A mysterious telepathic alien who claims to represent the Botha in 2372 and paralyses nearly all of Voyager's crew with vivid hallucinations drawn from their private longings.
The Bothan is an alien encountered by Voyager at the edge of Botha space in the second-season episode Persistence of Vision. He is known only by the name of the people he claims to speak for.
After a hostile exchange over passage through the region, his ships attack and the crew begin to see figures from their own lives and fantasies. Janeway is confronted by characters from her holonovel and by her fiancé Mark, Paris by his father, Tuvok by his wife, and one by one they fall into a trance.
Only Kes and the Doctor remain unaffected. Kes uses her growing mental abilities to turn the illusion back on him and free the crew. Asked why he did it, he answers that he did it because he could, then vanishes, leaving it unclear whether he was ever physically aboard.