach towards travel. Zahir assured Tuvok that, having fallen in love with Kes, he considered her safety on the trip to be of paramount importance.

The trip was postponed when Zahir was attacked and seriously injured by The Doctor's evil alter ego. Kes remained at Zahir's side throughout his initial convalescence, showing great concern; shortly afterwards, when she was kidnapped by the malfunctioning Doctor, Zahir assisted Chakotay and Tuvok in their rescue efforts. Having been rescued, Kes decided to remain with Voyager as it continued on its journey home. ( VOY : " Darkling ")

Friendships [ ]

The doctor [ ].

From the start, Kes treated The Doctor as an individual rather than a tool and encouraged others to do the same. She volunteered to be his assistant after he performed a lifesaving procedure on Neelix and was quickly disturbed by the way the rest of the crew treated him. She did much to improve his ability to relate to the crew and advocated on his behalf to Captain Janeway. At times, her help could be devious; when he gave himself a 29-hour Levodian flu , she secretly extended the length of the subroutine to give him empathy for the sense of helplessness and anxiety that real patients have. ( VOY : " Eye of the Needle ", " Tattoo ")

Kes' efforts evidently had a powerful effect on him; when his program suffered damage and he began to hallucinate that he was his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman , his hallucination included a Human Kes as his wife. Only the real Kes was aware of this, deciding to keep it between the two of them in case Neelix became jealous. ( VOY : " Projections ")

The Doctor massages Kes' feet during her Elogium

Over time, The Doctor and Kes gradually settled into an almost father-daughter role, with The Doctor teaching Kes as a medical assistant. Kes also trusted The Doctor enough to perform the role of her father in the rolissisin , a foot massage that was a precursor to the mating ritual, commonly marking the change in relationship between father and child as the child became a parent herself. ( VOY : " Elogium ")

When a Vidiian scientist , Danara Pel , was beamed onto Voyager dying from the Phage , he transferred her synaptic pattern to a holobuffer and created a holographic body for her without the ravages of the Phage. Kes encouraged The Doctor to tell Pel about his feelings for her, and she subsequently worked with Tom Paris to set The Doctor and Pel up on a date in the holodeck. ( VOY : " Lifesigns ")

The next year Kes helped save The Doctor's matrix when, due to his program having been active for far longer than it was designed for, he began to lose his memories and skills as a doctor. After Torres activated a hologram of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, he explained that The Doctor had been online too long and was deteriorating. Kes persuaded Dr. Zimmerman to graft his matrix onto The Doctor, restoring his mental capabilities. ( VOY : " The Swarm ") Although Kes served as The Doctor's mentor in becoming an individual, he also considered her to be in need of guidance and could be resentful when her attention was distracted from helping him. When she became distracted by her mutual attraction with Zahir , The Doctor was rude and abrupt out of a fear that she would abandon him. When The Doctor's program developed a secondary, evil personality, the 'Dark Doctor' still appeared to care for Kes in a twisted fashion. He tried to kill Zahir because he wanted Kes to remain on the ship, but he also claimed, when he kidnapped her, that she needed his help due to her naiveté. ( VOY : " The Swarm ", " Darkling ")

Tom Paris [ ]

Tom Paris with Kes

As Kes' role on the crew developed, Tom Paris began to develop feelings for her; in an alternate future, he admitted that he'd had a crush on her from the moment she joined the crew. Paris introduced her to new forms of food and drink, including spinach juice (with a touch of pear ) which she enjoyed. ( VOY : " Eye of the Needle ") At her second birthday party, he sacrificed two weeks' worth of replicator rations to give her a beautiful locket as a present. ( VOY : " Twisted ")

To Tom's consternation, his feelings for her grew when he became her flight instructor, prompting a brief conflict between him and Neelix, but the two of them resolved their differences after saving an alien infant together. ( VOY : " Parturition ") Kes and Paris were also closely involved in helping The Doctor cope with relationships; the two of them helped The Doctor arrange a date with Danara Pel, a Vidiian The Doctor had developed feelings for. When Paris left the ship as part of a ploy to expose a Kazon spy , Kes was one of the three people who came to say goodbye to him directly. ( VOY : " Investigations ")

In an alternate future, Kes and Paris married during the " Year of Hell " conflict, following the death of B'Elanna Torres. They had a daughter, Linnis Paris , who married Harry Kim and had a son called Andrew Kim . This timeline was erased when exposure to temporal radiation sent Kes traveling back in time from the moment of her death until she was cured of the radiation during her return to her third year on the ship, and any feelings she may have developed for Paris in the course of her jumps were never fully explored before she finally departed the ship. ( VOY : " Before and After ")

Tuvok became Kes' mentor and tutor in establishing her mental abilities. He used mind melds in order to teach her to control her powers, but sometimes became "frustrated" (as much as any Vulcan could) with her "emotional outbursts", such as giggling, when she used her abilities. Nevertheless, they were close companions and Tuvok grew to respect her. When she was disturbed by the dark turn her abilities took under the influence of Tanis and Suspiria , Tuvok understood because of the violent impulses he carried and told her that the way to cope with it was to control it rather than fear it. ( VOY : " Cold Fire ")

Kes relied on Tuvok's steady guidance and was deeply conflicted by the creation of Tuvix. Without his spiritual guidance or Neelix's emotional support she had nobody to help her and asked Janeway to separate them. Later, when Kes was taken over by the warlord Tieran, Tuvok attempted to help her break his control using a mindmeld. Tieran attempted to seduce him with Kes' body but he denied ever having such feelings for his student. ( VOY : " Tuvix ", " Warlord ")

When Kes considered leaving the ship for a few weeks with Zahir, Tuvok met with the man privately to express his concern over Zahir's travel plan. He also reminded Kes not to forget her duties, although he did not discourage the relationship itself. ( VOY : " Darkling ")

Tuvok was alarmed by the sudden surge in Kes' powers and believed it would be dangerous for her to fully express them, particularly when she began seeing and altering matter on a subatomic level. As she began to warp the structure of the ship itself, Tuvok attempted unsuccessfully to ground her through a mindmeld and it became necessary for her to leave the ship. After her departure and "gift" to Voyager , Tuvok dressed in traditional Vulcan robes and lit his meditation candle in the window in honor of her. ( VOY : " The Gift ")

Kathryn Janeway [ ]

As the captain of Voyager , Kes came to see Janeway as a kind of mother figure, with Janeway reciprocating this affection. During the premature elogium, Kes would only speak to Janeway after barricading herself in Sickbay. ( VOY : " Elogium ") Janeway shared Kes' feeling that she needed to live her brief life to the fullest. Despite Kes' youth, Janeway readily listened to her advice and considered her input valuable enough to include her in staff meetings.

When Janeway experienced an illusory experience of her own death, her first thought was to try and provoke a response from Kes' telepathic abilities. The inability of "Kes" to sense her presence made her think she might really be dead. ( VOY : " Coda ") Janeway also had the most positive reaction to the relationship with Zahir. Although she told Kes to think over the decision carefully, she understood Kes' desire to have varied and complicated experiences in her life. ( VOY : " Darkling ")

When Kes decided to leave Voyager , she exchanged an emotional hug with Janeway before she left ( VOY : " The Gift "). Although a version of Janeway from her first year in Voyager was forced to kill a future version of Kes who had become warped with rage and grief since leaving the ship, when Janeway 'caught up' with the timeframe where that future Kes had travelled back from, Janeway took steps to prevent herself having to go through such an experience again, making a recording of the younger Kes to remind her future self of the reasons she joined the crew and asking Kes not to force Janeway to kill the Ocampan a second time ( VOY : " Fury ").

Alternate Kes [ ]

Holograms [ ].

A holographic Kes as a Human

Kes was holographically duplicated at least three times:

• Recreations of crew members from Voyager and the Jupiter Station Holoprogramming Center were seen by The Doctor during a holographic malfunction in 2371 . This simulation, or daydream, contained a Human Kes who was married to Lewis Zimmerman . ( VOY : " Projections ")
• The entire crew of Voyager was recreated by Tuvok from his Insurrection Alpha program, including Kes. ( VOY : " Worst Case Scenario ")
• Janeway and Tuvok created a holographic recording of Kes in 2371 after encountering her future self from 2376 , using the hologram when the future Kes attacked Voyager in order to convince the older Kes to stand down by reminding her of her original reasons for traveling with Voyager . ( VOY : " Fury ")

Alternate realities and timelines [ ]

Kes giving birth to Linnis

In one possible timeline , Voyager was badly damaged during the " Year of Hell " conflict with the Krenim and the crew were exposed to chronitons . Kes lived through these events and eventually married Tom Paris, Torres having died during the conflict. They had a daughter together called Linnis who, like her mother, grew up very rapidly. Linnis then married Harry Kim, giving Kes a grandson, Andrew Kim.

Eventually, Kes passed nine years of age and began aging rapidly as she entered the morilogium , the final phase of Ocampan life. To save her, The Doctor placed her in a bio-temporal chamber in an attempt to make her cells younger. This procedure reactivated the dormant chronitons and the resulting temporal destabilization sent Kes back along her timeline, altering it along the way as she discussed her memories of the future.

The effect was halted in late 2373 when The Doctor used antichronitons to stabilize Kes; in her previous jump she had taken energy readings of the torpedo that had infected her, allowing The Doctor to work out a means of countering her infection. Over the next few days, her two sets of memories (one set from the past, up to 2373; and one set from the future, back from 2379 ) became a single coherent set. As a result of her experience, Kes was able to warn Captain Janeway of the danger posed by the Krenim. ( VOY : " Before and After ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• " Caretaker "
• " Parallax "
• " Time and Again "
• " The Cloud "
• " Eye of the Needle "
• " Ex Post Facto "
• " Emanations "
• " Prime Factors "
• " State of Flux "
• " Heroes and Demons "
• " Cathexis "
• " Learning Curve "
• " The 37's "
• " Initiations "
• " Projections "
• " Elogium "
• " Twisted "
• " Parturition "
• " Persistence of Vision "
• " Cold Fire "
• " Maneuvers "
• " Prototype "
• " Alliances "
• " Threshold "
• " Dreadnought "
• " Death Wish "
• " Lifesigns "
• " Investigations "
• " Deadlock "
• " Innocence "
• " The Thaw "
• " Resolutions "
• " Basics, Part I "
• " Basics, Part II "
• " Flashback "
• " The Chute "
• " The Swarm "
• " False Profits "
• " Remember "
• " Sacred Ground "
• " Future's End "
• " Future's End, Part II "
• " Warlord "
• " The Q and the Grey "
• " Macrocosm "
• " Fair Trade "
• " Alter Ego "
• " Blood Fever "
• " Darkling "
• " Favorite Son "
• " Before and After "
• " Real Life "
• " Distant Origin "
• " Displaced "
• " Worst Case Scenario "
• " Scorpion "
• " Scorpion, Part II "
• " The Gift "

Background information [ ]

Kes was played by actress Jennifer Lien . Janna Michaels played the young Kes in the episode " Before and After ". The infant Kes in that episode was a live baby. The "double" Kes in " Fury " was played by photo double and stand-in Amy Kate Connolly .

Whereas an initial notion of this character was included in a handwritten short list of characters which Jeri Taylor wrote and dated 30 July 1993 (as it mentioned the term "androgynous"), a more significant early outline of the character concept was written in a subsequent series of Taylor's developmental notes, dated 3 August 1993 . That outline stated, " The alien 'scout' for the ship, whom we meet after we've been zapped to the ends of the galaxy. A female (or male or androgynous) with a life span of only seven years. We first meet her as a young woman; she will age every half season and progress into old age. Each day is a joy to her; she lives in the moment and cherishes every hour. " Originating in the same outline was the practice of the character and her species being referred to as a "Mayfly", a type of insect known for its extremely short lifespan. ( A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager , pp. 175 & 176-177)

An early production name for Kes was "Dah". (" The 37's " text commentary ; A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager ) In the script for VOY : " Caretaker ", Kes was described as " an Ocampa female […] She has a dazzling, ethereal beauty, waifish and fragile. But Kes is not frail: there is a dignity to her bearing, an alertness in her look, that suggests a being of powerful intelligence. "

A runner-up for the role of Kes was Jennifer Gatti . ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 156)

Portraying Kes was highly enjoyable for Jennifer Lien. On 18 November 1994 , she said, " It's a joy to pretend to be this extraordinary creature, so open and everything so new. No sort of cynicism or precociousness or pretentiousness or sarcasm; none of the usual young, female [qualities]. It's good, it's very good. " ( Cast Reflections: Season One , VOY Season 1 DVD special feature)

Jennifer Lien wore short-haired wigs as Kes until midway through the third season , when she reverted to using her own long, blonde hair. This was seen for the first time in " Before and After ". The wigs were initially used to give Kes a more elfin look, but the revert to using Lien's own hair in part was to give Kes a more grown-up look, and in part to prevent Lien from having to always wear the Ocampan ears.

The decision to lose Kes as a main character was, according to Executive Producers Rick Berman and Jeri Taylor , simply because the character had not seemed to be working successfully, despite several attempts to make the character work. ( Braving the Unknown: Season Four , VOY Season 4 DVD ) Berman also cited her relationship with Neelix as a certain stumbling block, saying it "didn't work out that well." ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 114 , p. 12) According to Taylor, the executives of Paramount Pictures were also involved in the decision to lose Kes from the series. " The studio felt that we had too many characters, " she explained. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 113) This was especially the case, in light of the decision to introduce Seven of Nine into the series. Berman noted that the decision to lose Kes as a main character was "simultaneous" with the decision to introduce Seven. ( Braving the Unknown: Season Four , VOY Season 4 DVD ) Berman also stated, " Rather than adding another new character to our existing cast, we decided to replace one because we had so many people to start with. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 114 , p. 12) Co-Producer Brannon Braga was a little bit more harsh on himself and his creative staff, when he stated at the 2014 VegasCon, " To my recollection it was a creative decision and it was failure of imagination on the writers' part. We were running out of things to do with Kes. We had to make room in the budget for a new character in the cast so there was a pragmatic reason but it was primarily a creative decision. " [1]

Indeed, some of Star Trek: Voyager 's writing staff was regretful about Kes leaving the series. Joe Menosky remarked, " It was unfortunate that Kes had to be kissed off. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 30, No. 9/10, p. 78) Kenneth Biller similarly remembered, " I was a little bit regretful when Kes left the show, because I thought she was an interesting character to write for – from a science fiction standpoint – because she had certain… she had telepathic abilities, she had this very compressed lifespan, she had things about her character that often lent themselves to interesting storytelling […] We lost something in losing the Kes character. " ( Braving the Unknown: Season Four , VOY Season 4 DVD ) Jeri Taylor was another writing staffer who expressed unhappiness about Kes' departure, noting, " I was very sorry to lose her. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 36 , p. 11) Taylor, however, wasn't surprised by the incident. " In season 3 or 4 of a series, very often people go and people come, so it wasn't that unexpected an event, " she reasoned. ( Braving the Unknown: Season Four , VOY Season 4 DVD )

It is not known what became of Kes after the final encounter she had with Voyager in " Fury ". Given her elderly appearance and the normal Ocampan lifespan of nine years, it can be presumed that she passed away in or just before 2379 and thus shortly after Voyager 's return to the Alpha Quadrant, although it is possible that she found a way to prolong her life through her considerably advanced mental abilities.

Her " Tieran " costume from the third season episode " Warlord " was later sold off at the Profiles in History auction. [2] [3]

Apocrypha [ ]

In the Voyager trilogy Dark Matters , a version of Kes appears throughout the novel to gather the mutated dark matter that is the cause of the current crisis, initially known as the 'Entity' as she has lost specific knowledge of her past identity through ascending to her new level of existence until she regains it while visiting some of Voyager 's past destinations. At the conclusion of the novel, she contemplates making contact with the crew, but is warned by one of the Shepherds (a race assisting Voyager in this crisis) that she is actually an alternate version of the Kes that the crew are familiar with, as this Kes never experienced the events of " Fury ", and decides not to make direct contact with this Voyager , although Tuvok briefly senses her presence before she departs.

In the Voyager novel String Theory Evolution , Kes was called to Ocampa's distant past to help The Doctor and Q oversee the birth of an Ocampa/Nacene hybrid; the Ocampan mother lacked the life energy to carry the child to term, so Kes 'merged' with the woman to act as a kind of surrogate. This also revealed that the Kes who attacked Voyager in " Fury " was not actually the future Kes, but was instead the personification of the anger and rage in Kes' soul, created when she was forced to separate herself from the Ocampan with whom she had merged while fighting a rogue Nacene. As a result of the improper separation, Kes' "dark side" merged with the body of the Ocampan, although the spirit of the Ocampan herself passed on peacefully. Kes subsequently returned to Ocampa, where she and the hybrid were able to bring rain to the planet once more.

In the Voyager short story "Restoration", Kes used her newly-returned powers in 2377 to regenerate Ocampa's energies, returning the planet to a blissful and fertile state with the atmosphere restored, but killing her in the process.

She is confirmed to still be alive in the novel The Eternal Tide , where she works with Q's son to restore Janeway to life after she is assimilated by the Borg , Q helping Janeway restore her body while Kes helps her repair the damage that she had suffered prior to death so that Janeway is restored to her most 'perfect' state.

Her mirror universe counterpart ( β ) appeared in the novella The Mirror-Scaled Serpent , the short story "Bitter Fruit" contained in the anthology Shards and Shadows and the novel Rise Like Lions .

External links [ ]

• Kes at StarTrek.com
• Kes at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Kes at Wikipedia

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Before and After

• Episode aired Apr 9, 1997

On her deathbed, Kes relives her life, jumping backwards in spurts of time towards birth, gaining knowledge as to why as she goes. On her deathbed, Kes relives her life, jumping backwards in spurts of time towards birth, gaining knowledge as to why as she goes. On her deathbed, Kes relives her life, jumping backwards in spurts of time towards birth, gaining knowledge as to why as she goes.

• Allan Kroeker
• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
• Roxann Dawson
• 23 User reviews
• 6 Critic reviews

• Capt. Kathryn Janeway

• Cmdr. Chakotay

• Lt. B'Elanna Torres
• (as Roxann Biggs-Dawson)

• Lt. Tom Paris

• Ensign Harry Kim

• Linnis Paris
• (as Christopher Aguilar)

• Voyager Computer
• (uncredited)
• Science Division Officer
• Crewman Foster

• Lt. Russell
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia First appearance of Kes's longer hair style instead of the very short hair style from seasons 1, 2, and part of 3. Jennifer Lien , the actress who played Kes, was apparently sensitive to the make-up and adhesive used to apply her Ocampa ears. With the longer hairstyle, it was no longer necessary to apply the Ocampa ears each time she was filmed.
• Goofs The Doctor says there are no other Ocampans on board to compare with, although there are two others, Kes's daughter Linnis and her grandson Andrew; however, the Doctor was referring to the symptoms of the morilogium - which only affects Ocampa in the final stage of their lives - he had no other Ocampa to compare them with. Since Linnis and Andrew haven't reached that stage yet, the Doctor's statement is quite correct. Furthermore, Linnis and Andrew are both only part Ocampan, so their genetic structure is likely to be different anyway.

Neelix : So, I'm going to become a security officer. How about that?

Lieutenant Tuvok : Fortunately, Mr. Neelix, what Kes has been describing is merely one possible future. On each occasion that she jumped to a previous time, her subsequent actions most likely altered the future from that moment on.

Neelix : Good point, Tuvok. Maybe I'll turn out to be Chief Security Officer.

• Connections Featured in Star Trek: Voyager: Year of Hell (1997)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title Written by Jerry Goldsmith Performed by Jay Chattaway

User reviews 23

• Nov 13, 2020
• April 9, 1997 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 45 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Teaching Reading To Struggling Students: Everything You Need to Know

Rhyming capacity: everything you need to know, phonological awareness: everything you need to know, product review of kate spade’s bloom: the perfect mother’s day gift, learning to read: everything you need to know, product review of the arzopa z1c portable monitor, how to teach phonics: everything you need to know, reading groups: everything you need to know, product review of the ultenic p30 grooming kit, reading anxiety in children: everything you need to know, jennifer lien’s 6 best star trek: voyager episodes as kes.

Jennifer Lien’s portrayal of Kes in “Star Trek: Voyager” provided the series with a unique perspective on humanity and personal growth. Despite her relatively short tenure on the show, Kes left an indelible mark on the Voyager saga through some truly memorable episodes. Here are six of the best Kes-centered episodes that showcase Jennifer Lien’s talents and the depth of her character:

1.”Before and After” (Season 3, Episode 21): This episode is a standout for Kes fans, featuring a narrative that revolves around Kes experiencing her life in reverse. We witness an older version of Kes moving backward through time, getting progressively younger. It delves into themes of love, loss, and the impact one has on others’ lives.

2.”Cold Fire” (Season 2, Episode 10): Kes comes into her own as her telepathic abilities expand under the guidance of a fellow Ocampa who shows her how to tap into her psychokinetic powers. But she faces a moral dilemma when she discovers the potential destructive nature of these new abilities.

3.”Warlord” (Season 3, Episode 10): Jennifer Lien demonstrates her range as an actress in this episode where Kes’s body becomes host to an alien warlord named Tieran. Her performance is gripping as she portrays a vastly different personality from the gentle Kes viewers had come to know.

4.”The Gift” (Season 4, Episode 2): This emotionally charged episode is crucial for both Kes’s character arc and Voyager’s journey home. As her powers grow uncontrollably, threatening both her life and the ship, Kes makes a sacrifice that propels Voyager closer to home—a true testament to her evolution and selflessness.

5.”Elogium” (Season 2, Episode 4): In this early episode, Kes begins the Ocampa reproductive process called elogium but questions whether it’s too soon for her to have a child. The episode deals with issues of maturation and responsibility, providing depth to the character’s personal journey.

6.”Twisted” (Season 2, Episode 6): While not solely focused on Kes, this episode places her in an intriguing situation as Voyager encounters a spatial distortion wave that rearranges parts of the ship. It allows Kes to showcase her developing role within the crew as she helps them navigate this perplexing phenomenon.

In these episodes, Jennifer Lien’s portrayal of Kes helped explore complex narratives and deep emotional territory within the tapestry of “Star Trek: Voyager,” leaving fans with lasting impressions of her character’s journey.

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Screen Rant

Star trek: voyager star details cut neelix & kes breakup scene.

Star Trek: Voyager's Ethan Philips talks about the Neelix and Kes' "beautifully written" breakup scene that was filmed, but it never aired.

Star Trek: Voyager   star, Ethan Phillips, said that the breakup scene between Neelix and Kes was cut. The science-fiction TV series aired from 1995 to 2001 throughout seven seasons. As the fifth installment of the  Star Trek  franchise, it follows the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which is stuck extremely far from home. They must work with rebels to return to the Federation, a whole 75 years away.

Neelix (Phillips) is a Talaxian who fulfills many jobs across the Voyager, such as cook, ambassador, and navigator. Meanwhile, Kes (Jennifer Lien) is an Ocampan and acts as a nurse on the vessel. While Neelix stars across seven seasons, Kes eventually leaves and never returns after starring in the episode titled "Fury." Neelix and Kes enter a relationship that stretches over the beginning of the series, which was generally panned by audiences and critics. At the same time, it's clear that the two characters part ways on the show; there's no closure to their relationship.

Related:  How Star Trek Fixed Neelix's Story Problem In Voyager Season 4

On  The Delta Flyers   (via  TrekMovie ) , Phillips and Tim Russ, who plays Tuvok, talked about the interactions between Neelix and Kes. While the show minimizes the interaction between the two characters, Phillips explained how the show was supposed to have a scene that ultimately was cut before it aired. Even his former co-stars were surprised to hear the news on this. See below for Phillip's account and his co-stars' reactions from the podcast co-hosted by Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) and Robbie McNeill (Tom Paris):

Phillips:  “…we did do a scene where we both acknowledge that we’re not a couple anymore. We shot it in the science lab, which was a set we didn’t use often. And Kes and I had a closure conversation where we said we want to be friends now and blah, blah, blah. And it was, it was quite a nice tag to the relationship. They never aired it… …it was it was a very good scene. It was easily as six or seven-page scene where we track what happened to us and what we think might have caused the split, but that we want to stay friends…” Russ:  “Time, and they probably couldn’t have—I don’t even know if they had time to maybe edit it down. You know, just to get to the meat of it and get out.” McNeill:  “I don’t think that the producers and showrunners of our show valued those kind of relationship stories. They really wanted standalone sci fi concepts, let them play out. They didn’t want to deal with long term relationship consistency or continuity. There was very, very little of it. Tom and B’Elanna got a little bit of that in later seasons, but you know, Garrett and I have even talked about the Chakotay/Janeway relationship and that people get whiplash, too. It’s like, one episode, they have a relationship, then the next episode, they don’t, then they do again, then they don’t, then they do. Which is it? I think what it was was, it was if it was convenient to play that quality in an episode, they would do it if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t. And I think that’s probably what happened with the Kes and Neelix thing.” Phillips:  “It was a lot of ambiguity about that relationship to begin with. Was it platonic, wasn’t romantic. And it was shaky, just the the optics You know, I’m an older guy, and here’s this very young girl who’s ostensibly two years old in her race, and I think  they weren’t sure how to handle it so much. And so I think they just thought let’s just move on, and maybe they’ll forget about it.”

While it should be noted that the relationship between Neelix and Kes officially ends in season 3's "Warlord," the scene that Phillips referred to in the podcast is in the episode titled "Fair Trade," which is three episodes after. While the show itself only makes a quick reference later on to the fact that they are broken up, although it's a bit strange how the show abandoned this thread. While the show hasn't been on for many years, it's insightful to hear from the cast about filming.

Some fans were under the impression that a scene where Kes is possessed is where their relationship came to a close. While some of the story decisions made don't make a lot of sense, the relationship itself repulsed many viewers, to begin with. It's still often referred to as being creepy, especially given that the relationship lacked nuance regarding how the species work in the context of maturity within the relationship. Even so, the series overall is still perceived quite positively.

Next:  Star Trek: Why So Many Shows End After Season 7

Source:  TrekMovie / The Delta Flyers