10 Terrible Star Trek Episodes With Awesome Endings

Yep. You read that right. Hold on to your orchids because we're going there!

Normally in good fun, Tuvix never fails to divide fans down the middle more than the man himself. What began as a transporter accident, fairly commonplace for Star Trek, turned into something dreadfully, gloriously, more. We all know what happened at the end, but what's terrible about Tuvix is that we're still picking sides.

It's not unusual to read 'Janeway murdered Tuvix,' and then to scroll down to find 'Janeway was right [to sacrifice Tuvix].' The actors have also weighed in over the years. As Kate Mulgrew herself said on Twitter back in 2020,

Willing to hear the crew's thoughts, as always. However, shouldn't Tuvok and Neelix have the biggest say… oh, wait, they couldn't! I stand by my decision to restore them to their lives.

However, the episode already sets up the duality in its final act:

Tuvix: "Captain, what you're considering is an execution…"

Janeway: "Aren't you arguing for an execution too? Of Tuvok and Neelix?"

In all of this, we've been missing the point. It's not about which side you're on, or who is right or wrong, but the luxury of the debate. That is something we, the viewer, can afford, but that Janeway, as Captain, in the end could not. "There isn't an answer. […] It was an opportunity to show [Janeway] making the really tough decisions which captains are faced with," as Tuvix scriptwriter Kenneth Biller stated in Cinefantastique, Vol. 28, No. 4-5. Either way, the final decision is hers, and, here, inaction is a choice the same as action.

It is, then, not the choice Janeway makes, but the fact that she makes one which gives the ending of Tuvix its enduring power. Or, in other words, "Holy s**t. Janeway didn't mess around." After all, it's only because she made a decision that we can argue over it all these years later.