Mortal Coil

[katra]

I just rewatched Mortal Coil, and it got me thinking. Although Seven possessed the technology to bring Neelix back to life, did Janeway do the moral thing by going through with the procedure?

Personally, I think not. He'd been dead for 19 hours when they revived him. Talaxians are a spiritual people, and it appeared in the episode that Neelix hadn't really shared a lot about that. I imagine that he'd made a log somewhere about what he'd want done with his body if he were to die on duty. So why didn't they start the week of mourning?

I'm one of the minority who doesn't hate Neelix, I always thought he had potential, but the actor wasn't really given good scripts to work with.

 

[Tracy Trek]

It didn't appear that they consulted his logs or anything he may have recorded his last wishes in. She just made the choice to do it. Which was wrong. What if his people were one of those that had specific funerary rites that included no tampering with the remains? Or if he had made a Living Will about no extraordinary measures.

His vision when Chakotay was leading him on the vision quest was beyond creepy. And I felt like, after all he's been through, he gets his faith taken from him too.

 

[marlboro]

One issue that I had with this episode is that it gave Seven too much power. Bringing back the dead is a major skill to give a recurring character. From this point on, every time a character dies, you have to ask yourself - "why couldn't Seven just resurrect them?"

 

[Tracy Trek]

One issue that I had with this episode is that it gave Seven too much power. Bringing back the dead is a major skill to give a recurring character. From this point on, every time a character dies, you have to ask yourself - "why couldn't Seven just resurrect them?"

I wouldn't call Seven a recurring character, she was part of the main cast at this time. But you're right. Especially Joe Carey comes to mind who she could have saved.

 

[locutus101]

The definition of death is when you can't bring someone back to life. As long as there is a means to revive him, he can't be pronounced dead, that's as simple as that. Neelix was never dead.

 

[Sophie74656]

I'm no doctor but I wondered about the damage to brain tissue after being without oxygen for so long.

 

[Sophie74656]

The definition of death is when you can't bring someone back to life. As long as there is a means to revive him, he can't be pronounced dead, that's as simple as that. Neelix was never dead.

I agree with this. If they could bring him back he wasn't really dead. Just mostly dead

 

[Tracy Trek]

I'm no doctor but I wondered about the damage to brain tissue after being without oxygen for so long.

I think it was a poorly conceived episode. He pretty much looked like his tissues were starting to decay when they brought him back to the ship from the nebula where it happened. And then later when he has the incident, she says your tissues were reverting to a necrotic state.

IMO it was an excuse for an episode where Seven saves the day. Which happened quite a bit.

 

[Sophie74656]

Despite these issues I actually really like this episode. I'm a fan of Neelix especially later in the show. This was one of the episodes that made me like him. I loved the contrast of him here. He's usually so upbeat and trying to cheer everyone up. Seeing him struggling with his own issues was interesting and probably nice for Ethan Phillips. He talks about this one at conventions a lot.

 

[Lynx]

I don't like "Mortal Coil". No 4 of my dislikek or hated Voyager episodes list.

Horrible how they ruin Neelix's faith about seeing his loved ones in the afterlife.

 

[Sophie74656]

One thing I wasn't crazy about in this episode was the actress who played Naomi. I like Scarlett so much better

 

[stardream]

It's part of my headcanon that Neelix's reaction to being 'brought back' (going suicidal and all that) was why they never used Seven's nanoprobes again. That's why they didn't try to save Joe Carrey or anyone else.

I'm surprised that no one brought up the idea that Neelix might well have seen his afterlife but when he was revived simply didn't remember it. I'm not making any kind of argument that the Great Tree is real or anything metaphysical. I'm talking about the dynamics of storytelling. I would have brought it up. It might have been immediately dismissed but I still would have mentioned it.

 

[Sophie74656]

It's part of my headcanon that Neelix's reaction to being 'brought back' (going suicidal and all that) was why they never used Seven's nanoprobes again. That's why they didn't try to save Joe Carrey or anyone else.

I'm surprised that no one brought up the idea that Neelix might well have seen his afterlife but when he was revived simply didn't remember it. I'm not making any kind of argument that the Great Tree is real or anything metaphysical. I'm talking about the dynamics of storytelling. I would have brought it up. It might have been immediately dismissed but I still would have mentioned it.

I alwasy thought that too. He just didn't remember what he saw. As far as not bringing anyone else back....well we've seen in another episode they brought Harry back so they can do it even without Seven. I guess it just depends on how they die

 

[Tracy Trek]

I think the point with Joe Carey was, he was a glorified red-shirt. He was destined to die to prove the situation was serious. And they used someone that viewers remembered so the impact would be greater.

 

[Sophie74656]

I think the point with Joe Carey was, he was a glorified red-shirt. He was destined to die to prove the situation was serious. And they used someone that viewers remembered so the impact would be greater.

Personally I don't think his impact was any greater than any other random ensign. We hadn't seen him in so long it didn't matter. It would have had more impact if it was Vorik

 

[Catarina]

Seven of Nine was the Miracle Max of this episode. "only mostly dead"

I didn't dislike this episode. If I had to sit through a Neelix centered episode it would be this one or Homestead (preferably Homestead) I doubt we exist to only go into oblivion but it's a good question to explore and I found that more interesting to discuss than Seven's super powers of reviving 'the cadaver'. You never saw her save a nameless crewman moving forward and that always bugged me. Did she decide to stop playing God(borg)? There is no explanation for this drop of this life saving technique. Actually it would have erased that episode where the Doctor went into internal chaos after saving Ensign Kim over that other woman in Latent Image. (it was Latent Image, right?)

 

[Tracy Trek]

^Except Seven wasn't with them when Ensign Jetal died. And yes it was Latent Image.

 

[Catarina]

^Except Seven wasn't with them when Ensign Jetal died. And yes it was Latent Image.

ah, right. I skip that one so I forgot.

 

[KelisThePoet]

I don't see the problem, from a plausibility or continuity perspective. In the so-called really real world, there are medical techniques that can bring some people back from a state of clinical death but not others. It depends on the circumstances of the death. "Mortal Coil" was just a science-fictional extension of that concept. Whether it's a plausible extension from a medical perspective, I can't say, not being an expert in that field, but I'm sure that plenty of the doctor's miracle cures in other episodes could be just as well debunked by someone with medical knowledge. Most imaginative science fiction takes some sort of liberty with real science, especially the shorthand stuff we get on televised sci fi shows.

"Mortal Coil" was one of the best episodes in the series, I think.

As to the issue of Neelix's memory of the afterlife being absent, I don't think anyone floats that particular possibility, but Chakotay certainly takes the position that Neelix's understanding of his experience is incomplete.

 

[locutus101]

I am surprised that Neelix was so easily convinced that his beliefs were mummery. Most people who believe in something will only change their minds if there is something really drastic that happened to them, like the death of a loved one or a something they see as some kind of betrayal. We have none of that here. Neelix could have easily convinced himself that the passage to the other world hadn't had time to happen yet. To me it looks like he was already doubting to begin with but that would mean that he was a bipolar who used the "revelation" as an excuse to kill himself and that doesn't work either. IOW, Neelix story is simply unbelievable.