Was Kes different from other Ocampa?

[FaxModem1]

Kes was always different from the average Ocampa, as she was curious, outgoing, and wanting to explore the rest of the galaxy. Eventually, in "The Gift", Kes changes into some sort of energy being(and somehow becomes corporeal again to get revenge on Voyager in "Fury"). Now, the current Ocampa, on her home planet, were not exploring this potential at all, and so were not reaching this. However, if previous, generations of Ocampa could reach this potential, how did they stay corporeal to have babies to reach Kes's generation? If not, and Kes is special, then what makes her so different from every other Ocampa? The question is, of course, are all Ocampa like Kes, or was she a unique case?

[The Romulan Republic]

I would imagine that all Ocampa are different, because they're not copies or drones, but individual people.

Kew seemed to be at the more open-minded end of the curve, though.

[trekky0623]

I would suspect that the mind powers Kes had were present in other Okampa to a lesser extent, but were not fully explored and utilized because of the restrictions placed onto them by the caretaker, never exploring the limits of their abilities.

Wouldn't the Okampa have died out or been conquered by now, though, especially without the array to provide for them? They only had a surplus of five years, and they live in the proximity of the Kazon. If Kes ever gets back, I suspect the rest of the Okampa are either dead or slaves.

[The Romulan Republic]

While its not canon, I believe the Occampa are scattered refugees in Star Trek Online.

[Purple]

However, if previous, generations of Ocampa could reach this potential, how did they stay corporeal to have babies to reach Kes's generation?

My guess would be that they didn't. Those that reached this potential went incorporeal and did their incorporeal thing. And the rest that didn't remained corporeal, had babies and that's how we got Kes.

[biostem]

There was that one episode of Voyager, where they came across some Ocompa that had lifespans over twice that of the ones where Kes came from. My take-away from that episode is that Ocampa are one of those "great potential" races we sometimes see in Star Trek, (there was an episode of TNG where one alien sought asylum w/ the Federation because his government was hunting down "aberrants", when it turned out they were trying to suppress some sort of "next evolutionary step" the race was headed towards , and he also became an energy being at the end of the episode).

If I had to guess, I think that there is this theme where, if kept in a state of stagnation, several ST races basically exist in highly mundane and limited state, until pushed to advance toward some new phase...

[Prometheus Unbound]

http://ishare.rediff.com/video/entertai ... s-/2383688

No, she's not unique. And before Species 8472, she wasn't the strongest or most powerful, either.

[Q99]

I would suspect that the mind powers Kes had were present in other Okampa to a lesser extent, but were not fully explored and utilized because of the restrictions placed onto them by the caretaker, never exploring the limits of their abilities.

Wouldn't the Okampa have died out or been conquered by now, though, especially without the array to provide for them? They only had a surplus of five years, and they live in the proximity of the Kazon. If Kes ever gets back, I suspect the rest of the Okampa are either dead or slaves.

And there's also the matter of their reproductive rates...

[Mr Hugh Mann]

http://ishare.rediff.com/video/entertai ... s-/2383688

No, she's not unique. And before Species 8472, she wasn't the strongest or most powerful, either.

Afterwards however, her feats surpass anything else we have observed accomplished by any Ocampa including those trained by Suspiria. In “The Gift” she manages to hurl Voyager 10,000 light-years to put them safely beyond Borg space and in “Fury” she demonstrates the capacity to use Voyager's warp core to travel back in time. This might simply be a case of convenience sampling, wherein we have many observations of Kes to consider versus only a few regarding Ocampa who have been trained to use their higher abilities, but if Kes is more representative of the kind of power Ocampa can obtain after normal training then I would have expected Tanis to be considerably more powerful than was shown in “Coldfire”. So I suppose that while Kes' abilities may be part of the continuum of possible capacities the Ocampa can possess or develop, she definitely seems to be an outlier.

[Prometheus Unbound]

http://ishare.rediff.com/video/entertai ... s-/2383688

No, she's not unique. And before Species 8472, she wasn't the strongest or most powerful, either.

Afterwards however, her feats surpass anything else we have observed accomplished by any Ocampa including those trained by Suspiria. In “The Gift” she manages to hurl Voyager 10,000 light-years to put them safely beyond Borg space and in “Fury” she demonstrates the capacity to use Voyager's warp core to travel back in time. This might simply be a case of convenience sampling, wherein we have many observations of Kes to consider versus only a few regarding Ocampa who have been trained to use their higher abilities, but if Kes is more representative of the kind of power Ocampa can obtain after normal training then I would have expected Tanis to be considerably more powerful than was shown in “Coldfire”. So I suppose that while Kes' abilities may be part of the continuum of possible capacities the Ocampa can possess or develop, she definitely seems to be an outlier.

Right, I put the qualifier "before Species 8472" first


S8472 did something to her brain when trying to communicate with her. At that point, sure, she became low level god-like. Let's set "The Gift" aside. That than that episode (and Fury, I suppose, which was a sequel of sorts), it was said by Kes herself that these powers (telepathy, being able to see other universes / times, psychokenesis / telekenesis) were abilities the Ocampa used to have, they just lost the abilities like an atrophied muscle. She was no more unique than any other Ocampa out there.

The ones on the station with Susperia were ... trained by someone clearly with an agenda. So we don't know if they're any kind of benchmark but nothing was ever said that Kes was the strongest or best at any of it. I mean, "Final Form" Kes may be more powerful than a caretaker, so maybe Susperia, the cheating, lying, jealous, paranoid weirdo squid alien, didn't let them use their final form powers because she was scared of them.


Or maybe Kes is the most powerful ever and it was in her all the time.

[Broomstick]

Whacky theory about the Ocampa, pulled out of my ass:

Really, the 9 year life span never made a whole lot of sense to me, it seems to work better as a developmental phase. They're born, spend about 9 years in a state where they grow and reproduce, then undergo a life-change/puberty/metamorphosis to their energy-being state. Meaning, in a sense, they reproduce in a sort of "child" state/very narrow window early in life. The caretaker suppresses that final change, and probably other conditions means most of them die prior to final maturity. Kes is one that manages to escape that fate and become a fully developed Ocampa.

Like I said, whacky theory, YMMV, use or discard as you wish.

[trekky0623]

http://ishare.rediff.com/video/entertai ... s-/2383688

No, she's not unique. And before Species 8472, she wasn't the strongest or most powerful, either.

Oh my god that exposition dump at the beginning...

[Prometheus Unbound]

Well it was like 18 months after Caretaker, not everyone saw it or remembered it all