Matthew's Star Trek Page

Ethan Phillips- Neelix

Played By: Ethan Phillips
Species: Talaxian
Current assignment: U.S.S. Voyager : Chef, diplomatic adviser, "morale officer"
Full Name: Neelix
Place of birth: Rinax, a Talax moon
Marital status: Single
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 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 "'37S," 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 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 myself 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 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 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 us to help find a way to yet retrieve those who perished, and the difficult process was a big step for him. Our first encounter with the Vidiians included the theft of Neelix's lungs, but they were eventually returned when I showed our prisoners mercy while the Doctor's holographic substitutes kept Neelix alive.

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 an sentient reptilloid infant in an abrasive atmosphere.

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.

DATABASE UPDATE, SD 50460: Entry by K. Janeway

I have grown concerned in recent weeks about our morale's 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 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 fax Nagus during our Ferengi encounter helped save the mission, even if I personally do without his people;s custom of delivering a history of each meal while it is served, as 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 concerned the separation of he and Kes' continued realtionship, and I wish them both the best in whatever path they take.