Neelix as the comedy character

[GulBahana]

Neelix was obviously intended to be the comic character at the start of the series. It doesn't really work for me though. The writing was a little too on-the-nose and obvious. It gave of the impression of trying too hard to be funny. Him hugging Tuvok made me cringe. Ethan Phillips is a good actor and I like Neelix in serious scenes. The Doctor obviously worked much better in the comedic role.

 

[Oddish]

I kind of saw him as the "anti-Vulcan". Where Tuvok was cool, logical, serene, reserved, and had a subtle sense of humor, Neelix was warm, emotional, energetic, and not subtle about anything. If Voyager had gone generational and the crew had filled the ship up with space munchkins, both could have served as educators: Tuvok would have taught the older teens, while Neelix could have taught the primary age kids.

 

[at Quark's]

Neelix as obviously intended to be the comic character at the start of the series. It doesn't really work for me though. The writing was a little too on-the-nose and obvious. It gave of the impression of trying too hard to be funny. Him hugging Tuvok made me cringe. Ethan Phillips is a good actor and I like Neelix in serious scenes. The Doctor obviously worked much better in the comedic role.

Taking his difficult life story into account (he has a war past and then had to survive on his own without family), him trying (almost) too hard to be funny actually makes perfect sense. He's desperately trying to fit in, to find himself a new home here, even though I agree that he's not that funny.

Where the writing of Neelix's character missed opportunities is that they almost only used him as comedic relief. There's a precious few episodes that show us more of the deeper layers of his character (e.g. Fair Trade, Mortal Coil, Jetrel), but much more could have been done with that to develop him into an actually very interesting character.

 

[Oddish]

Where the writing of Neelix's character missed opportunities is that they almost only used him as comedic relief. There's a precious few episodes that show us more of the deeper layers of his character (e.g. Fair Trade, Mortal Coil, Jetrel), but much more could have been done with that to develop him into an actually very interesting character.

I was watching a vid on which Trek character on each series had the most wasted potential. The Youtuber really had to struggle to find anyone on DS9, finally settling on a recurring character who was only around briefly. On Voyager, he pretty much said everybody except Seven and the EMH. Neelix wasn't #1, but he had the same issue as most of the others. Even Janeway, though a great and oft-used character, was pretty static.

 

[at Quark's]

I was watching a vid on which Trek character on each series had the most wasted potential. The Youtuber really had to struggle to find anyone on DS9, finally settling on a recurring character who was only around briefly. On Voyager, he pretty much said everybody except Seven and the EMH. Neelix wasn't #1, but he had the same issue as most of the others. Even Janeway, though a great and oft-used character, was pretty static.

Janeway was both somewhat static and inconsistent, to fit the needs of the story of the week. One week she would be reckless beyond reason, the next week she would exercise a lot of caution.

But not completely static. S7 Janeway (a woman that is comfortable with her captaincy) is definitely different from the somewhat insecure and overly militaristic S1 Janeway, so there is some character evolution going on.

 

[Oddish]

True. But compare her to Sisko, who sets the benchmark for how much a captain could evolve, if allowed to.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think Neelix would have worked better if they made his humor a little less annoying and balanced it out with a little more that signals his damage from losing his homeworld.

They only wrote him like a person who lost his entire family to a WMD and then was alone fending for himself for years in a total of maybe 5 episodes. If they had used that more and balanced it out with his humorous exterior he could have been a great character.

 

[Lynx]

I don't know if th intention was to make Neelix a comedy character and if they realized that it was leading nowhere and therefore decided to add some tragic events to his backstory or if they had that in mind already from the beginning.

Whatever it was, I'm glad that they did what they did because they actually managed to create a very interesting character.

In the first episodes, Neelix appears to be a merry, good-humored guy, however a bit annoying and over-reacting character.

All that changes in "Jetrel". Then we find out about the tragic events in Neelix's life and all of a sudden it turns out that the poor guy have some serious issues as a result of what happened to his family.

Neelix's whole world and whole life was shattered when his family was killed during the Haakonian attack on Rinax. He basically went nuts after that. he even became a drug addict for a while (due to the book "Pathways" by Jeri Taylor) and was helped out of the addiction by his friend Wixiban.

After Wixiban was arrested by the Ubeans, Neelix was on his own. He found his way back to the area near Talax and started to trade with the kazon sects among others. Then he ended up on Ocampa, traded with jabin, fell in love with Kes, had to run away from the Kazon-Ogla after stealing water to give Kes, ran into the Voyagers which helped him to rescue Kes and finally decided to stay on Voyager which Janeway accepted.

However, he still had his demons inside. Despite his exaggerated cheerfulness and bragging about knowing everything about the part of space they were in, he must have realized deep inside that he had became a very tiny fish in a very big pond on board Voyager. Therefore he did everything he could to prove his importance for the crew. He just had to be the star of the show in all possible ways so he became the food and supply expert, started to cook food and constantly came up with whims like being "Morale Officer" and later on a journalist.

All that was probably triggered by the fact that he was very unsecure. His jealousy over Kes was a result of this. When he saw that kes had adapted much better tothe life on Voyager than he had, he became paranoid that he would lose her to Paris or some other Starfleet Officer and finally it happened that he lost Kes because of his jealousy and over-protecting ways.

Even his constant efforts to make people happy in so many ways was a result of his unnsecurity and the tragic events in his life. He kept himself happy and the demons away by trying to cheer up everyone else on the ship.

His attitude to Tuvok is typical for that. He must have felt that Tuvok wasn't particularily fond of him and he just couldn't understand and realize that Tuvok as a Vulcan kept his emotions under strong control. More that that, he couldn't stand the fact that Tuvok didn't respond the way he wanted to his efforts to cheer everyone up. Therefore he kept pestering Tuvok with all the whims he could come up with.

But all tat is what makes Neelix such a good character! in fact, due to his terrible and tragic background , he was actually normal. He acted just like many people would do if they had such horrible memories to live with. In that way he was a very realistic character.

As for his interactions with Tuvok, they were always great to watch just because they were so different, really two opposites if any.

 

[at Quark's]

Whatever it was, I'm glad that they did what they did because they actually managed to create a very interesting character.

In the first episodes, Neelix appears to be a merry, good-humored guy, however a bit annoying and over-reacting character.

I largely agree with that but not for 100%. In the very first episodes, there was a distinctly selfish and somwehat treacherous component to his actions. For example, he's not above shooting those water barrels in Caretaker in order to force Voyager's crew hands into not negotiating anything with the Kazon and extricate his girlfriend. The fact that Kes was his girlfriend was also something he conveniently ignored to mention.

 

[Lynx]

I largely agree with that but not for 100%. In the very first episodes, there was a distinctly selfish and somwehat treacherous component to his actions. For example, he's not above shooting those water barrels in Caretaker in order to force Voyager's crew hands into not negotiating anything with the Kazon and extricate his girlfriend. The fact that Kes was his girlfriend was also something he conveniently ignored to mention.

You're right about that. Neelix was actually a bit selfish. Some of the things he did for the crew were done because he wanted to make people happy because it made him happy, liked and appreciated by the crew more than of concern for the well-being of the crew. But I guess that it was a part of his personality.

His actions at the Kazon-Ogla camp at the Ocampa planet may also have something to do with the fact that he knew Jabin better than Janeway did and he probably knew that Jabin wasn't going to negotiate, instead Jabin would use whatever oppportunity he could think of to get the upper hand in what was going on.

However, he could have told Janeway about what he was planning to do before they arrived to the planet. But I guess that since he didn't know janeway and the crew that well then, he might have assumed that they could refuse to assist him in his rescue mission and therefore didn't tell them about what he planned.

 

[Oddish]

Neelix suffered from what nearly every character on the show did, excessive use of the Reset Button. There were profound, life changing events that happened to him in some episodes, events that could have fundamentally altered who he was and how he saw the world. It usually went away by next episode.

 

[rocketscientist]

I didn't find Neelix funny at all. He was just grating. IMO the Jar Jar Binks of Star Trek.

 

[rocketscientist]

I don't know if th intention was to make Neelix a comedy character and if they realized that it was leading nowhere and therefore decided to add some tragic events to his backstory or if they had that in mind already from the beginning.

Whatever it was, I'm glad that they did what they did because they actually managed to create a very interesting character.

In the first episodes, Neelix appears to be a merry, good-humored guy, however a bit annoying and over-reacting character.

All that changes in "Jetrel". Then we find out about the tragic events in Neelix's life and all of a sudden it turns out that the poor guy have some serious issues as a result of what happened to his family.

Neelix's whole world and whole life was shattered when his family was killed during the Haakonian attack on Rinax. He basically went nuts after that. he even became a drug addict for a while (due to the book "Pathways" by Jeri Taylor) and was helped out of the addiction by his friend Wixiban.

After Wixiban was arrested by the Ubeans, Neelix was on his own. He found his way back to the area near Talax and started to trade with the kazon sects among others. Then he ended up on Ocampa, traded with jabin, fell in love with Kes, had to run away from the Kazon-Ogla after stealing water to give Kes, ran into the Voyagers which helped him to rescue Kes and finally decided to stay on Voyager which Janeway accepted.

However, he still had his demons inside. Despite his exaggerated cheerfulness and bragging about knowing everything about the part of space they were in, he must have realized deep inside that he had became a very tiny fish in a very big pond on board Voyager. Therefore he did everything he could to prove his importance for the crew. He just had to be the star of the show in all possible ways so he became the food and supply expert, started to cook food and constantly came up with whims like being "Morale Officer" and later on a journalist.

All that was probably triggered by the fact that he was very unsecure. His jealousy over Kes was a result of this. When he saw that kes had adapted much better tothe life on Voyager than he had, he became paranoid that he would lose her to Paris or some other Starfleet Officer and finally it happened that he lost Kes because of his jealousy and over-protecting ways.

Even his constant efforts to make people happy in so many ways was a result of his unnsecurity and the tragic events in his life. He kept himself happy and the demons away by trying to cheer up everyone else on the ship.

His attitude to Tuvok is typical for that. He must have felt that Tuvok wasn't particularily fond of him and he just couldn't understand and realize that Tuvok as a Vulcan kept his emotions under strong control. More that that, he couldn't stand the fact that Tuvok didn't respond the way he wanted to his efforts to cheer everyone up. Therefore he kept pestering Tuvok with all the whims he could come up with.

But all tat is what makes Neelix such a good character! in fact, due to his terrible and tragic background , he was actually normal. He acted just like many people would do if they had such horrible memories to live with. In that way he was a very realistic character.

As for his interactions with Tuvok, they were always great to watch just because they were so different, really two opposites if any.

That's a great character analysis, Lynx.