Every series tends to have a character who’s main purpose is to explore “human spirit”, through the eyes of anther species.
- Spock
- Data (and maybe Worf)
- Odo
- Neelix
Star Trek has never been afraid of tackling the concept of “otherism” head on, challenging preconceptions, especially addressing when human society behaves badly, even shamefully.
It’s one of the things that makes it so good. Content that makes you step back and genuinely question yourself and your assumptions is objectively good content - change my mind
I always thought it was the Doctor more than Neelix. He was more comic relief.
They were both comic relief. The Doctor was better because his character was a deeper, more developed character that viewers cared more about, so the humorous situations he was placed in had more depth and situational resonance.
Neelix was a sight-gag first and a character second. For an actor, that’s a lot to work around. Certainly, Phillips was the guy for the job, and he had his spotlight moments in the series, but he was only really an endearing character sometimes and mostly at the end of VOY’s run. How his character was painted in the first three seasons made it really hard to like him at all. The writers eventually did his character right, but he’ll never be as beloved as other characters, especially the Doctor.
Edit: Phillips, on the other hand, has earned his place as ST royalty.
I really agree. Neelix’s obnoxious behavior and strange jealousy / possessiveness of Kes was a real disservice to his character for the first few seasons and initially I couldn’t stand him. He improved a lot once he and Kes broke up. It was an uncomfortable relationship to watch anyway because Kes was maybe the equivalent of a very sheltered, naive 18-year-old human, and Neelix was clearly a middle-aged dude who had been around the block a few times. He was half controlling parent, half controlling boyfriend and it was just weird.
He became such a wonderful, warm person as the series went on. Godfather to Naomi, took his jobs as chef and morale officer seriously (even though everyone ungratefully complained about his cooking!), trained as a security officer, and always a friendly ear to anyone who needed him.
I’ll also make this argument in his favor: Neelix didn’t have much of an ego, whereas the Doctor was unbearable at times. Neelix’s EQ was much higher.
