What if Neelix had been Kazon?

[Shatnertage]

For some reason this question popped into my head yesterday, and I'd like to know what others think.

First of all, I'll admit into evidence that, yes, the Kazon were manque Klingons with bad hair. But we're not talking real Kazon here, we're talking about my fantasy Kazon. Just imagine that have a menacing, but not idiotic look and leave it at that. No bad hair, but no buttcrack chins or noses, either.

So in my re-imagining, Neelix is a Kazon who decides to turn on his sect (or gang, or whatever they were) and save Kes and Voyager. He's been a pretty nasty guy in the past, but is really trying to change.

Now he's got a compelling reason for sticking with Voyager--he's a man without a country. His sect considers him a traitor, and the others don't trust him. And, maybe, neither does Janeway, completely.

If his sect of Kazon carried on trading with a variety of other species, he still could have had much the same story. To keep "Jetrel" intact, you'd just have to change a few planet names.

Would this make for a better character?

I think it would make him more menacing, which isn't a bad thing, and in general harder-edged.

 

[Distorted Humor]

would be a improvement, but I think they had a lot of "people with sketchy past" in Paris and the Marquis, and I think they wanted a "Nice guy" who was not starfleet.

 

[Anwar]

It would have given the Kazon more depth, the way Spock did for Vulcans/Romulans, Worf did for the Klingons, Odo did for the Founders, etc. Tying a main character into the villains like that adds to them better.

 

[janeway59]

I hated the Kazon, was very happy when they were no more, Neelix was fine as he was

 

[Anwar]

If the Kazon had looked like the Jem'Hadar or the Cardassians or whatever, would you dislike them as much?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

In principle this is a good idea. However, with this change, I suspect the show would have been overall darker and perhaps more serious than Berman et al. intended it to be. I wonder whether those writers would have been able to pull it off.

Nuances such as not all Kazons are bad weren't really considered. Also, I think Neelix was intended to be on friendly terms with Delta Quadrant races, so your idea would have upset that apple cart too, since many races would have distrusted or hated him.

This could have added a much more scandalous aspect to his relationship with Kes: Neelix as the benevolent master of an Ocampan slave girl.

Kazon-Neelix might have been a sharper foil for Tuvok, which then again would have required Tuvok to have been depicted as being more intelligent than he was, in order to keep them on par with each other. Tuvok never struck me as the brightest of Vulcans.

 

[Lynx]

would be a improvement, but I think they had a lot of "people with sketchy past" in Paris and the Marquis, and I think they wanted a "Nice guy" who was not starfleet.

I agree here. Neelix was good as he was. Besides that, Neelix's background story is more interesting than it would have been if he had been a Kazon.

As for the Kazon themselves, I don't really understand the negative comments aboyut them by many posters. I think they were great villains.

There is also a realistic touch there with their background story about how they were opressed by the Trabe and revolted against them. Then when the victory was won, they started to fight each other, only cooperating when it comes to outside threats. Things like that has happened in many Earth countries among former resistance movements.

Not to mention that I really like the episodes where Culluh and Seska are involved.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

If the Kazon had looked like the Jem'Hadar or the Cardassians or whatever, would you dislike them as much?

I always liked the Kazon. I like the idea of tribal space farers whose talents lie in piracy and theft rather than invention. Their hair is disgusting which is also awesome.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Janeway: "So this "Kes" person is your "girlfriend" possibly your "wife"?"

Neelix: "No. She is my slave."

Janeway: "I'm sorry? Woud you like to rephrase that?"

Nellix. "I own her."

Janeway: "No. This is not... The Federation doesn't condone slavery and..."

Neelix: "Neither do I, but I can't seem to shake the girl of the idea that I'm too good for her. she prepares my food, sleeps at my feet, truly looks after me, so I care for her honestly, but I am truly frightened how stricken and wayward the girl would become left to her own devices, and that is why I keep her. For her own good."

 

[Anwar]

That sounds good.

But as for why the other DQ Races wouldn't hate him, well maybe Cullah and his group are the only hostile Kazon Sect? The others would be more...normal?

 

[Lynx]

Janeway: "So this "Kes" person is your "girlfriend" possibly your "wife"?"

Neelix: "No. She is my slave."

Janeway: "I'm sorry? Woud you like to rephrase that?"

Nellix. "I own her."

Janeway: "No. This is not... The Federation doesn't condone slavery and..."

Neelix: "Neither do I, but I can't seem to shake the girl of the idea that I'm too good for her. she prepares my food, sleeps at my feet, truly looks after me, so I care for her honestly, but I am truly frightened how stricken and wayward the girl would become left to her own devices, and that is why I keep her. For her own good."

Dear Guy, I do think that you're forgetting something here. Kes herself!

She was never Neelix's servant or slave. All the way from the start she showed that she was an independent person who walked her own way and did her own thing, something which actually lead to the two of them drifting apart. They didn't even share the same quarters and she didn't sleep at his feet.

I do think that Janeway saw Kes's independence at al early stage and that was one of the reason that she did allow both of them to become members of the crew.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

If Neelix had been Kazon, then I'm sure he would have said something like "But of course!" to the idea of freeing Kes when they came aboard. I also wouldn't surprised if the writers injected a backstory that, say, Kazon-Neelix outbid an evil Kazon for her, in order to protect her. Maybe this was even the reason why Kazon-Neelix had to get aboard Voyager and get the heck out of the area in the first place.

 

[The Overlord]

would be a improvement, but I think they had a lot of "people with sketchy past" in Paris and the Marquis, and I think they wanted a "Nice guy" who was not starfleet.

I agree here. Neelix was good as he was. Besides that, Neelix's background story is more interesting than it would have been if he had been a Kazon.

As for the Kazon themselves, I don't really understand the negative comments aboyut them by many posters. I think they were great villains.

There is also a realistic touch there with their background story about how they were opressed by the Trabe and revolted against them. Then when the victory was won, they started to fight each other, only cooperating when it comes to outside threats. Things like that has happened in many Earth countries among former resistance movements.

Not to mention that I really like the episodes where Culluh and Seska are involved.

Except the Kazon come off as poor man's Klingons then any of that, having them be warriors and all that and having honor rituals like earning a name, makes them completely generic and forgettable.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I always thought of the Kazon as a collection of street gangs with stolen starships. Personally, I liked the idea that they were basically thugs who spent as much time fighting among themselves as they did bullying others...

 

[Avon]

neelix'kazon just wouldve ended up badly written and underdeveloped like most of the crew.

 

[Shatnertage]

I still think it'd be a good idea. Instead of a Han Solo/Hedgehog hybrid you could have a Han Solo/Hirogen hybrid. That would be a lot more interesting in my book.

If Neelix has nowhere else to go, it would explain his neediness. If Janeway dumps him, one of the sects will kill him on sight, as opposed to "I just really like you guys and want you to be my friends." Maybe at first he can't stand Voyager, and only slowly warms to Federation ideals.

Plus this would have complicated Kes, which isn't a bad thing, as others have suggested.

 

[janeway59]

If the Kazon had looked like the Jem'Hadar or the Cardassians or whatever, would you dislike them as much?

This is an interesting question, It wasn't just the looks of the Kazon that bugged me, though the hair was gross, I hated the whole "women shall be subservient thing" and since "they were not worthy of assimilation" why is it believable that they would be worthy adversaries? The Jem Hadar and the Cardasians were very believable.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You understand that you're describing Tyr from Andromeda Shatnerage? Or even Worf on the Enterprise after his Discomendation?

 

[Rom's Sehlat]

If the Kazon had looked like the Jem'Hadar or the Cardassians or whatever, would you dislike them as much?

This is an interesting question, It wasn't just the looks of the Kazon that bugged me, though the hair was gross, I hated the whole "women shall be subservient thing" and since "they were not worthy of assimilation" why is it believable that they would be worthy adversaries? The Jem Hadar and the Cardasians were very believable.

Yes, their behavior didn't exactly fit with a culture that could even subsist in a warp-culture environment.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Well they stole it didn't they?

They were brought onto those ships as slaves to be deckhands and ablemen for the Trabe toffees. One night of the long lives later and the chief porter was wearing the captains face as a hat.

The real question is what level would they have been at without Trabe interference, since even though thy acted like a feudal society thy were still able to figure out the Trabes ships without much of a learning curve.

A Voyager trading card quoted one of the bigwigs as saying that the Kazon were an allegory for the African American gang problems in Los Angeles.