Berman and Taylor said they chose to remove Kes since they felt the character was not properly developed over the course of the show, though this was later revealed be a cover story to protect Lien. Executive producer Brannon Braga said this decision was a "failure of imagination on the writers' part". Braga requested freelance writer Bryan Fuller develop the concept for Kes' departure. Receiving a positive response during a pitch meeting, Fuller helped to rewrite the character's final episode "The Gift". He said he had "really bonded" with Kes during the episode's production. Some of the series' writing staff were sorry that Kes was removed; Kenneth Biller stated: I was a little bit regretful when Kes left the show, because I thought she was an interesting character to write for—from a science fiction standpoint—because she had certain... she had telepathic abilities, she had this very compressed lifespan, she had things about her character that often lent themselves to interesting storytelling [....] We lost something in losing the Kes character. Mulgrew was also disappointed by Lien's departure, describing it as a "great sorrow to me on many levels", describing the departure as the "fracturing of an ensemble cast that was extremely special to me". Tim Russ, who portrays Tuvok, referred to the character's exit as "gracious" and "poignant". After leaving Voyager, Lien stopped acting to pursue an associate degree in health. Despite this, producers invited her back for an episode because they wanted to use Kes to advance the story. The concept for this episode, "Fury", was developed by Braga and written by Fuller and Michael Taylor. Cinefantastique's Anna L. Kaplan considered Fuller's involvement ironic due to his participation in "The Gift". Lien was uncomfortable with the original script, and requested that it be rewritten. She said it was difficult to play a different version of Kes and interact with the other characters who had changed since her last appearance. Lien did not have the same allergic response to the ear prosthetics since she did not have to wear them for the same length of time. During a 2010 interview with StarTrek.com, Lien said she preferred her performance in "The Gift" to that for "Fury", saying she made "a lot of poor acting choices" in the latter. Appearances Star Trek: Voyager Kes was born in 2369 on Ocampa, a planet in the Delta Quadrant. As a part of the Ocampa