I rewatched the first episode of Voyager, and when Neelix first comes aboard the ship, he marvels at the great culture that created it. Tuvok says something along the lines of “The Federation is made up of many cultures. I am Vulcan”. A few scenes later, Neelix calls Tuvok “Mr. Vulcan”, and Tuvok does not correct him. So, yeah, 100% lack of communication on Tuvok’s side. Sure, Neelix hears other people call Tuvok by his proper name, and as some point he understood “Vulcan” is the name of his race. But by then, as Tuvok never corrected him or shown any visible dislike to being called that, he might have come to the conclusion that Tuvok likes it, and thinks of it as a funny nickname.
I still don’t understand why they thought Neelix would be the breakout character when every breakout character has been something like a Vulcan or an android who looks in on humanity from the outside and acts to comment on the human condition from the point of view of someone with a completely different way of being.
Oh and look at that! The breakout character in Voyager ended up being a former Borg struggling to deal with humanity and individuality! (People go “hot girl in catsuit” but there were plenty of hot girls in Voyager)
I guess it just goes to show that by this era the people running trek didn’t really understand it.
The Doctor was the intended Spock/Data surrogate.
I’d say they understood the formula too well since they added a second one in season 4.
@beefcat @sj_zero I agree that the doctor was the “exploring humanity” character until Seven was added. Neelix was the “hospitality” character, Guinan in TNG, and Quark in DS9, but it was poorly written to the point of just being annoying, IMO. If the whole “hounding Tuvok to get him to loosen up” was supposed to be funny, it failed.
To be fair, DS9 didn’t really have one of those. But DS9’s strength was that the entire extended cast including minor characters had interesting stories to tell. Voyager on the other hand has characters like Ensign Harry Kim, a character so underserved and underwritten that at one point he’s killed off and replaced with an alternate universe version of himself and the dynamic doesn’t change one iota.
Not technically an alternate universe. Also, the two Voyagers had only deviated from each other by a few hours. O’Brien getting killed off and replaced by his time-displaced future self is weirder, to me.
I think Quark is supposed to be the break-out character, always commenting on the weird HOO MANS.
I’d argue that Odo fits the traditional role more directly, as his confused and sometimes disdainful fascination with solids has a similarly cold and analytical approach to that of Spock and Data. But then, Quark and Odo are essentially two sides of the same coin.
He really wasn’t, Armin was just that good
On DS9 they were all breakout characters. Especially the supporting cast.
I think the goal was to make neelix seem related able. “He’s the delta quadrants Renaissance man” I think his importance is hindered also by in some of the early episodes he’s straight up not there. I’m not going to even begin talking about seven of nine or kess, because frankly its gross. But I guess it we a product of it’s time, because in enterprise they do the exact same thing with T’pol
More a product of Berman than of the '90s.
Good read! I like it.
