Kazon are a fictional alien race in the Star Trek franchise.
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The Kazon were developed as one of three new alien species that could be expanded as recurring antagonists.
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The Kazon were removed from the series following the season three premiere as the co-creators felt that their continued presence would strain the credibility of Voyager's journey home.
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The Kazon were included on several lists ranking the worst villains in Star Trek history, and were cited as an example of the racist implications in the franchise's alien species.
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The Kazon were poorly received by the show's cast members, who did not find them to be strong villains or compelling additions to the narrative.
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Kazon appear as the principal antagonists for Star Trek: Voyager's first two seasons.
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Chakotay convinces Janeway and the rest of the crew to rescue Seska and his son from the Kazon, but they discover it is a trap to ambush Voyager.
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The Kazon takes control of the starship and maroons its crew on a seemingly desolate planet; The Doctor and the troubled crewman Lon Suder are the only two crew members left on board Voyager.
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The Kazon appear in both "Relativity" and "Shattered", which deal with time travel.
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Kazon are included in Star Trek Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Cryptic Studios based on the Star Trek franchise.
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Kazon is identified as "hungry for power and eager to make a name for himself" and "more cunning and intelligent than most Kazon".
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The Kazon appear in the mirror universe presented in Keith DeCandido's short story "The Mirror-Scale Serpent", published in the collection Obsidian Alliances.
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In 1996, an action figure of a Kazon was released as part of a second wave of Playmates Toys' Star Trek merchandise.
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Several figures on Kazon spacecraft were released by Revell, such as those for the raider ship and torpedo.
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Violence between the Kazon was encouraged to limit the risk of them rising up against the Trabe.
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The Kazon stole the Trabe's technology and ships and, rather than settle on a new homeworld, became a nomadic species.
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In Star Trek: Voyager, the Kazon are known under the collective title of the Kazon Order, but the species are separated into various sections.
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The political structure of the Kazon is built around "political killings inside the sects as well as between sects", with peace perceived as an impossible construct.
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Kazon women are never shown on the series, and are only referenced through dialogue by the Kazon men.
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Young Kazon males are raised as warriors, undergoing a rite of passage ritual to earn their adult names.
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Niculescu and Nemtzeanu noted that the Kazon dialogue is marked by its frequent use of violent language.
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In Star Trek: Voyager, the Kazon's military focus is heavily contrasted with the humanistic United Federation of Planets.
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The Kazon are primarily shown using one of two types of spacecraft: raider ships and carrier vessels.
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The Kazon vessels are visually represented as "dark, strictly functional" and without "any of the embellishments known from the bright, slick Federation ships".
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The site mentions that the Kazon have improved their technology since their encounter with Voyager by scavenging more advanced materials from other species.
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The Kazon were originally created as a part of the show's basic premise of Voyager's crew being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
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Kazon were inspired by Los Angeles gangs, and were referenced in a "shorthand 'Crips' and 'Bloods' fashion".
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Kazon's design was formulated around the beginning of June 1994.
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Kazon said that there were very small visual differences between Kazon males and females, with the distinguishing characteristic being women having a more delicate physicality than the men.
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Since a majority of the scenes involving the Kazon were filmed at the El Mirage Lake, Livingston and the filming crew were assigned to help the actors feel comfortable in the heavy make-up and prosthetics despite the high temperatures.
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Kazon said that he wanted the casting choices to convey the alien species as "young, angry people who never lived old enough to have the kind of experience and perspective on the world that, say, the Klingons and Romulans might have".
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Kazon wanted to emphasize that the Kazon were "much more emotional, short fused, and therefore had fewer expectations" through the actors' performances.
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Kazon later regretted the choice of more mature actors, as he felt this conflicted with the writers' concept of the species, making them appear too much like Klingons.
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The Kazon received comparisons to the Cardassians and Wood Elves by Uproxx's Donna Dickens.
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Westmore found the Kazon to be the most demanding species to design for Voyager first season, though, overall, he found the make-up and prosthetic work for Voyager easier than that required for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
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Kazon explained this by comparing the relatively small number of Kazon who appeared in episodes outside of the pilot to the numerous aliens featured throughout Deep Space Nine.
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The Kazon's design was modified during the filming of the first season.
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Taylor was uncertain about the renewed focus on the Kazon, and questioned if they were compelling antagonists.
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Kazon's felt that they never grew into a compelling adversary, despite their appearances in multiple episodes.
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Berman agreed with Taylor's assessment of the Kazon and noted that they would be removed in the beginning of the third season.
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Kazon admitted that the writers made several mistakes and introduced inconsistencies while developing the Kazon.
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Producer Brannon Braga supported the Kazon's removal, criticizing the species as "half-baked Klingons" and their constant inclusion in episodes as making the series have "the feeling that we're traveling in a big circle".
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Kazon explained his decision by saying he "felt we had built up this arc with them and it was a natural conclusion".
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Kazon believed that the Kazon were failures as antagonists, perceiving them to be insufficiently imposing for the main characters and fans to take them seriously.
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Kazon negatively compared Star Trek: Voyager to science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica, writing that Star Trek: Voyager could learn from how "the Galactica must go on, ever forward, to their destination".
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Britt found the Kazon to be among "the silliest, worst antagonists in Trek's history".
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Anders explained that the Kazon were more frequently represented as irritating pests than a major obstacle to Voyagers journey home.
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Green questioned Janeway's resolve to never share Voyager's technology with the Kazon, writing that the species was characterized as "a spacefaring culture with warp drive" so the crew would not be "interfering with a primitive civilization".
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Christina Niculescu and Yonit Nemtzeanu were critical of the dark-skinned Kazon being treated as more aggressive than the more diplomatic, fair-skinned alien species.
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Niculescu and Nemtzeanu followed this up by saying that the Kazon were written only to be "criminals and savages" and seen as "primitive".
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Kazon compared the Kazon to the Klingons and Ferengi, writing that "aliens-of-color [are] used as proxies to represent the worst aspects of human behavior".
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Kazon have been interpreted as a sociopolitical commentary on developing countries.
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Kazon felt that the series should have featured the formation of a new Federation starting with these two alien species.
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