“Homestead”
Written by Raf Green
Directed by LeVar Burton
Season 7, Episode 23
Production episode 269
Original air date: May 9, 2001
Stardate: 54868.6
Captain’s log. Neelix is hosting a party to celebrate the 315th anniversary of First Contact Day. He even gets Tuvok to say the words that the first Vulcan who landed on Earth said: “Live long and prosper.” However both he and Janeway fail to get Tuvok to dance, though Neelix promises that he will get Tuvok to dance before they reach Earth.
Chakotay interrupts the party to announce that they’ve detected several hundred Talaxian life forms nearby—but they’re not responding to hails. They’re in an asteroid field that’s sufficiently dense that Voyager can’t navigate inside it, but the Delta Flyer can. Tuvok leads an away team that also includes Paris and Neelix. The Flyer is hit with thermolytic charges and takes heavy damage, crash-landing on an asteroid, knocking them all unconscious.
Neelix wakes up in a makeshift cell, where he’s cared for by a Talaxian woman named Dexa. She explains that they don’t answer hails because they avoid outsiders—like the miners who set off those charges. Dexa also has a son named Brax.
Janeway is about to send a shuttle in after the away team when they haven’t checked in for a while, but before she can send it out, she’s contacted by Nocona, who claims to own the asteroid field. He doesn’t want Janeway to send another ship in, as it might get damaged, but he promises to look for the Flyer.
Neelix bonds with Brax, including a promise to try to allow him to see Voyager, and then meets Oxilon, the leader of the colony. He says that the away team is free to go, and Tuvok and Paris are already on the Flyer, repairing it. Neelix would like to stay a while, and Oxilon agrees to let him stay, but Tuvok and Paris must go.
Brax stows away on the Flyer, wanting Neelix to fulfill his promise to show him Voyager, and Neelix brings him back to Dexa. When there, Nocona shows up, announcing that the asteroid the Talaxians are on is to be broken up for minerals. Dexa protests, and gets shoved violently aside for her trouble. Brax responds to this by throwing a rock at Nocona. The violence threatens to escalate, but hanging out with Starfleet has given Neelix some mad hand-to-hand skillz, and he disarms Nocona and holds his weapon on him.
Nocona and his people leave, and Oxilon is upset that they’ve antagonized Nocona. Dexa acidly points out that they could hardly have made things worse than they are: their home is going to be destroyed.
Neelix offers Janeway’s services as a negotiator to try to work something out with Nocona. Oxilon agrees to meet with the captain, and Neelix also brings Dexa and Brax on board. While Oxilon talks to Janeway, Neelix gives Dexa and Brax a tour of the ship. Neelix learns that Dexa’s husband (Brax’s father) died resisting the brutal government of a previous world they’d settled on after leaving Talax following the Haakonian war. It’s why they don’t trust outsiders much.
Romance-y things start to bloom between Neelix and Dexa but he inexplicably ends the evening before things can get too hot and heavy.
Unfortunately, the negotiations with Nocona don’t go as well as hoped, though they are able to extend the deadline to evacuate the asteroid. Janeway also offers to help ferry them and their stuff to a nearby M-class planet.
Neelix asks Tuvok for help with coming up with a way to defend their new planet but Tuvok points out that the asteroid would be much easier to defend, especially if they have someone as talented as Neelix leading them. Neelix is rather stunned to hear Tuvok say something—anything—nice about him, and Tuvok allows as how, despite how incredibly annoying he can be, Neelix is one of the most resourceful people he’s ever known.
Taking the Baxial into the asteroid field, Neelix (with Janeway’s blessing) provides Oxilon with a plan to construct shield emitters around the asteroid to protect it. Unfortunately, Nocona’s ship attacks before the last two shield emitters are in place. However, the Flyer arrives to help the Baxial defend the asteroid long enough for the final two emitters to be emplaced.
Nocona gives up on the asteroid field, leaving the Talaxians in peace. Neelix, after some soul-searching (and also realizing that, among other things, Naomi has outgrown the need for him to do things like read her bedtime stories), he seriously considers staying with the Talaxians—especially given his feelings for Dexa, feelings she very much returns. Janeway aids him in making this decision by informing him that Starfleet wants a permanent ambassador in the Delta Quadrant, and he’d be the ideal choice.
A corridor full of crew see Neelix off, and Tuvok even wiggles his foot in an approximation of dancing so he can have fulfilled his promise at the top of the episode. Neelix then flies off in the Baxial to join the Talaxians and live happily ever after.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Neelix comes up with a way to build a shield around the asteroid that’s powered by the same cannibalized ship bits that they used to power their settlement. Because he’s just that awesome.
There’s coffee in that nebula! Even though it’s a Prime Directive violation to get involved in the firefight between Nocona and the Talaxians, Janeway won’t let Neelix be hurt and sends in the Flyer. She also comes up with a justification for Neelix to stay with the Talaxians.
Mr. Vulcan. Tuvok sorta kinda dances at the end. It’s kind of sweet.
Half and half. Torres really loves the pirogis.
Forever an ensign. Kim helps Neelix save face when he’s showing Dexa and Brax the bridge. The kid asks where Neelix’s station is, and Kim waxes rhapsodic about how Neelix does so many things on board that he can’t have just a single station.
Please state the nature of the medical emergency. The EMH bitches about the food at the First Contact Day party, saying it has no nutritional value whatsoever.
Resistance is futile. When Neelix reaches astrometrics on Dexa and Brax’s tour, Seven is able to show them an image of Talax from the ship’s database.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet. Neelix and Dexa have pretty much instant chemistry, though Dexa’s obvious invitation to stay the night with her in her guest quarters is surprisingly turned down by Neelix. However, in the end, they do smooch, and Neelix is obviously intending to stay with her and Brax on the asteroid.
What happens on the holodeck stays on the holodeck. Naomi offers to take Brax to the holodeck.
Do it.
“This is an official ship function, Commander—don’t make me order you to dance.”
–Janeway threatening Tuvok.
Welcome aboard. Rob LaBelle makes his third appearance—and his second as a Talaxian—as Oxilon. He played a different Talaxian in “Faces,” and was one of the Ferengi dupes in “False Profits.”
John Kenton Shull makes his sixth and final Trek appearance as Nocona, all of which have him wearing facial prosthetics. He has previously played three different Klingons (“Barge of the Dead,” TNG’s “Firstborn,” and DS9’s “Return to Grace”), a Hanonian (“Basics, Part II“), and a Bajoran (DS9’s “Shakaar”).
Julianna Christie plays Dexa; she’ll be back in Enterprise’s “Unexpected” as Ah’len. Ian Meltzer plays Brax, while Scarlett Pomers is back for her final onscreen appearance as Naomi.
Trivial matters: Neelix’s First Contact Day celebration is an attempt to re-create the atmosphere of Zefram Cochrane’s first warp flight, as seen in the movie First Contact, including a jukebox like the one in the bar Cochrane frequented, and serving pirogis.
Neelix is seen in his role as Delta Quadrant ambassador in several of the post-finale novels by Kirsten Beyer and in Star Trek Online.
Naomi tells Brax about the events of “Tuvix,” which is the only time the episode’s events have been acknowledged onscreen since it happened.
The crew gathered in the corridor to see Neelix off is reminiscent of the scene when Worf left the Enterprise in TNG’s “Redemption,” not to mention on the Cerritos at the end of “First First Contact,” the episode of Lower Decks that premiered this very day. Most of the crew assembled in the corridor were members of the crew wearing Starfleet uniforms to see Ethan Phillips off.
Although Neelix leaves Voyager in this episode, he’ll appear once more, communicating with Seven from the Talaxian colony in “Endgame.”
Set a course for home. “Goodbye and good luck, Ambassador.” There’s one big problem with this episode that cuts off the air supply to my disbelief. We’re a good 30-35,000 light-years from Talax at this point. It took Voyager seven years to get this far, and they had the benefit of several jumps ahead via transwarp coils, slipstream drives, a couple of fancy shortcuts, and Kes. How the heck did Oxilon’s bunch get all the way over here to settle down?
Also, this episode is just so constructed to give Neelix an ending, like the universe of the show is aware that we’re two episodes from the end. He gets to be a hero! He gets a girlfriend and a surrogate son! He gets to be a leader and be reunited with his people!
And while that’s nice, it also doesn’t entirely ring right. Neelix has completely embraced the notion of being part of Voyager’s crew, right up to the top of this episode when he’s painstakingly re-created the bar scene in First Contact. (Minus the tequila, anyhow…) Yet all of a sudden, he decides to stay with these people. Admittedly, Dexa’s probably a big part of that, and it ultimately is a very nice little happy ending for a character who has not been particularly well served by the writing staff over the past seven years.
For all that, I did enjoy the episode. Ethan Phillips plays it extremely well, his chemistry with both Julianna Christie and Ian Meltzer is spot-on, and Tim Russ gives us a Tuvok who still doesn’t entirely like Neelix, but has grown to respect him—to the point that he even almost dances!
Warp factor rating: 6
Keith R.A. DeCandido will be a guest at Indiana Comic-Con this coming weekend at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. He’ll be at the Bard’s Tower booth for the majority of the weekend, alongside fellow word-slingers Claudia Gray, Michael A. Stackpole, Megan Mackie, Caitlin Sangster, Brian Anderson, and Christopher Ruocchio. Other Trek guests include William Shatner (assuming he makes it back safely from space) and Carlos Ferro. Keith might also be doing some programming. Come by and say hi!
The Doctor’s outraged reaction to the appetizers at First Contact Day (and Neelix’s own outraged counter-reaction) is one of the more amusing moments from late VOY for me.
But yeah, even back in the day, this didn’t work for me, either.
It’s quintessential VOY: To paraphrase the upcoming “Endgame”, trying to have its cake and eat it.
Yes, it’s infuriating how they just threw out the entire core premise of the series. Voyager has spent seven years making what was supposed to be an incredibly epic and arduous odyssey across a vast swath of the galaxy, getting much further than could possibly have been expected due to the extraordinary leaps they managed to take… and now we learn that a bunch of people from right near their starting point somehow beat them there, and it’s treated as no big deal? They don’t even bother to explain it or even convey the idea that it’s somehow extraordinary that they got here. It’s just treated as casually as if they never left the immediate vicinity of the Caretaker’s world. It’s infuriating! I said that already, but it’s the only word for it! It’s like the whole prior seven years counted for nothing!
I mean, did they even have to be Talaxians? Couldn’t they have been some new species that reminded Neelix of his people because of their similar experiences? If anything, that would’ve been more meaningful. Though I’m not sure why they even bothered to write Neelix out like this. He was defined very early on as someone who had no home to return to, who’d left his old life behind and was eager to join in Voyager‘s journey of discovery. The Neelix that this show had portrayed up to this point would have loved to reach the Federation and experience the adventure of seeing this strange new alien land that his dear friends called home. It was a disservice to his character to deprive him of the chance to achieve that goal and replace it with the lazy racial essentialism of suddenly wishing to be back with his own people. It just came out of nowhere and was a cheap, pat way to resolve his series arc in a way it shouldn’t have been resolved, a way that subverted his entire previous journey, such as it was.
All that said, I can think of a couple of handwaves to explain how these Talaxians got here, impossibly far from their home. One is the Sikarian trajector, whose range was 40,000 light years, just about as far from Talax as this colony. Of course, the Sikarians didn’t like to share their technology with others, but maybe they made an exception, or maybe the Talaxians succeeded where Voyager failed in obtaining the tech illegally.
The other option is the Vaadwaur subspace corridors. We know they reached all the way to Talax, so they could’ve had a similar extent in the other direction. The fact that we saw Vaadwaur in “The Void” earlier this season would seem to prove it, in fact.
So it can be rationalized. Which just makes it more frustrating that the show didn’t even bother to try, that they didn’t even acknowledge how incongruous it was to encounter Talaxians this far along their journey, as if they were still in the same place they started seven years ago. Did I mention that it’s infuriating?
@2 / CLB:
Did I mention that it’s infuriating?
No, please, unburden yourself, Mr. Bennett.
Tell us how you really feel. ;) XD
That’s a good point about the Corridors or the Projectors being credible explanations. I kinda wish it ‘had been the Projectors, as it that would’ve been a nice bookend to early Season One with the show ending.
Well, I am sorry to see Ethan Phillips go, even if I’m not sad to see the back of Neelix. My major complaint with the final half dozen episodes is that nothing about it feels like the lead-up to them getting home (made all the more irritating by calling the final episode “Endgame,” a word that normally implies that there was something that lead up to it), but this is the one that actually feels that way, to me. Sure, it is VERY obvious that it is for real-world reasons, but I take what I can get from this show.
That is a much, much better idea and I really wish they had gone with that.
@@.-@,
My major complaint with the final half dozen episodes is that nothing about it feels like the lead-up to them getting home (made all the more irritating by calling the final episode “Endgame”.
Yeah, I mean, compare this to the closing episode of DS9 or Battlestar Galactica and in both cases, you knew and felt the end was nigh.
Here? It’s just another day in the Delta Quadrant Office.
They could have made them a lost wandering colony from x years ago but I guess the lost Klingon episode was too recent?
Totally infuriating. Good points.
I basically agree with this review and the comments. This episode is both a good vehicle for Neelix (being a hero, finding a family, discovering Tuvok’s respect), while also betraying the character. As others have mentioned, Neelix totally embraced his Voyager family and their trek across the galaxy to get home and should have remained aboard until they made their destination. It just doesn’t ring true that he would abandon this family he’s made and loved after 7 years because he so recently found companionship (which may or may not last) and Naomi outgrowing bedtime stories is what clinched the deal. He still has a lot of other value to the ship and crew!
There’s also the big elephant in the room of how the Talaxians got out there this far. While it is unlikely it could have at least been explained away in dialogue like through a wormhole or something. The fact that Janeway or Neelix or anyone never even asks is just bizarre. And this didn’t even have to be an issue because these people didn’t need to be Talaxians. Sure it gives some commonality for Neelix to bond with but in the end it doesn’t really make a difference. He could have still fallen for an attractive, widowed woman and single mother with an adorable son and he’d still feel the same compulsion to stay and be a family man to them.
That said, the send-off by the crew and Tuvok in particular to Neelix did make me teary-eyed and it was pretty sweet. The makeup design for the Nocona was also distinctive and impressive.
So I may be inferring the wrong thing, but I think that Christopher might be a bit infuriated…
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
So Voyager can encounter Chakotay and his band of merry misfits, A Cardassian missile, a Starfleet ship, Klingons, Ferengi, Amelia Earhart (!), Frendship One and who know how many other items and people from the very small space around the Federation (galactically speaking) and yet it’s somehow so difficult to consider that somehow, somebody from the Delta Quadrant has managed to travel such a distance from their home territory? Sorry, but that idea that Voyager is off in the wilderness all by itself has sailed long, long ago.
The Talaxians are there and the reason why makes no difference to the story.
@9: But an attempt at an explanation or even a throwaway line like they walked through an Iconian gate would have at least been appreciated.
Also, what was so unlikely about Voyager encountering Chakotay and the Maquis back in “Caretaker”? The Caretaker had brought both ships directly to his array in a relatively short span of time so of course they’d encounter each other at the array.
Although I do grit my teeth a little at the ‘Talaxians at the end of the universe’ idea, I am less worried about it than most of the other commentators. For starters, how many years has it been since Talax was destroyed? Instead of Neelix puttering around the region as a trader/packrat, suppose this merry band hit the road immediately after the metreon cascade – how much of a head start did that give them? Even allowing for a few stops and starts trying to found a new home here and there, they had 15 years to travel before Voyager arrived in the Delta Quadrant – so, perhaps, 20 years from Talax to asteroid.
@11/David H. Oliver: “Even allowing for a few stops and starts trying to found a new home here and there, they had 15 years to travel before Voyager arrived in the Delta Quadrant – so, perhaps, 20 years from Talax to asteroid.”
Except that it’s well over 45,000 light years — about 10,000 from Kes and Arturis’s slipstream, 2500 from the Malon vortex, 10,000 from their own slipstream, 20,000 from the Borg transwarp coil, nearly another 1000 from the graviton catapult and miscellaneous, plus seven years of normal traveling which should add another several thousand. Per original estimates, that would’ve taken Voyager about 45 years under normal warp — and Voyager was supposed to be considerably more advanced than any other power in the region of the Caretaker’s array, including the Talaxians. So it should’ve taken more like a century for Talaxians to travel that far.
It’s like I said — having them show up here so near the end cheapens Voyager‘s entire journey, making it seem like it wasn’t a big deal at all. Especially since not one character reacts as if there’s anything surprising about it.
Hello – I am a long time appreciator of the Star Trek Rewatches and first time poster. (I was tempted to post something on the last rewatch about putting toothpaste back in the tube and a recent xkcd comic).
One of my questions on this episode is why is [Earth] First Contact Day such a big deal when the Federation is full of many different species and wouldn’t there be a lot of First Contact Days?
– A wormhole took them there, then collapsed.
or
– They hitched a ride on a quantum slipstream taxi.
or
– A magic wand did it.
or
– Mushrooms.
@13: Because humans are the center of the universe, of course.
@14: All perfectly plausible suggestions!
I’m assuming First Contact Day is a big deal because it was the first link, the Human and Vulcan alliance, in what would eventually become the Federation and a template of sorts for successful first contacts.
All kidding aside, as two of the founding members of the Federation, the first contact between humans and Vulcans is an event of supreme significance that directly led to the formation of the Federation. It was also a “successful” and peaceful encounter rather than one that led to death and destruction like say between Klingons and Vulcans and for a real life example, Columbus and the Taíno, the native people of Hispaniola (present day Haiti).
@19 – Sure, it would have been nice to get an explanation but it wasn’t necessary. As we’ve seen numerous times before, there’s LOTS of ways that the Talaxians could have ended up that far from their home space.
Regarding the Maquis being in the DQ as well, it’s true that the Caretaker has;ed them in but it could have easily been a Cardassian shop or even someone we’ve never heard of. The point is that its not surprising considering how many AQ raves or objects Voyager has encountered. Even when they encountered a wormhole in Eye of the Needle, the other end was in Romulan space.At times it made you wonder if there was anyone left the AQ that Voyager didn’t encounter at some point.
@13 – The Vulcans already had contact with the Andorians and Klingons as well. It’s because, as #15 said, it’s first contact for the humans and humans are the most important people in the entire UFP or AQ. Does it make sense? No, it doesn’t but that’s how Trek has always played it. Humans are the species that everyone else wants to be or at least the humans think they should.
It’s the alliance between Humans and Vulcans that matters. First contact was simply the first step in that process. Vulcans didn’t develop such a special relationship with Andorians and Klingons. Not at first.
“It would be difficult for me to run the ship without you, Neelix. But that might be a sacrifice I’d be willing to make for the greater good of Starfleet.”
So, as everyone has said, let’s get the big one out of the way first: 40,000 light years away from Talax, when they’re closer to Earth than to Neelix’s home planet, Voyager runs into a Talaxian colony. The worst thing of all is that this would only be an ordinary level contrived coincidence if they just said the Talaxians left their homeworld generations ago. But no, they have to say that these Talaxians not only have personal memories of their home planet, but know it’s under Haakonian occupation, something which happened only about 20 years ago. And everyone acts as though Talax is just a short hop away.
Once you get past that, there’s an interesting moral point about the treatment of refugees, shunted around on the whims of whoever’s mercy they’re depending on, which is more timely now than it was in 2001. Paris briefly gets to be the responsible one (in his own flippant way) playing referee between Tuvok and Neelix, and Naomi shows some smarts in manipulating Brax into befriending her when the lazy cliché would be to have them competing for Neelix’s attention.
As a farewell for Neelix…it depends what sort of mood you’re in. It’s nice of the rest of the crew (notably Chakotay and Kim, and even Seven to an extend) to big him up to his new friends and make them feel welcome. And he does get some good heroic moments. But I remember reading a review once that suggested Janeway and Tuvok are secretly doing their very best to get rid of Neelix by telling him “You know, if you decided to stay behind on that planet and help your people, then we’d miss you and everything, but you’d be really good at it and really important.” Once you’ve heard that, it’s hard to get it out of your mind watching it. There’s also something ever so slightly awkward about him falling in love with the first Talaxian woman he’s met in seven years. Given that Neelix pops down to the asteroid twice after the forcefield’s in place, they must have a very efficient on/off switch for it…
Given how quickly Voyager leaves the Delta Quadrant, Neelix’s ambassadorial post probably didn’t last long in practical terms. I guess Admiral Janeway didn’t think him worth bringing back either. Naomi marks her last appearance by getting to stand with the senior staff for Neelix’s farewell. Naomi says Neelix hasn’t put her to bed and told her a story in “years”, but he was still doing it in “Dragon’s Teeth”, so it can’t be that many years. (See below.)
Neelix organises a celebration for the 315th anniversary of First Contact Day. As anyone who’s seen First Contact knows, that was 5th April 2063, suggesting this episode begins on 5th April 2378. That’s at odds with the usual “one season equals one calendar year” model, which would place the episode in 2377. Some timelines have had the final season of Voyager cover two years to explain this. Personally, I prefer to think that Neelix got the date wrong and no-one had the heart to correct him.
@20: Now that you mention that Janeway and Tuvok saw a perfect opportunity to get rid of Neelix without having to kill him and took advantage of it, that does sound pretty dastardly not to mention funny.
I wouldn’t fault Admiral Janeway for not thinking to go back further to grab Neelix too as she figured he’s still much happier to be with his new Talaxian family. And then maybe it fits with the theory that she never really liked him anyway!
@krad: I also personally wouldn’t say it was terribly odd for Neelix to turn down Dexa’s offer to stay overnight with her in her quarters. It could have been that he was already having feelings for her, and if he slept with her knowing at that point that he wasn’t going to stay with the colony, then it could have just ended up breaking his heart (and hers), or at the very least been emotionally upsetting for him. Now if it were more a casual fling, then that’s another thing.
My head Canon is that Admiral Janeway changed the timelines to make it happen and get Neelix out of the way before rescuing the rest of the crew. She just didn’t like him anymore and wanted to only rescue Voyager if he wasn’t there. She just had to orchestrate it that way (with other Talaxians, etc) or the crew might not have accepted it.
@22: This sounds like a much better plot to “The Voyager Conspiracy”!!!
@23,
Well then, heh, I may as well invoke SF Debris one more time after all:
“That’s right: [Tuvok] is so happy to see Neelix leave, he’s actually dancing with joy!”
It’s not just how did they get this far from Talax that needs explanation it’s why they had to go this far on the first place. It’s not like they were heading for Earth. They couldn’t find a place to settle down in 45,000 light years of intervening space?
@25: Well, if they went into/got sucked into a wormhole they’d have no control over where they end up.
There’s something to be said for a person choosing not to spend the night with a love interest before there’s a formal bonding ceremony. It may seem prudish, but Neelix’s values are those of an alien.
Maybe it made for good television in some markets.
@26 – Exactly. When Voyager met a new species, did they tell them how they ended up in the area every time? They might mention the Federation and that they’re not native to the DQ but it’s not like they told the whole story starting with the Caretaker and all the various jumps they made along the way.
@28: Yes, but most Delta Quadrant species aren’t familiar with Voyager and her crew, but Janeway and company, and of course, Neelix, are familiar with Talaxians. So even a line of dialogue from one of the main characters expressing surprise or curiosity what Talaxians are doing so far from their home world would have been appreciated. After all, the Voyager crew should be intensely interested in finding out about any shortcuts home and these Talaxians could conceivably know something crucial.
@29 – Well, they may have been able to tell them how to get back to where they started from. For all we know, whatever method the Talaxians used could end up putting Voyager on the far side of the galaxy again. Or we can just assume Janeway asked about if offscreen.
This one divides me. You can see the episode is openly constructed and designed to see Neelix off, no matter the contrivances – and meeting Talaxians this far out is far-fetched, no doubt about it.
The story could have easily worked with any other Delta Quadrant alien race. Dexa didn’t need to be a Talaxian, and it would still work. An interspecies relationship would go hand in hand with what the Trek universe stands for, in terms of diversity. But I guess this would have been too radical for the conservative leadership of the franchise at that point. Definitely not under Rick Berman and Kenneth Biller (which I believe to be the reason Neelix chose to not spend the night with Dexa; I doubt Raf Green put that in without reason).
But I still appreciate it for what it is. A well made send-off that still works on an emotional level. Burton’s direction giving it the punch it needs, giving Phillips a chance to shine.
Neelix was sadly underused throughout Voyager’s run, which is why I enjoy him getting the chance to shine and be heroic. And at least, by making it a Talaxian affair, despite the contrivances, it gives closure to prior Neelix stories such as Jetrel, Fair Trade, and Mortal Coil. Plus, it helps that the character moved past the Kes jealousy after season 2, and became a better person despite not getting the spotlight more often. It’s funny that the VOY writers always pictured Paris as the one going on a redemption arc, but I’d argue it’s Neelix who’s earned it.
Of course, the next question is, why take him off the ship and do an entire episode about that? Why not see him getting to Earth, meeting the Federation up close and personal? Given what we ultimately get in Endgame, I’m actually glad Neelix was spared the final leg of the journey. He got more closure than the rest of the cast thanks to this.
I’ll dig into this more on Endgame: the crew deserved more than just a face-off against the Borg during that finale. We should have spent a lot more time on Earth, dealing with the aftermath of everything that happened – even a two years later epilogue of sorts would have sufficed, but that’s for next week. For now, I’ll settle for Neelix getting his due. Ethan Phillips gave it all and earned it.
@31/Eduardo: “An interspecies relationship would go hand in hand with what the Trek universe stands for, in terms of diversity. But I guess this would have been too radical for the conservative leadership of the franchise at that point. Definitely not under Rick Berman and Kenneth Biller”
What? What about Tom and B’Elanna? Or Worf and Troi, or Neelix and Kes, or Samantha Wildman and her husband? Berman never had anything against interspecies romance.
@32/Christopher: I kind of mentally blocked everyone else from my mind for some unknown reason. To quote Will Smith on Independence Day, “ooops”.
Though, having said that, most of these didn’t work out. Worf and Troi broke up offscreen. Neelix and Kes also broke up offscreen with no repercussions. We never met Naomi’s father, so he didn’t count. Of all these, only Tom and B’Elanna held firm. And any other healthy depiction of interspecies dating was mostly relegated to DS9. (and we know how hands-off Berman was there)
I’m just searching for a reason as to why it had to be Talaxians….
@33/Eduardo: “Though, having said that, most of these didn’t work out.”
You can say the same about most romances in fiction. Having James T. Kirk fall deeply in love with you is a death sentence.
“I’m just searching for a reason as to why it had to be Talaxians….”
Because it was the laziest way to write out Neelix, once they came to the inexplicable decision that Neelix needed to be written out.
@31:
Of course, the next question is, why take him off the ship and do an entire episode about that? Why not see him getting to Earth, meeting the Federation up close and personal?
Yeah, that’s a really good point.
All of Neelix (and Kes’ too) preconceptions about the UFP and Starfleet are based entirely upon Voyager. For 7 years, he heard about this wonderful utopia on the other side of the galaxy from the crew. He even saw it reproduced on the Holodeck.
But it’s one thing to see the UFP represented in microcosm on board the ship. It’s quite another to finally experience it up close and person.
Neelix having to see how much the larger reality mirrors the microcosm of VOY (and vice-versa, especially in the wake of the Dominion War) could’ve been great stuff for the close of the series.
@33: Troi and Riker had an on-and-off again interspecies relationship through most of TNG and picked up again in the movies. So that belies your notion that there weren’t successful interspecies relationships over on TNG since you discounted Worf and Troi.
“the inexplicable decision that Neelix needed to be written out” – Nothing inexplicable about that decision. A lot of us came to it in Caretaker or very, very soon thereafter.
@37/Muswell: I’m not talking about personal opinions, I’m talking about character logic. Neelix had been defined for seven seasons as a character who’d chosen to embrace Voyager because…
You know what? Even as I wrote that sentence, I changed my mind. I was going to say he embraced Voyager because he had nothing left back home. And as soon as that phrase entered my head, I realized it could make sense on a character level that if he found something to fill that void, a replacement for the home he’d lost, he would want to pursue it. So maybe it does make sense in those terms, aside from the insane illogic of having Talaxians this far out and the casual contempt for the magnitude of Voyager‘s entire journey.
Still, Voyager itself was supposed to be the new home and family he’d embraced. The fact that the producers felt he needed to replace it with a different family in order to have closure is kind of an admission that they didn’t do the character justice.
Neelix left everything behind to be with Kes on Voyager. His was no longer around. Is it that hard to believe that he might do something similar with Dexa? If the Voyager crew was his family, what would he do when Voyager got home? Move in with Tuvok and his family? The Wildmans? It’s not like he’s abandoning them since he’ll be in communication with the Federation. He’s now a Federation Ambassador and has a new family. Best of both worlds.
Any why is it so absurd for the Talaxians to be far from home when Voyager, the two Ferengi, the Equinox and others have been in the DQ as well? It’s not as if Trek has any shortage of technologies or natural phenomenon that could move a group of people so far from home.
@37,
Still, Voyager itself was supposed to be the new home and family he’d embraced. The fact that the producers felt he needed to replace it with a different family in order to have closure is kind of an admission that they didn’t do the character justice.
Yeah, I mean, regardless how you feel about the character, I still feel bad for Ethan Phillips. To spend 7 years in the makeup chair and to be essentially, ultimately wasted.
I wonder if he ever tried to get out of his contract the same way Beltran allegedly tried to.
Any why is it so absurd for the Talaxians to be far from home when Voyager, the two Ferengi, the Equinox and others have been in the DQ as well? It’s not as if Trek has any shortage of technologies or natural phenomenon that could move a group of people so far from home.
Because in those instances, there were logical catalysts for the plots.
The Ferengi had the other end of the Barzan Wormhole as was set up on TNG’s “The Price”, the Equinox had the Caretaker’s Array, etc.
With the phenomenon and technology in the DQ, sure, there any number of reasons for a gaggle of Talaxians to be this far out. I like CLBs’ speculation that it might have been the Sikarian Projector.
But the problem, as has been pointed out, is that, well, the show doesn’t even ask why there are Talaxians out this far.
Neither Janeway or Neelix inquire how specifically. It’s a blatant cheat meant to construct a way of getting Neelix off the ship and concluding his arc in the half-assed spirit that’s part and parcel of VOY.
@37: I can’t feel too bad for Ethan Phillips, or any regular on a Star Trek series for that matter. Unlike a lot of struggling actors that never “make it,” he had a steady gig on a television show for a long 7 years, was paid well, was part of a popular iconic franchise, continues to get residual checks, makes additional income from the convention income, and got additional acting gigs out of it with different roles in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Enterprise. So I agree that his character was underserved but he still had an actor‘s dream job, not to mention he made close friends from his time on the show and was having lots of fun at work everyday (farting all over the set according to Garrett Wang and Robbie McNeill on their podcast lol).
@41 – the show doesn’t even ask why there are Talaxians out this far.
So? Did everyone that Voyager met and found out they were from the AQ get an explanation of the badlands and the Caretaker? So there’s Talaxians tens of thousands of light years from home. From what we’ve seen, it happens all the time. How they got there isn’t important to the story. Sure, they could say “We encountered a wormhole” but what does it add?
Could it have been the Sikarian Projector? Sure, why not. And?
Of course, that would mean that the Talaxians encountered the same race that Voyager did, adding to the small universe syndrome that has infected Voyager almost from the start. Space is big. It could have been any number of things either natural or technological, perhaps even a race we’ve never heard of. The how isn’t important. If you made it this far in the series and suddenly expected Voyager to make sense, you haven’t been paying attention. From the very first episode, you’d be wondering why the Kazon are unable to locate another source of water. That way lies madness.
@43: But it does matter when the very premise of the show is to get home faster. For no one on Voyager to pipe up and ask this colony of Talaxians how they in fact got so far out from their home world is very odd. Conjecturing that Janeway just asked them off-camera doesn’t cut it because the audience, speaking for it as a member, is curious to hear an attempt, any, at an explanation.
@44/garreth: “Conjecturing that Janeway just asked them off-camera doesn’t cut it because the audience, speaking for it as a member, is curious to hear an attempt, any, at an explanation.”
Exactly. Nothing relevant to a story should ever be left “off camera.” These are stories meant for an audience, so what matters is what they succeed or fail in conveying to the audience. Most of the past two seasons have done a good job creating a sense of actual progress toward the goal of getting home, but “Homestead” is written as though the ship has made no significant progress in seven years, that it’s still back in the same part of space where it started — or at least that its journey which was supposed to be an incredibly difficult, unprecedented undertaking is nothing but a casual commute that any random bunch of colonists could achieve as a matter of routine. It totally fails to convey the sense to the audience that Voyager‘s journey was any kind of achievement, that anything in the past seven years (or at least the four years since Kes threw them far beyond the part of the galaxy where they started) has actually mattered. So it’s completely incongruous in its messaging compared to the rest of the season.
How is it relevant? As people have said, there’s any number of ways that the Talaxians could have ended up where they are and not one of them makes a lick of difference to the story.
They’re 30,000 light years from home and Voyager just happens to pass within scanning distance from them? They’re in an asteroid field that’s too dense for Voyager to enter? Really? Do these people have any idea what the asteroid belt or the Jupiter trojans are actually like? Space is BIG. And the one big thing that people get caught up on is how the Talaxians got there?
OK, the Preservers put them there. Better?
@42,
Yeah, true, good point.
I get the sense that Beltran feels the same way: That he values the friendships (and income) he got the role more than the role itself.
@46,
How is it relevant? As people have said, there’s any number of ways that the Talaxians could have ended up where they are and not one of them makes a lick of difference to the story.
It doesn’t matter. Like I said, with the tech and phenomenon of the DQ, there are any number of explanations.
The problem, as Garreth and CLB had the right of it, is that Janeway or Neelix asking them off-screen doesn’t cut it.
Film and TV are visual mediums. There’s a difference between subtly implying and outright being obtuse.
Refusing to even acknowledge how they made it out this far it aloud and in dialogue undermines the premise of the entire — and especially at this point in the home stretch.
It’s an insult to the viewers and symptomatic of the late Berman-era Trek‘s contempt for its audience’s intelligence. It only reinforces this was an artifical means of getting Neelix off the ship rather than an orgnaic end to his character arc.
The problem is that Voyager frequently feels like a show where the characters know what is going to happen in the script (and not in a fun “The French Mistake” kind of way) instead of events flowing naturally from plot or characterization. Why doesn’t anyone relieve Janeway when she is acting like a lunatic in “Equinox”? Because this is a “Janeway and her white whale” episode and not a “crew possessed by space weirdness episode.” How do we know that? Because it is in the script! Why don’t they try to revive Crewman #45 with Borg nanoprobes? Because he is just an extra and the characters know the difference between someone whose name is in the opening credits and someone who is just getting the daily rate + craft services. Why does everyone report to the bridge in full uniform and hair and makeup no matter what time of the day or night? Because they know a Red Alert is coming! Why doesn’t anyone ask the Talaxians how they got out here in case it is tech that could help Voyager? Because we are 2 episodes away from the show coming off the air and they know they just have to wait 2 weeks to get home!
Some of that is inevitable in any show, but it always seemed more apparent to me in VOY, and those are the little details that, even if you don’t consciously catch them, make the show feel a little less “real” than it otherwise could.
@@@@@ 47 – I think it’s more an insult the the viewers intelligence if they felt they had to answer every single question they may have when, if they know anything at all about Star Trek, there’s numerous ways they could have gotten there.
Now, if Talaxians had been shown to be pre-industrial, then sure, tell us how they got there. The fact that Neelix has his own FTL ship means that it’s likely the rest of them do too. And once you’re in space, anything can happen. At least on Star Trek. Voyager 6 somehow ended up on the far side of the galaxy by falling into a black hole that must have been very close to Earth and then was able to scan other galaxies on it’s way back. How did that work, exactly? We’re told Vulcan has no moon and yet by the time of TMP we see not one but two in the sky. We first saw one in Yesteryear. In ST09, suddenly Delta Vega is in the Vulcan system within visual range of Vulcan. If the Enterprise was scavenging parts to get home from it in WNMHGB, why didn’t they just go to Vulcan instead?
Seriously, how the Talaxians got to that asteroid is the least the things that make me go “Waaaaa???” when I’m watching Trek. At least there’s numerous prior methods that can be cited.
If the writers had booted Neelix midway through the series’ run, in a blaze of glory no less, then that would have been bold. But unloading him with two episodes til the series finale? What’s the point of that? He was almost to the finish line with the rest of the main cast! So “poor” Ethan Phillips isn’t included in “Renaissance Man” and gets a little cameo in “Endgame.” Just dumb.
Everyone else was going home. If Neelix had gone with them, he likely would have never seen another Talaxian for the rest of his life. He saw a chance to settle down with people who shared his history and culture. Sure, it’s contrived but I can understand why he did it.
How did the Talaxians make it out this far? Clearly a wizard did it.
As good an answer as any. How did the Enterprise lose power near the moon and then fall to Earth in a matter of minutes in Into Darkness?
@51: Neelix had many opportunities throughout the first few seasons to abandon Voyager and take his ship and head back to Talax if he was suddenly getting cold feet. He last saw a Talaxian who he also knew back in third season’s “Fair Trade.” If he missed other Talaxians he could have stayed out right there, but he wanted to continue on with the Voyager crew. So no, he was all in and committed to staying with Voyager all the way back to the Alpha Quadrant until the writers decided two episodes to the series finale that it wasn’t that big a deal to him anymore.
#53. What, don’t you remember when Apollo 13 lost power on the way to the Moon and immediately tumbled back to Earth? It’s science, folks. ;-)
@54,
Right. I could buy the Neelix of early VOY doing this, but not a Neelix this close to the series end.
Now, if the crew was on the guaranteed cusp of getting home and then encountered Talaxian Ex Machina and then Neelix had that choice…well, that would’ve been another matter.
@55,
Or as I’ve sarcastically put it more than once, “Gravity is not necessarily our friend!”
His previous encounters with Talaxians weren’t a woman he found attractive and vice versa. Add in her son and he’s looking at the opportunity for a ready made family. He’s been close to Samantha for a long time but now she’s growing up, becoming more independent. Maybe he’s looking forward to starting a family of his own.
And he is entitled to change his mind.
@57: After 7 years it doesn’t ring true for him to suddenly change his mind. Voyager was his home and the crew was his family and friends. It’s not like everyone there was telling him they hated him and wanted him to leave. If he wanted to have a family there were plenty of eligible single females aboard. It’s already been demonstrated that he is into interspecies romantic relationships.
But no other Talaxians. Perhaps he didn’t realize how much he missed his own people. Everyone else had someone of their species they were involved with except for Samantha WIldman, and Paris and Torres. And when they got back to the Federation, everyone would be back among their own people except for Neelix. Sure, he could probably find someone who he could get involved with but sometimes you just want familiarity.
Can’t wait for the Enterprise Rewatch.
@60: I don’t think that’s been officially announced, but I think it’s but a foregone conclusion for early November. But I’m looking forward to it too – it might actually motivate to try to give the series another shot. Lol.
@59,
I mean…okay, to play Talaxian’s Advocate, there is some validity there. Kes jumping them past Borg space was the point of no return for Neelix if he wanted off the ride.
(Of course, one lone Talaxian wouldn’t have lasted long try to make it back the way he’d come with the Collective in the waters. Heh, cue the Jaws theme).
So yeah, Neelix (and Janeway and company) never expected to see any more species/cultures from their starting point here and now. That’s valid.
But…like Garreth argued, it doesn’t work with Neelix at this late point in the series in his character arc.
And it’s the execution, too. Hell, on the approach to the asteroid, Neelix is more focused on making Tuvok try to dance than on the prospect of meeting his own people or understanding how the hell they can possibly be out here.
It’s not earned. It’s doesn’t ring true to the character at this stage of the series and his development. With 3 episodes left in the series, and with VOY’s lazy storytelling style long since enshrined, there’s no tension; there is only one way it can end.
Yes, in November 2021, I will be kicking off the Enterprise Rewatch.
Honestly, I can hardly not. Once Voyager is done I will have covered every single Star Trek episode and movie extant, between rewatches of the series and movies during the first 50 years of the franchise’s existence and reviews of the episodes since then, except for Enterprise, and to not do a rewatch of it would be ridiculous.
So yeah, have a little faith of the heart: there will be an Enterprise Rewatch in this, the 20th anniversary of its debut.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@63/krad: Hallelujah! More rewatch entries for me to look forward to while I’m at work. Can’t wait to hear your analyses of Archer and company’s (s)exploits: erotic decon chamber scenes, sensual Vulcan neuro-pressure sessions, etc. Woohoo!
@63/krad: It’s been a long road, getting from there to here.
bgsu98: But my time is finally near!
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@65 / 66:
To quote the late, great James Coburn in Payback…
@63: Thank you krad! I’ve been watching ENT while laid up over the last few weeks and I was hoping this was coming!
It is a series that there is much to say about regarding continuity, choices, behind the scenes, and also some great storytelling beyond the controversies.
krad: Because they’re not gonna hold you back no more, no, you’re not gonna change your mind.
(Looking forward to it once we’re through these last two episodes! And you’ve had a well-deserved short break…)
Krad: Not only will you have the Enterprise rewatch beginning next month, but Prodigy at last debuts next week and then Discovery returns 3 weeks later. You’re gonna have an Enterprise post every Monday and a second Enterprise, Prodigy, and Discovery post every Thursday? Good thing you’re a Star Trek fan!
@70,
You know, if y’all keep breaking out that damm theme, I’m gonna start channeling the King of Swamp Castle:
“Stop that, stop that! You’re not going into a song while I’m here!” :D XD
I caught myself starting to sing the theme in the shower this morning. :o(
@73,
That’s funny…because I was humming Archer’s Theme while making breakfast.
Actually, I know Dennis McCarthy’s stated the decision to use “Faith of the Heart” had already been made before he began composing “Broken Bow”.
But as far as I’m concerned, Archer’s theme is the real theme for ENT. It just works so much better for the series and everything the premise represented.
@74: I’m sorry, call me evil or a Borg drone or whatever, but I detest the Archer theme. I do understand how some people can like it because it’s distinctive I guess, but I just find it so schmaltzy and sentimental. Like whenever this theme comes on at the end of an episode I have to quickly shut it off because it’s like nails on the chalkboard for me. I actually prefer Faith of the Heart even though I don’t much care for it either because it’s at least got some pep going for it.
@75,
I’m sorry, call me evil or a Borg drone or whatever.
Do my ‘whatever’, eh?
Heh. XD :D
For the record, the Enterprise Rewatch will only be once a week.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@77/krad: Makes sense to lighten the workload and that means the joy of that rewatch will be spread out that much longer!
I never liked Neelix as a character. This may be the only Neelix episode that I did like.
Yes, there are big plot holes. But the Voyager, a show which seems to hate character growth, actually showed it here. It showed why Neelix is extraordinary and why he should have been part of the crew. Its sort of like the Scourging of the Shire – you don’t realize that the Hobbits are badass now, it happened when you didn’t realize. But they are. And so, in this case, is Neelix.
It showed a Neelix who is acting based on his duty and heart, rather than acting like a clown.
@75,
Actually, re: “Faith of the Heart”, there was a fan recut of the Opening a while back.
Basically, they swapped in the theme from the Eighties sitcom Perfect Stranger.
And it…actually kinda works.
@80: Ha! Well, my personally assessment after hearing that, and I think I saw it once before, is that any power rock ballad is gonna sound silly as a Star Trek theme song. I’m glad Kurtzman-era Trek hasn’t dipped into that well again. I’m sure when we get to the “Broken Bow” rewatch we’ll have plenty of debate whether the theme song with vocals experiment worked or not.
@81/garreth: The TOS theme was performed by a vocalist in one arrangement, and was very much done in a popular song style of its era. So there’s nothing new about that.
@82/CLB: The vocalist for TOS theme was campy but I still enjoy it for the camp value of the era. However, it also isn’t lyrics although I am aware of the version Gene Roddenberry wrote with lyrics so that he’d get royalties and credit for the theme song overall. The “Faith of Your Heart” song is schlocky in its own way and certainly of its era but that dates the show. I prefer a theme that has a timeless quality to it and I associate that with pretty much all of the other Star Trek series theme songs and their lush orchestral arrangements.
@83/garreth: I’m sure there were rock-and-roll fans in the ’60s who thought that the retro style of the TOS theme — basically a 1930s-40s dance band style with a ’50s bossa nova rhythm — dated it as well. Whether you like it or not is beside the point; it is simply an error of fact to talk about Enterprise as if it were the first or only Trek show to have a theme in a popular song style.
@84/CLB: Sure, but a debate can still be had about the overall merits of the rock ballad stylings of the Enterprise theme song which was an intentional and significant change from the orchestral-style themes that were prevalent in the preceding three TNG-era series which preceded it.
@85/garreth: I’m not addressing that debate one way or another. If people say they don’t like the specific song that was chosen, fine, that’s their choice. I don’t begrudge them that and I’m not interested in arguing over it. But when people say that it was wrong or unprecedented for a Trek show to use any popular song for a theme, that is an invalid argument, because TOS did it too.
And yes, it was a change, but why is that automatically bad? What’s the point in doing new shows if you don’t try new things? Not every new thing you try is going to work, no, but that doesn’t mean that any change or novelty is wrong. It doesn’t mean it failed because it was a change.
@86 / CLB:
And yes, it was a change, but why is that automatically bad? What’s the point in doing new shows if you don’t try new things? Not every new thing you try is going to work, no, but that doesn’t mean that any change or novelty is wrong. It doesn’t mean it failed because it was a change.
Heh.
“Come, come, Mr. Scott. Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant!”
Forgive the Search of Spock joke. I couldn’t resist.
Anyway, going back to Talaxian Ex Machina for a minute…
The episode establishes that Dexa and company fled Talax because of the Talaxian-Haakonian War from “Jetrel”.
I wonder if Neelix’s conflict alternately might have played better if these Talaxians had left the homeworld at a point prior to the conflict.
In this scenario, they don’t know about the Cascade or what’s become of their people. Hell, it could also be the younger generations, with the OG gone and never having known Talax, have no idea of their customs, traditions, etc.
It’d essentially put Neelix in Worf’s shoes back in TNG’s “Birthright”: Seeing the next generation that knows nothing of their heritage and deciding to help them.
Then again, I don’t know.
To my ear, the problem with “Faith of the Heart” is that it misses the mark of getting me excited for a space adventure. Simple as that.
It still sounds to me like an inspirational tune played over a slideshow from a weekend teambuilding exercise at a corporate retreat, or something played on a dusty CD player in the back of a Christian candle shop while the owner is talking on the phone about bingo night.
It’s hard to gaze up at the stars when you’re choking on white bread.
@89: I like the specificity of your hypothetical scenarios! And I also concur!
Mariah Carey’s “Hero” would have also fit nicely over the opening credits if the producers were going for anything in an inspirational vein and it was an actual #1 pop hit. But I’m sure the rights would have been a lot more expensive to obtain.
terry: I could not have put it better myself. Bravo.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@89/90,
Thank you for those hypothetical scenarios, Terry. I had a good chuckle.
And that was a perfect summation of the fundamental problem of the theme song selection.
I found and still find the premise of this episode deeply stupid. As almost all have pointed out it makes no sense to find a Talaxian colony at this point, it would have been (just about) more believable to find a colony like this at the beginning of season 4, you know where they had to replace one of the major characters to allow Seven’s addition to the cast? Also If they really wanted to do a storyline like this at this point it would have been eminently more believable for the Doctor to have left the ship to stay with the holographic lifeforms in Flesh and Blood.
Doing this now makes even more of a mockery out of Neelix than the terrible writing he suffered for the past 6 years, he’s basically irritated a lot of viewers and been dragged across the Galaxy like a cross between Jar Jar Binks and Weekend at Bernie’s only to be dumped as the show is almost coming to an end,
They do give him an emotional farewell which is a nice touch, just a shame they didn’t give all those who died such an emotional farewell but I guess thems the breaks huh? Also Samantha Wildman can’t be bothered to show up for the man she made her daughters Godfather so she didn’t like him all that much then?
Having said that as far as Neelix episodes goes this one isn’t bad but it’s a flawed premise that basically just kills it for me.
@89 just saw this comment. Absolutely dead on.
As a Neelix fan, I was disappointed that he didn’t complete the journey, but at least they gave him a happy endng.
@Krad/Captain’s log:
Actually, if memory serves, Neelix pulled off a nifty disarmament of Maje Jabin in “Caretaker” to rescue Kes and Voyager‘s away team. Apparently he already had mad hand-to-hand skillz.
Man, I don’t know. Maybe my sinuses needed to drain, but I was choked up many times throughout this episode. Sure, it’s maybe a little bit of forced convenience, but it’s also hard for me to imagine Neelix in the Alpha Quadrant. He doesn’t have anyone to come home to, and while the crew is his family, they won’t stay a crew.
Of course, yeah, that relies on a certain amount of knowing the show is coming to an end, but this is episodic TV after all.
I don’t know. This may not deserve a 10, but I left feeling like a 10 (and my sinuses are clearer).
Yeah, the crew would presumably get new assignments, but Neelix could have stayed affiliated with Starfleet. It would have been similar to what the Prodigy characters have done. It worked for them, so there’s no reason it couldn’t have worked for him.