Fair Trade

DVD, Voyager S3 (Fair Trade)

This one goes out to all the wrongheaded people who thought/think Neelix was an irritating rat creature whose only ability lay in his penchant for extreme jealousy and a maddening brightness at most other times. There was always much more to the friendly Talaxian than he let slip in his duties, as evidenced right back in the Season 1 episode 'Jetrel'. It took them a while to come up with something that was a genuine Neelix episode in which he wasn't there to advise or worry about Kes, provide information on the local comet and fauna, or get under Tuvok's feet, but this is one of his best episodes (some might say one of his last as he went on to become one of the forgotten. Not in the vein of Mayweather, but no one reached that level except for the helmsman of the NX-01… Who were we discussing?). A chance for him to act alone and to do what was right.

He really saw himself alone this time, too. Usually he had Kes to talk things over with, and she would have sent him straight to the Captain, but her distance may have been one of the unspoken adverse influences that allowed the silly notion into his head that Janeway and her crew; his friends, would no longer want his services once his input as guide came to an end. Wixiban didn't help at all, knowing just how to manipulate Neelix, ladling on the guilt he must have had at the back of his mind about leaving Wix in prison, convincing him his position was a precarious one on Voyager, when in reality if he'd gone to the Captain, or even Tuvok, Paris, Harry, anyone, he would have realised what a fool he was being. There was an element of pride in being the only crewman aboard that knew anything about the Delta Quadrant, and he could be quite puffed up at times, so this humbling experience may have been just what the doctor ordered. Not literally of course, as the Doc didn't feature much. And wouldn't have been the best person to discuss the delicate situation with, though even he, the most pompous, proud person aboard would have seen the error of trying to sort it out alone.

Neelix was in a funny mood though, and has been for a while. Since his unofficial breakup with Kes, he's been infected by a macrovirus and must have had the fact that the ship was coming to the edge of his known space in mind for a while. I'm glad that they did this with his character because it wouldn't have made sense for Voyager to be travelling on and on and still be getting information about what lay ahead from Neelix - it would make the quadrant seem rather smaller than we were led to believe. So they took the step, a risky one, as they did with Kes and the Doctor this season, and made a substantial change. I love that Neelix would occasionally get called to the bridge and importantly expound on what and who might be out there at a critical moment, but he always had many more talents than his knowledge. It was useful that Janeway had him in mind as an Ambassador, but even before that he'd been invaluable in stretching out Replicator power by serving up Delta delicacies (hair pasta notwithstanding!), and boosting morale.

Some may criticise this episode as being a completely unsubtle fable about telling the truth, but did they say the same about 'The First Duty' in 'TNG'? I doubt it. There's even a direct reference to the established lore of that episode with Neelix being told the first duty of a Starfleet officer is to the truth. But he's not Starfleet… He's as close to being Starfleet as Janeway would let him, after all, she originally said there'd be no room for passengers (failing to mention any stray Borg children they might come across), so both Neelix and Kes had to work for their keep, learning and growing into new, more responsible, mature people. I think this episode may have been a turning point for Neelix because, unlike Kes, he probably always had that nagging feeling he was there on a whim. Kes was able to adapt to new duties, a quick learner (she's technically a child, don't forget), and a defined career path as the Doctor's star student. Neelix on the other hand was the old dog who, though he could learn new tricks, had plenty of his own to fall back on, meaning he didn't need to integrate as much.

Only now do we see the outpouring of his soul in a desperate desire to assist any department in any way, simply to feel useful. He's an odd job man, but he was always going to be one, and it takes all sorts to make a crew, so why not have someone like that on hand? Even if he doesn't have such a clear path as Kes, he has broader skills and experiences to benefit the ship, only he forgot about them. At his heart I think he cared more about Voyager than his own future - he couldn't bear the thought of Janeway going into the unknown without his trusted advice. It sounds like I'm making an appeal for Neelix, and I suppose I am. He went on to become a much gentler, more integrated member of the crew after this, still the man who was always up for everything, but also one who began to understand his limits. He still had his ship in Voyager's hold, and that may have added to his feelings of impermanence, but certainly once Kes was no longer his top priority he needed a new purpose.

I'm talking a lot about Neelix, and not about the episode, but it revolves very much around him as we see him go through various stages in his quest for redemption. He feels he owes his old friend Wix a lot, so he's more willing to forgive and forget when he gets him into trouble. But things get deeper and more dangerous until he really seems to believe it when he says he has nothing to lose in his brave stand against the evil drug dealer, Tosin. I can't decide whether it was that scene that was the best, with Neelix at his most selfless, strongest and determined, like a Hobbit before the might of evil. Or was it Janeway's dressing down at the end in which he's so overwhelmed with joy at Janeway's refusal to allow him to leave that you can see the glee on his face and it probably took all his strength not to burst out "Wow!", like he did in 'The Q and The Grey' and give his Captain a great big hug. He wisely restrained himself, but after he's gone we see the weight of what she had to say to him, and the pity she has for him and you ask yourself how could Neelix ever have believed he was not a part of a most special family that accept him for who he is, regardless of what he can bring. It makes you want to sign up and serve Janeway right away!

This is not the first or last time Janeway ends an episode chewing someone out. I believe Tuvok was the first one, back in 'Prime Factors', but most of the main characters had a stern, disappointed lecture at some point. Janeway was very good at giving them, and in some ways it would be worse to face her disappointment than Sisko in a mad rage or Picard with his disappointed face on. Maybe it's because she's motherly, I don't know, but you don't want to fail her.

This is the halfway point of the season and it feels like a new beginning for the ship. There's the Nekrit Expanse (ooh, expanses are never good, I don't care what series you encounter them in, if it says expanse on the sign, turn around and go back, go back! Actually, it looks like Voyager took that very advice, appearing to fly away from the expanse at the end of the episode. They must have been doing the little known boomerang manoeuvre), and it's something that has to be experienced, but I do wish it had been more integral to the unfolding story in the next few episodes. I don't remember exactly how much it's touched on, but it may have only been one episode, when it could easily have created a whole new and deadly region to explore. Like 'Enterprise', the third season of 'Voyager' could have been all about the expanse, crossing it and the adventures that happen therein, but it wasn't such a big thing after all. So the bigger change was Neelix losing his status as a lighthouse for the course ahead. This was helpful as it would have lessened the impact of the Borg if he'd known all about them, but they were just outside of his exploits.

Another piece that helped set up future episodes was Vorik's inauguration. I felt Alexander Enberg was a very good Vulcan indeed, giving off a much more tolerant attitude to life, and seeing Voyager as a ship of intriguing challenges rather than being easily irritated. We haven't seen that many young Vulcans so he was breaking the mould in that regard, but coming on as a recurring character in a series that had the best portrayal of the race since Spock (maybe even better?), must have been a little daunting. We already knew there were other Vulcans aboard so it's gratifying to finally meet one. Enberg had previously played one on 'TNG', as well as a human reporter on that series. There are a few familiar names on the cast list, most recognisably James Horan who added the series to his Trek roster with this episode, appearing once again under makeup as Tosin, an alien that had a striking similarity to the Nausicaans, and almost the same temperament, too, though he had enough presence of mind not to fire his weapon near the leaking plasma canister - it was his doltish sidekick that did that.

Being a space station, it had many different races intermingling, but perhaps they were also interbreeding as the map seller Neelix initially talks to had Vorta ears! There are other familiarities about some of the aliens, most obviously the drug dealer, who looks very much like a Bothan, the guy from 'Persistence of Vision'. A little line of interest came when Bahrat or someone were talking about the cameras showing false sensor readings of the interiors of the station - it stood out to me because this was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, in which CGI set extensions were added to make it stretch off into the difference. Of course such tricks had been used with physical paintings before, or other visual tricks, as far back as 'TMP', but this had people moving in the background and really extended the size of the place. Some throwbacks to the previous episode were that we get another beautiful green explosion (thanks to Neelix' Bourne-like presage of what's about to happen - he starts the canister leaking before the villains even show up), the resort, which is mentioned, though not seen this time (they were really milking that program!), and in a tenuous connection to 'The Q and The Grey', a character called Bahrat who stands around a bank of consoles that looks a bit like a bar. Missing the connection? Q calls Neelix 'bar rodent'!

This is one of the strongest Neelix episodes, it introduces more details of his colourful past, an old friend who was a Talaxian so different to Neelix, with a thin face and long whiskers, adding more broadness to the race, just as Tuvok did as a black Vulcan. Time is taken for the characters and what they can bring, shown best in the way Neelix goes to Tom Paris to ask about his criminal past (another indirect link to 'The First Duty'). We see him face a quandary and we see him try to take it on on his own. He succeeds at great risk to himself and learns a valuable lesson about depending on others. He thought it was all about Voyager no longer being able to depend upon him, but it was really about him learning to go to his family and be supported by them. Whenever a character loses an advantage they've had over their crewmates they tend to act badly, just as Troi did when she lost her empathic powers, and it's the same kind of situation for Neelix. That was the more complex moral issue, aside from the blatant one of being true to the truth - if something feels wrong it's because the conscience is trying to get through. My only regret is that they cut out the extremely important scene of Neelix finally talking to Kes so that we knew where they were. Otherwise this is an affecting fable that proves Neelix was far more than the naysayers would have him be. He was a hero in the best Starfleet tradition.

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