TREKCORE > VOY > EPISODES > THE GIFT > Behind the Scenes

	Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna) on "The Gift": "This is much in the tradition of Star Trek. We're taking a character that represents our worst enemy and embracing them. Of course Star Trek would take that step first. It's very right and very much on the path we've been going."
	Bryan Fuller (executive story editor) on "The Gift": "My first assignment was to pitch ideas for Kes leaving the ship. Evolving into a higher lifeform was just one of the ideas. It ws pretty much a group effort, as it was with a lot of the stuff for [Voyager]. One idea was somewhere between [The Gift] and [Fury]. then, Kes was going through "Ocampan menopause" and became like Firestarter [by Stephen King], and they had to get her off the ship to save themselves."
	Brannon Braga (Voyager Executive Producer) on "The Gift": "When it got out that she was coming aboard and some of the images of her hit the streets, there was criticism that it would turn into 'Baywatch', you know: "Look how desperate they are." But I hope that people were proven wrong when they saw such a wonderful actress, what a complex character it was and how it improved the show. It added a sharpness to the show."
	David Livingston on "The Gift": "She was a sort of a "Data" figure who could comment on our reality. She was the outside observer and I think the show needed that. Not only that, but she was damaged in her own right by being a Borg. It was a brilliant decision to bring her on. The casting was terrific."
	Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) on "The Gift": "They made a great character with Seven. She's well-written, she's a tough cookie, she's smart and complex. She adds conflict to every relationship on the ship. The storylines this year have been good. There's really good writing on this show. I don't think it's necessarily me."
	Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) on "The Gift": "The first time I saw Seven of Nine brought to life, to the best of my recollection, was in the cargo bay. They had smoke, which is always effective, Marvin Rush the D.P. (director of photography) started with the shoes and just went up this endless leg and body to this magnificent torso and finally to the face of Seven of Nine. I turned to Picardo and said: "We're going to get a raise." And she was, as you know, a big hit. "It was an awful moment when I said goodbye to Jennifer Lien. You can well imagine. I have to act what I was feeling. This is a treacherous terrain and I was very upset. And I found it very difficult to get through that episode, really difficult."
	Rick Berman (Voyager co-creator) on "The Gift": "It was funny when the Network saw what her eventually look would be and what her costume looked like. Then we have her in the first episode and she looks like a monster. That was when she was completely covered. We had some pressure from people saying: "Get her out of that." but we couldn't in the first episode. We very quickly stepped her down until she ended up just with something over one eye and on one cheek and that's the way she stayed for the series. "The decision to lose the character of Kes was simultaneous to bringing on the character of Seven of Nine. It had nothing to do with Jennifer Lien. She's a lovely actress. The character just wasn't working for us. We tried on a number of occasions to make the character work and it didn't seem to be working."
	Jeri Taylor (Voyager Executive Producer) on "The Gift": "Most of the controversy came from the way she was dressed. A lot of the female fans felt that I should throw my body in front of this impending disaster and do something about it. I didn't, and so I took some flak. I was the one in [TNG] who argued for getting Counsellor Troi out of her catsuit and into a Starfleet uniform but I felt there were reasons for that. She was a Counsellor and I thought that if people were going to respect her and respond to her professionally in the way she intended that she could not be caricature or a pin-up. I didn't feel the same way about Seven of Nine. This was not a care-giving, nurturing person. This was person was plenty tough herself. She was complex, she had her own mind, and she knew exactly what her agenda was. She didn't need us to add to that in any way."
	Kenneth Biller (Voyager Producer) on "The Gift": "I was a little bit regretful when Kes left because I thought that she was interesting to write for from a science fiction standpoint. She had telepathic abilities and a compressed lifespan. She had things about her that led to interesting storytellings, so we gained something in Seven of Nine but we lost something in losing Kes."