Jetrel

DVD, Voyager S1 (Jetrel)

A tour de force for Neelix, his best episode of the season, is also the most issue-driven story. Sharing comparisons with the Atomic Bomb and Hiroshima, we unravel a good deal of Neelix' makeup, at least compared to what he has divulged to this point. James Sloyan, the ever-reliable, is usually called upon to bring life to difficult characters, as in DS9s Mora Pol, his best known role on Trek (though he has played others), but this is is his strongest performance on Voyager, bringing a monster to redemption, but most importantly playing off of the rageful Neelix, allowing him the chance to relieve himself of a long-held guilt by forgiving the man who massacred his family.

The two have many similarities - they both live in shame of their actions, they lost their families, and both blame themselves. It takes Kes' caring to help rebuild Neelix' tough exterior, from the weakened state he enters. Janeway is caught in the middle, forced to mediate, and there's even the chance of undoing the horror of the weapon. I think it was right for it to prove fruitless, as even with Voyager's enhanced technology it would not realistically be able to accomplish something so complex as collecting together all the atoms of individuals to restore them. Maybe if the might of the Federation was behind them, but it's another case of Voyager not being able to do all that it might, because of it's primary mission to return home.

Jetrel's experiment looked like the inside of a Dalek, and throughout the episode we're unsure whether we should villify or sympathise with the Haakonian. At first Neelix' extreme prejudice is enough to convince us this man is bad news, and the view is furthered by his evasions and opposing point of view, but before the episode ends Jetrel reveals he does feel the shame, has felt the effects of the disease, Metremia, and comes into the light as trying to repair the wrongs of the past.

The episode is certainly one of the best of the season, even though it appears to be inspired by DS9s Season One tale 'Duet' - both about war criminals, both with blood diseases, both trying to atone for the atrocities. In this case, 'Jetrel' differs as he really is culpable. To see Neelix being truthful, and he so often hides his real feelings in a haze of optimism and jollity, is great in itself, but using it to comment on his and Kes' life, to visit his homeworld (although we don't get to connect with it, which is the only major letdown), and for him to do what is so hard to do: forgive, gives us much to think about.

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