I don't give a f^ck what's Mulgrew's historical favorites.
Well, at least we know where you stand on one of Voyager's leading lights. Singularly blinkered and malign. That's your shtick. Hey, it works for you, keep going with it. Typical.
Drone:. I know the point is to show how alien (unlike human) they can go or it's not space exploration to do otherwise is presumptuous and ego central *I* wasn't able to deal, okay? I was 13 sitting next to my mother. Awkward. And it takes a lot to admit that. It was gross. My opinion. I can have it. I actually was thinking I feel bad for the Kes character as she was heavily experimented with. A short age span, how many kids, odd sexual behaviors and family rituals, out of nowhere super powers and comes back an old hag with dementia apparently. So much potential wasted. I missed her. I know I sound pessmistic over it, jaded you might say but I wasn't bored of her at all. Sick bay was never the same.
I haven't watched all 5 series. What light could you shed on this? Would you say kes is the most alien?
I apologize for implying that I challenged your right to that opinion, especially since, as you explain now, you viewed it at a young age, at which the depictions were difficult to cope with. Not hard to appreciate and I'm glad that you feel free to state it now. I certainly agree with you that there was a world of possibilities that TPTB could have easily created for her. Doctor, counselor, sister/guide to Seven, true moral compass for Janeway, and on and on. What I find most disheartening, is that that they were clueless or just indifferent, to the extraordinary actor that created such a distinctive and empathetic character, basically out of whole cloth.
However, as I said above, somewhere, I personally don't think the portrayal of the characteristics that made her species unique was unduly cruel or taxing on the Ocampan's life or their perception of it. Certainly the majority that we saw in the mausoleum, were inured to life as it was provided to them, but Kes and Suspiria'a band were curious seekers that had the courage to break free of the servile quality of life on the homeworld. As for those physical parameters that you mention, I thought it was illuminating to see how their physiology made them different from humans, who they so closely resembled otherwise. Even the powers you cite, were really more hinted at and shown at lesser levels more often than not. their flowering at the end, was just the means devised to justify Kes's departure, and as
Lynx points out, Cold Fire's (and Warlord really) demonstrations were amplified by the actions of others. Additionally, I interpret her appearance and demeanor in Fury as a suggestion that she was, as she actually stated in the episode, ill prepared to cope with whatever parameters she encountered as a non-corporeal being, which may have eventually overwhelmed her genuine and benevolent personality, leading to an urge to strike out in bitterness and rage.
I certainly haven't seen the entirety of the various series, but I would say that there are many examples of species whose behavior, appearance, and physiology marked them as far more distinctively alien than the Ocampans. The Tholians, the Tamarians, and a bit less seriously, perhaps the Tak Tak
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As to your suggestions, I'd have to give some serious thought to my interest in the first one, but can only give kudos to the second, not the least of which because of a pretty well known and regarded antecedent.
