What were normal Voyager crewmen (outside the senior staff) thinking about Kes, Neelix and Seven?

[BohandiAnsoid]

Because Voyager focuses mostly on the main characters and their interactions, we don't really know anything about how people outside them thought about Kes, Neelix and Seven of Nine. And I think this is an interesting thing. Kes and Neelix are both from new species. Kes is quite unusual and also genuinely friendly to everyone. Neelix tries to do his best, but can be too eager to help. And Seven… she is a former Borg, when the Borg is an existing threat, might have hurt families or friends of some members of the crew. Not to mention, her personality may be… annoying to some. The cold, efficient Borg mindset.

What do you think about this?

 

[Hawku]

For Neelix and Kes, I think they'd be welcoming and curious with eventual turned stomachs from leeola root mixtures. For Seven, they'd be apprehensive and a little scared for a while with eventual learning that Borg are great.

 

[Starflight]

For anyone in Starfleet, meeting new species or befriending formerly-hostile ones is basically the most exciting thing in the world to them, so they'd probably all be hyped.

Maquis maybe less so, but even they were born and raised in the utopian, egalitarian, 24th century Federation, so presumably have at least a vaguely positive outlook toward things like species diversity.

 

[Oddish]

I think they would think they would react the way a normal military crew would react to a civilian specialist on their ship.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Neelix was the local who knew about the area of space they were in, so I'd say it's reasonable that they were pleased to have someone who might at least help them avoid some of the worst of the local hazards that they could (like, say, for example, pointing them away from something like the Krowtonan Guard, who took out half of the Equinox's crew - it's easy enough to picture him saying 'oh, I'd avoid this area, there's nothing of use to you here, you should go in THIS direction' without even mentioning the Guard proper).

Kes, at least to begin with, was a tagalong with Neelix, but as she became the Doctor's medical assistant, we saw that the crew appreciated her gentler approach to him plenty of the time. Plus, given her personality, I'd say she was someone the crew in general was fond of, because she just had this gentle and eager to learn air about her that I would think would put them at ease.

Now Seven is where things get trickier, because I think there SHOULD have been a lot more attention given to the crew struggling with a Borg among them. We had B'Elanna's hostility, particularly in The Gift and Day of Honor (plus an additional bit in the novelization), but it wasn't ever really given the focus it should have, I feel. Sure, we had Janeway making it clear that she saw Seven as a victim they had rescued from an abusive home, for want of a better metaphor, but Seven also represented this existential threat to them, surely it called for some additional pushback. But, that would also have depended on Voyager, as a show, developing the crew outside of the main credits cast and being able to have a lower decks perspective.

Given Voyager's unique circumstances, where not just was the ship lost in an area of space 70000 light years removed from their own frame of reference, but they were also a melding of Starfleet and Maquis crew, a mix of people who choose to explore the unknown and people who were just looking to defend their homes from the Cardassians, I think they were generally pretty accepting of people outside of the typical "chain of command" having a position of prominence in the ship's hierarchy. After all, there was a decent chunk of the crew who came from outside of the typical chain of command. Not like it was a new thing on Voyager.

 

[Oddish]

Now Seven is where things get trickier, because I think there SHOULD have been a lot more attention given to the crew struggling with a Borg among them. We had B'Elanna's hostility, particularly in The Gift and Day of Honor (plus an additional bit in the novelization), but it wasn't ever really given the focus it should have, I feel. Sure, we had Janeway making it clear that she saw Seven as a victim they had rescued from an abusive home, for want of a better metaphor, but Seven also represented this existential threat to them, surely it called for some additional pushback. But, that would also have depended on Voyager, as a show, developing the crew outside of the main credits cast and being able to have a lower decks perspective.

That was Voyager: nine main characters and a bunch of faceless uniformed non-entities. Even Harry was pretty borderline in that regard.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Voyager crewmen aren't allowed to think. They're NPCs

 

[AntonyF]

For anyone in Starfleet, meeting new species or befriending formerly-hostile ones is basically the most exciting thing in the world to them, so they'd probably all be hyped.

Having them on board, perhaps.

But playing devil's advocate...

You train in Starfleet. Years to get your comission. You play by the rules, obey the chain of command, understand structure and loyalty.

Then Janeway lets in a load of criminals to the crew, then these random aliens are not just part of the crew but they are in every senior team meeting from day one.

Where's your reward? You're stuck in the Delta Quadrant, why are you not getting your dues having done your career properly?

Could have been interesting stories to mine, but of course we know in 1.02 they just resolved everything largely all done and dusted. Such a wasted opportunity.

 

[Oddish]

The crew of Voyager were basically mindless, sexless androids. Maquis included.

 

[Dukhat]

Neelix: The guy who serves our food.

Kes: The woman who helps the Doctor with nursing duties.

Seven: The former Borg drone who for some unfathomable reason is wearing a super sexy catsuit, but I have to pretend like I don't notice it.


I'm not sure what else they would have been thinking.

 

[Oddish]

A Maquis member's perspective, had they not totally joined the Janeway Cult.

Neelix: The guy who gets to wear what he wants and have sideburns and long hair, while I can't even have stubble.

Kes: What does she see in that Neelix guy, anyway?

Seven: The only person who dares tell the captain that she's full of it.

 

[Starflight]

You train in Starfleet. Years to get your comission. You play by the rules, obey the chain of command, understand structure and loyalty.

Then Janeway lets in a load of criminals to the crew, then these random aliens are not just part of the crew but they are in every senior team meeting from day one.

Where's your reward? You're stuck in the Delta Quadrant, why are you not getting your dues having done your career properly?

Starfleet in Voyager is framed a bit differently from Starfleet in TNG, I think - it doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much of the half-corporate, half-military "think about your career, Will!!!" yuppie stuff going on.

They're more a mix of scientists and amiable utopians with incredibly high amounts of innate optimism; presumably their reaction to the Maquis integration was "fantastic, these guys are back on our side" and their reaction to Neelix was "fantastic, a friendly alien species we can add to the team".

There's also only like 150 people on board so it's a lot less impersonal than the Enterprise-D where everyone's reporting to like sixteen different division managers; everyone would have met everyone else in the first couple days and be living in close quarters, which I think would probably make integration much smoother.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Starfleet in Voyager is framed a bit differently from Starfleet in TNG, I think - it doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much of the half-corporate, half-military "think about your career, Will!!!" yuppie stuff going on.

They're more a mix of scientists and amiable utopians with incredibly high amounts of innate optimism; presumably their reaction to the Maquis integration was "fantastic, these guys are back on our side" and their reaction to Neelix was "fantastic, a friendly alien species we can add to the team".

There's also only like 150 people on board so it's a lot less impersonal than the Enterprise-D where everyone's reporting to like sixteen different division managers; everyone would have met everyone else in the first couple days and be living in close quarters, which I think would probably make integration much smoother.

All the real Starfleeters got killed.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Starfleet in Voyager is framed a bit differently from Starfleet in TNG, I think - it doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much of the half-corporate, half-military "think about your career, Will!!!" yuppie stuff going on.

They're more a mix of scientists and amiable utopians with incredibly high amounts of innate optimism; presumably their reaction to the Maquis integration was "fantastic, these guys are back on our side" and their reaction to Neelix was "fantastic, a friendly alien species we can add to the team".

There's also only like 150 people on board so it's a lot less impersonal than the Enterprise-D where everyone's reporting to like sixteen different division managers; everyone would have met everyone else in the first couple days and be living in close quarters, which I think would probably make integration much smoother.

Also, career prospects aren't exactly a concern when you're seventy thousand light years from a crew rotation - "resigning my commission" doesn't hold much weight as a threat when you're stuck on the ship anyway. If you're stuck on the ship, at least the shipboard duties give you something to DO.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

"Eye of the Needle" implies that the crew initially treated Kes as the real medic, rudely ignoring the Doctor, thinking he was just a tool. In fact, the Doctor might have had a harder time than anyone else--even Seven--being accepted as an equal by the crew.

I feel Seska would've had some bitterness about Kes, as it was her people who Janeway destroyed the Array to protect. Mortimer Harren (the jerk from "Good Shepherd") might've also felt bitter at Kes for that; he clearly doesn't have the same compassion for alien life that Janeway does. He likely saw Seven as dangerous as well.

But for the rest of the crew, they probably found Kes much more likable than Neelix or the Doctor, in the first couple of years at least (before Neelix became a fully nice person).

We do know Sam Wildman was friends with both Neelix and Kes. Since she married a rhinoceros-man, she might be more comfortable with aliens that the average human is.

We know Naomi was close with Neelix, and eventually Seven. She was quite young when Kes left, but would've known her as her mom's friend and the ship's nurse. Kes likely babysat, and maybe was part of Naomi's educational plan before leaving.

By-the-book Joe Carrey probably liked Kes for her compliance and photographic memory, but was likely frustrated by Neelix and Seven much of the time.

The ship's hypochondriac Billy Telfer probably saw a lot of Kes, and she probably had a lot more patience for him than the Doctor did. Her departure, and having Tom Paris replace her as nurse, can't have made things easier for Billy. No doubt he also feared being assimilated by Seven's nanoprobes, thinking they might leak out in some freak accident. Neelix's cooking probably sent Billy to Sickbay more than once, convinced he'd been fatally poisoned.

Tal Celes was clearly a bit intimidated by Seven--not out of fear that she'd do anything bad, but simply as a strict manager. Tal probably appreciated the compassion of Kes, and later Neelix after he lightened up.

The Delaney sisters worked in Stellar Cartography, which is navigation, so they probably worked with Seven in Astrometrics quite a bit. These ladies were dating Tom Paris almost immediately after Voyager got lost, when much of the crew still saw him as a convict and traitor, so they clearly don't judge. They probably got on well with Neelix and Kes too.

 

[Oddish]

^ Those are some great insights.