The Delta Flyers - Fair Trade

Episode Date: May 17, 2021

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch and recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Fair Trade. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Fair Trade:Neelix meets up with Wixiban, who cons Neelix into using Federation shuttlecraft to traffic in narcotics.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise and Rebecca McNeill, and our Post Producer Jessey Miller.Additionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co- Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Philipp Havrilla, Kelton Rochelle, Liz Scott, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Chris Knapp, Michelle Zamanian, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Matthew Gravens, Brian Barrow, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Megan Hurwitt, James Zugg, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Dominic Burgess, Amber Eason, Lucas Shuck, PJ Tomas, Nicholaus Russell, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, and ArianaAnd our Producers:Chris Tribuzio, Jim Guckin, Steph Dawe Holland, James Amey, Katherine Hedrick, Eleanor Lamb, Richard Banaski, Eve England, Ann Harding, Laura Swanson, Ann Marie Segal, Charity Ponton, Josh Johnson, Chloe E, Kathleen Baxter, Craig Sweaton, Nathanial Moon, Warren Stine, Mike Schaible, Kelley Smelser, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Joshua L Phillips, Barbara Beck, Elaine Ferguson, Mary O'Neal, Aithne Loeblich, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, John Espinosa, Dat Cao, Cody Crockett, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, James Cottrell, Cindy Ring, Andrei Dunca, Daniel Owen, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Liz Lowe, Ming Xie, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Kevin Selman, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Justin Weir, Simon Inman, Joseph Michael Kuhlmann, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Michelle Maroney, Rickard Fahlander, and Meg JohnsonThank you for your support!Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hey guys, welcome to the Delta Flyers where Robert Duncan McNeil and myself are your co-host where we review Voyager episodes. Thanks a lot for joining us once again, guys. Thanks, guys. Good to have you here again. I can't believe we're so deep into this podcast. It's like, you know, we've passed our one year mark. I can't believe. it. I can't believe how many episodes we've done. It's crazy. It has flown by. What's going on with your new move? You're in your new place now. What's been happening? Yeah, the house is great. I was working today on getting an area leveled outside because, you know, we're up in the mountains, up in Utah, and you have to have a hot tub in the mountains. So the hot tub is coming on Tuesday.

and I'm excited for that. So I got everything prepped and ready and counting the minutes till the hot tub arrives. Well, let me get this straight. Let me, I want to be clear on this. Did you do the leveling? I did the leveling, yes. Oh, my gosh. We got a spot outside for it, and I built a little frame out of pressure-treated lumber,

got that already, leveled all that out, put in pebbles, and yeah, it's fun. I love doing that stuff. I'm so impressed. You're a handyman. Look at that. I love being done. After this move, I realized that all my tools, my power tools and all my stuff was spread out in all these like I had a toolbox. I had two toolboxes and I had these storage containers with stuff in it. I was just like enough of this. So I went to Home Depot and I got a big giant cabinet for tools. I've never had that in my life. So now I have a whole workshop. It's organized. It's ready to go. Yeah. I love that. Well, if you recall, when you were still in Atlanta, the Atlanta, greater metropolitan area, you were doing a lot of yard work. So much. Yeah. And I even said that, and you said that you got a lot of value out of that, like you felt a lot of accomplishment and you enjoyed doing that kind of stuff. And I said to you, yeah, I said, Robbie, this could be your other career. If you ever felt like you didn't want to direct, you could end up being a contractor.

you could be a you know you could do some stuff it doesn't uh i think nick offerman from uh the office he does woodworking he's written a book on it yeah he's like he builds furniture he he wrote a whole thing about you know the art of woodworking or something he's really into it so uh yeah i could totally see doing something like that yeah and harrison fort who i almost killed um is also a really big woodworker he he i guess supported yeah he supported himself by making cap I think when he was starting out. Wow. But then you can look at somebody like,

you remember that song, Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice? Like Vanilla Ice, all he does is upscale remodels now. So he'll buy like a mansion in disrepair, basically, and then remodel the whole thing. And so he is, that's what he does.

He doesn't perform music anymore. Well, maybe he does. But his main job is a house renovator. Yeah, yeah, a million dollar. more house renovator guys so that's what he's doing back in the olden times when i did a movie called masters of the universe before star trek voyager corny cox was in that movie and we were really good friends and Courtney even back then she was not as successful as her friend's days and all that but she had bought a house just before that fixed it up and sold it and then bought another house that she was

right after master's little you know little ranch house nothing special, but she loved doing those remodels and renovations. And I heard, we've sort of lost touch, but I heard even during the Friends days that she would buy, she loved to flip houses. She loved to remodel, renovate, and then flip it out. I don't know if I would want to gamble with that as a business, but I enjoy it just as a hobby. I love fixing things out. Right. I had always heard stories about Courtney doing what she was doing, the whole remodeling, but I didn't know that that started from way back. Oh, yeah, way back.

Yeah, but the minute she got on friends, clearly then she had the capital to really, you know, dive into this, right? I mean, if you're getting paid a million dollars an episode, that's a lot of, that's a lot of capital to work with, right? To remodel. I remember with Courtney Cox when we did Master's Universe, on a week, one weekend, I wanted to go out to Pomona to the fairgrounds because they were having a car auction.

And I was just curious. I was like, and I mentioned to Courtney, I said, hey, I'm going to go out to the car auction. I'm just curious, you know, maybe there'll be something fun. I don't know, probably. I won't buy anything. I wasn't really planning on buying. I just was going for fun.

She's like, oh, that, you know, old, old vintage cars, that sounds like something fun that you could fix up. I mean, she's got this fix-up obsession, I think. And she went to the car auction with me and bought a car. She bought a, like a 1960 Mercedes-Benz convertible or something that was in fine shape. But, you know, I remember her saying, oh, I just love this car. And if it just had a little bit of polish to it, you know, just cosmetics, you can fix this up. And so I, and I think she kept that Mercedes for quite a few years.

So impressive. Yeah. And, you know, you had a lot of experience in terms of the Venice property that you're in, or the Maria Del Rey property, that was completely remodeled. And then I saw my place that was remodeled. And my remodel extended to two and a half years. Oh, my gosh. Because this subcontractor that I decided to hire, I told my regular, my general contractor, I don't like the guys that are doing the countertops.

I'm going to save a buck or two and I'm going to find somebody. The workers broke my sink, which was then on back order for seven months, which was everything got messed up because of this one decision I made. It can be a disaster. A dollar, you know, literally. It's funny with all those like contractors, subcontractors and the trades people. that do it. Like you really want people who,

it's hard to know if you're getting a trades person who knows what they're doing with the electrical or plumbing. Speaking of trades, isn't that in the title of our... Fair trade. It is.

It is. Very good. Look at that. Fair trades people. We came full circle. Also, one other thing I want to bring up is, do you remember the challenge I put out there?

This is a while ago. I said, what if somebody could write the Thomas Eugene Paris song to the oh yes to the Hamilton yes of Alexander Hamilton right so that and so that has happened a couple of our friends from the the quack and fries group that we're part of a couple of our friends who are big fans of Trek have put together the Thomas Eugene Paris song and now We're talking about it here. I guess you haven't seen it, or maybe you have seen it. No?

Okay. I don't think so. Or maybe I've heard about it, but I don't know that I've seen it. Okay. Is it on YouTube or something? No, it's been uploaded to our hard drive. So it's going to be, we're going to release it after this, when this episode gets released, so people can see it.

Great. And it's really wonderful. The lyrics are great. And it's all about Paris. And there's some creative fans out there. Oh, my goodness. It's very interesting and really fun. Very interesting.

Yeah. So, yeah, you have to check it out, everybody. Okay. I can't wait. I know. All right. So this week's episode is Fair Trade. We came to the title very organically. I'm so impressed with you, Robbie. So everyone who is a Patreon, patron, please stay tuned for your segment. What do we remember for everybody else? Please, stay tuned while Robbie and I go watch Fair Trade. Okay, Robbie and I are back from watching Fair Trade. Yes, we are. And it was trading a lot of fair things. That didn't really go anywhere. But there was a lot of trading and a lot of wheeling and dealing going on in this episode. That's for sure. Okay. Well, let's start off as we always do. Let us give our synopsis, our poetry synopsis. You'll start with your haiku and I'll follow with the limerick.

Okay. Here's a haiku for Fair Trade. Neelix wants to help, tricked into selling some drugs. Tom gives good advice. Bam. I thought you're going to say, Tom gives good back rubs, but no. He does too. He does give good back rubs. All right. Good job. Short and to the point, I like it. I like it. I like it. Okay. Here we go for the Limerick. Limerick time. Fair trade. Limerick. Neelix attempts to assist by Tuvok and Torres dismissed. Medical supplies trade by Wix. Add drug deal gone bad to the mix.

Neelix must clean since Janeway's pissed. It's great. He does have to clean. And she was pissed. She was so mad. She was really pissed. That was crazy. The teleplay is by Andre Bormonis,

our science consultant. My goodness. I know. How many teleplays did Andre do? I don't even remember. I don't know how many, but not a lot. Not a lot. Yeah.

No. He's our science. And isn't he the science consultant on Orville as well? Yes, he is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Story by Ronald Wilkerson and Jean-Louis Mathias, Mattias, I think.

Uh-huh. Directed by a favored director. A lot of people enjoyed this director when he showed up. Jesus Salvador Trevino. Jesus Trevino. Yes. Jesus Trevino was like a breath of fresh air he was such a zen

calm very heartfelt he had passion but it wasn't like it was just focused and you trusted him and I thought he had a really good eye I think Jesus came from post production I think he was an editor

okay if I remember that sounds right but he was he was very very kind and you just felt safe with him you just felt like it was going to be a calm, safe. He was going to be responsible and shoot a good show. Yeah, a wonderful energy about him. He really sets the tone when you're around him. You feel like he's very open-minded,

an open heart, an open mind, open to collaboration. When you come to talk to him, you feel like he's actually listening to you. You know what I'm saying? He takes a time and he shuts out everything else and he just focuses on you and listens to what you have to say. And if it's something that is, a bit of an emergency or something that's going crazy. He was so even keel, you know. And the only other person I could really say that I could compare

Jesus to in terms of his even keeledness would be you when you direct. I mean, you're very even keel. So yeah. Thank you, buddy. So maybe you learned a little bit from Jesus. I am sure I did. He was very generous with his thoughts. And yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Have you seen him since?

No. No, not really. Jesus lived down in Venice He had lived there forever Oh And I remember Right after Star Trek A couple years after Voyager finished Jesus

I remember Either hearing about him Or maybe I did run into him And he had sold his place in Venice That he'd had for like 30 or 40 years So he made a killing And he moved I want to say he moved down to the desert I feel like he moved down to like

Palm Desert Or La Quinta or something I think he was He retired, yeah. Really? But that's been a while. I'm just looking up, Jesus right now. He's 75 years old right now.

Yeah. Film director, television director. I'm going to show everybody a photo of Jesus. There he is. There he is. That's him. With his signature glasses on right there. Yes, he's a very, it just, he was a good guy.

I think everybody really liked him a lot. Yeah, I wanted him to adopt me, basically, but that didn't happen. Yeah. Yeah. What would you give, let's start, let's just cut to the chase. One to ten, what would you give this episode Fair Trade? I'm going to say for storyline and character development, specifically Neelix character development, I would give it a seven or eight because of the character development. And also because at the end, the scene with Janeway really kind of brought me to tears.

which hasn't happened maybe maybe it's happened once one of the time and all the episodes we've reviewed up until this point season three yeah um it really it it moved me emotionally so uh seven or eight wow i'm gonna do a seven or eight is what i'm gonna do i'm i struggle with this episode because there's a lot of things about it i love when i break it down into moments and parts but as a whole i would probably give this a six okay as a whole but there were some moments that were tens to me. Right. But that's what,

it was a very inconsistent episode to me. In terms of the tone of how, or in terms of like when you're saying story. I felt like the story just didn't, it didn't compel me for some reason. And it felt, it felt very uneven to me. But,

but I did enjoy it ultimately. It was good. And like I said, there were some moments I agree with you that last scene with the captain. I'd give that scene a 10. I thought the scene when Neelix came in to talk to Paris, I would give that scene a 10, honestly. That was a great scene. Yeah, but there were a lot of other moments where I was like, I don't know.

I don't know. Let's go through it. Let's go through it. Let's start out. We're in the corridor, right? So that's the first scene. Neelix is chasing after Tuvok saying, hey, remember we were supposed to meet at this time? And Tuvok's like, what?

What's going on? and Neelix is basically volunteering to learn about the security department. All the ins and outs of security. He wants to know everything, right? He wants to know everything and maybe he could join the security team. And Tuvac says, well, you know,

we don't give those assignments out, you know, easily. And so Neelix feels a little shut down, I think, by Tuvok. It seemed like, in fact, as the door is closing, Tuvok's busy and he hits the button and the turbo lift door is shutting and Neelix is still trying to talk and the door sort of shuts on him. He's like, oh, bummer.

He feels dismissed for sure. Yeah. And then we go into engineering. Neelix walks into engineering. Actually, the first thing we see is we see the elevator coming down and Vorek. This is the first appearance of Ensign Vorek. The very first appearance of Ensign Vaucon.

He was played by Alexander Enberg, who had previously played a Vulcan Ensign Tauric in Star Trek the next generation. Did you know that? I did know that. You did know that? Yeah, and also the other glaring fact that you've not said, I'm waiting for you.

I was going to get to it. Go ahead. I'll let you get to it. Well, the other glaring fact is that he is the son of Jerry Taylor. And here's another interesting tidbit about Vorex. So Vork's coming down in the elevator, which I always love those shots

when we see the elevator working in engineering because it's a cool part of the set. We rarely used it. Alex Enberg played Torrick in TNG's episode The Lower Decks which is kind of interesting title since there's a series now

He played a Vulcan Ensign in that named Torik and now he's playing Vorik and Jerry Taylor had said that these two characters were twins that they were brothers I love it. They were twins and that's that was yeah and I think that is the

the legend and the mythology of these two characters, which would be interesting. I wish that they had done a Nick La Carno and Tom Paris, our twin brothers. Yes. You know? Yes. That could have been an interesting.

It could have been interesting. Yeah. Like Nick La Carno was such a rebel that he didn't even take the Paris last name. He took LeCarno instead. Yeah, exactly. His mother's name, right? A half brother of Paris. I think that would have been perfect.

That's a very smart move. They should have did that. Anyway, so Vork comes down in the other. elevator. And then we see Neelix coming in to try to talk to Balana. And I love the staging that Balana was like under the rail and up testing out, you know, readings on the engine. I've never seen anyone really stage a scene that way. I thought it was really interesting. And then Neelix climbs under the rail and he's trying to get in there and asking Balana if he can learn about engineering. Because Tuvok sort of shut him down. So now he's like, so we're setting up here that Neelix really wants to feel

more a part of the team or that he's got some sort of insecurity. He's sort of desperate to like find a place that fits him, which pays off in our, it's really drives the whole episode, these two, you know, these two scenes set that up. And then he gets a call, Janeway says, you know, Neelix, I need a report to the bridge. So Neelix comes out on the bridge. She says, Neelix, what is this in front of us? We look up on the view screen, there's a big cloud, this, this vast expanse of space. And she's like, what, Neelix, do you know anything about this?

And you can see on Neelix's face. He's like, I couldn't quite read it, actually. Yeah. Whether he was keeping a secret or whether he didn't know. And, you know, but he seemed unsettled is what he looked like. Yeah, he seemed unsettled. Yeah. And he says, it's called the Nekrit expanse.

Right. And it's a vast territory. Nobody knows much about it. Yes. And, yeah, he seemed unsettled. It seemed like he had a secret, you know, know, Janeway says, well, can we take the ship around it? Two bucks says, no, it's far too big.

We're going to have to go through it. And she says, well, we might need some supplies. We need some parts and some things. And so is there anywhere around to hear Neelix? And Neelix, again, it's sort of evasive. He's like, yeah, there's a trading post, but she's like, well, what are the coordinates? I don't really remember. He's sort of evasive about it.

And then I think Chukote comes up with the coordinates. Oh, it's right here. I got it. I see it right here. It's three light years away. And so off they go to find this trading post. I just want to rewind for a second. When I first heard what the ominous interstellar dust clouds were, I thought they said naked.

The Nekid expands. I had to rewind it just once. And I said, did they say Nekid? No. The Nekid. Everybody would have been happy about that. naked expanse. Let's all go play in the naked expanse, y'all. What are the people that are natureists? What are the people who?

Naturists. Is that right? Those who live without clothes are naturedous. Yes. The naturist expanse. The name. Okay. So now heading towards the station, we have a very poor visual effects, old school shot of us heading towards the station, which kind of pulled me out, to be honest. But, oh, I want this to be remastered. I want all visual effects on Voyager to be remastered. That'd be so wonderful. So now we're on the bridge and we're being hailed by what sounds like, did you get Barat? Barat.

Barat. Barat, not Barack Obama, but Barat. There's a T or a D at the end of that, right? Barat. Yeah, Barat. He's the manager of this trade station. And the minute we see him, my first thought was, okay, beauty and the beast here. Beauty and the Beast, right?

Yeah. Oh, my God. Do you start singing? Did you start singing the Broadway? I literally started doing show tunes. Yes. So what is the Beauty and the Beast? How's the chorus for Beauty and the Beast go?

The actual song. Tale as oldest time. Da da da da da da. Barely even friends. Then somebody bends. Beauty and the Beast. Something like that. That was what I was hoping you would do.

Yes. Thank you so much, Robbie. You're welcome. I want to showcase Robbie's past. He did a lot of musical theater, and he was younger. I did do a lot of musical theater. Mm-hmm. And so this is a chance for him to shine, and I wanted him to sing, and he's sure enough, he sang it.

So thank you for that. You're welcome. Check that off the list. Okay. Yeah, it was Beauty and the Beast? Yeah, totally. It looks like Beauty and the Beast. Mm-hmm.

And even later on, he's on the, you know, I'm jumping ahead, but he's on our ship, and he's standing right next to Janeway, and I was like, there's beauty in the beast. Right there. There's Janeway with a beauty ponytail thingy and the beast right next to her and it looks, and he looks eight feet tall. Yeah. And it was just, yeah. I just wonder if that was the influence that the makeup team had when they did the makeup for this character, right? Got to be. The deal that he offers Janeway is not that good. It's basically any trade you make, I take 20% commission. It's like, wait a minute, you have nothing to do with the trade. you're just you just have the station that's it you're in control of the station i guess that's a big thing but still it's 20 well it was not just 20% it was also i'm gonna monitor i'll monitor you at all yeah i'm monitoring everything like i am watching you big brother will be watching i'm taking your money

and do you accept those terms okay we'll do some business right yeah it was pretty harsh like the beast that's like the beast he was the beast and the beast is kind of harsh in the beginning right yes he's not really that friendly so now they're in barat's I call, what would you call that, a control room, observation room, office, control. Let's say control room. I like that. Barat's control room where Janeway shows Barat her shopping list. He's like, this is what I need.

I need Pergium, I need this, I need that. And he's like, hmm, maybe I can hook you up with some sellers, okay? We jump to the trade station corridor and we see Chiquette and Paris for the first time, right? they meet a merchant who tries to sell them Riludian crystals. Ingesting one will make days of tedious travel seem like moments of exquisite rapture. So basically, narcotics.

This is what's being trying. This is what this guy is trying to sell to Chakotia in Paris. Yeah. Yeah. First, we ask him, we say, oh, do you have any magnetic spindle bearings for our reaction control assembly? That's right.

And he's like, nope, don't have a, don't have the, spindle bearings, but he's like, he's like, how long, how long is your journey? You have a long voyage ahead, he asks. And I, I liked my delivery, Paris's delivery. He goes, uh, you could say that. That was a very, made me laugh. It was funny, but it also sounded a little out of the, I could hear that it was a VO. That was the only time that I could, yeah, for me, it's the only time I've ever heard Paris's line sound kind of VO-ish. I'm like, oh, it's a little bit different. I didn't catch that, but maybe, but I like the reading on it. Anyway, I say, yeah, you, yeah, you could say that.

And then he says, well, I've got these relutian crystals, you know, which is clearly a drug. Yeah, he's like, this will make time, you know, fly by for you. And we're like, no thanks. No thanks. Yeah, we pass on the drugs and then Chucote and Paris starts to walk away. And I love my classic Tom Paris line reading. Nice place. same intonation is yes ma'am yes ma'am and nice place point that out there was a couple classic tom paris lines in there so neelix is looking for maps at this point yeah he meets with a map dealer which the map dealer kind of says don't you know about this area the region is too unstable there's no maps there are no maps okay and that that point they're interrupted by a lone talaxian

who Neelix knows very well. And now, when I first heard Neelix say his name, it sounded like Wixapad. Like there's an iPad. Wixaban. Wixaban. Wixabat. Wixap.

I heard a PAD at the end. But then he quickly says Wix. So obviously, his name with a shortened version is just WI-X. They go to the tavern. Wix says, come have a have an A-L with me. Great scene. Really nice scene. At first, Neelix is.

ragging about how important he is on the ship. That's correct. Saying, you know, he's got all these important jobs. And then Wix says something like, you know, you owe me. And so they sort of imply that there was something they were involved in that Wix sort of took the fall for it. Neelix got off. Correct. You know, got away with it, whatever it was.

Yeah, the Ubeans, the deal with the Ubeans. That's the alien race that Wicks got caught, Neelix got away, right? so he took he uh he took the blame for that one and that's really that's really the first time that we we get a glimpse of this secret past yeah neelix you know we know he's been a traitor or a junk dealer but we didn't know that he dealt with illegal contraband yeah he dealt with contraband and he's and he's kind of a you can see he's kind of ashamed of it yeah he feels like he owes wicksaband something for taking a fall you get that that that sense um he does tell wicks that he needs a map again he says i need a map to be useful because he he says when wigsavan sort of brings up this

past their relationship neelick sort of admits that he may not be as needed or important on voyager he sort of turns in the scene and says you know what i i don't think i'm i may not even be needed anymore on this ship and he needs to get a map of this place to be useful you know um so he sort of sets that up with wicks of like that's important So they have that. Now Wix knows that what Neelix is looking for, which sets us up for the next scene. We go to the kitchen, back to the mess hall. Neelix is kind of trudging around. We see Vorek again. We see Alex Anberg in there. And he says, hey, I've come to fix the replicator systems or something. He was in there to adjust the control interface on the food replicators.

On the food replicators. Exactly. And it's funny because he was in there. And I was like, why is, why are we setting up this character we've never met before, Vorek? Now we've seen him in two scenes, you know, we've seen him again. I know that in an upcoming episode, Vork's going to be very important. And so I think that's why they started laying him in here in all these random places. But anyway, Vork's in there. Chakotay walks in with Wix into the mess hall. And Wix has found the spindle bearings.

Yes. He found what Chikote was looking for. And then Nelik says to Vark. he says, hey, Vaugh, could you come back later and fix that? It's not that important. And he's doing that because he needs to talk to Wix privately. That's right. And he says, hey, did you steal these? Like, because he knows about Wix's past. And Wix's like, no, this was a fair trade. I'm, I wouldn't do that to you. I would not do that to you. Yeah, I wouldn't set you up or steal something or put you in a complicated situation. So he also says he's got a plan. Wix says I've got a very,

you know, complicated plan to use this medicine, medical supplies to trade for what the captain wants. And I can get you your maps. Yeah. Medical supplies per gym and a map. That's what's involved in this trade. And so I think some type of monetary compensation too. Yeah. And then he could also get the money to buy his ship back. Yeah, to get his ship back. Yeah. Which is, yeah, which they've been holding. And he and he says, all of my plan will work. And it's all. above board, but you just can't tell anybody about the medical supplies because Barat's going to want is 20%. Correct. So he's asking, keep quiet. You know, well, maybe, you know, I think Neelix is in this moral dilemma. Like, um, I should help my friend Wix get his ship back. Yeah. You know,

and he needs the money. If I keep this a secret, he'll get the money he needs and the captain will get what she wants. And I'll get my map. Right. Seems like, seems like a one little white lie of not telling anybody what they're doing yeah is not a big deal and everybody wins so neelix agrees um so they're in the shuttle interior and wicks basically tells neelix that they need to beam to a very specific part of the trade station that's it's it's a remote part of the trade station that's kind of away from from most of the hustle and bustles so they end up being beam to corridor 14L and they're waiting around and then that's when we see sootok and as i'm watching this And this is literally the very first time I've seen this episode, just, you know, between you and me and the rest of the world.

I sat there and I said, is that the same alien? That's the same alien as earlier. From earlier, yeah. But then I thought maybe he's just the same species and that this is just another alien, right? Maybe this species is known as the narcotics dealing species or something. But then also I'm looking at this alien. I'm like, God, that face looks so familiar to me. Like, did it give a little bit of familiar?

Did you think of anything? I didn't. No, I didn't. What did that alien look like to you? Kind of like a lizard of some kind. And he had the hood on that was very mysterious. To me, it looked like a hound dog or something. He kind of like had a drooping face.

But then I started going back and I was like, wait a minute. Do you remember this guy? Oh, yeah. Doesn't he kind of look like a suit talk a little bit, right? This is from, what is it, persistence of vision or whatever? When we were having those hallucinations and this guy was the guy that was the reason. Yeah, troublemaker. Yeah, the troublemaker.

All those trooper makers look alike. They all have those kind of droopy faces. So, you know, I thought it was the same alien, but it's not. It's a little different. Well, I immediately, when they beam down to this like sketchy part of the ship, the trade station, and they've got the medical supplies. By the way, in the shuttle, when he comes back with the medical supplies, he says, we're going to get 20 kilograms.

And Neelix is like, wait a minute, only 20 kilograms. You told Chukote that you'd get 45. already you're starting to go wait a minute this Wix guy is like he's hustling he's on a hustle right now he's hustling for sure it's it's not a fair trade because he said one thing and it was supposed to be 45 kilograms of per jim and it's only going to be 20 kilograms so anyway you know things are sketchy

they beam down to this this part of the ship and there's the lizard alien and suit talk yeah we knew he was a drug dealer because he offered the drugs earlier and right for me by now I'm like oh these aren't medical supplies these are drugs let's talk about those drugs too they look like giant tick-tack candy yeah yeah large and later we're we we learn that they're referred to as tubes right but they but you hold them and they have this really weird blue glow that comes out and that I guess you know is how the individual gets their narcotic high from

that blue glow is what I'm guessing so I don't know. But then Wix says, okay, as soon as we get payment, we will, you know, we'll make the trade and we'll be done. And Sautauk says, yeah, okay, I got what you need. And he turns around and then pulls out a phaser. And shoots it, Nelix. But Soutch, but Wix is already ready for it. Wix is already grabbing in his inner pocket as the other guys turned around.

Soutaq has turned away, right? And by the way, what he's grabbing is a Starfleet phaser. Correct. that he took off the shuttle. Right. We forgot to mention that. Yes, we did. As they're leaving, he's, he's, you know, searching around the shuttle and all of a sudden

pulls out a phaser and sticks in his pocket. And he looks like, why are you bringing that? And he goes, well, it's dangerous. You know, we should just have something just in case. Yeah. And, of course, it does turn out to be dangerous. Right. Drug dealer tries to turn on them.

Wix has the Starfleet phaser. And there's a quick, brief fire. fight and Wicks shoots the drug dealer and he's down. Yeah. Wicks says, let's get out of here. Get out of here. And they beam back to the shuttle. But there were, it's a little mess, little, it's a little messy at this point.

But did you see the other, uh, hench? Aliens. Yeah. So there were other people that were with Soutak, the, the droopy dog face or lizard alien guy. And they're the ones that steal. They take the drugs. They take the narcotics, right? Don't they take the container?

I think so. Yeah, it's a bit of a chaos. Yeah, it's chaos when that happens. Right. Okay, then they beam back after they've lost the drugs, basically. They've lost the drugs. They've shot the guy. Yeah, they have this firefight.

Yeah. And they get back and Neelix is pissed. Oh, he's so mad. And Wix is like, I'm going to tell Janeway. Wix says to Neelix in the shuttle. He says, wait till they discover the whole truth about you. And then he asks Neelix, so you would let Barat put me in Christ. cryostatic suspension, which I'm only imagining how weird that must be or how, you know, not happy or not, you know, not a good thing to have done to you, cryostatic suspension, whatever that means.

Whatever that means sounds bad. Doesn't sound good, yeah. But, you know, Wicks really throws this guilt trip about his entire year in the UBian prison where he had to eat worms to stay alive and vermin. They're chewing on you all night long and you get punished in ways that you can't even imagine. and Neelix literally caves. He reluctantly agrees to say nothing and that the debt is now paid. He doesn't want to have anything to do with Wix from now on.

We're done, you know, right? He just ties with him at that point. And then the next scene, we're in the conference room, Barat is there. The station manager is now in the conference room of Voyager mounting an investigation into a murder that has happened on the station. From his initial investigation,

he discovers that there are unidentifiable energy readings. he then does a spectral analysis which then reveal that these energy readings have a Federation phaser signature. Dun, dun, dun, dun.

Yeah. Is that Tuvok's quarters that we see next that? I think so. I think that's his desk and his office area of his quarters. Yeah, okay. I wrote Tuvok's office, question mark, quarters, question mark.

Tuvok asked Neelix whether, and see, this is where Tuvok pronounces it, Wixabon. because before I heard wixapad and then now it's wixabon and I thought yeah that rhymes with cinnabon synabon. Sinabon buns and he asked if wixabon has ever been involved in criminal activity and Nelix denies at all. He says, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. And then he says, okay, well, I need you to attend the interrogation of your friend of your acquaintance wicks because I need you to provide insight into whether or not he's lying or, you know, give me some insight into this.

so they do they go down to the tavern station the tavern on the station is where they head to next and Tuvok Neelix and Wix are there Neelix basically yeah Tuvok says to Wix like where were you this guy was murdered what were you doing

and Wix goes oh I was asleep yeah and Tuvok's like was there anybody to back that up and he goes I sleep alone sadly I sleep alone perfect alibi right there yeah sleeps alone so Tuvok says

that's it for now. I have more questions for you later. I'm going to let you go. And Neelix tells Tuvok, I'm going to stay for a glass of ale. Atova ale is what he said. So this is his excuse to basically confront Wix about everything that's going on. And that's when we learned that Wix wasn't really working for himself. Wix was working for this group of people called the Kalladi traders who are very cutthroat and just, you know, they're not. They're drug dealers. They're suppliers in the drug trade. Correct.

And they are not happy. No. That they lost their drugs and didn't get their money, didn't get anything. Yeah. And so Wicks says, you know what? They're really not happy and you don't want to mess with these guys. And they've agreed to let you live, Neelix, if we can get some warp plasma, some fresh warp plasma from Voyager. Just three grams.

That's all we need. Three grams of warp plasma. by 0,900 hours in the morning. Yeah. And Neelix is not happy at all about this situation, but he does agree to help Wix. Again, he

keeps going another step further and another step further. Yeah. So this is the next scene where Paris is in this storage room looking for a box. He's looking for a box numbered. I didn't write the town, but whatever the number is.

I did. You did? What's the number he did. It's L647X7. L647X7. Anyway, he's looking for a box and Neelix walks in and says, you know, why were you in prison, basically? Yeah, we'll put you in prison. We'll put Jim prison. And Paris sort of thinks about it for B. He sort of walks around. He says, you know, it's, it comes down to one simple fact that I didn't tell the truth. Right. I made a mistake and then I lied about it. And that to me, it was it was such a great scene because it's exactly what neelix needed to hear exactly and to elaborate what you said when you when paris says he made a mistake he then he then valid he doesn't validate it

but he then adds to it by saying i made a mistake which happens to everyone that's right you know which happens to people is what you said but but what i got from that is it happens to everyone everyone makes a mistake and if he had admitted that mistake it would have been a lot better but yeah lying about it and his life was almost ruined If it wasn't for Janeway plucking him out of that New Zealand penal colony, Tom Paris would have been just a sad sack for the rest of his life. Yeah. And it's interesting. Yeah. It's interesting because with Paris, you know, he says it comes down to one simple fact that I didn't tell the truth that I made a mistake and a lie about it. But it's interesting because I always thought that Paris was in prison because he had betrayed Starfleet and gone and fought with a marquee. So he was basically in prison for being a marquee. So this one was a little confusing to me because I'm like, well, Paris's backstory is a little mysterious and, you know, lying about something sounds more like Nicolcano. This is the Nick La Carno story that's that he's referencing.

That's when you say that whole thing about the one mistake you made, you know, and not admitting. But that's what I'm saying is like Nick La Carno and Tom Paris, they mix them. Sometimes when it's convenient, they write them like they're the same character. And when it's not, they write a. And so it's a little inconsistent to me. This one sounded like it was kind of it was straying into Nick La Carno territory and not Tom Paris territory, which I thought was interesting. But it fit this story. It fit what Neelix needed to hear for sure.

So if you were to do a hybrid of those two characters, a hybrid name, Nick La Carno and Tom Paris. So it would be nom la Paris or it would be Tick, Tick, Bacarno. Dick Picarno or Nam La Paris. Those are your choices. The other thing I thought was interesting is that you find Paris in this storage room and he's looking for a box and it appears like he's been looking for a while. Like it's hard to find this box. The Nelix walks in, kind of chats, doesn't really pay attention.

And then in two seconds goes, oh, Tom, here you go. Here's the box. I'm like, what an idiot. Tom is. He's like, he's like, look. looking at his pad and he's looking at every box. And then Neelix goes, hey, it's right there. It's like, nice.

I guess, you know, he's going to take over your job as container. Yeah, Paris is not very smart. He's cute. Tom Paris is cute, but he's not that smart. Can't find a box with the numbered one. Anyway, so Neelix is like, thanks. And starts to walk out and Paris stops him. and says, hey, Neelix, hold on a second.

You know, some of us, a few of us are going to the resort in the holodeck tonight. We're going to do the resort program in the holodeck. Why don't you come along, hang out with us? Yeah. And Neelix is like, no, I think I'm just going to go to sleep for the night. Right. What she does.

Liar. He lied. But I thought that was a nice moment for Neelix. It was a nice moment for Tom. just to kind of share some vulnerability and some truth there and then to you know Tom makes an effort it was it was a nice sign for me that Tom Paris is evolving as a character

that they're giving him these nice moments rather than the chip on the shoulder womanizer all the stuff that they just hit so hard in that first season or two they give Paris these opportunities to really be a likable you know good guy

which I think was always there underneath, but he didn't have the chance to do it. It was nice that Tom invited Neelix to the Lord Hollow program. That's a nice gesture for sure. But of course, Neelix can't accept because he has to go to sleep, but sleep really means going to engineering, where we have Neelix and Vorick from some more Vorick time.

More Vorick. We've never met Vorick. We've never seen him. No one's ever talked about him. And all of a sudden, he's in lots of scenes. Yeah. I do like to, I would like to say that Vorik's voice is the smoothest Vulcan voice you've ever heard. He's like a radio DJ, Alex Emberg's Vulcan voices.

So, you know, Coast 103, smooth hits, kind of a. Yeah, he's the Tom Harris of Vulcans. He's the Tom Perkins. Yeah, you're right. He's the, yes, ma'am, of Vulcans. Yeah, okay, okay, very good. Yeah, I didn't even make that connection. Thank you for sharing that with me.

So Neelix is there to say that he's going to log some time in the Jeffries Tube, which is kind of an odd request. But Borick has seen him around Torres saying, I can help, I can do this. So buys it. He buys it in a second. He doesn't say anything. He says, go ahead. Go up there. Right.

And what a wonderful shot of Neelix climbing up the Jeffries Tube. He opens up at one panel. And now they shoot it, you know, Jesus decides to shoot it from the reverse angle. Yeah. Clearly moving the wall away. And you just see the remorse that is just coming across. Alex's face about he can't do it can't extract the plasma he can't the other thing is he pronounced plasma plasma plasma I noticed that too tomato tomato so yeah it is it is his right to

pronounce so however he wants but it did sound it did catch me for a second when I yeah I'm like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa rewind yeah neelix goes back to the station to meet wicks and at the arranged time at nine o'clock we're supposed to have this plasma um and neelix says I couldn't do it steal from my friends. And just as they're about to get into this argument about it, they hear off camera, you know, you two, stop. Yeah. And you think, oh, oh, they're going to arrest Nelix and Wicks. Like, oh, boy, they're going to arrest them. And then you see the, the police guys or whatever run right by them. And they arrest Chacote and Paris, charging them with murder and dealing. Conspiring with known drug traffickers. Yes. So two charges. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And we see that Janeway is furious about this. Barat shows them some video that, well, look, Chukotay and Paris were talking to this drug dealer who died later. So, and there was a Starfleet phaser signature. So it's got to be them. Got to be. And Janeway and Tuvac both say, you know, this is circumstantial. This is not evidence.

And she's furious. Yeah. And she says, look, if you're going to interrogate my men, you're going to have my security officer present during all interrogation. because she doesn't want any mischief to go on, right? I mean, no coerced confessions, none of that stuff. And then, of course, Barat tries to take control by saying, well, I'll take that under advisement, you know, whether or not he'll allow that is another case.

But we do know that somebody is going to serve 50 years, not 15, but 5-0 years of cryostatic suspension for this murder. And, you know, the minute he comes out with that, Janeway plays hardball with him this whole time. She's just like, she gets in his face. He's like, I am not going to allow any of my crew members to serve time for a crime that they did not do. And so Neelix feels horrible about this. And Neelix says to Wix that he has a plan.

Right. He's got a plan and he's going to do it. And he doesn't care whether Wix helps or not. And he kind of walks away and Wicks says, okay, I'm not going to let you do this alone. Now we're in Barat's control room where Neelix and Wix present their plan to set a trap for the Kalati traders. Will this plan work? Will it not? So now we're in this remote station corridor where we see Nelix and Wix.

They're waiting while Barat is observing on a security camera. And at that moment, all of a sudden, security camera starts fritzing. And now you see nothing. You see zero image of Nelix and Wix. Yeah, nobody's there. Yeah. And Barat says someone is tampering with this video's feed. They're transmitting a false visual signal right now.

Yeah, they're transmitting a false visual signal. Something's going on. We'll give it a few minutes. I think he says five minutes. Right. And we're going in. Right. And now we see we're back with our main players, and we're back in that remote part of the station. And now the Kaladi appear. We see three of them. We see Tozin, one of the most powerful Kaladi and two henchmen. Well, the minute I saw Tozen, I don't know what you thought, but I thought immediately the creature from the Black Lagoon.

That face was so creature, but the only difference is they threw a bunch of hair. it threw a bunch of like rock star hair on there but also there was a lot of teeth i felt like there were like a hundredth little teeth it was like piranha teeth inside of a creature for the black lagoon and then rock star hair on top of like 80s um rocker hair yeah for sure yeah so that's uh that's tozen and i really feel like the hair pulled me out i felt like they didn't need that's what i'm saying it's like is if this is the most powerful collati make him menacing and that goofy hair really pulled me up for a second. Interesting. Yes. Tozen then scans the sample and he realizes, goodness gracious.

This is trash. This is contaminated. This is not the right stuff. And then this is the Neelix heroic moment. This is the redemption moment from the episode False Prophets where he looked so unheroic. And now Neelix looks heroic. He sits there. He's very smart. He's got a plan. He's five steps ahead of Tozen. He says, I unsealed the canister. It's been leaking plasma into the room and Neelick says any you try to shoot us the whole place blows up right you try to beam out of here the whole place blows up there too yeah i've i've leaked this uh plasma into the room and you're stuck yeah and he calls him a name too neelis goes you orelian lung maggot so nice names from neil

nice names yeah so toson is stuck he's like what do i do i buy this is this a bluff right he doesn't know and barat suddenly arrives trying to arrest them oh but But hey, you skipped over the fact that Tozin actually tries to call his bluff, right? He says, like, okay, then I will kill you. And then Neelix ones ups it by saying, I'm ready to, you know, basically, he says, I'm ready to die. Go ahead. You can kill me.

As long as I know that it gets rid of one, I think this is where he calls him, Orelian lung maggot, right? If it gets rid of one bad guy like you, it's worth it. Go ahead. Shoot, shoot, shoot. What are you waiting for? Shoot, shoot. And now, because they're playing this game of chicken. and Neelix doesn't flinch.

Neelis doesn't flitch, but it does bring the time to bring Barat and his henchmen in to sort of save the day in a way. But it's truly Neelix's game right here. It's all about the mind at this point. Can you psychologically defeat your opponent? And that's what Neelix did. He won up to him.

It was like a chess game. Like every move that Tozen performed, Neelix had a better move, right? Neelix was very smart, very heroic. When Barat arrives, they say freeze, but one of the drug dealers fires a weapon anyway. Yeah, like, hello. There is a plasma explosion in the room. Neelix is knocked unconscious, and we don't know what's happened for a moment.

Next scene, we see he's in Stick Bay, and he's alive. And Tuvok says, you know, one of the criminals was killed, but these guys were taken into custody. They were arrested, and Wix even got his shuttle back. and he's gone on his way. It seems like the plan worked and everybody got what they wanted here. You know, the good guys won.

And then Janeway arrives. Then Janeway walks in. He's not happy. She clears the room. And I love how the doctor is still kind of hovering there. And Janeway just shoots in this look like, you got to get out. And the doctors and say,

The doctor knows. He's gone. He's like, nope. Something's going down. Yeah. And she says, how can I ever trust you again? Oh, yeah. And that's just, oh, that's devastating for Neelix. I know for Neelix. Yeah, it's devastating for us as an audience to watch this, but it's also devastating for Neelix to have to go through this. Yeah. And let's face it, John Ethan Phillips has always played Neelix as if he's in love with Captain Janeway. Remember we talked about that before? So really, the person that you have so much, much affection for or respect for is disappointed by your actions and your behavior.

And it really is, it's being scolded by mom is what it is. You know what I'm saying? Like, how could you do this? Scoled is a family. Putting it lightly because she was, I've never, I've rarely seen Janeway as angry and is disappointed and as serious as she was in this scene. And Neelix tries to explain himself. He says, look, I took one step.

And then that led to one lie That led to another lie And she doesn't buy it And he even says to her He says, you know, I feel like my usefulness here has ended Yeah, and she asked him, you know, point blank She says, Neelix, what was so important That you would throw away your principles?

What? And that's when he says, a map, you know, a map And then that reverse shut, the close up on Neelix, It looks like she's laughing. I can't tell, but it looks like there's a little bit of like but she's like, she's covering her mouth like, oh my God, you know. Well, I think she's just dumbfounded, like a map, all of this for a map. Right.

How does that make sense? And then he says, I wanted to help. Like, I felt like my usefulness had ended here. That's right. And you didn't need me anymore. Right. She says there will be consequences. Yes.

And he says, you know, I'll leave. I'll drop me off. I'll leave. Yeah. I'll get off the ship. You know, you don't need me anymore and you're mad at me. And she's like, no, you're not going anywhere. You have obligations here.

You're part of this family. You cannot walk away from responsibilities just because you made a mistake. You are part of a family. That's right. And we're all in this together, she says. Yes. Yeah.

And she says earlier that the first duty of any Starfleet officer is the truth. And you violated that duty and there will be consequences. First duty. That's the name of the TNG episode that McClarkano did. Look at that. Look at these.

duty of any officer, that's right. She says you're going to have to scrub, start by scrubbing the exhaust manifolds. That will be your assignment. Yeah. And did you see what time he had to report for deterioration? No, what time? Oh, 400. Which is, which is funny because that is Johnny Ethan Phillips usual call time. Call time. It's right. So I sat there going, hmm, that's not much of a punishment because he's used to that call time. He's used to 4 a.m. That's right. I love that last scene because he looked so happy to be called a part of the family and and to and to be useful he's going to scrub some he's got a job to do and that's all he was looking for anyway right I loved her look when he he took off she had a look of that softened you know that as hard as she was in that scene

at the end she sort of you know you saw that she understood his emotional state and his right and some of his reasoning even though she she had to have this punishment and there had to be consequences but yeah and and watching this scene it really did it did bring some tears to my eyes and I got emotional watching this because you see the highs and lows of Neelix's journey in this episode yeah and then at the end he literally is he's already resigned to the fact that he's going to be kicked off the ship he thinks this is it and then when he realizes that Janeway considers him a vital member of this crew and of this family and just to see him go from the resignation to this almost a bullion

excitement this this this what's the word I'm looking for but he's he's absolutely relief relief and joy yeah this this this this absolute joy that comes across his face was great it was wonderful I mean it's well all the nuances were there for me in that in that scene I love that there was like I said earlier on our scale of one to ten like there were some moments like this that I thought were wonderful, that were really wonderful. What's your theme?

My theme is tell the truth. Yeah. Just tell the truth. Yeah. That's the first duty. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeah, but that is the theme. It's tell the truth because one lie,

one little innocent lie, can lead to another and another and another. And the lesson here is just be authentic, tell the truth when he told the truth in the end to Janeway in that last scene even though she had to you know enforce the consequences you could see that it was meaningful to her and she understood it and if he had just started there instead of getting you know one lie to another lie to another lie if you just started there and said I feel like my usefulness here has ended and I want

something to do like if you just come clean and been authentic and truthful up front yeah instead of trying to make some deal for a map, then that's the, you know, I mean, I can relate to that. How often have I, like, thought, oh, if I just get this thing or accomplish this or do this, then someone will be happy or someone will, you know, I'll be happy or whatever. And it's usually not about that thing outside of me.

It's about what's inside. So, yeah. That was a great, great episode in that way for Neelix and the character work there. Yeah. What's your theme? Well, I just want to say Neelix just needed. to follow the example of Tick Piccarno.

Do you like Tick Piccarno better? I do. I do like NOM La Paris. I like Tick Piccarno. Tick Piccarno. Okay, if you listen to Tick Piccarno, Neelix, if you listen to what Tick Piccarno tells you, you won't go wrong because he's already experienced what it is to not tell the truth.

So my theme is literally the importance of taking responsibility for a mistake. It's not easy at first, but the truth will always be the better option. The truth will set you free. Nice, very well put. Thank you. Great. Okay, dokey. Well, great.

Well, that was a fun recap. All right, thank you so much, everybody, for tuning in for this particular episode of Fair Trade. Join us next week when Robbie and I will review the episode Alter Ego for all of our lovely Patreon patrons. Thank you for your patronage. Please stay tuned for your bonus material, which will include none other than John Ethan Phillips as our special guest to answer a question or two about this episode, Fair Trade. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. See you next week. Thank you.