Neelix brought a positive energy with his kindness, his loyalty, his widom and his originality (cf very colored dressing). His departure at the start of s7 marked the beginning of the end for me.
I totally agree. It was downright stupid to ditch Neelix only three episodes from the end. Not to mention that the whole plot with those Talaxians on that asteroid was silly. If this had happened in season 3 when they were still rather close to Talax, I could have understand it. Just like Neelix encountered Wixiban at the space station near the Nekrit Expanse. But finding those Talaxians on an asteroid so far from Taölaxian space, what were the odds for that. Just as if I had been stranded on Kerguelen Island (just look it up on Wikipedia) and run into one of my neighbors from my hometown there.
Well, I've been into something similar for a long time. I hope I get the time to finish that story soon.
If they hadn't "conveniently" found this group of Talaxians so far from their home, he wouldn't have seen any of his people again anyway. There are many different alien species living on Earth in Trek's fictional future. Maybe they fell into one of the Vaadwaar's subspace corridors.
Most of those aliens grew up immersed in Federation culture. I haven’t seen the ep in a while but I got the impression they’d been wandering off on their own a long time. I buy Talaxians appearing there much more than I buy Hirogen appearing after Dark Frontier.
I believe they had been wandering for a while. But Talax was by this point about 40,000 light years from that asteroid. And yet they knew about Talax being defeated by that other species (I can't recall the name) didn't they? So I think they must have encountered some kind of short cut to get that far.
I didn't either. Very annoying character. Would have been better to send him off when with Kes when they got rid of her.
Drop him on a planet composed entirely of a large kitchen and fields of 1990's fabric pattern remnants. He'd be in heaven.
Janeway's naming him as ambassador to the delta quadrant seemed a little condescending to me considering there was no means to keep in contact with him long-term.
Janeway says something to him about "now that we have regular communication," so they must be able to communicate with Neelix indefinitely. Maybe through Barclay. There's no way the Talaxians are gonna be safe in that asteroid. Either the miners really aren't prepared to kill them all and they'll just give up, or they'll just destroy the talaxian shield. Voyager should have stuck around for a while
Pathfinder. I liked Neelix in the episodes where he is positive. It’s the episodes where he is obnoxiously jealous of any other man Kes talks to or the ones where he’s intolerant of Vulcan emotional restraint that I wish he’d go away.
When I said "the beginning of the end", it's a figure of speech. I meant that after Neelix departure, the atmosphere was different like if something missed. Of course, I'm happy that the character found a family, part of his species, but even if he wasn't in every scenes, his presence brought a kind of lightness, which disappeared after his leaving. I was pleasantely suprised to see him chatting with Seven even if I think that it would have been nice to see him doing the same with Janeway, whose he had become very close over the years.
Jim Wright (reviewer) back in the day called Neelix an "acquired taste", if I recall correctly. Irritating, especially in the early years, but but after his goodbye still sorely missed because he brought something extra to the ship.
I've said this more than once, but I think the major problem with Neelix was the actor under the makeup. I've seen him on other shows, and his acting range is very limited and very unappealing. Essentially, you could see everything wrong with Neelix in the characters that he has portrayed on other shows. There is obviously nothing that can be done about it now, the horse being dead, and all. But the Star Trek franchise was never known for picking the best of the best actors. But when they did, that actor became a standout character. In my opinion, Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ, Jeri Ryan, Robert Picardo were the standout actors on this show, with perhaps Robert Beltran. The rest of them were just average, and maybe brought a bit of unappealing blandness to their characters. Maybe good actors grow average characters... IDK. All I know is Neelix SHOULD have been a great character, but he was poorly acted, annoying and generally unappealing... and I blame the actor first. You WANT to like the character, but there is nothing there to grab onto but unrealized potential. Even the few times there was a Neelix-centric story, it was horrible. I'm reminded of the episode "Jetrel" where Neelix meets the man who invented the "metreon cascade". What a God-awful episode, and what horrible acting by Ethan Phillips. Phlox, a similar character was done so much better.