'Morale Officer' Neelix (performed by Ethan Phillips)
Place of Birth: Rinax, a Talax moon
Marital status: Single
Neelix is a jovial Talaxian, a species of this far side of the Delta Quadrant,
whose wit and instincts have enabled him to survive as a scavenger and
merchant. Now he aids Voyager's cause admirably after coming aboard with
the Ocampa Kes, then his mate, from her home system. Although he takes
his good-natured abuse at times for it, he has been invaluable in preparing
fresh meals from the flora and fauna of this region in order to ration food
replicator power; for the human "'37's," he even researched and came up with
20th century foods comfort foods for all - with none of his usual custom
twists added. In addition,his past dealings and travels have yielded
invaluable information as well for Voyager's command decisions and strategy.
He has begun taking a more active role in senior staff affairs and even held
off the Kazon-Ogla when the Captain and Commander Chakotay were absent.
Neelix's chores as self-appointed "chief morale officer" have run the gamut
from personal counseling,such as with Lt. Ayala deal his separation from his
children, to a daily intership video program for the crew, "A Briefing with
Neelix," begun ca. SD 49483. The latter led to his single-handedly tracking
downthe Paris ruse to flush out Crewman Jonas as a Kazon informant, risking
his life but emerging intact after killing Jonas in a raw plasma stream in
Main Engineering after a brawl there.
Neelix has already confronted his past devils coming aboard, admitting he
avoided military service before the 2366 conquest of his home planet Talax
by the Haakonian Order, who forced surrender after it irradiated his family
and the rest of the population of the Talax moon Rinax with the Metreon
Cascade weapon. The weapon's inventor, Dr. Ma'Bor Jetrel, died of his own
metreon radiation poisoning after tracking Voyager to help find a way to
yet retrieve those who perished, and the difficult process was a big step
for him. The first encounter with the Vidiians included the theft of Neelix's
lungs, but they were eventually returned when Janeway showed their prisoners
mercy while the Doctor's holographic substitutes kept Neelix alive.
Neelix was completely in love with Kes, whom he calls by the endearment
"sweeting" and was ready to father a child when her premature elogium seemed
to loom. His jealous nature of Kes was an ugly monster until he finally settled
with its main target, Tom Paris, after the two helped birth an sentient
reptiloid infant in an abrasive atmosphere. Around stardate 50348.1, he and
Kes separated, to the surprise of many: the events during which she was
possessed by an alien mind changed her forever.
His long-running feud with the less-than-patient Doctor is not helped by
Kes' early Elogium, which finds him pondering the responsibilities of
parenthood and deciding to embrace it, only to be nixed by Kes herself and
other events. Later he assisted with the birth of Ensign Wildman's baby.
His main activity aboard is that of the ship's cook. His culinary adventures
are not always appreciated,though. Especially his custom of delivering a
history of each meal while it is served.
His Talax Resort holoprogram, with modifications by Paris, Kim, Torres,
et.al., has proved to be a morale-boosting hit.
Due to a transporter accident, he and Tuvok merged into one person with an
own identity, and one name: Tuvix. he was soon accepted among the crew, but
after much consideration, Janeway opted to restore Tuvok and Neelix.
borrowed from Christoph Reuter
Chat transcripts with Ethan Phillips:
People chat with Robert Beltran and Ethan Phillips
to the Voyager crew page.
to the Star Trek page.
