VOY: Mortal Coil Review

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I get it.

[Tonesthegeek]

I'm surprised Chuck couldn't take the time out of his Neelix hatred to further explore the implication of his resurrection. He was brought back to life purely from a scientific standpoint, for all we know he is just a corpse with all of Neelix's memories that's being kept preserved and that the reason he cannot remember anything from the afterlife is that he doesn't have a soul. The real Neelix could very well have died and went there and what we had for the rest of the series is basically a clone of the equivalent of an android or hologram with someone's memories and personality downloaded into it. If the real Neelix is aware of this in the afterlife, it may be a small comfort knowing that this new Neelix will be there for his friends so he doesn't have to worry about them, so there's no real downside to this. But the fact remains that unless there's any definitive evidence of anything metaphysical, Neelix was and is still technically dead and what is walking around is nothing more than the product of science.

On another note, if those nanoprobes will be in Neelix forever and keeping him alive, what's going to happen when he dies again, will the probes attempt resurrect him again, and if so to what extent? Neelix could very well be the first true zombie.

[Makeshift Python]

I think the most reasonable conclusion is that the entire crew of Voyager is already dead, and nobody realizes it. This is why Neelix didn't experience "afterlife" because there is no realm after the afterlife.

Therefore, Janeway is Satan.

[Yukaphile]

That is epic.

[clearspira]

Harry Kim must be a zombie five times over by now.

[cdrood]

Chuck says Neelix knows Proto-matter??? Well at least he knows more about proto-matter than he knows about bathing. Wrong, VOY episode 1 shows Neelix in the bubble bath. my eyes! my eyes!

AGAIN with the cheese? That is Star-fleet's fault. Writers asked what is this week's Stupid neelix Moment? It was Friday afternoon, so they wrote he poisons the ship with cheese and then the Writers went home.

Who the fuck sits down and deliberately designs a spaceship that can be killed with cheese???

Load the Limburg launchers.
Charge the Cheddar cannon.
Prime the Parmesan postillion.
Grab the Gruyere grenades.

Oy! That Naomi actor, she is loathsome. I'm glad they replaced her with Scarlett Pomers.

You are not wrong about the cheese, it is TERRIBLE design and is an informed ability at best as to how awesome it is compared to conventional circuitry. But where I would say that it is Neelix's fault is that he did not run any kind of safety check on this bacteria he was cultivating which should have been step one when acquiring an alien foodstuff. Remember: it could have been the crew dropping dead instead of the ship very easily.

Yeah, but unfortunately, this is Star Trek writing 101. Any reasonable precaution regarding security, safety, and/or contamination will be ignored in the name of drama. Worf almost died once because no one considered tying down some drums sitting on a high shelf.

[Yukaphile]

I still find it funny Neelix got access to protomatter.

[cdrood]

I still find it funny Neelix got access to protomatter.

I think that's part of what kills this for me. He dies in yet another instance of his claiming knowledge of something he probably doesn't. They're so desperate to shoehorn into episodes that it became tiresome, so if one of those things ends up killing him; better that than all the people he's endangered with his claims.

If this had long lasting effect on the character, it would be one thing. That it didn't, just leaves it as one of those episodes you have to pretend didn't happen to get around the resurrection thing.

[Jonathan101]

I still find it funny Neelix got access to protomatter.

I think that's part of what kills this for me. He dies in yet another instance of his claiming knowledge of something he probably doesn't. They're so desperate to shoehorn into episodes that it became tiresome, so if one of those things ends up killing him; better that than all the people he's endangered with his claims.

If this had long lasting effect on the character, it would be one thing. That it didn't, just leaves it as one of those episodes you have to pretend didn't happen to get around the resurrection thing.

Neelix doesn't claim knowledge he doesn't have; he claims to have encountered it in the past. It's the crew that thinks this might come in handy.

[Madner Kami]

Neelix could have pointed out to them, that he doesn't really have much experience with it and feels like it should be better handled by any of the 150 part- and full-time scientists on board. Instead the ship's cook and local junk-juggler goes along with it.

What I find funny about the scene's setup is, though, that he clearly feels uncomfortable in the situation. Chakotay at the least, should have noticed that. On the same note though, what is he actually doing? He's holding a magnetic bottle and that's all there is. It almost feels like a scheme of the crew to just give Neelix something to do, even if it's completely inconsequential.