Voyager's Nines (Part 3)
"You're the finest friend I ever had."
--the Doctor to Kes in Before and After
In The Caretaker, the Ocampa people in general give a good representation of the self-preservation subtype Nine. For generations the alien Caretaker has provided for their every need, leading to a culture of complacency. In the process, the Ocampa allowed their powerful mental abilities to atrophy. As Kes says, "We've gained a talent for dependence. For simply taking what we're given."
Nines are often called "lazy." This can mean physical laziness, but not necessarily. What is more important is a laziness in terms of their own personal development. The Ocampa's loss of their mental abilities in exchange for easy physical comfort is a clear example of this unhealthy side of Nines. And unhealthy self-preservation Nines can particularly sink into physical comfort and routines. They think in small increments, are habit-bound and don't really want to have broad horizons. They have diminished expectations of life and little ambition.
Kes, on the other hand, desired to break out of the Ocampan rut. With a only few slip-ups, she was the most healthy Nine around -- certainly compared to Voyagers' other Nines, and in the general Star Trek world, perhaps only Guinan surpasses her in the mature combination of strength, compassion and peacefulness. And Guinan's hundreds of years old. Kes was barely past the age of three when she left Voyager.
Well, all that was before the sixth season's execrable Fury. But I'll get to that later. Let's look at the good Kes of the past.
Rebelling against the complacency of her people, Kes desired to explore both the world beyond the Ocampa's underground haven, as well as the telepathic abilities the Ocampa had neglected. After she joined Voyager, she was thrilled to be exploring the galaxy, and in studies with Tuvok, she cultivated her mental abilities. With the Doctor, she also pursued ambitions of a medical career.
She went about this with the Nine's peaceful emotional stability, unpretentiousness and simplicity. What distinguishes her from less healthy Nines is that she was also never afraid to stand up for herself, think independently and forcefully hold her ground -- while rarely losing her Nine tranqility and graciousness. In Resolutions, for example, she was the ideal person to gently help Tuvok see that he was neglecting the crew's emotional needs. In her relationship with Neelix, she would chide him for his jealousy almost without losing her cool. In Parturition, she does confess feeling guilty about her anger over Tom and Neelix fighting over her, but mainly because their lives were in danger. Even then, she acknowledges that her anger was justified -- the two men were acting like idiots, and she knows it.
Her greatest influence was on the Doctor: It was she who got the crew, and the Doctor himself, to look upon the Emergency Medical Hologram as a more than just a computer program. In her earliest encounters with him, she was shocked at how cavilierly he was treated -- the crew was rude to him, treating him as an object. Kes looked on him as a real being with feelings and rights, and convinced Janeway to grant him more consideration. (Her approach to this as a moral issue -- he has rights to be respected -- is part of Kes' predominant one-wing.) But beyond her advocating for better treatment, Kes' friendship with the Doctor encouraged him to develop himself, supporting him in his efforts to find an identity, explore his feelings and learn to have a life outside sickbay. In Before and After, he calls her "the finest friend I ever had."
Unlike Harry Kim and Chakotay, who are social subtype Nines with an orientation to their place in the group, Kes tended to focus herself on one-to-one relationships -- on Voyager, with Neelix, the Doctor and Tuvok. She is primarily an intimate subtype. At their best, Intimate Nines have the ability to look at the person they love and know their flaws and still see them in the best light. With all three of her closest friends, Kes was honest about their flaws and encouraged them to develop their best qualities.
Intimate Nines have an ideal of romantic union. We saw this in Kes' relationship with Neelix -- her devotion and faithfulness while the relationship lasted. But her break-up with him was not out of character for the subtype, who can sometimes long to be more independent. Neelix's possessiveness undoubtedly heightened the issue.
In her years on Voyager, the most unhealthy we saw Kes was in the episode Cold Fire, in which she met an Ocampa with mental powers beyond her own, and fell into the Nine compulsion to take direction and purpose from a stronger-willed person. Unfortunately, her new mentor, Tannis, is a man who believes his power gives him superiority over lesser mortals like the rest of the Voyager crew. The instruction he gives Kes leads her to commit destructive acts, and she is disturbed to find them exhiliarating.
In the end, she rejects his offer to go with him, but in a meditation session, she confesses to Tuvok her wish to forget all about the whole experience. "To be honest, I never want to see that part of myself again," Kes says -- revealing the Nine desire to tamp down her own negative feelings, especially that of anger. "I never realized I had such dark impulses," she says.
But Tuvok tells her that she needs to recognize such impulses: "Without the darkness, how would we recognize the light? Do not fear your negative thoughts. They are a part of you. They are a part of every living being. ... To pretend it does not exist is to create an opportunity for it to escape."
Which brings us to Fury. I hated the episode so much I don't want to dwell on it much. It certainly blew Kes' reputation as the perfect Nine. Truth to be told, it was not inconsistent with Nines in general. It is true that an unhealthy Nine may suddenly become destructively angry after years and years of being a apathetic doormat -- it's an explosion of buried resentment. The problem with Kes reaching this point is that she was never a doormat, she was never taken advantage of, and she certainly did not go off to explore the galaxy because others talked her into it -- her character was nearly always a model of self-direction.
And that's all I have to say about Fury. If you want to read a good summary of what was wrong with that episode, in its violation of both Kes' character and the Trek ethos, check out Jim Wright's review.
Bad note to end on, but unfortunately, that's where the Voyager writers have left us. But I'll try to remember only the good Kes, the Kes that we knew best, the one who was almost the perfect Nine.
Go to Voyager's Nines (Part 1): Chakotay
Go to Voyager's Nines (Part 2): Harry Kim