Welcome to Trekspertise, a series where we break down the technology, history, details, and decisions that make the Star Trek universe so complex — and so fun.

In the pilot episode of “Star Trek: Voyager,” called “Caretaker,” it was explained that a powerful, godlike species called the Nacene once visited the Ocampa homeworld and, through careless use of their powers, accidentally damaged the planet’s atmosphere. All of a sudden, the planet could no longer produce rain, and it swiftly became a desert. To atone for this mistake, the Nacene left two caretakers on the Ocampan homeworld to provide for its natives. The Ocampa were moved underground, and one of the caretaker aliens used its powers to provide food, entertainment, water (from a deep underground well), and even power (from a spatial array in orbit) for the Ocampa. This was said to have happened 500 generations ago. 

It’s important to note, however, that 500 generations isn’t as long a time as you might think for the Ocampa. The species only lives nine years before dying of old age. In a later episode of “Voyager,” it’s explained that the Ocampa first become fertile in a puberty-like process called the Elogium, which doesn’t strike until they are four or five years old, meaning that 500 Ocampan generations is only about 2,500 years, maximum. 

For the show’s first three seasons, “Star Trek: Voyager” featured a Ocampan character named Kes, originally only two years old, played by 20-year-old actress Jennifer Lien. Kes served as the ship’s conscience and was the Voyager’s assistant medical officer, teaching the holographic doctor how to behave in a more human fashion. 

Sadly, she was written off the show after three years. The character’s promise was never quite fulfilled. But as the shortest-lived species in “Star Trek,” the Ocampa are fascinating.

It should be noted that the inception of a species that only lives nine years likely fell right in line with the number of years “Star Trek” shows tended to run in the 1990s. “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” and “Star Trek: Voyager” all ran for exactly seven seasons (there’s a reason for that), and it’s possible the “Voyager” showrunners invented a character who would grow, in effect, from age 19 to age 100 in about that time. 

To remind readers, “Voyager” was about a Starfleet vessel that was left stranded on the far side of the galaxy (by the Caretaker), and that would spend the entirety of the series trekking back to Earth. It was a seven-decade trip. If Ocampa only live nine years, an Ocampan character would essentially spend their whole lives on the USS Voyager, passing through every phase of their aging. Sadly, as all Trekkies know, Kes was written off the show when ratings were flagging, only to be replaced by the catsuit-wearing Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), an attractive former Borg. 

The Ocampa also provided some dramatic possibilities in that they were subtly psychic. In “Caretaker,” they can communicate telepathically, although later in the series, in the episode “Cold Fire,” Kes finds that she has other psychic abilities as well. She can tap into her eidetic memory and even psychically boil water. In a horrible accident, she also finds she can boil people’s blood. Another Ocampan character named Tanis (Gary Graham) explains in that episode that if an Ocampa can hone their brains, they can not only create life, but live longer. Tanis was a whopping 14 years old, and only looked four (that is, about 45). 

The Ocampa, then, have ambiguously strong psychic powers, and Kes is even encouraged by Tanis to use them to set plants on fire. He says that she should think of non-Ocampa as “pets.” Being a gentle, moral character, Kes feels terrible when she unleashes some of her more evil thoughts. “Cold Fire” also reveals that Ocampa can psychically access a spiritual realm of subspace that they call Exosia. It’s kind of like the Ocampan version of ascending, bringing them into a realm of pure thought. Sadly, Exosia is also where the Caretakers live, and Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is targeted by a second Nacene alien who thinks she killed her mate. Kes will have to reach Exosia another way. 

Kes was controversial when she was introduced on “Voyager,” as she was only two years old but was romantically involved with the very adult Neelix (Ethan Phillips). Not only that, but Kes hadn’t gone through Ocampa puberty when we met her, making her literally prepubescent. This has caused many Trekkies to see Neelix as a pedophile. By the third season of the series, though, Kes was the human equivalent of a woman in her late 30s and had long since broken up with Neelix, so the “Voyager” writers went out of their way to show that Kes was an adult woman with her own agency, even if she was only about five Earth years old. 

By the end of the show, Kes was to be an old woman; every year for a human is over a decade for an Ocampa, and their advanced brains allow them to absorb more information and experience than us. It’s a pity that Trekkies never got to see her live out her full life.