Kazon The Kazon were an aggressive warrior species from the Delta Quadrant , first encountered by the Federation starship in 2371 . ( ) As of 2372 , they were divided into eighteen different sects . Each sect had possession of different natural resources over which the sects fought each other . ( ) The Kazon were known to the Borg as species 329 , but were deemed unworthy of assimilation . ( ) History . The Kazon were a subjugated race , used as slave labor by the Trabe , who had conquered their homeworld . It is unknown if the Kazon were divided into sects before they were conquered by the Trabe , but the sects were in existence during their oppression by the Trabe . One of the Trabe ' s tactics in keeping the Kazon under control was to encourage them to fight amongst themselves . ( ) In 2346 , Jal Sankur convinced the Kazon sects to put aside their differences and rise up against the Trabe . In doing so the Kazon took the Trabe ' s ships and technology , forcing them to become a nomadic species , never allowing them to settle on a new world . ( ) In 2372 , the leaders of all Kazon sects were invited to a peace conference on the planet Sobras by Captain Janeway along with the Trabe leader Mabus . However , Mabus only consented to attend the conference in the hope of eliminating all Kazon leaders at once . The assassination was unsuccessful , and Kazon relations worsened with both the Trabe and the crew of . ( ) Political . As one , the Kazon were known as the Kazon Order ; however , they were really a collection of semi - independent sects and there seemed to be no overall leader or government . The major sects were Kazon - Halik , Kazon - Ogla , Kazon - Oglamar , Kazon - Relora , Kazon - Nistrim , Kazon - Mostral , Kazon - Hobii , and Kazon - Pommar . ( , ) The two most powerful sects were the Ogla and Relora , who possessed most of the Kazons ' manpower and ships . The Nistrim were once a powerful and influential sect , however their reach has diminished – by 2372 , they possessed fewer than six raider vessels . ( ) Leaders within the Kazon sects were referred to as maje with the head of the sect referred to as first maje . ( ) The behavior of the various Kazon sects had caused them to make many enemies throughout the Delta Quadrant . Attacks on Talaxian trade convoys were frequent . ( ) Physiology . The Kazon were a humanoid race , having at least two racial variants , one minority race with brown skin and the most common race with copper - colored skin . The foreheads of all Kazon featured distinctive ridges and their black or brown hair grows in large chunks rather than individual strands . ( , " et al . " ) Kazon have a liver . ( ) Society . Kazon society was patriarchal , divided along gender lines , with female Kazon typically spoken down to and treated as second - class citizens . A male Kazon will generally not tolerate being given orders by a woman . ( ) Male Kazon children were usually raised as warriors . When they came of age they took part in trials to earn their adult names ( see Jal ) . When they had earned their names they were considered to be true warriors . Displays of affection from a father to his son were considered a source of shame for the son . ( ) The Kazon were the only species known to have been rejected by the Borg for assimilation . The former Borg drone Seven of Nine explained that the reasoning for this decision was that the biological and technological distinctiveness of the Kazon was " unremarkable " , and that assimilating them would have detracted from the perfection being pursued by the Borg . ( ) The Borg designated the Kazon as Species 329 . ( ) Technology . While the technology they took from the Trabe had allowed the Kazon to spread throughout a small area of the Delta Quadrant , it lacked elements common to the technology of Alpha Quadrant races . The Kazon possessed energy weapons such as phaser s and tractor beam s , as well as deflector shield s , but had no knowledge of technology such as transporter s and replicator s until their first contact with " Voyager " . ( ) Kazon raider ships were tactically inferior to a Starfleet starship , although their larger carrier vessels posed more of a threat . ( ) Seska considered Kazon medicine to be very primitive . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Concept . The idea for the Kazon started to be conceived during secretive development meetings between Rick Berman , Michael Piller , and Jeri Taylor , from which began to be created . ( " " ) The series ' co - creators originally conceived of the Kazon as contemporary Los Angeles street gangs . Jeri Taylor recalled , " " We felt with the Kazon we needed to address the tenor of our times and what " [ . . . ] " was happening in our cities and recognizing a source of danger and social unrest . We wanted to do that metaphorically . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 151 ) One factor in this analogy was that the trio wanted to have in - fighting between the alien " gangs . " Michael Piller commented , " " Our intention was to create a sort of disorganized anarchy , them - against - them as much as them - against - us . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 161 ) The earliest material evidence of the Kazon concept was one of many summaries that Jeri Taylor wrote about the developmental conversations , written while they were ongoing ; the specific summary in which the idea was first written about was dated and read , " " Maybe there are ' gangs ' who are the villains . They don ' t respect the prime directive , and have interfered with many non - warp cultures . They come in and ' squat ' on a planet . They ' re basically bullies . " " The same set of notes also posited , " " At least two gangs – Crips and Bloods , in competition for influence . " " ( " " , p . 186 ) The terms used to refer to these two groups were intentionally meant as preliminary , shorthand names . ( " " , p . 187 ) On 16 August 1993 , Jeri Taylor wrote another summary , including the statement , " " The Crips have a rival ( or more ) , for territory ; they vie for new worlds , wiping out people on the way . Maybe on some planets they get along with the native population . But generally , they begin , like skinheads , to practice ' ethnic cleansing . " " As highlighted in the same summary , Taylor and her fellow series co - creators were considering the possibility that , in the pilot episode of the forthcoming " Star Trek " series , the series ' main characters might form a truce with one of the gangs , making the other gang an enemy for the rest of the series . The document went on to state , " " Perhaps there are three gangs , with constantly shifting relationships and allegiances . Just as we think we have sorted it out , the balance shifts again . " " ( " " , pp . 187 - 188 ) In a much longer summary , dated the next day ( 17 August ) , a preliminary story outline for the pilot episode of the upcoming series described the Crips as " a gang which , in conflict with two other gangs , competes for territory in this region of space . " ( " " , pp . 190 - 191 ) Furthermore , this early story outline was evidently influenced by the series co - creators still considering the idea that one of the enemy gangs ( now selected to be the Crips ) would forge a truce with the series ' hero characters and that another of the gangs ( said to be the Bloods ) would therefore serve as antagonists for the series , vowing to eliminate the main characters . ( " " , p . 191 ) This initial concept was scrapped by , as Jeri Taylor evidenced in another of her notes ( which twice abbreviated the terms used for the gangs as " the B ' s and C ' s " ) . The quarrelsome gangs continued to play into development for the pilot episode , although proceeding along much the same lines as they are depicted in the final version of that installment ( besides the continued use of their shorthand gang - names ) . ( " " , p . 205 ) By mid - , the name of the new species had been changed to " Gazon " ( pronounced with an " a " sound , as opposed to an " ay " sound ) . This modification was most likely made by Michael Piller , who was working on the script for the pilot episode , , by that point . ( " " , p . 232 ) In the first draft script for " Caretaker " ( dated ) , an introductory description of the aliens read thus : " " They are a lean , scrawny people who dress in an assortment of unkempt clothing . Some are in nothing more than rags . Their skin is parched and desiccated ; the sun has produced blotches and sores on some . This appears to be a camp of people barely able to survive , bereft of creature comforts and living a harsh , hardscrabble life . They are the Gazon , whom we will come to know , over the course of the series , as a lethal , deadly sect who subject themselves to these dire circumstances in return for the possible acquisition of power . " " At some time in either June , July or August 1994 , the species name was finally changed to " Kazon " . ( " " , p . 281 ) The reason for the name change between " Gazon " ( pronounced with an " a " sound ) and " Kazon " ( pronounced with an " ay " sound ) was that , with the Middle East ' s Gaza Strip being an oft - mentioned news item at the time , the producers feared that an unintended metaphor might be made between the similarly - sounding " Gazon " and " Gaza Strip " . ( ) As of , however , Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry was still pronouncing the word Kazon with an " a " sound . ( " Red Alert : Visual Effects Season One " , VOY Season 1 DVD special features ) The first edition of the " " , first printed in , clarified that only two competing Kazon " sects " were still planned to be established . One of them was branded with the ultimately unused name " Kazon - Sera " ( the other being the Kazon - Ogla ) . Initial make - up and casting decisions . About early , Make - Up Supervisor Michael Westmore began researching designs for the make - up of the Kazon ( who were , at that time , still known as the Gazon ) . ( " " , p . 232 ) Of the eventual Kazon make - up designs , Westmore commented , " " The idea with the Kazon was to have a character along the lines of the Klingons , but not to go with the dinosaur bone - type of ridges . It ' s more of a soft cockscomb , a rooster comb , that goes up the front of the face , and has a nose tip on it , with two extending skin protrusions that literally come up inside the nostrils . It ' s hard to tell , but there is a difference between the male and female ; there ' s a little harder look and a little more detailed sculpture around the eye on the male ; the females are a little softer . And we work with reds and lighter browns for those , as opposed to dark brown for the Klingons . " " ( ; " " , pp . 165 - 166 ) The forehead make - up was designed around an almost devilish structure , and the comb that runs down the forehead was taken from the look of a vulture ' s neck . As the series progressed , the make - up department took the " vulture neck " from the Kazon comb and built an appliance for the neck instead . In addition , the make - up team created a new nose tip that lengthened the actors ' noses and added spikes coming out from below the nostrils . ( " " , pp . 165 - 166 ) To further the analogy of the Kazon representing street gangs , Michael Piller wanted to only cast actors of a certain youthful age range as Kazon . He explained , " " The wish that I had , which was not fulfilled , was that we would only cast people between eighteen and twenty - five - ish so that these would be young , angry people who never lived to be old enough to have the kind of experience and perspective on the world that , say , the Klingons and Romulan s might have . They were much more emotional , short fused , and therefore had fewer expectations , which I think is indicative of street gangs today . " " This concept proved unfeasible , as older actors were found to do better with the roles . Piller noted , " " Older actors gave more polished performances . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 161 ) The task of designing the make - up for the aliens was not as big a problem as was making the masks for each Kazon actor , as there were many performers who would play the aliens in " Caretaker " . Consequently , Michael Westmore had to hire extra mold makers and make - up artists to assist with the work . ( " " , p . 283 ) Each morning , the extensive make - up , as well as hair and wardrobe , were applied to the performers . The process of applying the make - up took , in David Livingston ' s words , " several hours . " After transporting all the actors to the filming location of the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed , Livingston and the other members of the filming crew were tasked with keeping the performers comfortable , which was also difficult due to the heat there . ( " " ) After " Star Trek : Voyager " premiered , fan reaction to the Kazon was unrelentingly negative . Most letters criticized the alien designs with such comments as , " " They look like they ' re all having a bad hair day . " " ( " " , p . 283 ) First season . Despite the negative fan response to the Kazon in " Caretaker " , they were one of three alien species ( the other two being the Vidiian s and the Sikarian s ) that the writing team of " Star Trek : Voyager " originally planned , in the series ' first season , to feature as recurring , antagonistic aliens . The Kazon were also one of only two that succeeded this expectation ( the Sikarians ultimately appeared only in the Season 1 episode ) . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 127 ) During the first season , Michael Westmore still found that the Kazon were one of " Voyager " s most demanding species but he also found they were a lot easier to deal with than the usual make - up demands of . He noted , " " With the Kazons , outside of the pilot , we only see three or five of them , so it ' s a smaller number [ than the quantity of aliens often seen on DS9 ' s Promenade < nowiki > ] < / nowiki > . " " ( ) For the reappearances of the Kazon after " Caretaker " ( starting with the first season installment ) , their look was slightly modified from how they had originally appeared . Shortly after this alteration , Michael Westmore explained , " " One slight change already made in the Kazon look are the ' pig ears ' that hair designer Josée Normand originally wove into the wigs . " " These " ears " had proven to be too heavy for not only the active workout that stuntmen put the wigs through , but even for normal use . As a result , the wig appendages were changed to being composed of lighter - weight materials , such as sponges . ( ) Second season experiment . The writing team of " Star Trek : Voyager " deliberately made a concerted effort to explore Kazon culture in the series ' second season and a major proponent of this was Michael Piller . At the time , he commented , " " We met the Kazon the first year and we have been formulating quite a deep investigation of their culture that will turn them , I think , into perhaps one of the top five adversarial alien races in " Star Trek " s history . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 123 ) Due to the increased attention paid to the Kazon , Executive Story Editor Kenneth Biller ( early in the season ) invented a complex sociological backstory regarding their history and customs , inventing their societal relationship with the Trabe , and writing a document on these ideas . Biller ' s motive for doing so was that he felt such a paper would prove valuable to the season and would be a good method of coordinating the way in which the Kazon would be portrayed for the rest of the season , as all the writers would literally be working " from the same page . " Indeed , this paper was used in the writing of both the Biller - penned ( during whose development the document was written ) and , which was written by Jeri Taylor . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , pp . 161 - 162 ) Michael Piller found that the character of Seska helped with the season ' s exploration of the alien species . " " She allowed us to go behind the scenes with the Kazon " [ . . . ] " Seska helped define the Kazon for us . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 165 ) Seska actress Martha Hackett noted , " " I don ' t think she gives a hoot about the Kazon . " " ( ) Michael Piller was eager to learn what the reaction to the increased focus on the Kazon would be . He stated , " " I ' ll be curious to know what the audience ' s perception is , if our investing in the Kazon this season worked . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 161 ) Even though audience response ( in that same season ) was apparently that the science fiction nature of " Star Trek " was not prevalent enough , Michael Piller believed that a futuristic aspect of the season was its use of the Kazon . " " There are a lot of people who don ' t consider a lot of these stories [ this season ] science fiction , " " he said . " " But certainly you can make a case that facing the Kazon in battle is futurist storytelling . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 150 ) On this topic , Jeri Taylor admitted , " " I think that many of [ the season ' s stories ] were sort of internal , character - driven , introspective and that the only times we did any kind of action - adventure was with the Kazon , once again ! " " ( ) Conclusion . Ultimately , Jeri Taylor decided to abandon development of the Kazon after the second season . ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , pp . 149 , 151 , 161 & 165 ; , et al . ) She commented , " " I think that we dwelt too much on the Kazon this year and it was one of the things that didn ' t work about the season . The Kazon have never been particularly interesting as adversaries , and we just did them and did them and did them and " did " them . It created the curious implication that we are standing still in space , when our franchise is that we are going at incredible speeds toward the Alpha Quadrant – we keep running into the same " people " over and over again ! It was just an oddity , and I don ' t think the Kazon have served us well . And " [ . . . ] " it is my intention to leave them behind and to find new and I hope more " interesting " aliens . " " ( ) In summation of his dispute with Jeri Taylor concerning the season ' s close look at the Kazon , Michael Piller commented , " " I think that Jeri was unhappy in general with the Kazon , but I think it was important and valuable to create this adversary . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 165 ) Executive Producer Rick Berman agreed with the opinion that Jeri Taylor ultimately formed about the Kazon . In the interim between the second and third seasons , Berman declared , " " I think you have seen the end of Kazon space . If you think about it , traveling for a year - and - a - half through a part of space dominated by one group is pretty amazing ! I think traveling at warp speed for a year - and - a - half you would pass through the Federation , the Klingon Empire and a few other places . So I think we have overextended our visit into Kazon space and those stories are all going to be resolved and done with at the beginning of the [ third ] season . " " ( ) Another production staffer who supported the choice to no longer feature the Kazon was Brannon Braga . Regarding how he thought the series should progress after the second season , he related , " " I think the show will stop having the feeling that we ' re traveling in a big circle . No more Kazon . We can say what we want , but the Kazon are just half - baked Klingons . " " ( ) The cessation of focus on the Kazon also made sense to members of " Star Trek : Voyager " s regular cast . Tuvok actor Tim Russ , for instance , supposed , " " The only thing about it is that we are presumably in motion toward home , and I don ' t know what the Kazon ' s realm covers . You know , how expansive is it ? They can only be with us for so long , you know , from what I can gather , unless they reestablish . They are nomadic . They have to be nomadic to the point where they ' re always roaming and that you could stretch out for a while , but you can ' t stretch out a territorial dispute , because we ' re no longer in the territory . We ' re out of range of a lot of things because [ we ' re ] on the move , and that ' s something the writers just built right into the story . Three years from now you can ' t be talking about the Kazon . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , pp . 151 - 152 ) Russ also said of the villainous species , " " That ' s the only thing that really wasn ' t working for all of us . The bad guys we ' ve dealt with every other show just have not been that imposing , haven ' t been enough of a threat , as it were , for anyone – the characters or the fans – to take seriously . " " ( " " issue # 231 , p . 49 ) Neelix actor Ethan Phillips declared , " " We need to phase out the Kazon a little bit . They ' re not very exciting " [ . . . ] " I think we should send the Kazon back to the Gamma Quadrant . " " ( " " issue # 231 , p . 49 ) Half - jokingly , Robert Picardo , the performer of The Doctor , agreed , " " Really , other than their hair , the Kazon aren ' t too scary . " " Picardo also felt that the only " fun " aspect to having the Kazon in the series was their hair . ( " " issue # 231 , p . 49 ) Chakotay actor Robert Beltran reckoned , " " The Kazon don ' t have much intelligence . So , I don ' t think we respect them much as adversaries . " " ( " " issue # 231 , p . 49 ) Yet another supporter of the decision to rid the series of the Kazon was Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew . She commented , " " We need " [ . . . ] " to encounter enemies of such ferocity , enemies who in fact are quite lethal and frightening . Enemies that you would watch and say , ' Oh , boy , how are they going to get out of this one ? ' I don ' t think the Kazon hit the bill . " " ( ) Mulgrew also noted , " " I never cared much for the Kazon . . . They ' re just great big stupid giants . " " ( " " , p . 125 ) Additionally , she commented about " Star Trek : Voyager " s second season , " " I don ' t think our dealing with the presence of the Kazon was as effective as the actual pursuit of our mission to get home would have been . " " ( " " issue # 231 , p . 49 ) Even Michael Piller , having championed the Kazon arc of the second season , admitted , " " As the season progressed , I think [ the actors playing Kazon ] got older and older still , and as a result , I think we didn ' t fulfill the full potential of the Kazon , even though I think they were written pretty well . I think they ultimately came out being sort of Klingon - ish and I regret that we didn ' t stick to our original version of keeping them young . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 161 ) Although many of the same in - house writers worked on the multiple " Star Trek " spinoff series , not all of them remembered or knew who the Kazon were . Upon René Echevarria mistaking a Kobliad bar patron for a Kazon , during the recording of an audio commentary for , Naren Shankar admitted , " " I don ' t know what you ' re talking about . " " Echevarria explained , " " They had that kinda look . " " Writer K . Stoddard Hayes critiqued , " " The Kazon " [ . . . ] " are stereotypical macho space warriors . No memorable Kazon characters emerge from two seasons of episodes featuring their different factions . " " ( ) Final appearances . Intended to serve as the swan - song for the Kazon was the two - parter and , which bridged " Voyager " s second and third seasons . However , it was initially uncertain that it would be the Kazon who would act as adversaries in that two - part story . " " When we were going in , " " Michael Piller said of the two - parter ' s development , " " there was a real question of whether it was going to be a new alien group " [ . . . ] " or the Kazon . I was the one who really drove the unit toward the Kazon , because I felt we had built up this arc with them and it was a natural conclusion . " " ( " Captains ' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages " , p . 169 ) Despite their final encounter with " Voyager " at the outset of season three , Kazon references crop up in each subseqent season of VOY . These include : a Kazon believed to be forced into becoming a member of the " Voyager " crew in season four ' s ; Seven of Nine traveling back in time to a battle between " Voyager " and the Kazon in season five ' s ; Seven investigating " Voyager " s initial conflict with them and the subsequent destruction of the Caretaker ' s array in season six ' s ; and Chakotay returning to the events of " Basics , Part II " in season seven ' s .