She's a great specimen. Less than a year old, easy to train for any task, easy to break. Just check her teeth! Oh, err, that's not what you meant. Voyager is a crew of whiners. Characters who go crazy for a week with letting their emotional problems make them non-functional. Tom acted out constantly, the Doc couldn't hadn't having made tricky moral decisions, B'elana played death games on the holodeck, Janeway hid in her room out of cabin fever guilt, Neelix nearly killed himself because when briefly dead he didn't see his sister. But Kes with the most reasons to be whiny out of the cast but and was always understanding and positive. She had this underlying danger about her that her mental abilities were clearly extreme if she'd ever realize them and she had the ability to learn everything really quicky, and the interesting existential condition of a much shorter lifespan than us, whereas mostly in fantasy and science fiction they go in the other direction giving aliens interminally long lifespans. Also she's an attractive female character who they resisted the urge to over-sexualize, and even made her sexually unappealing by giving her unrelateable sexual biology. Unfortunately they did nuke a lot of her potential when they axed her, but she's definitely one of the most pleasant things about the first three seasons.
^Can you blame the crew for going crazy? They were stuck in the Delta Quadrant. Kes was cheery because she didn't have much to be depressed about. She hasn't been alive long enough to be down about anything.
I would say it changed the enjoyment factor of the show to a degree(some in favor, some against), I don't think the cast change was dramatic to the point of life changing to anyone watching it.
I like Kes, even if I could never stand her relationship with Neelix. I didn't like the way they wrote her out of the show, and there would have been potential for much more interesting stories about her (even if the same could be said about Harry Kim as well). 7 was okay to start with, even if she humanized the Borg and in my book, is to blame for ruining the best villains in Trek. The Borg should be faceless, the collective is what makes them so frightening. That said, I think Voyager could have accommodated both Kes and 7.
"Have you seen her face her eyes reflect the colors in the sky A warm familiar place to be swept into When ever she's close by makes me wonder why Run by, don't turn back Can't hide from that look in her eyes Must be the way she walks a style made up to capture all she needs No time spent on whose fault If your luck runs right she might see you tonight anything in sight Run by, don't turn back Can't hide from that look in her eyes You'll find your locked in her spell all the sight and sounds Your senses will be found That only time will tell how much love can mean to wait so patiently Wait and see Run by,don't turn back Can't hide from that look in her eyes" "Have You Seen Her Face" The Byrds
Simple intellectual curiosity? Or maybe just a sense of "Wow, lots of people really seem to like this thing for reasons that are not at all obvious to me. I wonder if I'm missing something?"
Lynx, I don't know The Byrds, or their music, but you nailed it! Right there! That's it. Sign it. Seal it. Savor it. Plomeek Broth, by now, surely, you have come to suspect what we've known, all along: Kes inspires poetry, sonnets, songs and, yes, very beautiful art!
Data doesn't have a spirit, he's a toaster. Hey bbjeg, this is a good poll idea, "what character(s) most embody the spirit of Star Trek?"