I Always Thought Star Trek: Voyager Made A Mistake With A Character We Never Saw Before

I always thought that Star Trek: Voyager made a mistake with a character that we had never seen before. In Star Trek: Voyager season 6, episode 18, "Ashes to Ashes", an alien woman named Jhet'leya (Kim Rhodes) seeks out the USS Voyager, claiming to be Ensign Lyndsay Ballard, a fallen comrade of the USS Voyager crew. Jhet'leya's species, the Kobali, procreate by recovering other species' dead bodies, and converting them to Kobali. Jhet'leya wasn't supposed to remember being Lyndsay Ballard, but she did, and escaped Kobali society to return to what she believed was her home.

After the USS Voyager crew determine that Jhet'leya really is Ensign Ballard back from the dead, Lyndsay tries to resume her previous life as Ensign Ballard. The USS Voyager's Doctor (Robert Picardo) can only superficially alter Lyndsay's physiology; internally, she's still Kobali. Ensign Ballard begins speaking Kobali randomly in Engineering, and she can't stomach anything but the Kobali's unappealing gray nutrient paste. Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) finally confesses he had feelings for Lyndsay before her death, but even love isn't enough to undo the fact that Lyndsay Ballard is no more.

Star Trek: Voyager Season 6's Mistake With Lyndsay Ballard Explained

"Ashes To Ashes" Would Have Been A Better Episode If Lyndsay Ballard Had Been Introduced Earlier

Star Trek: Voyager made a mistake with Ensign Lyndsay Ballard by making her a character we'd never seen before. As a viewer, I don't know Ensign Ballard nearly as well as the USS Voyager crew does, so I have to accept what I'm told about Lyndsay through other characters' reactions to her return. Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) felt that Ensign Ballard was a good Starfleet officer with strong potential. Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) took issue with Ballard's lateness. Lyndsay was well-liked, and made a solid Harry Kim love interest, even if she couldn't last.

Everything Star Trek: Voyager's characters remember about Lyndsay Ballard would have mattered more if I had seen her myself in an earlier Voyager episode. Even if Ensign Ballard's only previous appearance was the mission that killed her, I would have had a chance to know her well enough to be surprised by her return, and saddened by her farewell. Lyndsay Ballard's story is well-acted by Rhodes and Voyager's cast, so it's believable, but Lyndsay having to accept her life as Jhet'leya just doesn't have the emotional impact that it would if Ballard had been one of Voyager's recurring characters.

The USS Voyager's Small Crew Size Means We Should Have Seen Ensign Ballard Before

The USS Voyager Only Had About 150 Crew Members, And Ensign Ballard Wasn't One Of Them

The USS Voyager's small crew size, combined with the premise of Star Trek: Voyager lost in the Delta Quadrant, means we should have seen Ensign Lyndsay Ballard before her return from the dead in "Ashes to Ashes". Star Trek: The Next Generation got away with introducing characters who had supposedly always been there much more easily than Voyager, because TNG's USS Enterprise-D had a crew complement of 1000. In Federation space, there would be a high turnover of Starfleet officers coming and going, making it much more likely for a character to be in only one TNG episode.

By contrast, the USS Voyager's crew complement was only around 150 people, and people couldn't transfer off of Voyager or come in from other postings. Star Trek: Voyager did re-use background actors to achieve a sense that the same people had always been there, but none of them were Kim Rhodes' Ensign Ballard, and few were named as recurring characters. Ultimately, the fast pace of producing '90s Star Trek probably didn't leave room for Star Trek: Voyager to feature Rhodes as Lyndsay Ballard before "Ashes to Ashes" aired—even if the episode would be better for it.