Was Kes a Good Character?
- Thread starter hux
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The mobile emitter was one of the coolest inventions on that show; the Doctor could go anywhere. Star fleet must've tried to duplicate it once Voyager returned to Earth.
Kes had the potential to be a good character. Unfortunately the only time Jennifer Lien got to really shine was IMO, "Warlord"
She was such a spring chicken; full of life and presented good moral, like Neelix, to the crew. I wonder if the Doctor was secretly working on a way to keep Kes alive and keeping her youth? It's a concept I would had loved to see. It could've been sad or positive. It would be nice to actually present a real, serious creating a story thread where members could write a tale which would make sense.
I agree that the character improved after the creepy jealous Neelix relationship ended, but the way that was handled was SO bad. Tieran does the breakup, not Kes. But somehow it sticks? I just assumed that after Kes got her body back, everything went back to normal, because TV. But then several episodes later, it's casually mentioned that they are not together and I'm like WHAT? They never clarified it. SO sloppy to just leave it hanging like that.
Yeah, some reason I thought the producers wanted Kes to be with the Riker wannbe Tom Paris, but later balked on the idea. I never had a problem with Neelix and Kes' relationship; it was good to see she had someone who she cared about and maybe having a child before she dies. Neelix was sooo appropriate for her because he had a similar temperament to her. I liked the connection between them, they had a common ground which should've been something the writers could've used on the show, but wasted in trying to be TNG.
We have discussed it before but I'm sure that Tieran's takeover happened immediately and that he controlled her during the breakup with Neelix.
When Tieran moved from Kes to Demmas's brother, the takeover happened immediately.
As for the Kes/Neelix relationship, it was OK in the beginning but the breakup was inevitable, due to the fact that Neelix and Kes started to develope in different directions when they came on board Voyager.
The breakup should have taken place some time after "Parturition" in season 2 and been described during two or three episodes. The breakup in "Warlord" was just silly. Another example of sloppy writing.
As for Tom Paris, I wouldn't mind if Kes and Tom ended up together.
Him and B'Elanna was more appropriate because it was an earned relationship instead of a forced one.
When his real temperament came to the surface, it was rather ugly.
As discussed, Kes was a different (psychic powered) alien. The whole arc of the episode is that he's never experienced anything like it and wants to keep her body because of its unique abilities. It doesn't require much to assume the takeover with Kes was less straightforward and took longer.
Also, if you watch Lien's performance during the break-up, she's very Kes-like and mentions having a headache and not feeling too well.
To me, Neelix temperament was kind and nice, loving to help and care for people. That can't be ugly. That's not ugly.
Except when he's being jealous (Twisted), being the doc's patient (Phage), being taken into nebulas (The Cloud), not being taken seriously by Tuvok (Rise) or dealing with mortality and the possible lack of an afterlife (Mortal Coil).
The jovial mask slips in those episodes and reveals angry, bitter, judgemental, aggressive Neelix.
I have to watch those episodes again. I find this interesting because I don't remember that side of him.
Ya maybe, but that's a big fill-in-the-blank on your part. Even if that's exactly what the writers were going for, it was a big enough event that it deserved to be specifically clarified on screen. I get the feeling that the expaination ended up on the cutting room floor and no one realized that they left such a hole.
The fact that they couldn't be arsed explaining the break-up only further supports the theory.
Two birds with one stone. Kes dumps Neelix. But actually it was Tieran. But maybe it wasn't. But maybe it was.
Job done.
no...the idea of a "mature" 2 yr old is just too weird...even for sci-fi...and her creepy relationship with Neelix didn't help at all
I know what you meant, but 7 on DS9 would have been awesome. Maybe she would be who Section 31 would recruit.
She was really the only female character allowed to take on a counselor-type role, to be the voice of reason. That Neelix was the default shoulder to cry on afterwards didn't help matters. I think Kes had good utility, she was a soothing presence, her powers had story potential and keeping her on would have left us with the first gender-balanced cast, assuming Kim bit the big one. It would have forced the show to eventually develop a proper recurring character to be at ops, too.
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