The Original Plan for Kes
- Thread starter GulBahana
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Considering what those "writers" did to the character in two horrible episodes just to get rid of her toook away whatever trust I may have had once.
But I don't like the scenario either. I find it unnecessary because there are so many options to avoid it.
You do have a point there.
That's a discussion I would love to explore those options, but I suspect eliminating Kes' superpowers would be the start since this event propelled her exit. I liked the idea of the Ocampa had some remnants of the Caretaker since that was the first lifeform the Voyager crew encountered along with them. One of the things I suspected Kes metaphorically was a caterpillar; the nine years was just the first stage of her life and would later blossom to something else. For the nine year limit to work I thought there would be some phases going on with Kes which would give me a clue of the early stages of her life then shifting to her prime and later her decline.
She didn't have to look older to present a shift had happened; the superpowers could've been that sign of her prime but I would've love to see her remain on board, along with 7, throughout the remaining 7 seasons to wait for end to happen... and it didn't. I don't recall if VOY ever had an episode where an Ocampa died at or around 9 years old, I'm guessing it happened during the Pilot but that episode was so forgettable I barely remember anything from it. What options did you have in mind, Lynx?
She didn't have to look older to present a shift had happened; the superpowers could've been that sign of her prime but I would've love to see her remain on board, along with 7, throughout the remaining 7 seasons to wait for end to happen... and it didn't. I don't recall if VOY ever had an episode where an Ocampa died at or around 9 years old, I'm guessing it happened during the Pilot but that episode was so forgettable I barely remember anything from it. What options did you have in mind, Lynx?
The superpowers Kes had in "The Gift" and that horrible episode in season 6 should never have been there in the first place. They were just added by the "writers" as a reason for her to leave the ship so they could get rid of her as soon as possible in "The Gift" and as a way to humiliate and destroy the character in the horrible episode in season 6.
I made it simple when I restored Kes back to normal. I had Q to change her lifespan to a lifespan like the humans but to keep the limited powers she showed up in episodes like Persistence Of Vision when she defeated the Bothan and in Warlord when she was controlled by Tieran who used the limited powers she had.
There's no need for more powers than that. Kes's strength is her personality, not superpowers. We have Q who has superpowers and that's enough as i see it.
As for the extended powers she showed up in Cold Fire when she made tea boil (and unfortunately poor Tuvok too) was the result of the presence of Suspiria and Tanis. Those powers desappeared when they had left the ship.
When it comes to Kes, her personality is her strength. Her will to learn and explore, her curiosity, courage, wit and her way to solve problems by attacking them from another angle which we could see in episodes like Jetrel and The Swarm. Those abilities make the character unique and make her to both a contrast and complement to more action-taking characters like Janeway, Torres and Seven and also to other female charcters like Tasha Yar, Ro Laren, Kira, Jadzia Dax and Ezri Dax.
If the "writers" had realized that and used those abilities more, Kes could have become more important during the series than she was. It's sad that they didn't do that.
I can see a certain criticizm to the episode Caretaker in your post which surprises me. As I see it, it's the best pilot episode of all Star trek series and one of the best pilot episodes I've ever seen. A lot of things happen all the time and the main characters are introduced one by one in a very good way.
TOS didn't have any real pilot. If The Cage had been used as a pilot, it could have been a good one.
I must admit that I found TNG:s Encounter At Fairpoint a bit dissapointing when i first watched it. After watching some TOS episodes and some movies as well, I had expected more of TNG back then. I watched Encounter At Fairpoint with afeeling of "is that all there is?" and it took 4-5 episodes before I stared geting into TNG and really started liking the show. When I watch Encounter At Fairpoint now, I found it better than I found it back then.
I thought that he DS9 pilot Emissary was a bit confusing back then and it took some episodes before I started to see DS9 as more than just TNG:s "minor league team". When I finally got the opportunity to watch the whole series from start to end, I realized what a masterpiece that series is.
As for Enterprise, Discovery and Picard, I leave them where thtey are since i didn't find the pilot episodes in those series particularily entertaining or exciting.
But Caretaker was something special. In fact, there are only two series of all series I've watched when I have taken an immediate liking to all the main characters at once and to the series itself from the start and that's Voyager and NCIS.
NCIS is still a favorite, despite some changes in the cast. I'm surprised that they still can come up with such good and entertaining episodes after 18 years. As for Voyager, it started great but became a huge dissapointment later on for many reasons which I don't have to go into now. Still, it remains a favorite of mine in some strange way.
In the series finale, an elderly Kes uses her power to get Voyager across the last stretch home. A bittersweet ending - the ship finally returns home, but Kes passes away in the process.
Totally unacceptable!
No sentimental nonsense drivel here.
A much better ending would be that Kes, have been given a human lifespan by Q returns to the ship and persuades Suspiria to send the ship home.
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Better than re-recycling the "person from a dark future prevents it from ever happening" trope. It was good in "The Visitor", "Timeless", and "Year of Hell", but enough already.
The funny thing about "Endgame" is that it doesn't even seem to be that much of a dark future. Sure some of the crew died or what-not, but we have no idea whether Voyager's premature return will lead to a better or worse future.
One of the reasons that episode pisses me off, really.
One of the reasons that episode pisses me off, really.
The premature return would save Tuvok from insanity, give Chakotay time to live after returning (d. 2394), and safe Seven of Nine from certain death. Beyond that, you are right - the future is uncertain and may well be worth.
In the non-canon Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations novels, it was explained that Daniels' Federation Temporal Agency and Ducance's Temporal Integrity Commission allowed Kim (2390) and Janeway (2404) to change the future because that revised timeline allowed Daniels' and Ducane's histories to come to pass.
In light of that, where do you stand on The Original Series?
And THAT, boys and girls, is "Endgame's" biggest Achilles heel. Instead of telling what DID happen to everyone, it tells us what didn't. The Doc getting married, Tom becoming a holonovelist, B'Elanna becoming a diplomat, Harry making captain, all those kids and grandkids, all erased like it never happened... and what do we get in return? Only what later movies and shows tell us, which isn't much.
Except in the case of Icheb, who, in the 'corrected' timeline, HAD HIS EYE GOUGED OUT!!
No kidding. We only find out about him, Seven, and Janeway. And only the latter seems to have been treated well by the current future.
Which was sick, disgusting and absolutely unnecessary.
Icheb was never a favorite of mine but this made me really angry.
I have no sympathy or understanding for the producers of Picard after that.
What i know, no main character of TOS were killed off or destroyed as a character in TOS.
OK, Spock was killed off in "The Wrath Of Khan" but he returned.
I was thinking about Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand, who really was fired, without an exit episode, and went on a downward spiral afterwards.
That was terrible and it is something which could made me have stopped watching the series if I'd watched TOS in the 60's and it had been brought up then.
As it was, I didn't know about it until in later years, probably in the 90's or afterwards so even if it really annoyed me, it didn't affect me in the same way as when Jennifer Lien was dumped or some other recent events.
Gene's vision. Some times people die and death doesn't make sense.
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