LogFAQs > #933428405

#50 Neelix
"Tug my whiskers and call me daddy."

At least someone here is going to be shocked that Neelix almost survived the fifties tier. Well, he did. The secret to his "success" is this -- he actually didn't suck sometimes, especially as Star Trek: Voyager progressed. It's true! There were times in which his screentime was by no means painful, and a few scattered little tear-jerker moments strewn throughout.

But like poor Wesley before him, nothing on earth can save Neelix's fated reception after his disastrous role in the first two seasons.

When we meet Neelix, he's some kind of junk trader whose young girlfriend Kes -- and by young, I mean she's one year old, but I'm not even going to get into that -- has magical fairy powers. (She's a sweetheart, really, and we'll get into that a little later, but suffice it to say her ranking's going to be pulled down by the gravity well that is Neelix.) The troubling matter here isn't technically that Neelix comes across as an awkward creep who is so overprotective of Kes that it's difficult to forget her being a one-year-old isn't the same for Ocampa as any other species -- whoops, fuck, I got into it, oh well. Taken on its own, with writers who possessed a modicum of self-awareness on this matter, this could have been explored in some vaguely acceptable fashion. Instead, the writing insinuates that we as an audience are supposed to find this charming. Funny. Relatable.

Maybe it can be relatable. You know. If you're a horrible, sexist, possibly hebepheliac human being. But I doubt that's what they were shooting for here. Neelix's rivalry with Tom Paris for Kes' courtship only exacerbates the issue. These are possibly the most painful scenes to behold of Voyager's worst season, which is its second season, which... truly, it's not good. There's an episode where Tom and Neelix crash land someplace and have to suss out their aggression, because of course there is, and just... kill me. Just kill me.

Again, Neelix improves. The best thing to happen to actor Ethan Phillips is frankly actress Jennifer Lien's departure from Voyager. With Kes gone, Neelix is free to explore subjects that do not include creepiness. His friendship with Naomi Wildman, a girl whose mother... uh... ceases to exist a la Travis Mayweather, but whatever... is kind of cute until the episode in which he threatens suicide repeatedly in front of her. (WhoopsyDaisy.) But Neelix's frienemy relationship with Tuvok is actually kind of great and there are some real winners there like the sixth season's standout "Riddles" and their touching farewell in "Homestead". So that's something. It's definitely something.

Fun fact, by the way: Naomi Wildman's actress, Scarlet Pomers, used to live less than a block away from me when we were growing up. I hung out with her a couple of times because she was friends with someone else I knew. Naturally, this makes her role on Star Trek: Voyager simultaneously entertaining and bizarre for me.



---

Hi! I'm Quinton.
Did you know that Emilia Clarke will be my wife in 2023?