[
I will say, he is a great convention guest. He is fun, energetic, funny, engages the crowd...a great guest
You're absolutely on target. Conventions are his metier, though to be fair, he does a lot more than just show up as a guest. He's made a very nice cottage industry career tor himself, by being emcee/director at quite a number of events on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong though with what I've said about him. While I won't say he's much of a talented thespian, I enjoyed how he portrayed Kim on the show. He played a significant enough role that had analogues on other sci-fi programs, had what I thought were enjoyable and natural relationships with Tom and B'Elanna, earned Janeway's admiration as an accomplished bridge officer, and more. While it's easy to say, which probably actually would have been hard to justify on the bottom line as the show wasn't exactly killing it, I agree with Lynx's oft stated opinion, that I would have thought it appropriate and just plain right, to have kept the entire ensemble and not let anyone go.
That is exactly the kind of thing I've always thought about with her short life and something that could have been interesting to see. If she was with someone and reached her old age, her partner would still be relatively young. There could be weird feelings on both sides, fear of loosing each other, anger that one is aging and one isn't...things like that
of course in MY head canon that Tom and Kes thing just never even happened at all LOL
... Agreed! Indeed, agreed!!!
Again, sir, I'm shocked. They had a genuine romantic history, which was a genuine and close friendship afterwards. Besides which, while you were making so much of the potential for a split because of Kes' aging, you honestly can't argue that the two didn't almost look exactly alike in their loving temporal perch, right after Andrew was born. In fact, the resemblance is amazing, IMHO.
Celebrities and rehab go together like death and taxes. It's so cliché. Jennifer Lien was not and is not special for that, in any regard, except that she's a STAR TREK girl. Watching Voyager, she's "in our homes" entertaining us, trying to make us forget out troubles, for a little while. And here, her troubles are consuming her life. It doesn't seem fair, or like "karma," at all.
I'm really glad she's getting help, but even if the best results come of it, she's still going to be made to pay for the mental insanity of her flashing incident, for a long time. Possibly ... for the rest of her natural Life. And for what - you know? Her brain's fried, it's not like she's been rational, all these years. She doesn't even welcome fan mail, for support and encouragement. All we can do is offer our prayers and our hopes ... and I certainly do.
All right. Lynx references this interview mentioned elsewhere, in which she appears to be saying very specific and seemingly, cogent things about her life post-Voyager. I've never seen it and I'd wager I've looked for information that would speak to an explanation of how things developed for her as they did. That's not to say that there wasn't such an interview, perhaps more recently, say since these criminal acts, when I haven't been scrutinizing sources as much as I did before. I too would very much like to see it in its entirety, if it was done.
The point I want to get too is that yes, from the time she was on the show, and certainly shortly afterward there was much talk about drug use. You contend that she's been in rehab, as if it's an established and well known fact and follow that up by saying her "brain's fried", which to my knowledge, is also used to point to someone with that affliction.
However, with what is absolutely known about her con appearances, in terms of both quietude combined with instances of seeming out of it, but not as from what I would interpret the type of drugs that people are alluding to here, rather medication that induces extreme enervation, difficulty in concentrating, and paying attention, as would not surprisingly be administered to someone who suffered profoundly from some kind of social anxiety disorder. I would affirm that my expertise on the propensity to progress from such an illness to a much more serious psychiatric illness, is rather less than concrete. But it seems more than plausible given the relatively quick renouncement from working in her profession, a seeming self-imposed isolation from people save those that she knew well personally, the breakdown of her marriage and separation from her children, the lack of gainful activity, and then almost mythical seeming disappearance off the face of the earth (even for those avidly seeking to establish such information so as to feel there was some possibility of forwarding correspondence so that she would receive it). That such a metamorphosis could have been escalated or even instigated by illegal drug use cannot be dismissed. I also won't deny that it is a bias of mine to prefer to believe that such was not the case, although both are illnesses. If I do see primary source material in which she says that drugs played a role, so be it. But even with that, I innately feel that hers has not been solely a drug addiction experience, but one that rather impacted the development of a dangerous mental illness, that may very well have happened anyway without effective and accepted psychiatric treatment, such as, say, schizo-effective disorder, something that I
have very extensive knowledge of, having seen it up close and personal for decades.
I would finally say that your statement of the flashing misdemeanor having a more than reasonable effect of dogging or condemning her for at least a very significant period of time remaining in her life, is not something I believe is inevitable. If her diagnosis is indeed a profound mental illness, is the state, nonetheless, constrained to absolutely have to label her as a sex offender? Aside from which, there are myriad people, individuals who are much more widely known than Jennifer Lien in the greater world, who under the influence of a substance or such an illness, have wreaked much more havoc upon others, obviously up to the taking of someone's life. Some have been punished, but others due to their status or wealth have not, and further not been shunned out of hand. Would Lien ever return to the public realm if her illness is truly brought under control, and she can function "normally" without ever being a threat of any kind again? Treated successfully to that degree even being the case, she may very well choose to live the quiet life that has been the case for so many years. But even if she decides to be in the public, merely in the sense of being a professional who can help people, I don't think that it's impossible for her to establish such a niche and find acceptance.
I have always thought that the felony charges are the far more serious ones to consider. they easily could have resulted in her or a police officer's death. And I think that a next step from this crime, without that effective intervention, might very likely result in such an end. Isn't that possibility far more dangerous and actually mandate the type of punishment that would mark Lien for life? What is the real consequence of this, albeit more sensational, crime on those children upon which it was perpetrated? I won't dismiss that it might impact their ongoing perception of the human body, in a developmentally negative way. But, they weren't touched, threatened, or further approached, to the best of my understanding. I think it much more likely that either through what their parent(s) emphasize to them, or through their own cognition, they may view what happened as the strange but harmless actions of a crazy person.
I argue only for a sensible application of proportionality in considering the two incidents and not be swayed by the siren appeal of the celebrity culture that is endemic and makes as much as it can wring from a momentarily notorious act, that in the accuracy of how the real world defines it, probably leads to nothing. It's schmatte, if you will, the perception of which can have the easy impact of concealing for those who search no further, a much more dangerous and threatening condition.
By the way, while I've read comments here and there from a few people claiming they have received return correspondence from Ms. Lien, the authenticity of which I obviously cannot attest to, I can say that I have gotten such an acknowledgement from her, once, responding to the holiday season card I sent her 3 years ago. It was short, but kindly thanked me for my question of what working pursuit she had wound up following. Her response was that caring for her family (read children) was what was consuming her attention at that time. I doubt that such was the case, as it being already a year after the domestic abuse that she inflicted against her mother was adjudicated, I suspect that she wouldn't be able to even see her children, save for those occasions when her separated husband might bring them from California for a visit, a trek that he attested to making on either a social or professional site. While any real change for the better from an illness so long in the making, might be illusory and the condition prove to be intractable, I simply think that up till now she has not wanted to be reminded of her past existence, as brilliantly as it shone for such a brief time, and long ago made the choice to be unresponsive to just about anyone who in writing to her, would directly bring her to face that long disavowed, perhaps hated reality, through their words of praise.
Anyone that's interested in seeing the note Ms. Lien forwarded, please PM me, and while rather embarrassed to say, I will fax it to you, as I don't have access to a scanner that I can put to use for this kind of message.
And I assumed they meant karma for "driving through the BK to announce she was leaving" their little town for bigger and "better" things.
I don't know her nor have I seen her at a con, but self proclaimed Star Trek archivist Richard Arnold (
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_Arnold ) did discuss her extreme shyness and poor self esteem at a New Jersey Creation Con about 5-6 years ago and IIRC how easy it was for her Mom to come in and run rough shod over Jen's life.
As far as karma goes... those of us left behind at the BK should remember what happened to Richard Cory and thank our lucky stars.
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/richard-cory
Just for accuracy, that small town happened to be Chicago. Also, interestingly the con you're mentioning, is exactly one to which she was scheduled to appear, but withdrew as she claimed that one of her children was ill. I remember it very well, as I was set to go, with reservations, until I heard that update. I bailed on it too, at that point.
Kirk? Would Shatner really have been particularly motivated to show up in what was widely perceived to be a wan, deracinated disappointment? I like Suspiria, but really only in a totally redone series finale, one in which Kes would definitely appear.
that is sweet of you 
