Robert Duncan McNeill never liked Tom Paris' attraction to Kes

When Star Trek: Voyager began, Kes, the Ocampan played by Jennifer Lien, was already in a relationship with Neelix, the Talaxian played by Ethan Phillips. It was an odd sort of relationship given their age differences and personalities, but it wasn't as weird as when the team behind Voyager decided Robert Duncan McNeill's Lt. Tom Paris would fall in love with Kes, and jealousy between him and Neelix would ensue.

For whatever reason, the writers decided to create a semi-relationship that wasn't there since Paris and Kes had no chemistry. Even Duncan McNeill wasn't happy abou the pairing as he told The Official Star Trek Voyager Magazine in issue 11 that he "never thought the Kes thing was right." He didn't like how it made Paris look, flirting with someone who was already involved in a relationship.

"I never thought the Kes thing was right. It made Paris look really bad, flirting with Kes. Luckily, they really cleared it up and dropped it so Neelix and Paris could become the odd couple."

- Robert Duncan McNeill

As fate would have it, Neelix and Kes' relationship didn't last, either, and the duo ended up parting as friends, although Kes did come back in a weird angry phase because Captain Janeway [Kate Mulgrew] supposedly kicked her off Voyager. To me, that was a sign the writers just didn't know what to do with Kes, and there were so many ways they could have gone with her.

Fortunately, though, they didn't continue the relationship with Paris and Kes, which was, honestly, just two actors trying to hard to create chemistry and romantic tension where none existed. Lien deserved more than the storylines she got, and even though there were struggles we don't really know anything about, I'd like to think there could have been a way to salvage the character