Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Neelix
It's nice to be nice, and it's nice to be Neelix, unless whiskers make you itch.
As we all know, Neelix is a very naughty cat with an unhealthy taste for ice cream. An "unusual name" for a feline was, we assume, just a regular name for a Talaxian — Voyager's guide, cook, and kitchen sink throughout almost the entirety of its seven year journey home. Plus, as the Doctor once noted, the actual Neelix "doesn't purr".
Let's be honest: Neelix was never a fan favourite. Time hasn't tempered feelings towards him either. "[For Caretaker] I think the hardest part of the process was making anyone care about Neelix," Star Trek: Voyager executive producer Michael Piller admitted in Captains' Logs Supplemental. "We had to rely a great deal on the character of Kes to make us care about him."
Neelix was always more than that. Displaced from the Talaxian system after the devastating end to the war with the Haakonians, he was a man making do, surviving on his own wits in an unforgiving part of the galaxy. Neelix had lost his family in the cruellest fashion. In Voyager, he found an adoptive family like no other. In Ethan Phillips, he was also always finely acted. In the end, perhaps the biggest thing you didn't know about Neelix is that you like him more than you think.
10. None To Neelox
At first, there was no Neelix. For months during the initial development of Star Trek: Voyager, there was only the "Mayfly," otherwise unnamed. According to Jeri Taylor's notes from March 1993, given in Star Trek: Voyager — A Vision of the Future, the Mayfly was to be "the alien 'scout' for the ship" AND "a female (or male or androgynous) with a life span of only seven years". In other words, this was Kes, with more than a hint of her future Talaxian lover.
The 'Mayfly' combo-character persisted all the way into September 1993. Only by the end of that month did 'Neelix' begin to appear as his own separate entity in Michael Piller's complete first draft of the Voyager series bible. Or to be more precise, Neelix was "Felux," "alien—male," and "gofer/guide".
By October 1993, Piller's first story draft for Caretaker had changed Felux to "Felox". A little later, in February 1994, another version of the series bible switched Felox to Neelix. On the very same day, a further story draft for Caretaker gave Neelix as "Neelox". The day after that, he was back to being Neelix. And the name-calling didn't end there…