In the thirteenth episode of the third season of Voyager, Neelix tries his best to contribute to the well-being of the ship, and that ends in disaster. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Voyager.
You know, I like a lot of the ideas in this episode, but the execution of it never quite felt as exciting as it could have been. There’s a neat examination of Neelix’s role on Voyager and the first serious appearance of drug smuggling, but I think all the secondhand embarrassment was a little too much for me.
I’ll explain. At the core of this story is Neelix’s need to feel wanted and necessary. That’s an absolutely valid thing for anyone to feel, and given that he’s not in Starfleet, he’s always struggled with finding a place among the crew. A cook hasn’t always been a necessary feature of the mess hall, and he’s only rarely called upon to be a morale officer. Janeway mentioned the possibility of Neelix becoming an official ambassador in “Macrocosm,†but the events in this episode threaten that.
See, Voyager has now reached the edge of Neelix’s knowledge of the Delta Quadrant. He can’t be an advisor for Janeway if he has no information, and so he believes that the only way he can remain onboard is if he makes himself immediately useful. And that’s the crux of it here: he doesn’t wait to see if his fears come true, nor does he sit down with Janeway and express those fears. He just acts, impulsively so, even when his gut is telling them this is a bad idea. But at the very least, I understood why he behaved as he did… up to a point.
Part of the problem with dealing with intricate character studies in this format is that it’s difficult to build a rapport between a character we know well and one we’ve just met. The writers have very little time to develop Wixiban here, so he ends up being annoying or uninteresting most of the time. You get a sense for his past relationship with Neelix; we’re told that Neelix worked in jobs that were most likely illegal; but without seeing any of that, the story never packs the punch it should. It’s a classic case of telling versus showing, and as Neelix doubles down on each terrible decision and compounds the lies he’s telling, he becomes less recognizable to the audience.
But I could have believed this journey if it were about an unending bout of errors surrounding a failed bit of smuggling. Once someone died, though, I stopped being willing to accept that Neelix would have lied so readily about what had happened. It made no sense to me at all! And I get Neelix feeling confused and desperate, but outright lying to Tuvok and Janeway, the very people whose respect he is trying to earn? I suppose that’s the inherent contradiction here, and I would love it if that was explored a bit more aside from the scathing moment at the end of the episode. Ultimately, if I liked Wixiban more or had a better understanding of Neelix’s past, “Fair Trade†could have truly surprised me.
Still, it’s not the worst episode by any means. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more episodes acknowledging a drug trade in different parts of space; that interstellar marketplace was fantastic, too. Janeway is, once again, one of the best things about every scene she is in, from her defense of Chakotay/Tom to her justified disciplining of Neelix. I loved that she refused to kick Neelix off the ship because that would’ve been too easy. They’re a family now! And that means being responsible for the complicated things that happen aboard the ship, even if it’s not something you like.
The video for “Fair Trade†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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