Neelix
VOYAGER DELTA QUADRANT UPDATE BIO-FILE: Neelix
**Includes updates through SD 55000 (2378); updated addenda pending
Played By: Ethan Phillips
Species: Talaxian
Assignment: (2371-2378) U.S.S. Voyager: Chef, diplomatic adviser, "morale officer"
Current status: Left Voyager in 2378 to live among other Talaxians on Delta Quadrant asteroid
Full name: Neelix
Place of birth: Rinax, a moon of Talax, in Delta Quadrant
Marital status: Single as of last contact in 2378, but living with fellow Talaxian Dexa and her son Brax
Profile by Capt. Kathryn Janeway
Neelix is a jovial male Talaxian, a major 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 our cause admirably after coming aboard with his Ocampa mate, Kes, from her home system. Although he takes 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. In fact, for the human "37's," he even researched and came up with 20th-Century comfort foods for all — with none of his usual custom twists added. In addition, his past dealings and travels have yielded invaluable information for our command decisions and strategy. He has begun taking a more active role in senior staff affairs and even held off the Kazon-Ogla when Commander Chakotay and I were absent.
Neelix's chores as self-appointed "chief morale officer" have run the gamut from personal counseling, such as helping Lt. Ayala deal with separation from his children, to a daily inter-ship video program for the crew, "A Briefing with Neelix," begun ca. SD 49483. The latter led to his single-handedly tracking down the Paris ruse to flush out Crewman Jonas as our 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 that he avoided military service before the 2366 conquest of his home planet Talax. The Haakonian Order 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, tracked us down and led us to Rinax in order to use our transporters to attempt to regenerate the remains of Neelix's people. The experience opened up severe old wounds in Neelix, but when Jetrel died of his own metreon radiation poisoning, Neelix granted the guilt-ridden scientist forgiveness. It was a difficult but huge step for our Talaxian crewmate.
Our first encounter with the Vidiians involved the theft of Neelix's lungs, and it took the Doctor's holographic substitutes to keep him alive. Fortunately, the mercy I showed our Vidiian prisoners prompted them to use their superior medical technology to transplant one of Kes' lungs into Neelix, and adapt his immunogenicity so his physiology wouldn't reject it.
Neelix is 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 a sentient reptilloid infant in an abrasive atmosphere.
His long-running feud with the less-than-patient Doctor was not helped by Kes' early elogium, which found 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.
DATABASE UPDATE, SD 50460:
Entry by K. Janeway
I have grown concerned in recent weeks about our morale officer's morale, and now I understand why. Despite Neelix's cheerful and upbeat demeanor, even he has a down side, and now I understand that some of it stems from his pessimistic self-view as worthless to this crew now that we have exceeded the region of his scouting knowledge. Aside from my regular assurances, I note in this record that I acknowledge Neelix's past "very" basic combat training on Rinax, per his description, and intend to merge him more usefully into entry-level defense training, including the monthly tactical exercises.
This is not to register any displeasure with his natural diplomatic skills, his ongoing "Briefing with Neelix" comcasts, and even the cooking. Indeed his quick-thinking as a faux Nagus during our Ferengi encounter helped save the mission, even if I personally can do without his people's custom of delivering a history of each meal while it is served, a practice his mother perfected. I still wonder if his greatest diplomatic challenge, though, is his constant attempts to "buddy up" to our most unbuddylike officer, Tuvok. Even his Talax Resort holoprogram, with modifications by Paris, Kim, Torres, et al, has proved to be a morale-boosting hit.
All this is to help explain why, shortly after my initial entry here, I made the decision to try to regain both he and Tuvok's lives as separate entities after a freak transporter merging of the two, despite the "death" of the resulting sentient lifeform dubbed Tuvix.
On yet another personal note: I note with concern the break-up of he and Kes' continued relationship, and I wish them both the best in whatever path they take.
