Seven of Nine struggles to accept her new reality, and Kes' psychic abilities develop to a point she becomes a danger to the ship.
This is the episode in which Jennifer Lien's Kes is written out of the show, as Kes evolves beyond her humanoid form and leaves. Whatever tensions were present behind the scenes, the story itself is a really solid one, and it's one of 90s television's better goodbye episodes (the bar, especially on 90s Star Trek, is admittedly fairly low!).
The method the writers chose to write out Kes was one that's fairly well-known in SFF television, especially in the 1990s and the noughties. If you want to hint at the emotion of a character death and make it clear that they can't come back and pop in every week, but you also want to leave the door open for the actor to return if desired in the future, you have them ascend to a higher plane of existence, i.e., they float upwards into a glowy light. This happened at various points to characters on Stargate SG-1, Angel: The Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation among others, to varying degrees of success and with various long-term outcomes.
Kes's ascension is one of the better ones. It has the advantage of actually making sense for her story, since she has always said she thought the Ocampa could be something "more" and has displayed various psychic abilities over the course of the series. The evolution taking place across the length of the episode also allows her to have little goodbye scenes with most of the other characters she was especially close to, with the exception of Tom Paris, who presumably couldn't be fitted into the time constraints! But she is able to spend time with the Doctor, Tuvok, Neelix, and Janeway before leaving.
Kes' departure is paired with the full integration of her replacement Seven of Nine, who made her debut in the previous episode but who is properly adopted into the crew in this one. This was a really good decision on the part of everyone involved (producers, actors, writers and all!). By dedicating a full episode to these two stories in tandem, the show is able to honour both Kes' departure and Seven's introduction in a way that is respectful to both (whatever was going on behind the scenes!).
Seven of Nine is a fascinating character. One of the best decisions the writers made was to specify that she was assimilated at a very young age, and therefore will always be somewhat Borg, even if all her implants were removed and even outside of the Collective, because the Borg raised her. It makes her unique and sets her apart from The Next Generation's Hugh, her immediate inspiration. Jeri Ryan's performance is also key to the character's success; she puts so much emotion into the role and does a fantastic job showing a character trying to hold it together while falling apart. I won't spoil anything, but she becomes one of my favourite characters in the show. The only downside is the ridiculous catsuit they made her wear, a common problem for women in 90s and 00s Star Trek.
A more minor thread in this episode relates to the Doctor's treatment of Seven of Nine to remove a lot of her Borg implants despite her initial anger at the idea. Voyager did a few episodes on the topic of medical ethics and the ethics of consent, and usually came down firmly on the side of not interfering with a patient's expressed wishes, even if it results in the patient's death. However, Janeway essentially decides that Seven can't consent, because the Borg altered her physiology without her consent in the first place and then brainwashed her. You can see the logic to that idea, and considering this is the woman who infamously executed Tuvix, it's not surprising from a character point of view!
The gift of the title is the boost Kes gives to the ship which moves them 10 years closer to home. This is a lovely little parting gift from the character, and a very wise writing decision as well, because it means the ship is now in a different part of space and the show can give itself a bit of a fresh start. You may be glad to realise this means we have finally fully moved on from Kazon space, for one thing!
Bits and pieces
- I love Tuvok's meditation oil lamp, and I want one.
- The last shot of Tuvok placing his lamp in the window of his quarters and looking out into space is also really poignant.
- The Doctor gives Seven of Nine an artificial eye which not only perfectly matches her human eye (so no coloured contacts needed for Jeri Ryan!) but has extra abilities – something that might come in handy in future?
- The shipping news: Kes gets a goodbye scene with Neelix, which is nice, especially since they never actually got a proper break-up scene (Kes was possessed by an alien when she dumped Neelix, and then they just suddenly weren't together any more afterwards).
- Shuttlecraft count: Kes flees the ship on a shuttle, which then melts into a glowy light thing with her, and is presumably lost in the process.
Shuttlecraft lost: 6
Shuttlecraft count: -4
Quotes
Neelix (joking, on why Kes left him): My cooking. You've always hated my cooking!
A bit melancholic, but the writers did a very good job writing out Kes and writing in Seven of Nine. Four out of four ascensions to a higher plane of existence.
Juliette Harrisson is a writer and content creator. Check out her books here, or her Patreon here.
Yay! Voyager is back! I'm so glad you're giving it another go, Juliette. :)
ReplyDeleteI actually remember this episode. They did a decent write-out but like you say, that ascension thing was done more than once. And I definitely ended up liking Seven much better.