User Reviews

Just on a acting performance level this episode is a success for me. Ethan Phillips is clearly a talented performer and able to convey emotion despite the heavy makeup.

I did not view this episode as a commentary on religion but more of a commentary on the trauma that Neelix previously went through with the destruction of his home city and how he must have avoided dealing with that trauma by putting his hope in the belief that he will see his family in the afterlife.

The episode does a good job of hammering home the point that Neelix is actually a valued member of the crew and Naomi wildman manages to compete with Molly O'Brien for cutest child actor on star trek award.

I don't want to get all preachy ---- but life is given meaning by how your existence makes the world (and people around you) a better place. By this metric Neelix's life is a success.

Showing love for the space cheetah.

Whether or not you like this episode will probably come down to whether or not you like Neelix as he is the centre of attention. What should have been a routine mission to collect protomatter from a nebula ends badly for Neelix when he is killed. By the time his body has been returned to Voyager eighteen hours have passed; much too long for the Doctor to attempt to heal him. Seven of Nine says that she knows how to cure him using her Borg knowledge. This is successful but when Neelix returns to life he has a crisis of faith because while dead he did not experience the Talaxian afterlife and grows to believe he is not meant to be alive any more. As well as Neelix's faith we get a good insight into Seven's views on mortality and how that has changed since leaving the Borg Collective.

While this episode didn't feature much action it had a decent story and tackled a subject I wouldn't have expected. Ethan Phillips did well portraying the usually jovial Neelix as a more conflicted character than we are used to.

It was intriguing to see how a creature such as Neelix would deal with the disappointment of not seeing the afterlife he was taught existed. When 7 of 9 finds a way to revive him after he is struck by an inter-galactic lightning bolt on a shuttlecraft, he returns, confused and depressed. Of course, he would be. What a startling set of events. The Doctor and Seven, (and probably Tuvok) would be the ones on the crew that would express concerns about the body but not the soul. What happens, ultimately, is some of the same tired contrivance. Little girls and monsters, and so on. Even the first Vision Quest effort has a predictable end. It could have been dealt with in a much more sophisticated manner with some realizations that would have bolstered his existence.

Interesting that up until now the only religion that's been 'allowed' on Voyager is Chakotay's ham handed Native American medicine man depiction that would never fly in 2020. Even B'elanna has rejected her Klingon heritage for the most part.

But now we get a new religion, some bedtime story about an enchanted forest that it turns out Neelix actually believes, even though this is the first we've ever heard of it in four seasons of shows.

When Neelix dies and is brought back to life, we get the cliche'd TV "there was nothing" response to what happened when he was dead. Oblivion is Hollywood's favorite afterlife theme.

Neelix has his crisis of faith but there is never any real resolution. He's essentially told none of it is true but Chakotay throws a Hail Mary with "that can bring about an even stronger faith." Huh? Why would it do that?

I liked the effort to have Neelix deal with something heavy, but the execution could have been better.

I was ready to rate this a 9 at the beginning when it seemed Neelix had died. But moments later he was brought back from the dead, lame. We are forced to sit through a Neelix crisis of faith story. Skip this one.

In this episode Neelix recovers after being clinically dead, brought back to life with the help of Seven's Borg technology. His faith is shattered by the experience, not being reunited with his family as he expected.

We see in this story writer Bryan Fuller's interest in the afterlife which become a prominent feature of Dead Like Me, and Pushing Daisies. Here there is the feeling that Neelix is experiencing the loss of his soul - he has been brought back to life, but feels like an automaton.

As Bryan Fuller is the writer, the quality of the script is very high. Overall though, the story has a somewhat constrained use of the crew and is maybe not as good as some of the other episodes in this excellent season for that reason, but interesting nonetheless as an early piece of work by this marvellous writer.

On a mission in a runabout, Neelix is killed...but apparently not seriously. When he is brought back to Voyager and they're talking about funeral arrangements, Seven of Nine tells everyone she CAN bring him back from the dead since it's only been 18 hours since he assumed room temperature. She is successful and everyone is happy. Neelix, after a while, isn't. After all, during the time he was dead he never experienced what he thought Talaxian heaven should be. He remembers nothing...and this creates a big crisis of faith. Later, with the help of Chakotay, he goes on a 'vision quest' and learns nothing to make him feel better. For Neelix, life sucks and he feels no reason to go on- -so he begins saying his goodbyes but the crew is apparently too dim to realize that he's about to off himself. Can he be saved from himself?

The idea of a crisis of faith is excellent for the show. But why does every single problem get met with Chakotay and his pseudo- American Indian mumbo-jumbo?! The ship could really use a minister, rabbi, witch doctor, priest, guru, imam or whatever and it does seem odd that on the Trek shows there isn't someone to go to for spiritual advice other than the second in command!

So is all this any good? It all depends. I wanted Neelix to stay dead, but that's just my bias against Neelix since I find him a bit annoying. Others, however, might like this one more than I did.

Any piece of media that can cause me to weep even a bit for the characters involved is, as far as I'm concerned, a 10/10 bit of writing. The bit at the end when neelix figuratively has a gun pressed against his temple, ready to shoot, and only stops when he finally realizes how important he is to the crew of the voyager, just goddamn, like that alone makes this episode top tier.

The rest of the episode was kinda mid though, but as far as I care, its buildup to the ending, and that works lmao

To fill up the rest of the required characters, I feel like an easy way to rationalize what neelix went through could be that since his god or whatever knew he was going to come back to life, it wasn't necessary to reap his soul, like that's the first suggestion I'd come up with if I wanted to calm the poor lad down.

Mortal Coil is shallow when it comes to story. Neelix is killed and is dead for 18 hours. When he is revived everything he was taught about Heaven was something he never experienced during those 18 hours. Therefore, heaven does not exist and now Neelix must learn to cope with that.

Great. Another notch on the pole for Voyager on how to take an idea that could be interesting, and turn it into something hollow and useless. Neelix's faith is a driving force in his life. That would be all well in good, but we never really knew that until now. Take Worf. We knew Worf was a highly religious and zealot figure by season 4. An episode where Worf's faith is challenged was actually done in TNG, and we could at the very least be sympathetic to Worf's journey. Neelix's journey has no such connection. We are only told Neelix is devout in this episode.

Secondly, when Neelix's faith is challenged he seeks answers through a random spirit guide. this is where I question if the writers understanding of religion. Religion is based on faith, a faith of a belief that we were told about something you cannot prove. That faith and another belief may not be compatible. That is, my faith does not have the same basis of belief as say Islam, or Buddism, so Neelix asking Chacotay for help is like a Catholic asking a Daoist for help. You will receive the help based on the faith of the person you asked and that may not help your current situation since that person doesn't understand your faith. Neelix needed spiritual direction from a Talaxian Priest. However given none such person was around, Neelix probably went to the first person he felt might give him answers but it only made things worse. In the end, religion is painted with a broad brush, as if faith is universal, and everyone has the answers Neelix needs. That's not how faith really works.

The problem this episode has is that it never truly resolves Neelix's faith crisis. It never resolves the idea of heaven. It simply states that heaven does not exist and we all have to deal with it. That's a rather hollow lesson to be taught by Voyager, especially given that Chakotay was at least giving Neelix some insight into the spiritual. His lessons really don't fit into the overall narrative of the story since the story never cared enough about these elements to truly explore them in any depth in the episode.

In the end, what could have been an interesting look into faith in general, turns out to an atheistic diatribe that is more of what Hitchens or Bill Marr thinks of religion over what religion is really about.

Another episode that makes me judge others opinions. Neelix has a great character and show has shown a great character building over the seasons. This episode shows how one of the most appreciated person on ship feels himself worthless.

I think this episode is great learning point for everyone who sometimes struggle on seeing their worth, even people who are around people every day, making them talk, helping resolve personal issues, doing small things like creating events to celebrate with the team, and in general increasing morale of a crew in great distress with a simple commodity - home made food sometimes think that they are a burden.

When losing the last ideal of his own, that he is watched by his family who have died from afterlife, it is lost when he does not see the guiding tree.

I think premise of the show is amazing, it shows that people can get lost and can be helped by people around them and it is just a great story telling about simple character, such as Neelix. Through out seasons he has gone through many disasters, his family has died prior to Voyager, divorce of Kes, and then her leaving, and now destruction of his beliefs, those are small things that are not really spoken about in the show, just kind of in background, and seemingly such a happy persona can still decide that there is no reason to live.

I can see some dumbness in execution, some miracle cure at a lucky moment, some random necrosis, Chikotay magic device, but it is a TV show just tells a great story.

Is Nelix the first person to die since Seven joined the crew? I doubt it. Many were injured and died during the Year of Hell.

Is Seven now going to save every person that dies? I doubt it. That would ruin the fear and suspense of battle.

Will Nelix continue to struggle with his faith, to have lapses of necrosis? I doubt it.

How can there be a sudden reversion to a necrotic state? That doesn't make any sense. We can "believe" that nanoprobes can repair a cell, but once repaired, why would it "revert" to a necrotic state? It would be far more believable if, say, he has a heart attack because "too much of his heart muscle has died, there aren't enough nanoprobes to repair it fast enough." and then they add more nanoprobes. (Although even then, why are cells continuing to die if blood and oxygen have returned to normal? But better than cells "reverting to a necrotic state.")

Why is there an electronic device for a vision quest? It doesn't make sense to bring tech to this just for the sake of tech. Could be plausible to have some device that calms you or directs your thoughts but placing his hand on this device was hokey. Why is Chakotay the only one with any religious or spiritual advice?

The writers rely too much on cliché situations to create drama. How many times do they try to prevent transport of someone who has locked them out of the transporter? Need some more creativity. Maybe if he found a way to disable the nanoprobes. Could still have a stand-off, but something original.

Weak ending. Nelix resolves his crisis of faith just because Naomi needs him? That's "I'll stay alive to help her", but not a real resolution. How about a real resolution of his problem?

What if Naomi's mother, Ensign Samantha Wildman, asked Nelix to tell her more about this afterlife forest, then later felt despair in him, and then helped him find meaning again? Maybe her husband was religious but she is not, or vice versa, and explaining that difference gives Nelix insight. Or Nelix talks to several people to get different views of how they deal with losing family members and if they believe that they will see them again. Anything but leaning on the easy crutch of Chakotay.

(spoilers ahead, this episode is not recommended for those with suicidal thoughts) ... ... ... ... ... In this episode Neelix is dead for 18 hours before Seven of Nine uses Borg technology to completely revive him. But being dead for so long and seeing nothing--neither his dead family nor having his religious beliefs validated--sends Neelix into an existential crisis that Chakotay inadvertently worsens by allowing Neelix to embark on a vision quest that only solidifies his worst fears. I was worried that the writers might wrap things up neatly with a supernatural vision, but instead they force Neelix to live in the now. Maybe there truly is nothing after death, but Neelix is nonetheless forced to consider that his importance to his living Voyager family supersedes his desire to end his own life. Although I enjoyed this episode, it might put a suicidal viewer into a rough headspace.

These kind of episodes, as far as I'm concerned, have gone beyond "boring" , they've gained the status of "ridiculous".

Neelix dies and he's revived by 7of9 after 18hours. He then looses his faith because he realizes that the Talaxian afterlife is a lie. His reaction to this news is typical to any brainwashed individual: he panics, he's hysterical and loses the will to go on with his life.

Another very low charisma character that I personally dislike - Chakotay - comes with his "tools" and the spiritual rambling commences. Near the end of the episode Chakotay says to him that the absence of any kind of afterlife can lead to a stronger faith. What?! Not only it doesn't make any sense, but one would think that a 24th century Starfleet officer would slap that clown (Neelix) on the head and ask him to stop believing non-sense suited for children that can't sleep.

It's true that Star Trek is not about only science but also about human condition, ethics (not morality), adventure, etc. but it is certainly not about religion, spirituality (what is that by the way?) and superstition.

Gene must be turning in his grave...