Star Trek: Voyager's Revival Really Needs to Fix Its Failed Villains

IDW’s forthcoming revival of Star Trek: Voyager needs to fix the show’s failed villains. In the seven years Voyager traversed the Delta Quadrant, the crew encountered a number of hostile alien races, including the Kazon. Introduced early in the show’s run, they never lived up to the hype, but in 1997’s Star Trek: Voyager #4, one Kazon shows just how low they can go, fulfilling their early promise.

Star Trek: Voyager #4 was written by Howard Weinstein and drawn by Jesus Redondo. Voyager is attacked by a Kazon ship. Janeway notices that Kazon Raider is using different tactics than the others they have encountered.

Later, Voyager answers a distress call from the planet Praja. Beaming down, they discover a plague has wiped out all plant life on the planet, causing animals to starve. At the issue’s end, fans learn the horrifying truth: another Kazon sect unleashed the plague on the planet, all so they could kill the populace and set up a mining colony.

Star Trek: Voyager Was Plagued With a Villain Problem, Out of the Gate

The Kazon Failed to Make an Impression on Janeway--And Star Trek Fans

After the back-to-back successes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Paramount Pictures commissioned another show: Voyager. In the early 1990s, the Star Trek universe was expanding: Deep Space Nine took fans to the previously-uncharted Gamma Quadrant, opening up an entire new area for Starfleet to explore. When it came to Voyager’s premise, they were sent to the other side of the galaxy, to the Delta Quadrant, which was also largely unexplored. Between the two shows, the galaxy was getting a lot bigger.

With these exciting new corners of the Star Trek universe also came new species, both friendly and hostile, and Voyager had some of the most terrifying, although the first they met was far from inspiring. In Voyager’s pilot episode, titled “The Caretaker,” Starfleet had its first encounter with the Kazon. Intended to be Voyager’s main antagonist, they unfortunately fell flat in the long run. The Kazon situation closely mirrored that of the Ferengi. Originally intended to be the primary villains for The Next Generation, the goofy-looking Ferengi failed to land as adversaries.

However, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine redeemed the Ferengi in a spectacular fashion, but nothing such happened with the Kazon, at least on-screen. Exactly why the Kazon never reached the heights of Voyager’s other foes, such as the Viidians or the Borg, is a mystery. While some of it may owe to bad writing, everything about the Kazon indicated they might be a worthy adversary. They were big, imposing and savage. Their technology was comparable to Voyager’s and their culture, based around clans, seemed deep and thought-out, but they never seemed to live up to their potential.

Eventually, Voyager left the area of the Delta Quadrant the Kazon called home around the time of the show’s third season, and they were rarely seen again. And just as the Ferengi’s failure as villains in The Next Generation led to the creation of the Borg, the Kazon’s failure to launch forced Voyager’s writers to turn to the Borg for stories. In time, the Borg, and to a lesser extent the Viidians, became the ship’s primary nemesis. Outside a few cameos on other Star Trek shows, such as Prodigy, the Kazon have been few and far between.

The Kazon Are Brimming With Evil Potential

Different Kazon Sects Have Different Tactics and Ways of Fighting

While the Kazons fans saw on-screen failed to set the Star Trek universe on fire, the ones glimpsed in issue four of Star Trek: Voyager would have made for far better villains. To be sure, the Kazon seen on the show did some vile things, such as attempting to subjugate the Ocampa. Yet, they never reached the heights of the Kazon in Star Trek: Voyager #4. The Kazon in that issue used a virus to destroy Praja’s plant life, which led in turn to the deaths of countless animals. Praja went from a beautiful world to a hellscape.

Star Trek: Voyager #4 never outright explains why these Kazon are different, but does offer a clue. Voyager’s premiere established that the Kazon organize themselves into sects, each with varying customs and traditions. Most of the Kazon Voyager met belonged to the Nistrom sect, whereas the Kazon of this issue are from an entirely different one. As seen in the issue, these Kazons use different tactics, ones far more brutal than the Nistrom employs. While they failed to make a dent in Voyager, it was enough to upend what they knew of the Kazon.

For fans who were used to the less-than-stellar ways of the Kazon-Nistrom, this sect is downright jarring. A virus that decimates a planet’s ecosystem on the scale seen in Star Trek: Voyager #4 is way beyond the scope of the Nistrom. Whether the Kazon created this virus is never revealed, but they used it nonetheless. This sect of Kazons were willing to let an entire planet effectively die just so they could mine and strip it for resources. The Kazons, regardless of sect affiliation, are scavengers, and this sect takes that to its horrifying extreme.

Star Trek: Voyager: Homecoming Needs to Redeem the Kazon

The Kazon Can Be Scary Star Trek Villains After All

Clearly, the writers of Star Trek: Voyager failed the Kazon, never giving them their due, but Howard Weinstein and Jesus Redondo make the species absolutely terrifying. Now, the writers of IDW’s upcoming Star Trek: Voyager: Homecoming miniseries, created for the show’s 30th anniversary, need to pick the thread back up, and show the fans the Kazon can take their place next to the Borg, the Romulans, the Dominion and other major players in the franchise.