NEELIX (Ethan Phillips), a Talaxian, was born on Rinax, a moon of Talax in Delta Quadrant. He is described by many, including Captain Kathryn Janeway, CO of U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656, as a jovial and highly capable colleague, whose wit and instinct enabled him to survive as a scavenger and merchant before serving on the Voyager with his Ocampa mate, Kes.Neelix is valuable in a number of respects. For starters, he has extremely useful culinary skills and often leads foraging parties on planets having abundant fruits and vegetables but no people on them. His past dealings and travels make him a source of information and knowledge that has come in handy for command decisions and strategy. His chores as the self-appointed chief morale officer have run the gamut from personal counseling to a daily inter-ship video program for the crew.With regard to that last: on the occasion of his introducing that daily program, Neelix took a key part in the investigation that smoked out the traitor Michael Jonas. Tom Paris played out his undisciplined charade, left the ship, fell into the hands of First Maj Culloh of the Kazon-Nistrum, then escaped and sent a desperate message identifying Jonas as a traitor and a spy for the Kazon. When Jonas made a break for the engine room and tried to disable the ship, Neelix fought him literally to the death to stop him. It was the most violent act he ever had to perform in the service of his Starfleet hosts.Despite his typically sunny demeanor, Neelix has his own personal demons, admitting that he avoided military service before the 2366 conquest of his home planet Talax. The Haakonian Order forced surrender after it irradiated his family and the rest of the population of the Talax moon Rinax with the Metreon Cascade weapon. He also occasionally clashes with Tom Paris and has a long-running feud with the impatient Doctor. On the flip side, he is completely in love and refers to as sweetling. Eventually Kes achieved a metamorphosis of sorts and had to leave Voyager. Neelix stayed on board until that ship happened upon an asteroid with a population of Talaxian exiles on it. Neelix stayed on that asteroid and became the mayor of the village-sized community on it. He even oversaw its defenses, and had help from his former rival Tom Paris in emplacing enough deflectors to stop a mining concern from appropriating the asteroid. He also won an appointment as permanent ambassador extraordinary for the United Federation of Planets, this after Starfleet's Project Pathfinder established a channel of full-duplex communication between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants.He never saw Voyager again after that, because of course Voyager successfully crossed the vast inter-quadrant gulf to the Alpha Quadrant. But he never forgot the people who took him in and changed him from an itinerant roustabout to a community leader. Show less «