Why Jennifer Lean's Cass Shouldn't Have Been Cut From Star Trek: Voyager

The character of Kes (Jennifer Leanne) in the series “Star Trek: Voyager” was controversial from the beginning. She belonged to a species called Ocampa, whose lifespan was only nine years. Cass was only two years into the Voyager pilot (Lien was 19) and met the hero Neelix (Ethan Phillips). Many viewers found it unpleasant that a grown man was dating a two-year-old child.

Still, the idea of ​​a ephemeral character was intriguing. “Star Trek: The Next Generation” ended after seven seasons, and there was reason to believe that concurrent “Deep Space Nine” would do the same, so it seems that “Voyager” was set up to run for a full seven years. By this time, the audience would have seen Cass go from looking 20 years old to looking 90 years old. Trekkies would see Kes mature, age, and die in seven years, a lifetime in microcosm. And yes, dear readers, she eventually left Neelix.

Kes, however, was written off Voyager at the end of its third season. Unlike “Next Generation” before it, “Voyager” struggled to achieve high ratings, so its showrunners constantly tried to boost its numbers with cheap gimmicks. There was a holographic bikini beach that the cast regularly visited, awkwardly adding half-naked bodies to the show. Then, in a last ditch effort, Kes was removed from the show and replaced by the cat-suited Seven of Nine (Jerry Ryan), “Borg Baby” according to one of the producers.

Unfortunately, it worked. The Voyager writers liked Seven out of Nine better than Kes, and Seven basically became the new star of the show. Ryan had a magazine model look and wore a tight corset throughout the show. Seven was an interesting character, but it was clear that Voyager showrunners added him for sex appeal. And lo and behold, suddenly Voyager's conscience was gone. Kes was off the show and that whole dynamic changed.

I would argue that Cass was vital to “Star Trek: Voyager” in ways that the showrunners never fully exploited. Unlike the Starfleet heroes, she was innocent, with a natural pacifism and youthful sense of curiosity. She was a holder of compassion. Neelix occasionally became jealous when she talked to other men, but Kes clearly developed healthy social relationships. She was also the first character to theorize it the ship's holographic doctor (Robert Picardo) was alive and encouraged Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to take it easy whenever Janeway's first act seemed unnecessarily harsh. Janeway often proposed the thunder of the USS Voyager in a difficult scenario. Kes would then step in and remind her of a softer course.

Kes basically reined in Janeway's darker impulses. She was the heart of the show, something that is very important to Star Trek. Heroes mostly try to act as ethically as possible and try to do as little harm as possible. Janeway, though determined, had a tendency toward crude authoritarianism and often took risks she didn't need to. If Kes had been left in the series, she could have continued to balance Janey by reminding her to be kind.

Who also served as a vital teacher to the Doctor. The hologram was even younger than Kes, having only recently been activated. Both observed humanity through an outsider's eye, trying to understand what human behavior should look like and what they could both ideally aspire to. Like Data (Brent Spiner) in The Next Generation, Kes looked at humanity with his own unique perspective. A hologram and a young alien raising each other. It could have made for some good stories.

However, Voyager's writers never fully realized Kes' potential. There were too few scenes where Kes and Janeway could ethically butt heads. If the writers had taken advantage of her myriad possibilities, she had the potential to become Janeway's counterpart, and perhaps even become the show's second most important character. At least the dynamic between Cass and the Doctor came across as a good emotional hook. You could see their mutual familial affection for each other.

Instead, the writers reverted to soap opera dynamics, inventing a tiresome love triangle between Cass, Neelix and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan MacNeil). No one, not even the actors, liked this story arc.

When “Voyager” began to make a mark in the ratings, a decision was made to cut one of the characters and replace it with the character of Borg. Rumor has it that Paramount was choosing between Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and Kes, but Wang was spared when he was featured in a prominent TV Guide issue. Who was out. In the show's mythology, Kess' new psychic powers became too powerful and she had to leave the USS Voyager to learn how to control them. In Grade Seven of Nine, the aforementioned “Borg babe”.

The dynamic between Janeway and Seven was more intense and antagonistic. Seven was a more active, determined character who challenged Janeway's authority. The writers loved this conflict and milked it for all it was worth. The writers also gave the Seven all the work they could. She served as a science officer, Borg expert, and supervisor of a new astrometry laboratory. The Doctor took Cass's classes and became a teacher, telling Seven everything he knew. Ratings soared.

It's a shame that the ruse still worked because Voyager lost its philosophical core. For a franchise associated with pacifism, it was unfortunate to see Voyager's most pacifist character cut. Seven was good, but Kes should have stayed.