10 MORE Character Reveals That Didn’t Have To Go THAT Hard
8. Neelix's Survivor Guilt
Star Trek has used historical parallels frequently, as was the intention of Gene Roddenberry from the beginning. Exploring real-world issues via the lens of science fiction is nothing new for the franchise, so when Voyager turned its attention to Neelix's backstory, it opted to liken his family's destruction to that experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Before Neelix encountered the USS Voyager, he was a survivor of the Talax-Haakonian Order war. Talax had surrendered unconditionally to the Order, owing in large part to the deployment of the Metreon Cascade.
Dr Ma'Bor Jetrel, Star Trek's answer to Robert Oppenheimer, developed a deadly weapon for the Order. He later attempted to play down his responsibility once he became aware of the full impact of the Cascade. Like the atomic bombs that were deployed over Japan, this Cascade had an initial explosion, followed by radiation fallout. This fallout, according to Jetrel at least, was unforeseen.
The weapon was detonated on the moon Rinax, the homeplace of Neelix and his family. While Neelix himself was offworld at the time of the attack, the rest of his family weren't so lucky. They, along with 300,000 other Talaxians, were killed.
Despite making peace with Jetrel himself, Neelix carried this trauma for years to come. His own brush with death and subsequent vision quest brought him face to face with a version of his favourite sister, Alixia - who promptly dissolved in front of him, re-scarring him for life.
Neelix may not have been everyone's favourite character, but nobody deserves that.