Mortal Coil… Missed the Mark?

[Adm_Hawthorne]

The Bard once wrote:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come?
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.

It’s one of those questions that no person can ever truly answer. Is there life after death? If there is life after death, what is it like? How is it experience? Is it different for everyone or the same? Is there truly nothing after this life has ended?

“Mortal Coil” attempted to attack this idea head-on. If you don’t remember, the basic run down is that Neelix is killed while on a survey mission. After 19 hours, Seven revives him using her super duct tape (aka Borg nanotechnology). Neelix, who has been painted to be a rather spiritual person, is very upset to realize that he experienced no afterlife. Naturally, he begins to question his religious convictions. Chakotay, the token ‘how-does-this-make-you-feel’ character, talks Neelix into a vision quest. The quest ends with his dead sister mocking him before being killed and his shipmates telling him that life isn’t relevant. He decides he should just end the farce that is his life.

As he’s standing in the transporter getting ready to transport himself into a nebula, Sam Wildman comes in to get him to go take care of Naomi. She’s convinced monsters were in the replicator, and only Neelix can make them go away. So, he goes; he’s clearly decided not to end it all. The end of the episode has Naomi asking Neelix if he’s still sick and asking him if the monster got him. He responds, “Yes, but I chased them away.”

Goodness, that was a lot, wasn’t it?

Right, so we’re supposed to believe that after not experiencing an afterlife, Neelix become atheist? I find this a hard pill to swallow. I do understand what they were trying to do here, but I’ve known people with strong convictions. They would take this as a testing of their faith. I could easily see them saying things like:

“Of course I didn’t see an afterlife, it clearly wasn’t my time. God wasn’t ready for me to see that.”
“Of course I didn’t see an afterlife, I didn’t remain dead. Only those who have passed to the other side can see it, and I can’t imagine God allowing us to remember something that is supposed to be a reward for doing well in this life.”
“Why would I remember something that only my soul can see? In this mortal flesh, I can’t imagine that being the case!”
“God is testing my faith, but I know, in my heart, that, when my time truly does come, I’ll be in His presence.”

I think you can see where I’m going here. I’d say this conviction is even more profound when faith is one of the major things that’s kept you going, which was the case with Neelix.

Think about it, there have been many people whose hearts have stopped on the operating table. They don’t immediately lose their faith just because they don’t recall and afterlife.

What’s worse is that no one really counseled him. I don’t consider Chakotay’s “let’s go on a spirit adventure” to be a counseling session on how to deal with what Neelix experienced.

The jump Neelix made from “I have something to live for because I have no proof of an afterlife but I believe” to “I have nothing to life for because I don’t recall seeing an afterlife” seems really extreme to me. I understand that the writers were trying to go for an example of how faith can shift, but I don’t think they did a great job of it.

What do you think?

[teya]

I spent a dozen years of my career in oncology, and in my experience, as many people ditch their faith when confronted with the futility of life as are strengthened by the experience.


And Chakotay's spiritual background was handled so poorly in this episode it makes my skin crawl.

[Adm_Hawthorne]

Well, to be fair, Chakotay's spirituality was handled poorly most of the time. Do you recall he was a vegan? No? Neither did the writers three episodes later when he's hankerin' for a steak.

[teya]

Adm_Hawthorne wrote:

---

Well, to be fair, Chakotay's spirituality was handled poorly most of the time. Do you recall he was a vegan? No? Neither did the writers three episodes later when he's hankerin' for a steak.

They never established him as a vegan--just that he didn't eat meat.


That went back and forth...


The pathetic thing is, I don't know of any Native American tradition that includes vegetarianism. Eating meat is part of the cycle of life. Turning NAs into vegetarians is Jeri Taylor slapping her New Agey nonsense on us.


So, yeah, I agree. Chakotay's spirituality was handled poorly 99.9 percent of the time.

[Adm_Hawthorne]

My memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure he says a vegan in "Unity", and I'm pretty sure that Neelix says something to that effect in "Workforce". I also think there was a mention of it in "State of Flux", but I'm going to have to dig through scripts.

[Lynx]

First of all, Chakotay never stated that he was a vegan. In "Unity" he said "I'm a vegetarian".

Not to mention that the comment itself may have been some sort of joke, regarding the fact that Riley said something about longing for Texas steaks and regretted that she couldn't offer Chakotay something similar.

teya wrote:

The pathetic thing is, I don't know of any Native American tradition that includes vegetarianism. Eating meat is part of the cycle of life. Turning NAs into vegetarians is Jeri Taylor slapping her New Agey nonsense on us.

I agree on that one. Sometimes Taylor's own views did creep too much into the stories. There are some examples of that in otherwise good books like "Mosaic" and "Pathways" too.

[exodus]

Adm_Hawthorne wrote:

---

The Bard once wrote:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come?
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.

It’s one of those questions that no person can ever truly answer. Is there life after death? If there is life after death, what is it like? How is it experience? Is it different for everyone or the same? Is there truly nothing after this life has ended?

“Mortal Coil” attempted to attack this idea head-on. If you don’t remember, the basic run down is that Neelix is killed while on a survey mission. After 19 hours, Seven revives him using her super duct tape (aka Borg nanotechnology). Neelix, who has been painted to be a rather spiritual person, is very upset to realize that he experienced no afterlife. Naturally, he begins to question his religious convictions. Chakotay, the token ‘how-does-this-make-you-feel’ character, talks Neelix into a vision quest. The quest ends with his dead sister mocking him before being killed and his shipmates telling him that life isn’t relevant. He decides he should just end the farce that is his life.

As he’s standing in the transporter getting ready to transport himself into a nebula, Sam Wildman comes in to get him to go take care of Naomi. She’s convinced monsters were in the replicator, and only Neelix can make them go away. So, he goes; he’s clearly decided not to end it all. The end of the episode has Naomi asking Neelix if he’s still sick and asking him if the monster got him. He responds, “Yes, but I chased them away.”

Goodness, that was a lot, wasn’t it?

Right, so we’re supposed to believe that after not experiencing an afterlife, Neelix become atheist? I find this a hard pill to swallow. I do understand what they were trying to do here, but I’ve known people with strong convictions. They would take this as a testing of their faith. I could easily see them saying things like:

“Of course I didn’t see an afterlife, it clearly wasn’t my time. God wasn’t ready for me to see that.”
“Of course I didn’t see an afterlife, I didn’t remain dead. Only those who have passed to the other side can see it, and I can’t imagine God allowing us to remember something that is supposed to be a reward for doing well in this life.”
“Why would I remember something that only my soul can see? In this mortal flesh, I can’t imagine that being the case!”
“God is testing my faith, but I know, in my heart, that, when my time truly does come, I’ll be in His presence.”

I think you can see where I’m going here. I’d say this conviction is even more profound when faith is one of the major things that’s kept you going, which was the case with Neelix.

Think about it, there have been many people whose hearts have stopped on the operating table. They don’t immediately lose their faith just because they don’t recall and afterlife.

What’s worse is that no one really counseled him. I don’t consider Chakotay’s “let’s go on a spirit adventure” to be a counseling session on how to deal with what Neelix experienced.

The jump Neelix made from “I have something to live for because I have no proof of an afterlife but I believe” to “I have nothing to life for because I don’t recall seeing an afterlife” seems really extreme to me. I understand that the writers were trying to go for an example of how faith can shift, but I don’t think they did a great job of it.

What do you think?

I think the message is: What happens after death isn't as important as what we do while we are alive here and now.

Even if Neelix did loose faith in an afterlife, Sam Wildman was telling him he had friends that needed him here and that should be where his focus is. Even Seven in her short time on Voy. saw that Neelix at the time had resources the crew required.

Death and the afterlife aren't important as the impressions you make while alive.
Look at Sisko, he was spending every waking moment trapped in the moment of his wife's death and his life and that of his sons were just(years) focusing on an issue that wasn't progressive. Neelix showed that he was spending his whole life just waiting for the moment of his death. He honestly thought dying would make him happy because he'd be with his family again. He didn't care about those in the world of the living that needed him now. Death comes for us all but we can't live in that moment 24/7, that's not what a gift such as life is for.

[Adm_Hawthorne]

Thing is… if he was waiting for the moment of his death to be happy and he didn’t really care about what was going on around him, I don’t feel he would have created the bonds with the Wildmens to begin with, you know?

I mean, if he really was only waiting to die, then why bother to continue to live to begin with? Why fight for survival this whole time? Why not just fly into a black hole and be done with it?

Also, Lynx, vegan is short for vegetarian.

[Smiley]

"Mortal Coil" does succeed in making the audience ask some of the big questions. Neelix's attitude shift may seem a little extreme, but I chalk it up to him being an alien who is on a 45-minute show.

[M]

Adm_Hawthorne wrote:

---

What’s worse is that no one really counseled him. I don’t consider Chakotay’s “let’s go on a spirit adventure” to be a counseling session on how to deal with what Neelix experienced.

Well, I guess the fact that no-one counselled Neelix may have something to do with there not being a counsellor on the Voyager.

I actually felt it was kinda natural for Chakotay to be the one who decided to see after Neelix.

teya wrote:

---

The pathetic thing is, I don't know of any Native American tradition that includes vegetarianism. Eating meat is part of the cycle of life. Turning NAs into vegetarians is Jeri Taylor slapping her New Agey nonsense on us.

Huh, why must Chakotay's vegetarianism be a part of him being a Native American? It's certainly not established like that in the series.

Adm_Hawthorne wrote:

---

Also, Lynx, vegan is short for vegetarian.

Not sure whether you are joking, but no, vegan sure is not short for vegetarian.

Smiley wrote:

---

"Mortal Coil" does succeed in making the audience ask some of the big questions. Neelix's attitude shift may seem a little extreme, but I chalk it up to him being an alien who is on a 45-minute show.

Agreed. Having Neelix doubting his belief system was just the means of telling a more important story. And I think the episode did this rather well.

[Withers]

I didn't like this episode. Whatever the message had the potential to be they botched it and made it unrecognizable in the same vein that Threshold was supposed to be suggestive of the idea that evolution doesn't necessarily equate to bigger, faster, smarter, stronger. Both of these episodes had a message... it just didn't come through as strongly as the creators presumably wanted.

The potential message

Exodus wrote:

---

What happens after death isn't as important as what we do while we are alive here and now.

is the set up for a good episode. Unfortunately, elements like the show being about Neelix, Seven of Nine using Borg magic for the 100billionth time, and Naomi Wildman being the voice of...wisdom, made the message irrelevant and the episode essentially... crap.

"Missed the mark" is the perfect way of describing what happened here.

-Withers-

[Adm_Hawthorne]

I somehow doubt that the EMH couldn't have at least given it a go. I'm sure there's a subroutine out there somewhere to help him with that. Being counseled and having a counselor can be two different things. Sometimes, having more than one person to be a sounding board can be a healthy mental reality check. At the very least, having more than Chakotay really chat with him could have done a world of good.

I can't help but feel that, if he was really so set on ending what he now considered a futile life, he wouldn't have stopped just because Naomi was scared. So, what? He has the realization that people really do care about him, thus he has purpose. I get what they were trying to say.

All I'm sayin' is that I feel it was a poorly executed point because of the quick extremes Neelix went through in a relatively short amount of time.

Re: Vegan - not intending to offend, though I do consider it a form of vegetarianism. Though, I'm pulling my own thread off topic here, so I think I'm going to stop while I'm behind.

[teya]

Adm_Hawthorne wrote:

---

Also, Lynx, vegan is short for vegetarian.

No, it isn't.


A vegan neither eats nor uses any animal products.


Vegetarians can be ovo- , lacto- (eats eggs, eats dairy respectively) or both or neither.

[exodus]

Adm_Hawthorne wrote:

---

Thing is… if he was waiting for the moment of his death to be happy and he didn’t really care about what was going on around him, I don’t feel he would have created the bonds with the Wildmens to begin with, you know?

I mean, if he really was only waiting to die, then why bother to continue to live to begin with? Why fight for survival this whole time? Why not just fly into a black hole and be done with it?

Also, Lynx, vegan is short for vegetarian.

Survivor guilt.
Living was his self punishment for not being in the war to either save them or die with them.
As fasr as his turn araound time, Neelix is good at putting up a front about his feelings.
He was over it on the surface, the panic attack he has over Niomi in "Once Upon a Time" shows those feelings are still there under the surface.


BTW, my understand is "vegan" & "vegitarian" are two different things.
A "vegan" doesn't eat any animal products. No meat, fish, chicken, eggs, milk, etc.
A vegitarian eats no meat but does still eat eggs, milk, etc.

[exodus]

Withers wrote:

---

I didn't like this episode. Whatever the message had the potential to be they botched it and made it unrecognizable in the same vein that Threshold was supposed to be suggestive of the idea that evolution doesn't necessarily equate to bigger, faster, smarter, stronger. Both of these episodes had a message... it just didn't come through as strongly as the creators presumably wanted.

The potential message

is the set up for a good episode. Unfortunately, elements like the show being about Neelix, Seven of Nine using Borg magic for the 100billionth time, and Naomi Wildman being the voice of...wisdom, made the message irrelevant and the episode essentially... crap.

"Missed the mark" is the perfect way of describing what happened here.

-Withers-

That's your opinion.
I disagree completely.
Neelix' whole persona is about struggling to survive, enduring and not taking stuff for granted.
Everything he did was to remind the crew how good they had it dispite being lost and far from their families.
He had to remind Seven what a privilage it was to have written records of her parents.
He had to show Be'Lanna that being Klingon should be a cherished part of her heritage.