The Kazon were one of only two, though, that did; the Sikarians were not seen again after their use in the Season 1 episode "Prime Factors"). They described the Kazon's clothing as resembling that of guerrilla warriors, and their hair and faces as "wild" and "threatening". "There are a lot of people who don't consider a lot of these stories [this season] science fiction," he said. [13] The Kazon also appear in both "Relativity" and "Shattered", which deal with time travel. (Starlog issue #231, p. 49), Half-jokingly, Robert Picardo, the performer of The Doctor, agreed, "Really, other than their hair, the Kazon aren't too scary." (Star Trek Magazineissue 179,p.18), Intended to serve as the swan-song for the Kazon was the two-parter "Basics, Part I" and "Basics, Part II", which bridged Voyager's second and third seasons. The former Borg drone Seven of Nine explained that the reasoning for this decision was that the biological and technological distinctiveness of the Kazon was "unremarkable", and that assimilating them would have detracted from the perfection being pursued by the Borg. Even though Evans described the Kazon as starting from a good premise, he did not find them to live up to their label as "the most powerful race in their area of the Delta Quadrant". Britt found the Kazon to be among "the silliest, worst antagonists in Trek's history". In their final major appearance, the Kazon successfully commandeer Voyager, but are eventually forced to surrender and retreat. During her time with the Maquis, Seska had a love affair with her commander, former Starfleet officer Chakotay and befriended the half-Klingon, half-human B'Elanna Torres. (VOY: "Caretaker"), The behavior of the various Kazon sects had caused them to make many enemies throughout the Delta Quadrant. Eventually, he warmed to his parents and elected to stay with them. And [] it is my intention to leave them behind and to find new and I hope more interesting aliens." The foreheads of all Kazon featured distinctive ridges and their black or brown hair grew in large chunks rather than individual strands. Piller described the season as "a deep investigation of [the Kazon] that will turn them, I think, into perhaps one of the top five adversarial alien races in Star Trek's history". With Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill. They were much more emotional, short fused, and therefore had fewer expectations, which I think is indicative of street gangs today." In the episode "Counterpoint", while Voyager crossed Devore space, Vorik was one of several telepathic crew members who were suspended in the transporter pattern buffer to avoid detection by the Devore inspections, led by Kashyk. (VOY: "Caretaker", "State of Flux", "Initiations", "Alliances"), Kazon raider ships were tactically inferior to a Starfleet Intrepid-class starship, although their larger carrier vessels posed more of a threat. They determined that the representation of the Kazon was implicitly racist, writing that the species was shown as embodying negative stereotypes. Director Winrich Kolbe Writers Gene Roddenberry Rick Berman Michael Piller Stars Kate Mulgrew Robert Beltran Roxann Dawson It was just an oddity, and I don't think the Kazon have served us well." He met them, and at first was reluctant to return to the mainly agricultural planet, compared to the advanced technology and science of Voyager. [78] Zach of Bitch Media placed the Kazon as one example of Star Trek's uneven treatment of race. Fictional species portrayed as interstellar gangsters in Star Trek: Voyager, For the historic building in Vermont, United States, see. According to Vice Admiral Janeway in her logs in Star Trek: Prodigy's Logs, the Kazon were able to gain access to the Borg's Transwarp network and used to deliver The Unwanted to Tars Lamora. Ensign Samantha Wildman, played by actress Nancy Hower, joined Voyager as a xenobiologist, not knowing she was pregnant by her Ktarian husband Greskrendtregk. Kazon language One of the worst aliens ever used in the Star Trek franchise was in Voyager; however, the species got an updated look in Star Trek: Prodigy. In 2015, SyFy rated Seska as among the top 21 most interesting supporting characters of Star Trek. [44] According to the Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual, the Kazon were originally planned to be split into only two factions (the "Kazon-Sera" and the "Kazon-Ogla"). The captain has granted me the use of a shuttlecraft so that I may perform the pakra, a solitary ritual commemorating the anniversary of my father's death." Commander Chakotay has asked Captain Janeway for the use of a Type 8 shuttlecraft so that he can perform a ritual on the . Three years from now you can't be talking about the Kazon." [80] For a 2015 retrospective review of the Star Trek franchise, MoviePilot's David Trudel wrote that he was disappointed in the breakdown of the alliance between the Kazon and the Trabe in the episode "Alliances". Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [33], Prior to the announcement of a new Star Trek incarnation, Star Trek: Voyager's co-creators Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor conceived the basic concepts and characters during secret developmental meetings. While discussing their role in the future episodes, she explained that it was her "intention to leave them behind and to find new and I hope more interesting aliens". "Star Trek: Voyager" Initiations (TV Episode 1995) - IMDb TV Lists Star Trek: 5 Actors Who Regretted Being On Voyager (And 15 Who Adored It) By Michael Graff Published Nov 9, 2018 Voyager and its crew may have made it home after seven years in the Delta Quadrant, but for some, the journey might not have been worth it. A member of the Maquis crew that joined with Voyager's in the year 2371, he quickly lost faith in Captain Kathryn Janeway's ability to bring USS Voyager home safely. [50], Piller originally envisioned only casting actors between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five to simulate the connection between the Kazon and contemporary street gangs. The Voyager crew rescue Chakotay, only to discover that Seska had extracted his DNA and used it to impregnate herself. Neelix discovers that Michael Jonas (Raphael Sbarge), a Voyager crewmember who was formerly part of Chakotay's Marquis cell, is feeding Seska information regarding warp technology; Jonas is then killed in a fight with Neelix. [66] The Kazon, along with Seska, were placed at number two on a list by Io9's Charlie Jane Anders profiling the 10 least threatening Star Trek villains. Star Trek 101: Kazon He explained this up by saying: "No memorable Kazon characters emerge from two seasons of episodes featuring their different factions. Later, in "Shattered," when Voyager was caught in a temporal rift that placed sections of the ship in different times, engineering was in the time period where the Kazon had captured the ship. [5], The Kazon make minor appearances in "Threshold", "Dreadnought", and "Lifesigns" as Seska helps them construct a plan to commandeer Voyager. As the series progressed, the make-up department took the "vulture neck" from the Kazon comb and built an appliance for the neck instead. It's more of a soft cockscomb, a rooster comb, that goes up the front of the face, and has a nose tip on it, with two extending skin protrusions that literally come up inside the nostrils. (VOY: "Alliances"), In 2346, Jal Sankur convinced the Kazon sects to put aside their differences and rise up against the Trabe. Star Trek: Voyager - Wikipedia It's hard to tell, but there is a difference between the male and female; there's a little harder look and a little more detailed sculpture around the eye on the male; the females are a little softer. Eventually, having exhausted all of his options, Vorik made the challenge of combat in the ritual kun-ut kal-if-fee, for the right to mate with B'Elanna. He sought to be admitted to the Starfleet Academy through training courses provided by the senior officers aboard Voyager. Michael Piller commented, "Our intention was to create a sort of disorganized anarchy, them-against-them as much as them-against-us." [11] Even though the Kazon are the only classified species that the Borg refuse to assimilate, Janeway included in her reports that they are a "tricky and dangerous foe". She felt that they never grew into a compelling adversary, despite their appearances in multiple episodes. Lieutenant Tuvok, refusing to accept Suder's explanation that he killed Darwin for no reason, mind melds with Suder in an attempt to discover the truth and to bestow upon the troubled crewman some of his own Vulcan self-discipline. Piller noted, "Older actors gave more polished performances." [27] While the official Star Trek website lists the Kazon as having eighteen sects,[27] the episode "Initiations" represents the number of sects as highly unstable and changing every day. (VOY: "Alliances"), The Kazon were known to the Borg as Species 329, but were deemed unworthy of assimilation. [54] Piller devised the Kazon's story arc in the second season from his experiences working on the 1995 science fiction Western television show Legend. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, pp. Enemies that you would watch and say, 'Oh, boy, how are they going to get out of this one?' [43], During the summer of 1994, Gazon was changed to Kazon, as it was feared that the name sounded too much like Gaza. (VOY: "Caretaker", "Alliances", "Maneuvers", "Basics, Part I", "Basics, Part II", "State of Flux"), The two most powerful sects were the Ogla and Relora, who possessed most of the Kazons' manpower and ships. [28] According to Seska, Kazon medicine is rudimentary and "primitive". [20], In 1996, an action figure of a Kazon was released as part of a second wave of Playmates Toys' Star Trek merchandise. Unfortunately, Carey was murdered by a man named Verin, who had taken the away team hostage. She commented, "I think that we dwelt too much on the Kazon this year and it was one of the things that didn't work about the season. Helping a wounded Hirogen, Janeway finds that their prey has boarded Voyager, a member of species 8472. [3], Scholars Christina Niculescu and Yonit Nemtzeanu analysed Kazon culture to explore political correctness and themes of racial prejudice in Star Trek: Voyager. When she refused, Vorik became desperate and accidentally (and unknowingly) initiated a telepathic mating bond with her, which triggered her own Klingon mating instincts. Chell, along with many other Voyager crewmen, originally served under Chakotay with the Maquis, until their ship was dragged to the Delta Quadrant by an entity known as the Caretaker. [46], Voyager's writing team devoted a larger amount of screen time in the show's second season to develop Kazon culture and society. They have to be nomadic to the point where they're always roaming and that you could stretch out for a while, but you can't stretch out a territorial dispute, because we're no longer in the territory. He sent the Kazon all that Voyager knew about breaking the Warp 10 barrier. Developed by Star Trek: Voyager series' co-creators Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor, the Kazon serve as the primary antagonists during the show's first two seasons. The Kazon were included on several lists ranking the worst villains in Star Trek history, and were cited as an example of the racist implications in the franchise's alien species. "She allowed us to go behind the scenes with the Kazon [.] Seska helped define the Kazon for us." 151-152) Russ also said of the villainous species, "That's the only thing that really wasn't working for all of us. Each sect had possession of different natural resources over which the sects fought each other. [11], Even though the Kazon are not prominent beyond "Basics", they are referenced in subsequent seasons. Janeway reviewed his planned menu, which was full of food/ship puns. She advises Culluh to engineer the technology into the Kazon ships and use it to unite all Kazon sects with him as leader. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 151) One factor in this analogy was that the trio wanted to have in-fighting between the alien "gangs." You know, how expansive is it? He was sedated by his parents, placed on a ship engineered to emit a false warp signature to attract the Borg, and sent toward a transwarp conduit frequently used by the Borg. During this process, the crew meet with the Trabe, an alien species who were persecuted by the Kazon following a violent feud. [40] Taylor's notes suggest that the show's co-creators considered having the Crips reach a truce with the main characters, which would anger another one of the gangs (then titled the Blood) and lead to them being the primary antagonists. They lived on Voyager for several months under the mentorship of Seven of Nine, a fellow ex-drone, where they began to receive an education. [6] They elaborate, "Martha Hackett was fantastic in the part, showcasing Seskas transformation from supposedly loyal fighter to a scheming vixen. It then emerged that the people of his homeworld had genetically engineered Icheb to be a weapon against the Borg using the genetic knowledge they had applied to agriculture. He was killed in the second season of the show after a struggle with Neelix, who had been investigating who the traitor on Voyager was. He gained the field rank of cadet from Captain Janeway.[2]. Ensign Vorik, played by Alexander Enberg, is a Vulcan male who serves aboard Voyager as an engineer. STAR TREK: VOYAGER KAZON WIG | #22189274 - WorthPoint These "ears" had proven to be too heavy for not only the active workout that stuntmen put the wigs through, but even for normal use. Kazon Some are in nothing more than rags. [81] In 1996, The New York Times' Jon Pareles offered a less critical assessment of Star Trek's development of alien species, describing them as enacting "exaggerated human tendencies". (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, pp. [6][7][8] In "Investigations", Neelix notices that one of the ship's crew is sending coded messages to the Kazon, and he uses his morning news program to track down the traitor. [14][15], The Kazon are included in Star Trek Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios based on the Star Trek franchise. Some critics viewed the episode as "the moment Trek died intellectually", though Trudel disagreed with this assessment as "fairly dramatic". Introduced in the series premiere "Caretaker", they are shown as oppressors of the Ocampa, another alien race. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. They are represented as a nomadic species divided into eighteen separate sects, and characterized by their reliance on violence. Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series 1995-2001) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb He began betraying secrets of Voyager to his former ally, Seska, a Cardassian spy among the Maquis, who had abandoned Voyager for a life aboard a Kazon Nistrim vessel. Enemies that you would watch and say, 'Oh, boy, how are they going to get out of this one?' [47] The Kazon's design was the subject of fan criticism following the series premiere, with one fan commenting: "They look like they're all having a bad hair day. The away team discovered that the inhabitants of the planet had been irradiated by antimatter radiation caused by the probe. Source eBay. The nose designs were modified throughout the first two seasons with the addition of a nose tip and spikes protruding from the nostrils. The Kazon were removed from the series following the season three premiere as the co-creators felt that their continued presence would strain the credibility of Voyager's journey home. Seska was killed when the Voyager crew retook the ship from the Kazon. Michael Jonas | Memory Alpha | Fandom [10] The Doctor reveals to a disappointed Seska that Culluh, not Chakotay, is the father of her child. Having overthrown their oppressors, the 'Trabe', and escaped from their home world in stolen starships, the Kazon fractured into sects. Tuvok actor Tim Russ, for instance, supposed, "The only thing about it is that we are presumably in motion toward home, and I don't know what the Kazon's realm covers. Every Trek has bad episodes, Voyager's bad rep though came from it ignoring it's own rules, they wanted to do crew stranded on a planet stories, cool just destroy another shuttle, they had cool ideas (the Tuvok mutiny) which went nowhere, they claimed to be exploring environmental themes with Kazon (they were just after water) then the next . No memorable Kazon characters emerge from two seasons of episodes featuring their different factions." Critical response to the Kazon was generally negative. Upon Ren Echevarria mistaking a Kobliad bar patron for a Kazon, during the recording of an audio commentary for TNG: "Preemptive Strike", Naren Shankar admitted, "I don't know what you're talking about." Initiations (episode) | Memory Alpha | Fandom However, it's in Prodigy that we see the full extent of the Kazon's cruelty. (VOY: "Initiations"), The Kazon were the only species known to have been rejected by the Borg for assimilation. "[37] While discussing the Kazon's original inspiration, Taylor viewed them as a way "to address the tenor of our times and what [] was happening in our cities and recognizing a source of danger and social unrest". He felt that the series should have featured the formation of a new Federation starting with these two alien species. Seska first appears in the episode "Parallax" as a Bajoran crewmember absorbed from the Maquis ship in the episode "Caretaker". (Star Trek Monthlyissue 18,p.13), Ultimately, Jeri Taylor decided to abandon development of the Kazon after the second season. They don't respect the prime directive, and have interfered with many non-warp cultures. As a result, the wig appendages were changed to being composed of lighter-weight materials, such as sponges. In this episode, Voyager's ensign Seska (Martha Hackett) is revealed to be a Cardassian agent who had infiltrated Chakotay's Maquis cell, subsequently objecting to the merging of crews, and Janeway's refusal to violate the Prime Directive. When the Kazon and Cardassian spy Seska takes over Voyager in "Basics" and strands the crew on a desolate planet, only Suder and the ship's doctor are left on board. A male Kazon will generally not tolerate being given orders by a woman. They are nomadic. ( Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts , p. 166) Brannon Braga, who usually allowed Westmore two or three weeks' notice for significant makeup tasks, gave Westmore only a week to . Emphasizing the Kazon's mistreatment of the Ocampa, plans to steal from Voyager's more developed technology, and inability to form lasting alliances, Gonzalez describes the series as interpreting race relations in developing countries as "inherently contentious and inevitably destabilizing". Michael Jonas was played by Raphael Sbarge. Azan and Rebi are brothers, natives of the Wysanti race. The others in the group included three other Maquis, Crewman Mariah Henley, Kenneth Dalby and Gerron, a Bajoran. [67] He also believed that the Kazon were failures as antagonists, perceiving them to be insufficiently imposing for the main characters and fans to take them seriously. However, the meld affects Tuvok, transmitting Suder's sociopathy to the Vulcan. He's the one that sabotaged the ship.Tom Paris Michael "Mike" Jonas was a Human male alive during the late-24th century. ", Writer K. Stoddard Hayes critiqued, "The Kazon [] are stereotypical macho space warriors. He was not the only neonatal drone aboard, and the other drones that emerged (Azan, Rebi and Mezoti, plus an unnamed 'First') from their maturation chambers formed their own small collective to run the ship and return to the Borg. It is the fifth series in the Star Trek franchise. The group soon saved the ship from a plasma leak. If you think about it, traveling for a year-and-a-half through a part of space dominated by one group is pretty amazing! He said that he wanted the casting choices to convey the alien species as "young, angry people who never lived old enough to have the kind of experience and perspective on the world that, say, the Klingons and Romulans might have". [51], Voyager's cast members had a negative response to the continued inclusion of the Kazon in the series and felt that their removal was the best course of action. Actors Who Played Multiple Characters in the Star Trek Universe Prey: Directed by Allan Eastman. He explained, "The wish that I had, which was not fulfilled, was that we would only cast people between eighteen and twenty-five-ish so that these would be young, angry people who never lived to be old enough to have the kind of experience and perspective on the world that, say, the Klingons and Romulans might have. The Kazon have never been particularly interesting as adversaries, and we just did them and did them and did them and did them. (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager, p. 281) The reason for the name change between "Gazon" (pronounced with an "a" sound) and "Kazon" (pronounced with an "ay" sound) was that, with the Middle East's Gaza Strip being an oft-mentioned news item at the time, the producers feared that an unintended metaphor might be made between the similarly-sounding "Gazon" and "Gaza Strip". The Kazon were able to capture Voyager with Seska's help after she joined their crew. In addition, the make-up team created a new nose tip that lengthened the actors' noses and added spikes coming out from below the nostrils. Transporters were used to avoid any casualties. Vorik's eighth, and last, appearance was the penultimate episode of the series, "Renaissance Man". Of these characters, the only ones who joined the ship during its travels are the four alien children (Azan, Icheb, Mezoti, and Rebi) taken from a Borg cube. A Kazon female (2371) [72] Juliette Harrison of the website Den of Geek! The series' make-up supervisor Michael Westmore was heavily involved in the creation of the look for the Kazon. [31] The Kazon are primarily shown using one of two types of spacecraft: raider ships and carrier vessels. [42] In the first draft of the script for "Caretaker", Piller named the alien species the "Gazon" and wrote the following description of them: They are a lean, scrawny people who dress in an assortment of unkempt clothing. "Star Trek: Voyager" Alliances (TV Episode 1996) - IMDb During the short period when the Voyager crew was marooned on a planet, the Doctor learned that the child was half Cardassian and half Kazon and told Seska the child was Culluh's. An enraged B'Elanna took the challenge herself, defeating Vorik and curing them both of the pon farr. Tools This is a list of minor fictional characters from the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. After seeing a display of the advanced technology on USS Voyager, specifically the replicator and transporter, the Kazon develop schemes to steal these machines and incorporate them into their own ships. He concluded by saying that the Kazon storylines were in line with "neoconservative biases/reasoning". [12] A Kazon crew member was included on a holographic reconstruction of Voyager as a warship. This is a list of actors who have appeared on Star Trek: Voyager. "Voyager" kicks off with "Caretaker," a solid premiere that introduces a cast of nine regulars and establishes the Delta Quadrant's new aliens, including the Kazon, Ocampa, Talaxians, and the . Their skin is parched and desiccated; the sun has produced blotches and sores on some. Though the Kazon are not shown as having a standing army, they are defined as a militaristic society. In 2376, the Borg cube they were residing on as drones was disabled when all the adult drones on the vessel were killed by a pathogen that was carried on board by another abductee, Icheb. [65][66] Prior to the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, Donna Dickens speculated that Andrew Lincoln's appearance on the series could be as a character from the Kazon. Ayala serves in main engineering and at ops when Ensign Kim is not on duty, but later transfers to security. In this universe, Voyager was never stranded in the Delta Quadrant. After Voyager's resident Talaxian, Neelix left the ship in 2378, Chell asked to take his place in the mess hall. [48] According to supervising producer David Livingston, the process of applying the Kazon make-up took multiple hours. In "State of Flux", the Voyager crew encounter Jal Culluh (Anthony De Longis), a Kazon sect leader and the series' primary Kazon character. He said that there were very small visual differences between Kazon males and females, with the distinguishing characteristic being women having a more delicate physicality than the men. During her re-watching of the series, TrekToday's Michelle Erica Green provided extensive criticism of the alien species, questioning the decision to feature them as the primary antagonists instead of the Vidiians, and Captain Kathryn Janeway's refusal to share technology with them. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 150) On this topic, Jeri Taylor admitted, "I think that many of [the season's stories] were sort of internal, character-driven, introspective and that the only times we did any kind of action-adventure was with the Kazon, once again!" Chell is a fictional recurring character in Star Trek: Voyager.