voyager fair trade script

Fair Trade Stardate: 50437.8 Original Airdate: January 8, 1997

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Fair Trade (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable Quotes
• 4.2 Story and script
• 4.3 Deleted scene
• 4.4 Cast and characters
• 4.5 Production
• 4.6 Continuity
• 4.7 Reception
• 4.8 Apocrypha
• 4.9 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Guest Stars
• 5.4 Co-Star
• 5.5 Uncredited Co-Stars
• 5.6 Stunt doubles
• 5.7 References
• 5.8 External links

Summary [ ]

The USS Voyager near a station in the Nekrit Expanse

For some time, Neelix has been trying to expand his usefulness; he has been considering roles as an engineer , or a security officer , or some other more official job. With Janeway's assertion that the ship is full of opportunity, he goes to Lieutenants Tuvok and B'Elanna Torres directly and starts to pester them with questions, though neither has the time.

As the crew of the USS Voyager arrives at a dense, menacing cloud barrier, Captain Kathryn Janeway asks Neelix to come to the bridge . He's able to identify the looming barrier as the Nekrit Expanse .

Act One [ ]

Neelix admits not much is known about the Expanse, and advises caution. Tuvok notes it is too wide to go around. Neelix also points out there is a space station at the border, though doesn't remember the coordinates. Commander Chakotay finds it and Janeway orders a heading for it. Neelix appears to be apprehensive about it. When they get there, they meet the administer, Bahrat , who agrees to discuss their efforts to take on supplies. Interestingly, he insists on monitoring them on the station as well as any communications, and also demands 20% commission on any trades.

While Lieutenant Thomas Paris and Chakotay visit the main trading post, Janeway arrives to Bahrat's office with a list of supplies she wants. He's obviously busy, but takes a few minutes. He promises to compile a list of potential suppliers. Neelix, meanwhile, meets up with an old friend, Wixiban ("Wix"), who was in a smuggling operation with him a long time ago, which ended in a run-in with the Ubeans and landed Wix in prison . After the jovial reunion, Wix and Neelix get to talking. While Neelix impresses his old friend with the tales of Voyager , he finally admits that he thinks he may not be needed anymore. His knowledge of space goes only as far as the Nekrit Expanse and he is no longer useful as a guide. As a result, he has been trying to acquire a map of the area on this station. This piques Wix's interest.

Act Two [ ]

On board Voyager , Wix visits Neelix while Neelix was working in his kitchen. Wix was able to help Voyager to get some magnetic spindle bearings. In private, Wix tells Neelix that he knows where to get pergium (a rare commodity that Voyager needs) and a map. He also tells a different story, one of great difficulty and burdensome debts. He is unable to leave the station because his shuttle is being impounded by the station master. Playing upon Neelix's sympathies for him, he asks for a favor: he wants Neelix to get a Voyager shuttlecraft which he and Wix will use to complete a secret transaction in exchange for the pergium and the map. He explains that he is selling medical supplies to get back his shuttle and wants to do it in secret to avoid the station master's twenty percent cut of the profits. All Neelix has to do is hide this information from the crew. Neelix agrees.

They're successful in obtaining the supplies and come back to the station. Unfortunately, the true nature of the transaction gradually becomes apparent when Wix grabs a phaser and they meet the potential buyer. He is Sutok , the same man who tried to sell drugs to Chakotay and Paris when Voyager first docked with the station. From Wix's and Sutok's interaction, Neelix deduces that the medical supplies can actually be used as a narcotic, making this trip not only highly dangerous but highly illegal. Sutok attempts to get the drugs for nothing by trying to kill both Talaxians . This results in a firefight and Wix kills Sutok in self-defense. Several unseen aliens appear, an alarm sounds, and Neelix is knocked down, but the two of them beam out.

Act Three [ ]

Neelix flies the shuttle back to Voyager – leaving the dead body to be found by Bahrat's men. Neelix is furious at being betrayed but Wix soothes him with more emotional manipulation and convinces him to cover it up and not tell anyone on the ship.

Bahrat informs Janeway that a murder has occurred on the station, and a Federation phaser's energy signature was detected at the scene. Janeway briefs the senior officers with Bahrat present, promising that Voyager will give full co-operation during the investigation. Neelix, who is present at the briefing, feels uneasy as Bahrat reveals what he knows so far, which is a lot already.

As part of the investigation, Tuvok questions Neelix about Wix. He distances himself, and doesn't give a lot of information about him. Neelix accompanies Tuvok to the station to interview Wix. Wix gives a cover story of him being asleep at the time of the shootings. After Tuvok has left, Wix tells Neelix that he was acting as an agent for some Kolaati suppliers in the drug trade. The suppliers, not at all happy with the loss of their drugs, agree to let them live if Wix can get some warp plasma from Voyager . Neelix immediately says it has gone too far, but Wix appeals to his situation in nearing the end of his time on the ship. He persuades Neelix to help him once again.

Act Four [ ]

On Voyager , Neelix finds Paris in a supply room. While helping to locate a special container for him, he engages him in asking him about why he was in prison. Paris obliges and admits that what got him into trouble in the first place was that he lied after making a mistake and how if he'd told the truth in the beginning things wouldn't have been as bad as they got. The container is found and he leaves, still thinking about his task and leaving Paris a bit confused. He then goes to engineering to complete the task. Torres is not there, but Ensign Vorik is and so Neelix explains he's just poking around. Still contemplating his situation, he asks Vorik about how he feels about how things turned out on Voyager generally, and he replies he's found it a good challenge. Neelix then leaves him to get the plasma, but he can't bring himself to do it.

When Neelix and Wix meet at the station at the arranged time, Neelix tells Wix that he couldn't steal from his friends. They are interrupted by Bahrat arresting Chakotay and Paris, who are nearby, charging them with murder and dealing illegal drugs, because they were seen talking with Sutok hours before he was killed. Janeway is furious that Chakotay and Paris were arrested based on circumstantial evidence that does not prove any connection to the crime, but Bahrat is adamant that someone be punished for the crimes by fifty years of cryostatic suspension . Janeway insists Tuvok be present at the interrogation and promises Bahrat she will not let her officers pay the price for a crime they didn't commit.

However, to save Chakotay and Paris, Neelix devises a plan, which Wix reluctantly agrees to.

Act Five [ ]

He and Wix tell the truth about the incident to Bahrat, who is furious. They are then able to talk their way out of being put into cryostasis by explaining that these smugglers are defeating internal security and that they will help Bahrat and his men catch the criminals when they return for the plasma. Expecting their attempt to be futile, the station master agrees.

Neelix gets a canister from Bahrat with tainted warp plasma and deactivates the safeties. The suppliers, led by Tosin , arrive to meet with Neelix and Wix. When Tosin accepts the canister he realizes that it is worthless but Neelix quickly tells him the canister has been leaking plasma into the room and any energy discharge from his weapon will ignite the entire section. Bahrat arrives and attempts to arrest them but one of the suppliers fires anyways and the ensuing plasma fire knocks Neelix unconscious.

When he reawakens in sickbay , he is told by Tuvok that one of the criminals has been killed and the rest have been taken in to custody by Bahrat, and Wix has gotten his shuttle back and has gone on his way. Janeway arrives and after dismissing the others, demands an explanation from Neelix. Only then does Neelix come clean to the captain as to how the situation arose: he knows nothing about space from this point, so wanted a map and got caught in a cover-up. After a stern lecture from the Captain, Neelix is prepared to accept his fate, which he presumes to be compelled to leave the ship permanently. To his relief (in fact, he is barely able to contain his excitement) the captain explains to him the fact he can no longer be their guide doesn't matter; the crew is a family, and he cannot simply walk away from his responsibilities. He gladly accepts his sentence of two weeks of cleaning out the ship's exhaust manifolds.

Log entries [ ]

• " Captain's log, supplemental. I have called a meeting of the senior staff to inform them of some very disturbing news I have just received. "

Memorable Quotes [ ]

" Well, do you have anything to say for yourself? " " Only that I'm terribly sorry. " " Oh, you're sorry? Is that supposed to make everything better? I don't really care whether you're sorry or not, Neelix. At this point, it doesn't matter. I can't imagine what could have made you behave the way you did: lying to us, sneaking around behind our backs, covering up criminal activity. Did you have some misguided reason to think that this was acceptable behavior? " " No, ma'am. " " You've been one of my most trusted advisors since we began this journey. How can I ever trust you again? How can I ever listen to you without wondering whether you're telling the truth or not? " " I've never been dishonest to you before, I swear, Captain! I just took one step, a step that seemed perfectly reasonable, and that step led to another and another and then before I knew it, I was involved in something I didn't know how to handle. " " What was it? What was so important that you were willing to throw away your principles? " " I needed a map. " " A map? " " Captain, my usefulness to you was at an end. I don't know anything about space beyond this point. I couldn't let you go into the Nekrit Expanse without knowing what you faced. " " You've been on this ship for two years. I'd think by now you'd have learned that the first duty of any Starfleet officer is the truth. You violated that duty, Neelix. And there will be consequences. " " I'm prepared to leave the ship, Captain. " " Oh, no. It's not that easy. You can't just walk away from your responsibilities because you made a mistake. You're part of a family now, and you have obligations. " " But...I can't guide you. I can't advise you. I don't know what's coming. " " But that's not the point, is it? None of us knows what's coming. That's what Starfleet is all about. We are all in this together, Neelix, and we have to be able to count on each other no matter how hard it gets. Do you understand? " " Yes. Yes, I do. " " Well, that's good. Report to deuterium maintenance at oh four hundred tomorrow morning. You're going to spend the next two weeks scrubbing the exhaust manifolds. That should give you time to think about what I've said. Dismissed. "

Background information [ ]

• In the UK, this episode was advertised as the beginning of a "new series" ("series" being the British eqivalent for "season"), as the show had been off the air for several months after " Macrocosm ".

Story and script [ ]

• This episode had the working title "Old Scores". [1] (X)
• The story for this episode, conceived by freelance writing partners Ron Wilkerson and Jean Louise Matthias , began development in Star Trek: Voyager 's first season and was originally intended to be included in that season but was kept back so that the episode " Jetrel " could be produced instead. Commenting on the idea at a point prior to its development into this episode, Ron Wilkerson said, " [It] would have established Neelix as a much more substantial character. The story was essentially like Carlito's Way in the sense that this guy comes on the ship and Neelix pretends he doesn't know him, but in fact they were in jail together and he helped Neelix escape and they split up afterward, and now he's looking to get Neelix to do something for him or he'll reveal his past to everyone. " Wilkerson was particularly fond of the concept, describing it as "a nice episode" and expressing much disappointment that it had not been made. ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages ) Executive producer Jeri Taylor later said of this episode, " It's actually a story that we had lying around since the very first season. We thought that it had a kernel of something in it for Neelix, but we had never been able to develop it to our satisfaction. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7)
• The key, according to Jeri Taylor, was the concept of Neelix becoming less familiar with the space surrounding the starship Voyager . Speaking at the end of the series' third season , Taylor explained, " This last season, I started thinking that if we are going at high warp speed toward home, we would be covering a great deal of distance. That would mean that at some point we would probably run out of the space that Neelix understands. I thought, here is exactly the take for that story we've been trying to do. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7) Indeed, Jeri Taylor was highly pleased that the plot concept from the first season could be revived, as the writing staff of Star Trek: Voyager had unsuccessfully tried to come up with a workable Neelix story for the third season of the series. " We hadn't found a good story for Neelix yet this season, " Taylor said at the time, " so I was really delighted to do this one. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 24 , p. 15)
• The writer of the episode's teleplay was long-time Star Trek science consultant André Bormanis ; this installment was his first writing contribution to the series. He had previously pitched some Star Trek story ideas that had not been entirely successful. " I sold two to ST:VOY last year, and we didn't go to teleplay on either of those, " he revealed, during Voyager 's third season. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 25 , p. 39) He later noted, " I sold a couple of stories to Voyager and then had the opportunity to write a teleplay. " [2] Additionally, Bormanis recalled, " They asked me if I was interested in writing a script for season three of Voyager , and of course I said, 'Yes.' " Bormanis found that making the transition between serving as science consultant on Star Trek and contributing as a writer was "very natural", having read "every draft of every script for TNG, DS9 and Voyager " in his capacity as science consultant. [3] He also enjoyed writing and imagining ideas himself. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 25 , p. 39)
• André Bormanis introduced the Nekrit Expanse during the script-writing process. He explained, " The Nekrit Expanse is something that I came up with, for my first script for Voyager . We wanted to suggest a region of space that was rather dangerous, that was difficult to navigate. It was too big to go around, we had to figure out a way to go through it. And the Expanse itself, I kind of modeled after some of the regions that we've identified, in telescopes, in our galaxy that you probably wouldn't want to send a space probe into, at least not very far […] So that was the basic idea. You know, sort of a dark and spooky place that would be very difficult to navigate, very dangerous, and we have no idea what's on the other side because it's sufficiently opaque that our sensors can't penetrate very far into it. " ( Real Science With Andre Bormanis , VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• The episode's final script draft was submitted on 7 October 1996 . [4]
• Ultimately, the producers were extremely pleased with André Bormanis' work on this episode's script. He later recollected, " They thought I did a good job with it, and had me do a few more. " [5] In fact, this was the first of seven Star Trek: Voyager episodes that Bormanis was involved in writing. He was later granted a place on the writing staff of Star Trek: Enterprise .

Deleted scene [ ]

• Although a long-running romantic relationship between Kes and Neelix apparently ends in the earlier third season episode " Warlord ", their break-up was never shown, so a scene was written for this episode to give the relationship some closure. The character moment, set in Voyager 's science lab, was scripted as scene 48 and starts with a scene description that – referring to Kes and Neelix – includes the significant sentence, " She has no way of knowing that he believes this is the last time he will ever see her. " ( Star Trek: Voyager Companion  (p. ? )) The scene was filmed, in the set for Voyager 's science laboratory. ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 179 , p. 78) Neelix actor Ethan Phillips said of the scene, " I go into the science lab and I see Kes, and I haven't talked to Kes since 'Warlord,' which was several episodes back. And I talk to her and I say, 'You know, I know we've drifted apart, and I know that we're no longer a pair, but I want you to know that I still love you and that you'll always be my best friend.' And she receives that information, she hears it and tells me back the same thing, basically. And we have a kind of a closure, and it was a lovely little scene. " (Voyager Time Capsule: Kes , VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Phillips also thought the scene, which was approximately five minutes long, was "very beautiful." ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 179 , p. 78) He added, " It's right before I'm about to go on this trip where I might get killed, where I present the leaking warp plasma canister to the crazy alien. I wanted her to know that I relished what we had and that I still loved her as a friend. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , pp. 43-44)
• The scene was deleted from the episode due to time constraints. ( Star Trek: Voyager Companion  (p. ? ); The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , p. 44) Ethan Phillips specified that the scene's removal was "because they had to trim." (Voyager Time Capsule: Kes , VOY Season 3 DVD special features) He regretted that the scene was edited out of this installment. Shortly after completing work on the episode, the actor remarked, " It really was a key scene. I felt we needed an on-camera moment to recognize the fact that this three-year relationship had ended. We certainly didn't get to see them break up on screen in a satisfying way, and we also didn't see them at least have some sort of conversation about what occurred. As it was, there was no real resolution, and I don't think the fans like not having some sense of closure. The producers know my feelings about this and they must have their reasons for doing it the way they did. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , pp. 60 & 62) In a later interview, Phillips expressed, " I think it gave the characters – and certainly would have given the fans – a sense that, 'Well, it's over, but at least we know how it ended.' Then they never included that scene because, I guess, the writers didn't think the arc was important enough to warrant it. I always thought that was a mistake. " ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 179 , p. 78) The scripted version of the scene can be found, in its entirety, in the Star Trek: Voyager Companion  (p. ? ).

Cast and characters [ ]

• Jeri Taylor was very pleased with Ethan Phillips' performance as Neelix in this episode. " Ethan Phillips was wonderful, " she enthused. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7)
• Ethan Phillips himself thoroughly enjoyed this episode, aside from his disappointment at the scene deletion. He remarked, " Overall, I thought it was a very good show for me. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , pp. 60 & 62) In fact, Phillips cited this episode (in common with " Rise ") as a Neelix-related highlight of the third season, remembering, " I was very happy with 'Fair Trade'. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 33 , p. 38) He also noted, " I liked 'Fair Trade' a lot. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7)
• In particular, Ethan Phillips liked how this episode portrays his character of Neelix; the actor cited the installment, for example, as one of several episodes whose scripts excited him, upon first reading them and discovering that they revealed facets of his character that he hadn't known about before. Phillips explained, " There was an awful lot we learned about Neelix. I learned that he did have a shady past; that he was willing to sacrifice his life for the USS Voyager crew; and, in the middle of the show, we also saw that he was willing to jeopardize his position on the ship for the sake of what he felt he owed his friend. We saw that Neelix could be loyal and brave and have a lot of integrity, which are all very important qualities […] I also thought they set the stage for some interesting stuff with Neelix – the ship is now out of his range of knowledge of space, he's as lost as everybody else and he can't serve Janeway as guide any more. At the end of the episode, Captain Janeway tells Neelix that he is a vital member of the crew. I think he needed to hear that, because he needs to feel wanted. That's a big part of who he is. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , pp. 60 & 62) Further considering the episode's conclusion, Phillips elaborated, " When the captain said, 'You're a member of the crew and you're not leaving,' it was a really good thing for him to hear. He needed to hear it. He really had nowhere to go but back to his old life. For him to have his value to the ship and to Janeway reiterated to him was wonderful. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 14 , p. 43)
• Ethan Phillips was proud of his own acting herein. " I'm my own hardest critic, " he declared, " and I'm pleased with my performance. I liked about 50 percent of it. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 62)
• Ethan Phillips was also thrilled by the performance that Wixiban actor James Nardini delivered for this installment. Phillips noted, " I thought James gave a very good performance as Wixiban. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 62)
• Director Jesús Salvador Treviño enjoyed working with both Ethan Phillips and James Nardini, despite the experience being somewhat surreal for Treviño. The director enthused, " Ethan Phillips was great to work with. We were fortunate because he and James Nardini had a great chemistry. It was quite exciting to see them work together because James immediately understood the whole Talaxian thing. I actually forgot I was dealing with actors, because I met James only at the audition before he came onto the set in makeup. I had only met Ethan once as well and then he was on the set as Mr. Talaxian. I was giving direction to two Talaxians. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Garrett Wang ( Harry Kim ) does not appear in this episode, being one of only two occasions when Wang does not appear, the other being the later third season episode " Blood Fever ". In his podcast with Robert Duncan McNeill , Wang revealed that his absence was due to depression, which was making him late for work. Wang said that the producers, including Rick Berman , mistakenly believed he was "partying too hard" and gave him two episodes leave to see a counsellor. (The Delta Flyers podcast, episode 313, 17 May 2021)
• Prior to portraying Tosin in this installment, actor James Horan appeared as Jo'Bril and Lieutenant Barnaby in TNG : " Suspicions " and " Descent, Part II " respectively. He would go on to play First Ikat'ika in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes " In Purgatory's Shadow " and " By Inferno's Light ", as well as the recurring character of the Humanoid Figure during the first two seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise . This is his only appearance in Star Trek: Voyager .

Actor Carlos Carrasco and director Jesús Salvador Treviño, during production of this episode

• This is the only appearance of Carlos Carrasco ( Bahrat ) in Star Trek: Voyager . He previously played D'Ghor in DS9 : " The House of Quark " and a mirror universe Klingon in DS9 : " Shattered Mirror ". His next and last Star Trek role was as Krole in DS9 : " Honor Among Thieves ".
• Ultimately, Jesús Treviño was generally pleased with all the acting in this episode. He noted, " The performances came out so nicely. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )

Production [ ]

• This was the first Star Trek episode ever directed by Jesús Treviño. Having previously directed episodes of other television series, a meeting with Jeri Taylor had subsequently led Treviño to helm this episode, prior to being invited to direct both other episodes of Voyager as well as episodes of DS9. One preparation method that Treviño utilized was watching many previous Voyager episodes. He recalled, " Before I did my first episode of Voyager , I had spent several weeks viewing almost every episode that they had done. So when I did 'Fair Trade,' I was pretty clear on the back stories of a lot of the people. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 119 , pp. 65 & 69)
• James Horan was unprepared for the experience of wearing the makeup created for Tosin. " The Kolaati was interesting, " Horan recalled, " because, as they're putting it on me, they go, 'You don't have a problem not breathing through your nose, do you?' " After laughing, Horan continued by recounting, " 'No, I guess not.' But fourteen hours later, of course, I'm going [ in an extremely nasally voice ], 'I've a problem in this.' " [6] Horan also cited his role in this episode as the worst make-up he ever had to wear for Star Trek , commenting, " In an almost all of them I've had a nosehole, but in this one, because of the way the nose was shaped, as they're putting it on they're saying, 'You don't have a problem not breathing through your nose, do you?' And I'm saying, 'Errr… well, I guess not!' And then 14 hours later I'm gasping. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 10 , p. 45)
• According to James Horan, the scenes of this installment that involve his character of Tosin constituted "a couple of days' work." ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 10 , p. 45)
• The weapon that Tosin levels at Neelix during the warp plasma undercover bust resembles the Varon-T disruptor prop from TNG : " The Most Toys ". According to the unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 160), all of the Kolaati weapons were stock weapon props from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .
• Also according to the book Delta Quadrant (p. 160), the space station set in this episode was a redress of the Akritirian maximum security detention facility from the earlier third season installment " The Chute ".
• The station set was artificially extended via blue screen. Jesús Treviño remembered, "Voyager was to visit a space station out in a different sector of space, and we wanted it to look like a place that would house a lot of different aliens. Of course, we had a limited set. Richard James , the production designer, had built this set and working with him we devised a way in which I could shoot the same set using blue screen… giving our story a much grander looking production scale. What I wound up doing was I shot a plate looking back in the other direction, and then I put that plate of the same environment with different people and I popped it into the blue screen, so in effect it doubled the distance of the set. And I did that three times. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 119 , p. 66) Treviño also noted, at one point, that this episode included a good example of him working "with the art director to make it seem as if a set is far larger than it is." ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• Ethan Phillips liked working with Jesús Treviño on this installment. Phillips recalled, " I was especially fond of the director, Jesús Treviño. It was the first time we'd worked with him, and he was very inventive and very easy and fun to work with. I think he did a terrific job. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7) Phillips also commented, " Jesus Trevino did a nice job of directing the show – I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of him. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 62)
• In summation of this episode, Jesús Treviño remarked, " I had a great deal of fun doing it. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 119 , p. 65)

Continuity [ ]

• In airing order, this episode marks the debut of the recurring character of Ensign Vorik (although he also appears in " Alter Ego ", which was produced first). This male Vulcan character was introduced prior to his central role in " Blood Fever " so that audiences would be familiar with him by then. Vorik subsequently reappears at least once a season, right up until the end of the series run. The character was played by Alexander Enberg , the son of Jeri Taylor. On Star Trek: The Next Generation , Enberg once played a character similar to Vorik, appearing as a Vulcan engineer named Taurik in the episode " Lower Decks ". Jeri Taylor once suggested that Taurik and Vorik were twin brothers.
• This is the first episode in which a Vulcan crew member other than Tuvok appears. Tuvok had previously implied that there were other Vulcans serving on board in " Flashback ".
• Paris ' arrest in this episode, on suspicion of murder and illegal drug dealing, represents the third time he has found himself on the wrong side of local laws since arriving in the Delta Quadrant, after being wrongly found guilty of murder in " Ex Post Facto " and being wrongly imprisoned for a terrorist bombing in " The Chute ".
• In the later third season episode " Distant Origin ", a group of Voth scientists visit the Nekrit Expanse station while tracking down Voyager . A canister of warp plasma they acquire at the space station is an acknowledgment of the events of this episode, providing good continuity links between the episodes. However, the writers apparently forgot that the warp plasma was not from Voyager , but a "lower grade substitute" provided by Bahrat.
• At the end of this episode, Janeway tells Neelix, "The first duty of every Starfleet officer is the truth." This is what Captain Picard tells Wesley Crusher in TNG : " The First Duty ".
• This was the first Star Trek: Voyager episode whose original airing followed the first broadcast of DS9 : " Rapture ", in which the DS9 crew switched to a new uniform style that audiences had already seen in Star Trek: First Contact . Thus, this episode is at the point in Star Trek: Voyager 's run when the old Starfleet uniforms worn by the Voyager crew became outdated, due to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant .

Reception [ ]

• Both Jeri Taylor and Jesús Salvador Treviño found this episode to be intriguing. " The story was pretty interesting, " Treviño noted. ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 ) Jeri Taylor remarked, " This was a very questionable show. " ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7)
• Both Jesús Treviño and Jeri Taylor were also highly satisfied with this episode in general. Taylor once described this installment as "a very strong Neelix story." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 24 , p. 15) Similarly, Treviño referred to the installment as "an excellent show." ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 119 , p. 65) He also noted, " I was very pleased with the episode […] and we were able to attain [a] sense of wonder. " ( The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine  issue 15 )
• This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 4.2 million homes, and a 7% share. [7] (X)
• Ethan Phillips believed that this episode's revelations about Neelix were not only news to him but also, possibly, to Star Trek fandom . Regarding the qualities that this episode shows Neelix to have – including loyalty and bravery – Phillips stated, " I don't know that the fans had seen much of those things in him before or perceived him that way until they got to see 'Fair Trade'. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 60) The actor also said that the episode "allowed Neelix to share some of his past with his audience". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 33 , p. 38)
• Cinefantastique rated this episode 3 out of 4 stars. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 100)
• Star Trek Magazine scored this episode 3 out of 5 stars, defined as "Warp Speed". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 57)
• The unauthorized reference book Delta Quadrant (p. 161) gives this installment a rating of 2 out of 10.
• This episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series. It beat out DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations ", which was nominated in the same category.
• This episode was also nominated by the Art Designer's Society as one of their five finalists in the category of television.
• Following his work on this episode, Ethan Phillips held onto hope that the dissolution of Neelix's relationship with Kes would be addressed elsewhere in the future, in lieu of this episode's scene deletion. Phillips noted, " I'm still hopeful that we'll address it somehow in a future episode. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 28 , p. 62) He would later express satisfaction with Kes and Neelix's final scene together, in " The Gift ". ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 33 , p. 39)
• At the start of Star Trek: Voyager 's fourth season, Ethan Phillips related that the suggestions, in this episode, of Neelix acting as Ambassador for the starship Voyager "I believe is something they're going to explore in this season." ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 33 , p. 38)
• When Ethan Phillips watched this episode years after its production, he found that he was very proud of the episode. On 25 November, 2003 , Phillips remarked, " About six months ago, this guy asked me to speak at a college about the business of acting. They showed a bunch of stuff I had done. One thing they showed was an episode of Star Trek – 'Fair Trade,' where Neelix deals with these intergalactic drug dealers. I hadn't seen the show. I don't think I ever saw it. And we all sat down and watched it, and I was just blown away. It was such a good show. The acting, the lighting, the music; the whole production. It was great television, and I was really proud of it. " (Voyager Time Capsule: Neelix , VOY Season 3 DVD special features)

Apocrypha [ ]

• This episode influenced Jeri Taylor to include the character of Wixiban into her novel Pathways , as part of Neelix's backstory. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 6 , p. 92)

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 3.7, 2 June 1997
• As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

Also starring [ ]

• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

Guest Stars [ ]

• James Nardini as Wixiban
• Carlos Carrasco as Bahrat
• Alexander Enberg as Vorik
• Steve Kehela as Sutok
• James Horan as Tosin

Co-Star [ ]

• Eric Sharp as Map Vendor

Uncredited Co-Stars [ ]

• R. Armstead as alien customer
• John Austin as alien customer
• N. Berman as alien vendor
• T. Brace as Garan vendor
• Michael Braveheart as alien customer
• Tracee Lee Cocco as Tak Tak customer
• A. Craig as alien vendor
• C. Engh as alien vendor
• Heather Ferguson as alien customer
• Kevin Grover as alien customer
• Ken Gruz as Tak Tak customer
• Grace Harrell as alien customer
• S. Hawkins as alien vendor
• Sue Henley as Brooks
• Peter Horak as Sutok's henchman
• Steve Hudis as Tosin's henchman
• Donald R. Jankiewicz as Bahrat's guard
• Patrick Jankiewicz as Bahrat's guard
• Irving Lewis as Sutok's henchman
• Mark Major as Tak Tak customer
• Julie Plum as alien customer
• Irving Ross as Garan vendor
• Shepard Ross as alien customer
• E. Shin as alien customer
• Pablo Soriano as alien vendor
• Scott Strozier as Tosin's henchman
• Adrian Tafoya as alien vendor

Stunt doubles [ ]

• George Colucci as stunt double for Ethan Phillips
• Dennis Madalone as stunt double for Steve Kehela

References [ ]

47 ; 2370 ; 2371 ; advisor ; ambassador ; anarchy ; associate ; astrometric chart ; bartering ; bio-mimetic gel ; commission ; concussion ; conspiracy ; contraband ; control interface ; cook ; coordinate chart ; cryostatic suspension ; cryostatic prison ( cryostatic imprisonment ); database ; death sentence ; decade ; Delta Quadrant ; deterrent ; deuterium maintenance ; dilithium matrix ; docking port ; duotronic probe ; duty shift ; engineering protocols ; engineering systems ; environmental control ; exhaust manifold ; family ; Federation ; fire snake ; food replicator ; freighter ; gagh ; gram ; gravitic caliper ; guide ; henchman ; impounded ; impulse response filters ; interrogation ; interstellar dust cloud ; isonucleic residue ; Jefferies tube ; junior grade ; Kes ; kilogram ; Klingon ; Klingon Breakfast Buffet ; Kolaati ; L647X7 ; L647Y6 ; learn the ropes ; lie ; lung disease ; M34 ; magnetic spindle bearing ; manifold ; map dealer ; mess room ; mining ship ; murder ; narcotic ; narcotics dealer (aka drug trafficker ); Nekrit Expanse ; Orillian lung maggot ; parts per million ; Paxau Resort ; percentage ; pergium ; phase lock ; phaser signature ; physician ; plasma burn ; plasma canister ; plasma flow ; plasma injectors ; plasma storm ; prime suspect ; prison ; promotion ; reaction control assembly ; rhuludian crystal ; safety nodes ; security officer ; security protocol ; security rounds ; security scanner ; self defense ; senior staff ; smuggler ; spectral analysis ; standard issue ; Starfleet ; Station Code 4279, Subsection Beta 325 ; station manager ; supply depot ; surveillance records ; suspect ; Talaxian ; Talaxian colony ; tavern ; toffa ale ; trader ; trading ship ; trafficking ; transporter beam ; transporter buffer ; transport device ( container ); transporter range ; Transporter Room 2 ; transporter system ; transporter technology ; tube ; type 2 phaser ; Type 6 shuttlecraft ( unnamed ); Ubean ; vermin ; visual signal ; volunteer ; Vulcans ; warp plasma ; warp plasma canister ; warp plasma particle ; warp propulsion ; " Wix "; Wixiban's ship / Wixiban's shuttle ; work detail ; worm

External links [ ]

• "Fair Trade" at StarTrek.com
• " Fair Trade " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Fair Trade " at Wikipedia
• " "Fair Trade" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 Ancient humanoid

Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001): Season 3, Episode 13 - Fair Trade - full transcript

Voyager heads into a section of space that Neelix has no knowledge of, so he tries to obtain a map of it from a less-than-reputable friend.

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Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 3 E 12 "Fair Trade"

Edit locked, contains examples of:.

• Action Survivor : Neelix is burned badly by the plasma explosion, but thanks to The Doctor he survives.
• Bait-and-Switch : When Neelix is meeting with Wix, Bahrat turns up with a squad off guards to arrest...Chakotay and Tom.
• Camera Spoofing : The Kolaati are shown to be doing this when Bahrat's view of Neelix and Wix suddenly changes to an empty corridor.
• Character Development : This episode establishes that Neelix will transition out of his role from being the ship's local guide. He's now a part of the crew no matter what unique skill he can provide.
• Chekhov's Gunman : Vorik (not mentioned since the pilot episode) is reintroduced here, due to his role in the upcoming "Blood Fever".
• Clear Their Name : Neelix attempts to do this for Chakotay and Paris after they're accused of murdering the drug dealer by snaring a group of Kolaati smugglers. Unfortunately for the head Kolaati, one of his mooks gets a little trigger-happy; BOOM! Fortunately, Neelix survives and Chakotay and Paris are released.
• One of the items that Voyager needs is pergium, the substance that was being mined on Janus VI .
• After Neelix's misadventure lands him in Sickbay, Janeway angrily reminds him that " the first duty of any Starfleet officer is the truth ".
• Cryo-Prison : Bahrat is determined to throw the murderer in one for fifty years. Fortunately Neelix and Wix are able to offer him a bigger fish.
• Neelix's as a contraband smuggler comes back to haunt him, as does his old 'friend' Wix.
• Tom shares a bit about his own with Neelix, about not telling the truth almost ruining his life .
• Despair Event Horizon : During the climax, Neelix openly remarks, "Go ahead and shoot. I have nothing to lose!" It might sound like a bluff, but by this point, things have really gone south for him, and he's prepared to suffer the absolute worst outcome.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life : The episode opens with Neelix badgering Tuvok, then B'Elanna, about taking on a role in their departments. Their attitude is basically Not Now, Kiddo , which doesn't improve his confidence.
• Drugs Are Bad : Turns out Wix is selling science fiction crystal meth, which really gets them into trouble.
• When Janeway asks for details on the trading station, Neelix waffles vaguely, foreshadowing The Reveal that he's passed out of the area he knows.
• The Nekrit Expanse looks rather ominous to Janeway. And so it should, as it marks the boundaries of Borg space.
• From Bad to Worse : Wix is forced to kill his buyer, and Outpost Master Bahrat's eagle eye misses nothing, but that doesn't mean it's infallible...
• Here Be Dragons : Neelix approaches a map dealer who informs him that the Expanse is too unstable to chart, hence there are no maps.
• Innocuously Important Episode : For the most part, this story is essentially a minor crime caper that provides Neelix with some Character Development , but the entry into the Nekrit Expanse proves to represent a very significant watershed for the series as a whole. Hitherto, Voyager 's enemies have either been technologically inferior to them or crippled by some other disadvantage such as the Vidiian Phage; they've only been threats at all due to strength of numbers. From here on, they'll be up against far more dangerous opponents, such as the Malon, the Hirogen, the Krenim and, of course, the Borg.
• It's a Long Story : And fortunately Wix is entirely willing to hear how Neelix joined the crew of a highly advanced starship over a glass of ale.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope : This episode is all about showing the dangers of doing this, leading to a Broken Pedestal reaction from Janeway.
• The Load : Neelix admits Voyager doesn't really need a cook, and Captain Janeway is a better ambassador than him. Now he's becoming obsolete as a guide as well.
• Lovable Rogue : Neelix's friend Wix seems to be this, right down to the 'good at getting into trouble' part. At least he gets his shuttle back and can go on his way at the end, though his friendship with Neelix is at an end too.
• Meaningful Echo : Janeway says the very same thing to Neelix that Picard said to Wesley about the truth...
• Mexican Standoff : Between Neelix and Tosin, who's holding a leaking cannister of warp plasma that will blow them all up if he fires.
• Noodle Incident : Wix helped Neelix out of a very tough spot involving the Ubeans, a race we don't see.
• Not Afraid to Die : Neelix challenges Tosin to fire and blow them all up, as he has nothing left to live for. Wix isn't happy, as he's standing right next to him.
• A jealous Wix really lets Neelix know what a sweet gig he's got, oblivious to Neelix's feeling that his position is at risk.
• Captain Janeway tells Neelix that they'll be relying on his knowledge of the Delta Quadrant more than usual.
• When Voyager first approaches the Nekrit Expanse.
• When he realizes that Wix dragged him into a drug deal.
• When Bahrat and Janeway reveal that a Starfleet phaser was used for murder on the station — the one that Neelix saw Wix commit.
• Pet the Dog : When Neelix finally decides to come clean, and offers a reckless plan to avert prison that will likely get them both killed, Wix agrees to face his fate alongside his old friend.
• Poor Communication Kills : If Neelix had gone to Janeway right away, she would have given him the "We're family now" speech and he wouldn't have been so hellbent on finding a map.
• Punishment Detail : Scrubbing the exhaust manifolds! Neelix is so excited not to be put off the ship that he doesn't feel bad about such a mundane job.
• Rest-and-Resupply Stop : The 'supplies' and 'directions' version.
• Serious Business : Neelix becomes fixated on getting a map of the Expanse, because he believes he's outlived his usefulness, as Voyager is moving out of the region he knows.
• Shadow Archetype : Wix is essentially what Neelix would be without Voyager (and very likely was before the start of the series): a guy who lives from one sordid deal to the next and who is constantly struggling to avoid suffering for any misdeeds. After his time on Voyager , Neelix can barely handle doing even a fraction of what's required in their adventure, but Wix presses on and ignores pesky morality issues.
• A Shared Suffering : When Neelix comes clean about his inability to guide Voyager further, Janeway points out they're all lost in the Delta Quadrant with no idea of what's ahead.
• Space Clouds : It even has Dramatic Thunder !
• Space Station : Essentially a pit stop for travelers through the Nekrit Expanse.
• Stuff Blowing Up : Neelix wasn't kidding about how explosive warp plasma is.
• Title Drop Wix: Do you begrudge me the opportunity to make a fair trade?
• True Companions : Janeway reminds Neelix that he's part of a family now, which means he doesn't get to just walk away like nothing happened and skate from punishment for his actions.
• Understatement : When the drug dealer asks if they've got a long voyage ahead of them, Tom and Chakotay find it Actually Pretty Funny .
• What the Hell, Hero? : Janeway gives one to Neelix at the end, including the Meaningful Echo above.
• With Friends Like These... : Neelix needs the map from Wix and feels somewhat indebted to him, due to their history together. As such, he gets roped into assorted actions that ultimately turn his stomach. Though Neelix manages to convince him to confess, Wix ultimately leaves the station without finding out if his old friend will be okay.
• With or Without You : Neelix tells Wix that he'll go to Bahrat with his plan, whether or not Wix agrees.
• Wretched Hive : The outpost looks like this. It's a shady place with an active Black Market , and the station master Bahrat rules with an iron fist, taking a 20% cut from every transaction. Bahrat does enforce laws, but he's oblivious to crimes happening right under his nose, and his judgment runs pretty close to a Kangaroo Court .
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness : With Voyager about to enter space that Neelix knows nothing about, he fears that his usefulness to his friends is coming to an end and he'll be cut loose.
• You Owe Me : Wix plays on this when Neelix talks of confessing everything.
• Star Trek Voyager S 3 E 11 "Macrocosm"
• Recap/Star Trek: Voyager
• Star Trek Voyager S 3 E 13 "Alter Ego"

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Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2

People of earth.

The crew of the U.S.S. Voyager come across a small ship on the outer edges of the Delta Quadrant. Upon identifying the ship, the crew realize it is captained by Neelix’s old friend Wixiban, a Trabe. Neelix has not seen his old friend since the Trabe and Kazon conflict, and Wixiban’s presence raises suspicions amongst the crew of the Voyager.

The crew invite Wixiban aboard the Voyager and allow him to stay as Neelix’s guest. During their time together, Wixiban and Neelix remind each other of their old adventures, and Wixiban shares with the Voyager crew some of the technologies used by the Trabe. The Trabe technology, while old, is still valuable, and the crew debate whether or not they should accept it as a trade.

When Voyager’s security chief, Tuvok, learns of Wixiban’s intentions, he is wary of the Trabe’s true motives and investigates further. He discovers that the Trabe technology is being used to power a cloaked Kazon vessel, making it invisible to long-range scans. Suspicious of the Kazon’s presence in the Delta Quadrant, Tuvok confronts Wixiban, only to discover that the Trabe is only trying to broker a deal between two warring factions – the Trabe and the Kazon.

Wixiban explains that the Trabe are in desperate need of supplies and technology, and they have struck a deal with the Kazon in exchange for the Trabe technology. As the Kazon have been attacking innocent ships, Wixiban has taken the initiative to broker a deal so that the Trabe can acquire weapons and supplies from the Kazon without violence.

Wanting nothing to do with war, the Voyager crew agree to help broker the deal, as long as the Kazon are willing to provide supplies without any violence. They arrange for a trade exchange at a Kazon outpost, with the Voyager providing security for the trade. Though the exchange is successful, tensions run high as the Kazon attempt to sabotage the exchange and steal the Trabe technology.

In the end, the crew of the Voyager and Wixiban manage to broker a successful trade between the Trabe and the Kazon, thus ending the potential conflict between the two races. As a token of appreciation for their help, Wixiban provides the Voyager crew with some of the Trabe technology. With the Trabe and the Kazon pacified, the Voyager crew head off on their journey in search of the Alpha Quadrant.

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Voyager rewatch 3.13 – “Fair Trade”

Neelix learns an ~important lesson about ~honesty. I run out of sarcastic tildes.

This is an episode about how Neelix feels unable to confide in people or ask for help. So it’s churlish to complain that he never confides in anyone or asks for help as events spiral out of control.

Here’s the problem: Neelix fears that, if Janeway learns they are reaching the limits of his knowledge of the delta quadrant, he’ll be put off the ship.

You know. Kathryn Janeway, the woman who has so far wielded a phaser rifle three times this season to rescue crewmembers from danger. Kathryn “no one gets left behind” Janeway.

Anxiety isn’t logical — sorry, Tuvok — but this nevertheless makes no sense whatsoever.

And that’s strange! Because we know that Neelix can be paranoid and insecure, and that he desperately needs to feel valued. But the Neelix-is-jealous subplot was left behind in early season 2 — and hey, he’s not even dating Kes anymore! So the return of those traits, with no effort made to tie Neelix’s behaviour now into his earlier fears about losing Kes, feels like it comes almost out of nowhere.

I’m not sure this episode can be saved

I can certainly see places where the script can be improved — a scene between Neelix and Kes, for example, establishing the new post break-up status quo, and maybe highlighting that, without that relationship, Neelix feels less secure in his place on Voyager.

And, if I could go back in time with a red pen, I would completely rewrite the scene between Neelix and Tom, which is less about letting the characters interact than Imparting A Lesson To Neelix.

But truthfully, I think this is a weak concept, poorly executed. The script tries to get into the gritty side of delta quadrant life — corrupt station managers, drugs, theft, murder — but also wants to impart an important lesson about honesty. It’s like trying to add a PSA to every episode of The Wire — it undermines the story AND insults the audience.

Now, I’m biased — I do not like didactic fiction. One of the challenges of writing for young readers is finding a balance between modelling good behaviour versus imparting a moral lesson. Voyager is aimed at a primarily adult audience, and this half-assed moralising is just insulting.

The good news is that this is the low point of the season.

Probably. I just looked over an episode list, and there are a couple of episodes I recall being less-than-stellar, but nothing quite this dreary. Certainly I don’t expect to find myself with nothing to say about some of the upcoming episodes, regardless of whether or not they’re actually good!

Is it a Neelix problem?

I like Neelix more than most fans, but I really do think that he should have been demoted to a recurring role by now. Which is no reflection on Ethan Philips, who seems great, or on his performance, but as usual, I’m looking at this enormous regular cast and asking, what purpose do these characters serve?

(Given time travel and complete control over the Voyager side of the franchise, I’d have moved Neelix to recurring status in season 3, likewise demoted Kes in season 4 — but kept her around — and I’d have ended season 5 by killing Chakotay, whose narrative purpose by that point was limited. Season 6 would see Tuvok moving into the first officer role, Harry — promoted to lieutenant — shifting over to tactical, with various subplots about Tuvok and Harry adjusting to their new positions, and Seven goes to ops so she’s nice and central on the bridge. There, the regular cast goes from nine people to a more manageable six, and the recurring cast is deepened.)

Speaking of recurring characters: Ugh, Vorik

Sometimes, a showrunner casts their kid as a weird creep and you get a great character like Glen from Mad Men .

Other times, you get … Vorik. Who is merely odious and a bit mansplainy here, but he’s a couple of episodes away from assaulting B’Elanna. You know I love Vulcans, even the terrible ones, but I have to draw the line at Vorik.

Other observations

• There were, like, no women on this space station full of criminals. Certainly none with speaking roles, and I didn’t seen any female extras.
• Have you ever noticed how merchants in Trek always speak with a particular oily cadence? It jumped out at me because I also watched an episode of ENT over the weekend. Merchants are always sleazy and a bit desperate; no one is ever just working a shitty retail job to get by.

In conclusion

Look. You already know that lies, theft, murder and drug trafficking are bad. One space narcotic out of five.

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A meeting with an old friend lands Neelix in an ever-deepening hole of trouble.

In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay discuss “Fair Trade” and the value-add of keeping Neelix on the ship. Plus! The guys chat about yet another Expanse, learning a lesson very quickly, and forgotten break-ups.

• Post author By Wes
• Post date 06/27/2023

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Welcome to “The Pensky Podcast,” where I, Wes, and my co-host Clay, explore the vast Star Trek universe. In each episode, we dissect various elements from the Star Trek series, ranging from character arcs to underlying themes. This time, we get to the episode called, “Fair Trade”.

Our podcast aims to strike a balance, offering insightful commentary while encouraging listeners to delve into the material. Whether you’re a seasoned Trekkie or new to Star Trek, we cater to all levels of fandom.

In our latest installment, Clay and I discuss the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Fair Trade.” This episode originally aired on January 8, 1997, and is set at the stardate 50537.2. “Fair Trade” is the 13th episode of the third season , and it follows Neelix, who faces a moral quandary as he questions his value to the crew when the Voyager reaches a region of space he’s unfamiliar with. We discuss Neelix’s character development in this episode and how it ties into the larger Voyager narrative.

While we touch on several aspects of the episode, we keep the conversation open-ended and welcome interpretations and thoughts (hello, patrons). We also discuss certain production aspects and how “Fair Trade” meshes with Voyager’s broader themes and its continuing evolution as a television show.

By subscribing to “ The Pensky Podcast ” on Patreon, you’ll gain access to our extra content! We revisit old episodes and discuss a variety of sci-fi films. If you want to support the podcast, please check out our Patreon site.

Thanks for joining Clay and me as we journey through the Star Trek universe, sharing engaging and thought-provoking insights for all fans. This podcast has been quite a journey!

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Star Trek: Voyager – Alter Ego (Review)

Following on from the aborted promise of a new beginning in Fair Trade , things get back to normal.

Alter Ego is another episode of Star Trek: Voyager that feels like it might have been wholly repurposed from an earlier Star Trek show. On the surface, it is a fairly standard “holodeck run amok” story in the style of earlier episodes like Heroes and Demons or Projections . However the contours of the plot recall a very specific (and very good) episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation . As Alter Ego seems to suggest that a holographic character has achieved sentience and threatens to destroy the ship, it recalls the far superior Ship in a Bottle .

Forced attraction.

There are differences, of course. Ship in a Bottle is a far stronger episode, one of the best holodeck stories ever produced. More than that, the climax of Alter Ego reveals that the holodeck programme has not become sentient but is instead being used as the avatar of an outside force. Still, this twist is confined to the last act of the episode, and so it feels more like an embellishment than a revision. For the bulk of its runtime, Alter Ego plays as a pale imitation of a much stronger piece of television.

It does not help matter that Alter Ego ‘s novel twist on that central premise is to paint its central guest star as a psychotic stalker with a crush.

A whole ball of crazy.

Fair Trade teased viewers with the promise of something new and exciting. As Voyager ventured into the Nekrit Expanse, audiences were primed to expect something new and unusual. If Fair Trade were to be believed, the past two-and-a-half seasons were ultimately little more than an extended prologue for what was to come. Neelix no longer knew what was coming. Voyager was finally ready to put the Kazon and the Vidiians and the Ocampans and the Talaxians behind it, to move into uncharted territory as part of a new chapter of its journey.

So there is something jarring about Alter Ego . Even in basic production terms, the episode features Voyager flying through an inversion nebula that it encounters in deep space. It is a very strange visual, given that the closing shot of Fair Trade found the ship flying into the wild purple yonder. Has Voyager already finished its trip through the Nekrit Expanse? Was the journey so uneventful that it came out the other side without anybody passing comment? Given all the fuss about the Nekrit Expanse in Fair Trade , this seems rather jarring.

Not a cloud of solar dust in the sky.

Of course, there are practical reasons for this. Alter Ego went into production before Fair Trade . Although there is no stardate given for the events of Fair Trade , the opening log Alter Ego has a stardate that places it considerably before the events of Blood Fever . It seems fair to suggest that the events of Alter Ego take place before the events of Fair Trade . The two episodes were simply swapped around in broadcast order, and the production team made no effort to ensure a sense of coherence upon broadcast.

It is worth comparing this to the way that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine approaches such challenges. When the episode Through the Looking Glass was slotted between Improbable Cause and The Die is Cast , the production team made sure it made sense when broadcast after the two-parter. Odo ends Improbable Cause in the custody of the Romulan-Cardassian alliance, and that is where The Die is Cast finds him. However, Through the Looking Glass features an opening scene with Odo on the station, which makes no sense if watched in production order.

Clear skies ahead.

There is a sloppiness to this scheduling that betrays some of the core issues with storytelling on Voyager . The entire point of Fair Trade was that Voyager was crossing a threshold and leaving the past behind it. Following that with the broadcast of an episode from earlier in the production cycle, with no effort to update or revise it to acknowledge that transition, completely undercuts the central premise of Fair Trade . After all, Fair Trade had promised that things would never be the same again and then offered an episode that clearly belongs to that earlier block.

Even in terms of plotting and construction, Alter Ego feels uncomfortably backwards. This is the story about a holodeck programme that runs amok, which is one of the most basic Star Trek storytelling templates along with “transporter accident” and “anomaly of the week.” In fact, there are even shades of the latter in the crew’s fascination with the “inversion nebula” that defies their understanding of the logical universe. The crazy holodeck story dates back to The Big Goodbye in the first season of The Next Generation . It is a Star Trek standard.

Masking his concern.

This is the point at which Voyager should be pushing itself. However, it refuses to do so. It settles into a pattern of comfort and ease, following the path of least resistance. It becomes something akin to a Star Trek tribute or cover band, less interested in honing its own sound than it is in approximating familiar hits.  Warlord is just The Assignment . The Q and the Grey is just Q Pid . Macrocosm is just Genesis . Alter Ego is just Ship in a Bottle . Rise is just The Ascent . This is to say nothing of the familiar comforts lurking just inside the Nekrit Expanse.

To be fair, some of these cover versions work quite well.  Voyager offers up its fair share of enjoyable  “holodeck malfunction” episodes. Projections was a first or second season highlight, depending on whether one is breaking the seasons down by broadcast or production order. Even later in the season, Worst Case Scenario takes a similar idea and has fun with it. Later in the run,  The Killing Game, Part I ,  The Killing Game, Part II and Bride of Chaotica! all find entertaining ways to play with the franchise’s second most error-prone technology.

Off the grid.

However, the problem is that many of these cover versions feel lifeless and unsatisfying. Alter Ego is one such example, a trainwreck of a script that builds towards a problematic idea and pivots off into a half-interesting idea that it never quite develops. It might not be a disaster of an episode on the level of Tattoo or Alliances or False Profits , but it does not work in any real sense while playing to the very worst attributes of Voyager as a television series.

At this point, it seems like the writers’ room on Voyager has forgotten how to break an episode of television, how to structure and pace a forty-five minute script. This is obvious just at looking at scripts like  Warlord and  Fair Trade , which do not seem to understand the concept of a teaser.  Star Trek has been on the air for a decade since the launch of  The Next Generation . Breaking and pacing a story for the franchise should be child’s play for the writing staff, particularly given the show’s aversion to experimentation or innovation.

It is worth breaking out the plot of Alter Ego , from one plot point to the next. Harry Kim falls in love with a hologram, so he contacts Tuvok to help him deal with his emotions. Tuvok investigates the hologram, and the hologram falls in love with Tuvok. Harry gets mad at Tuvok. The hologram hijacks the ship and demands that Tuvok surrender himself. Tuvok discovers that the hologram is actually a puppet being manipulated by an alien observer. He convinces her that she needs to be among people. The episode ends with Harry and Tuvok playing kal-toh .

So, reading that summary… what is the episode about? What is the central point of the episode? What is the central thread that pulls it all together? On paper, it seems like Alter Ego might work best as an exploration of isolation and loneliness. Harry is so far from home that he seeks comfort in the arms of a woman constructed from photons. A hologram becomes aware of her existence and is drawn to a character who is himself an outsider. Later, it is revealed that the hologram is actually being manipulated by a lonely woman sitting at the heart of a nebula.

“Marayna, you’re trying to seduce me.”

This is not a bad idea. After all, Voyager is very much a story about loneliness and isolation. It is the story of a ship thrown half-way across the galaxy making a seventy-year journey home. The ship cannot form friendships along the way, because it must keep moving. The crew cannot find a place to lay down their burdens, because home is calling across the cosmos. Voyager should be a ship full of lonely people wrestling with that fact that they are on a solitary spec of light cruising through a vast unknown quadrant.

However, the third season of Voyager has completely rejected this idea. The production team have talked at length about how they don’t want the crew to feel anxious about their journey, or depressed by their isolation. There is no sense that the characters are working through their own issues with this isolation. So Alter Ego avoids this potential thematic avenue. Harry’s holodeck romance is never framed in terms of the fact that he hasn’t seen Libby since Non Sequitur , and even then it was a double. Tuvok’s wife on Vulcan is never even mentioned.

A convincing (in)version of events.

As a result, Alter Ego is robbed of any thematic depth or nuance. However, it could still be an interesting character study. But who is the focal character in Alter Ego ? Who is Alter Ego about? In an interview with The Star Trek: Voyager Magazine , Tim Russ pointed to Alter Ego as a formative Tuvok episode:

I think the defining moments for Tuvok have been in Meld, Random Thoughts and Alter Ego. I would also add Innocence to that list and, I guess, The Gift. Meld and Random Thoughts both explored suppressed and deep, violent thoughts and the problems those things created for Tuvok. We also saw how Tuvok worked with others in Random Thoughts.

That episodes like The Gift and Random Thoughts are counted alongside Alter Ego as definitive Tuvok episodes speaks to how poorly Voyager has served the character. Tuvok is the first full-blooded Vulcan regular to appear on a Star Trek show, so there should be more interesting material to give him.

“Why Hawaii?”

Indeed, Alter Ego does not even belong to Tuvok alone. The narrative starts with a focus on Harry, who brings his problem to Tuvok at the end of the teaser. At this point, it would make sense for the narrative to shift its focus to Tuvok. After all, the plot will be driven by Tuvok’s investigation into Marayna and her flirtation with him. That is where the mystery and drama lies. However, the story keeps cutting back to Harry, focusing on his intense infatuation with Marayna even as the narrative thrust of the show has been given over to Tuvok.

This leads to a number of embarrassing sequences, such as when Harry becomes jealous of Tuvok. “Now I know why you told me to keep off the holodeck,” he insists on walking in on Tuvok and Marayna together. “I respected you. I trusted you. And you did this right behind my back.” It is a ridiculous scene on multiple levels. Most obviously, Harry and Tuvok are supposed to be professionals, not thirteen-year-old boys. On a more technical level, what is to stop Harry from simply duplicating Marayna’ programme, as far as he knows. (Now there’s an interesting idea.)

Well, at least Neelix isn’t concerned about his redundancy any longer.

However, even the sections of the episode focusing on Tuvok has little interest in his character or motivations. According to an interview with Cinefantastique , Russ had to remind writer Joe Menosky that Tuvok was married:

When Tuvok encounters an alien femme fatale in Alter Ego, Russ made sure that Tuvok behaved in a properly Vulcan way, and was not romantically involved with Marayna (Sandra Nelson), the alien woman. He talked to writer Menosky before the story was written. Russ told Menosky, “It has to be right on the line of not looking as though he is romantically attracted to this woman, but that he is interested in her intellectually. He wouldn’t be involved with anybody at all. He sticks to his wife.”

The complication never comes up in the episode, which feels like something of a lost opportunity. After all, Tuvok is the only member of the primary cast with a wife and children waiting at home.

Flower power.

In many ways, this all speaks to the recurring sense that Voyager is far more interested in plot beats than character development. Indeed, the flow of Alter Ego is essentially a collection of narrative pivot points that break up the acts and serve to keep things moving at a reasonable pace. In fact, most of the character actions in Alter Ego seem reverse engineered in order to hit those narrative beats. For example, Kim’s unprofessional outburst serves to motivate Tuvok to delete Marayna, which then escalates the situation further.

This is unfortunately how the Voyager writing staff tend to approach the subject of characterisation, resulting in a primary cast that feels hazy and undefined. Janeway is a notoriously unpredictable character, because of this approach to the cast. The writers on Voyager are not interesting in actions that flow from character, instead leaving character as something to be reversed engineered from the actions dictated by a given plot. It is very disheartening, particularly when the plot is itself so underwhelming.

“The continued use of the holodeck seems to suggest that they don’t have technology recalls in the future.”

The plot is very much a riff on Ship in a Bottle , the episode in which Moriarty holds the Enterprise to ransom. When Marayna takes control of Voyager towards the climax of Alter Ego , the characters even explicitly confirm that reference. “Most likely a sentient computer programme,” Chakotay observes. “I checked the Starfleet database. This kind of thing has happened before. The Enterprise-D under Picard was once taken over by a holocharacter.” Harry adds, “We studied that case at the Academy. It gained control of the ship from inside the holodeck.”

There are certainly worse episodes to reference. Ship in a Bottle is an underrated Next Generation classic that plays with ideas that were still working their way into the popular consciousness when it was broadcast. However, the problems with Alter Ego come in the way that it chose to depart from that template. In Ship in a Bottle , Moriarty is motivated by his desire to break free from the holographic prison in which he finds himself. In Alter Ego , Marayna is ultimately presented as little more than the psychopathic female stalker.

Lighten up.

The production team readily acknowledge as much. In an interview with Star Trek: Monthly , Tim Russ likened the episode to the plot of Fatal Attraction :

“That particular episode,” Russ recalls of Alter Ego, “involved a sort of Fatal Attraction towards me, and my character sort of learned how to not live quite so isolated. He is generally isolated. He spends time by himself. He meditates by himself and plays the game [kal-toh] by himself. In that episode he actually offers to play this game or teach the game, and in that sense he actually learns from this alien woman about sharing activities with other people.”

Fatal Attraction is of course the Oscar-nominated thriller about a man whose one-night stand turns out to be a psychopath who turns his life into a living hell.

Carrying a torch.

As Alter Ego develops, it transforms from the story of a potentially unhealthy interest in a holographic character from two members of the crew into something a lot more predicable and generic. Harry’s emotional attachment to Marayna is never truly explored, instead seguing into a plot about Marayna’s unhealthy fixation with Tuvok. Marayna is apparently so infatuated with a man that she only just met that she is willing to destroy a ship full of innocent people if she cannot have him.

At one point, Marayna hijacks the EMH’s mobile emitter and allows herself into Tuvok’s quarters. “Given your actions, I have no choice but to consider you a potential threat to myself and to Voyager,” he advises her. “But you’re wrong,” she insists. “I would never do anything to harm you.” Naturally, she immediately undermines that argument. “You have access to the ship’s control systems?” Tuvok asks. Marayna vows, “And I’ll use them all if I have to. You can’t just delete me!”

Putting the pieces together…

This is a very crass, very broadly drawn stereotype of the obsessive woman terrorising an innocent man. Nevermind that women are far more likely to be brutalised and murdered by their male partners than vice versa , this is one of the most hackneyed clichés in popular culture. As Elayna Rappinng argues in Media-tions , Fatal Attraction became popular shorthand for the way that the media talked about certain types of women:

So much has already been written about Fatal Attraction that it hardly seems necessary to point out that the film escalates the pre-family/traditional woman, anti-independent, sexy woman propaganda to outrageous heights. Glenn Close is just too smart, sex, and aggressive to be anything but nuts, at least by 1980s standards.

Indeed, the portrayal of Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction is still part of the cultural discourse and still finds its way into conversations about how we talk about ambitious and independent women . In the context of Alter Ego , Marayna’s obsessive behaviour is contrasted by two men. Harry also feels a strong and unreturned attraction, but does not attempt to murder over a hundred people. Tuvok also lives in isolation, but does not crack up.

Alter Ego does not exist in isolation. The third season of Voyager seems to have a very regressive political perspective on such issues. The depiction of family life in Real Life is one such example, but there are plenty of other more overt examples of the show’s worrying attitudes towards traditional gender roles. The Q and the Grey might just be the best example, suggesting that Q’s ultimate ambition upon meeting a female captain should be to sleep with her and that the first female member of the Continuum should be stuck-up and jealous, with minimal agency.

Marayna feels like a horrible miscalculation, a character who would have seemed dated had she appeared on the original Star Trek . Marayna is obviously very intelligent and insightful, but the episode seems to suggest that she is less capable of dealing with social isolation than Harry or Tuvok. The episode caps all this off with a cringy creepy joke in which both Harry and Tuvok reflexively reject a woman’s attempt to join their game of kal-toh . It makes the jokes about Kate Mulgrew putting her hands on her hips in Macrocosm seem particularly mean-spirited.

“You know, you’d think we’d be a lot less hung up in the twenty-fourth century about the idea I’d want to hook up with a hologram, but no.”

To be fair, there some half-formed interesting ideas in Alter Ego . The sequence in which Marayna has weaponised the resort programme against the Voyager crew is delightfully unnerving, evoking the dreamscape of The Thaw . The imagery of smiling waitresses garotting guests with their leis is particularly clever, although it is also fun to see the guys carrying the torches employing them as weapons. It is a delightful piece of surrealism, and there is something to be said for a Star Trek story willing to push “the holodeck tries to kill the crew” to its logical conclusion.

There is also a clever final twist in the idea that Marayna is actually a construct being manipulated from outside the ship, with the holographic character used as a puppet by somebody spying on the workings of the ship. It is great idea, and one that feels ahead of the curve. Marayna is ultimately an avatar, an online persona that mirrors those employed by people posting on message boards and playing multiplayer games. Of course, this is all very obvious in the context of the twenty-first century, but it was a novel idea in the mid- to late-nineties.

“Don’t worry. Some day soon, James Cameron will create a blockbuster movie about people hopping into other bodies to make out with hot aliens.”

Indeed, there might be a more interesting story to be told about the relationship between the holographic Marayna and the alien who is pulling the strings. Is this holographic reaction an accurate representation of who she is? More than that, she only interacts with Harry and Tuvok on the holodeck, so how is her perception of them shaped by those encounters? After all, peering into a ship through the holodeck is almost like walking into somebody’s fantasies. It is a window to the collective subconscious.

To be fair, later episodes of Voyager would build on this clever final twist, to varying degrees of success. Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy would introduce the Heirarchy, a bureaucratic alien species that would peer into Voyager through the eyes of the EMH. Inside Man would find the Ferengi manipulating a holographic programme to serve as their spy on Voyager. Many of the later episodes centring on the EMH, like Body and Soul or Renaissance Man , would play with this idea of holographic identity.

Let it lei.

Indeed, Alter Ego could be seen as the point at which a recurring theme begins to solidify within Voyager . Over the course of the show, Voyager repeatedly focuses on the lives touched by the crew as they journey towards the Alpha Quadrant, the footprints that they leave in the sand. To be fair, this is standard practice for a television show, given that stories tend to involve the crew meeting various aliens. However, Voyager increasingly engages with the idea of the ship and crew as something approaching a Delta Quadrant myth seen through the eyes of other species.

Alter Ego is the first episode to really touch upon the idea of Voyager as seen by an alien visitor. It is not explored in the context of the episode, by Marayna’s efforts to insert herself into the life of the crew foreshadows later stories. In Distant Origin , Professor Forra Gegen chases Voyager across the Delta Quadrant as validation of his own theories. In Living Witness , Voyager is presented as a mythic force. In Muse , the crew’s stories become legend. In Blink of an Eye , Voyager becomes an object of worship to an alien species looking to the sky.

It does not come together.

A lot of this is down to writer Joe Menosky, who also suggested mythologising Voyager in False Profits . Voyager’s journey home is constrasted with the static nature of Marayna’s assignment. Voyager passes by the inversion nebula as it journeys home, but Marayna will always remain there. (Or on her home planet nearby.) There is something quite appealing about the idea of Voyager as a mythic force that brushes against more static objects on its journey back to the Alpha Quadrant, and in the show’s willingness to look from the outside in.

Still, these are ideas that find better expression elsewhere.

You might be interested in our other reviews from the third season of Star Trek: Voyager :

• Basics, Part II
• False Profits
• Sacred Ground
• Future’s End, Part I
• Future’s End, Part II
• The Q and the Grey
• Blood Fever
• Favourite Son
• Before and After
• Distant Origin
• Worst Case Scenario
• Scorpion, Part I

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Filed under: Voyager | Tagged: alter ego , fatal attraction , Holodeck , Joe Menosky , star trek: voyager , tuvok , voyager |

9 Responses

This is one of the most forgettable episodes of Voyager, as I had no idea what episode this was until I read your review. Even then, I confess to having little memory of watching the episode. Normally, this wouldn’t surprise me, as this was the beginning of Voyager churning out a lot of generic forgettable episodes. Therefore, it was a real surprise came when I saw this episode was written by Joe Menosky who is usually one of the most creative Star Trek writers. Furthermore, even when he misses, he usually misses in memorable fashion, such as “Masks” or “Distant Voices.”

Yep. This just… kinda is, isn’t it?

Reading this, I thought of yet another little thread that could have been interesting. Voyager is a lifetime away from home… for humans. While much of the crew would theoretically die out before they saw home, what about Tuvok? We don’t know exactly how old he is, maybe he’d easily live to see his family again, how about other Vulcans and long lived races?

I know it’d be yet another time travel episode, but how about a glimpse into a future where the older members of the crew have become entrenched and lost their way? Or if there weren’t enough children born so they were the only crew left?

There could have been threads, making long term contingencies involving those species, resentment that they’d have lives to go back to in some form etc. It could have been a pretty good source of stories with a little thought.

It definitely would have been cool to do something like Before and After that treated Tuvok as a constant on an evolving and changing Voyager. Unfortunately, the production team made it clear that Voyager wasn’t going to evolve, so that story probably wouldn’t have worked. But it would have been fun to try, and I’m surprised that we only ended up with glimpses in episodes like Before and After or Shattered.

Is this the first Voyager example of a crewmember falling in love with a Holodeck character after TNG examples like 11001001 and Galaxy’s Child? Except I don’t consider Marayna as memorable as Minuet or Dr Brahms (Sandra Nelson would make a far better impression as Klingon Tavannah in the DS9 episode Soldiers of the Empire later in the year). One wonders what it is about her that has not one but two men so interested in her?

Alter Ego is the first of what will become an unfortunate trend over the following seasons for Harry Kim’s character – doomed romances. Marayna, Seven of Nine, the wrong Delaney sister, Derran Tal, Lyndsey Ballard, etc. It’s annoying Tom keeps score so we can’t ever forget but even more annoying is all these episodes do is bring out Garrett Wang’s immaturity to the fore, whether it’s acting as a lovesick puppy or in Alter Ego, like a jealous schoolboy.

Alter Ego is another example of VGR being a pale imitation of DS9 this year. This time I was reminded of DS9’s Looking For Par’Mach in All the Wrong Places (just substitute Par’Mach for Tuvok’s Vulcan word Shan’Halok). It’s depressing to see Voyager’s lack of imagination after just two and a half years on the air.

I wonder if Alter Ego should have been a Doctor episode but would that have been too similar to Lifesigns? Still, the Doctor falling for a sentient Holodeck character seems so obvious it’s surprising that idea was never explored. And it’s disappointing that Robert Picardo’s directing debut had to be in such an inauspicious episode. We would have to wait until S6’s One Small Step before he got another shot at directing.

Worst Case Scenario is a S3 episode Darren, I’m glad you picked up on The Graduate reference, I think Tuvok does mention T’Pel to Marayna on the station at the end. Under the picture of Tom in his shirt, my idea for a caption is Hawaii Daddy-0. They could have called this episode Play Kal-toh For Me. Marayna also met Kes Darren when she gave her a hydro-sailing lesson, it was Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy, and there are quite a few pictures of people playing kal-toh, aren’t there?

There are a lot of shots of people playing kal-toh indeed.

It’s always an issue to get enough screencaps from visually boring episodes like this. Kal-toh might just be the best thing in it.

Sigh! You don’t fucking understand this episode, do you? And it’s so easy to understand. I really am beginning to loathe a lot of Trek fans.

Would you care to share your interpretation of the episode?

I was actually most frustrated by the very intriguing idea of a human crewman committing to Vulcan epistemology, similar to a religious conversion. I imagine Kim growing his hair out, becoming Tuvok’s student, slowly becoming more and more emotionally dead as each season goes by. It would have been a very interesting character arc, and would have caused fantastic conflict with Paris and unsettled many of the crew who tend to rip on Tuvok non-stop.

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Star Trek Voyager: Fair Trade

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Voyager Craft Coffee

Ratings and reviews, location and contact.

Not to big. Super busy and super crowded. Also has outside seating. Yummy coffee options and teas. Great patries. Avocado toast and brie toast also good.

Great breakfast place with good coffee. Liked the attention to detail. Had the famously avocado toast. Tried the Santiago coffee and an almond milk latte. The almond toast was meh.

They have the BEST craft coffee and especially their signature drinks that you can have hot or cold and with different milks, soy, almond, oat, regular, etc. So it's signature made to order! On top of that their toasts are so good - so much... variety. My favorite are any of their baked goods - not your "store bought" variety but homemade, fresh, delicate and delicious. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable and if you happen to be in when the owners are there - jackpot! They definitely know their coffee and how to make a "getting coffee" an "experience" vs just an activity. Love the environment - cozy and smart - they even have little hooks under the tables to hang your purse/bags so you can fully utilize the table. And as a bonus - they have outdoor seating - so if you want to bring your doggy - they are definitely welcome. HIGHLY MUST VISIT if in the area!! They actually opened another location at San Pedro Square which has more seating but quality, service and atmosphere is similar. More

A really nice local coffee place with a great asssortment of baked goods. Plenty of tables inside and out. Right across the street from Santa Clara University.

The staff is super knowledgeable and service is great. Chai Latte is memorable. Am definitely returning back.

I visited Voyager with my sister in law and niece while they visited San Jose. Niece purchased a hot chocolate, which was awesome and came with pretty art that kept her occupied for a while. S-i-l got an almond latte, she said it was perfect.... I got their matcha and it was the best one I've probably ever had in my life. The service and ambiance are also amazing. No wonder they're so well rated. More

Limited parking and small dining in and out but it's worth it. Some breakfast items and baked goods. Water dishes on patio for the doggies.

I’m writing this review as I stand in Voyager, sipping the seasonal Pumpkintown brew. With distinct amounts of nutmeg and pumpkin purée, it invokes memories of mom’s pumpkin pies over the holidays. Simply fantastic. My friend ordered the Savannah, a minty iced delight with real... mint leaves in it. Both of us are very happy at the moment. Also notably was the friendly staff, who walked us through the menu. They even offered to replace our drinks if we didn’t like them with something else! That’s a great way to keep happy repeat customers! Nicely situated off the main road, with plenty of light coming in. Along with plenty of tables and wifi, it’s a great place to sit, relax, and maybe work a little. All and all I will definitely stop here again! More

I’ve been enjoying lattes, espressos, and other coffee-based drinks here for the past two years or more. Staff is friendly, accommodating, and nice. Once a regular they remember not only your name, but also your drink, which in my case come with specifications. It was... a coffee shop under a different name/management- and passed as barely ok. Now it is my #1 choice if I want a good latte & too lazy to make it at home, or want to meet w/others. With all the weird coffee abominations offered by Starbucks & it’s likes, their Savannah is the only non-espresso based drink I enjoy (over ice) and enjoy it every time. They offer neighborhood discount too. Only regret: it’s a small space. Sometimes, there’s no seats available. More

First visit and will become my regular stop. Friendly service, relaxed atmosphere and exceptional coffee. I tried the Bali and it was perfectly balanced. The cafe macchiato was also perfect. We did not order food but the food we saw going out looked great. Skip... the rest and visit - you will not be disappointed. More

One of the best in my life. Must to try it! Meena is very friendly and helpful girl. Tnx for your job. Pet friendly place😘

We are coffee snobs and know good coffee on the first sip. My daughter recommended that we try this place. We ordered the Goat Cheese toast, Brie toast, colorful cappuccino, and two iced Savannah mint & bourbon coffees. My two picky girls loved the toast... and I was pleased with the flavor of my coffee it was first rate goodness to say the least. More

We had the avocado Brie sandwich very tasty $5. The blue goat toast also delicious $4. Two coffee drinks. The Santiago a bit spicy $4.90 a latte $3.90 and chocolate milk $3. Total $25.80. Outside seating. Nice staff. Nice place for lunch.

VOYAGER CRAFT COFFEE, Santa Clara - Restaurant Reviews, Photos & Phone Number - Tripadvisor