Mortal Coil (Star Trek: Voyager)

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Star Trek: Voyager episode
"Mortal Coil"
Episode no.	80^{[citation needed]}
Prod. code	180
Airdate	December 17, 1997^[1]
Writer(s)	Bryan Fuller
Director	Allan Kroeker
Guest star(s)	Nancy Hower as Samantha Wildman Brooke Stephens as Naomi Wildman Robin Stapler as Alixia
Year	2374
Stardate	51449.2
Episode chronology
Previous	"Concerning Flight"
Next	"Waking Moments"

"Mortal Coil" is an episode of the television series Star Trek: Voyager, the 12th episode of the fourth season. The episode has an average rating of 3.9/5 on the official Star Trek website (as of January 5, 2008).^[1]

1 Plot
2 Theme
3 Production
4 Cast reaction
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot

In this episode, Neelix is killed while participating in a survey mission of a protomatter nebula. Using a technique devised by Seven of Nine, however, The Doctor is able to revive Neelix after being dead for nearly 19 hours. Distressed that he had not perceived the afterlife while he was dead, Neelix begins to question the religious beliefs he had come to believe. With the aid of Chakotay, Neelix embarks on a spiritual vision quest, during which he confronts his dead sister, Alixia, who mocks him before she is killed. He then finds himself on a slab, surrounded by visions of his shipmates, who tell him that life is irrelevant and that he knows what he has to do.

Convinced that his existence is meaningless and that his life has no purpose, Neelix decides to commit suicide by transporting himself into the nebula. Despite the attempts of his shipmates, Neelix prepares to beam off until Ensign Samantha Wildman arrives to ask Neelix if he could console Naomi, who believes she saw a monster in the replicator and who will only allow Neelix to tuck her in. Realizing that he does, indeed, have purpose in his life, Neelix relents and heads for the Wildmans' quarters. Once there, Naomi, who had heard that Neelix was sick, wondered if a monster had got him. "Yes", Neelix replied. "But I chased him away."^[1]^[2]^[3]

[edit] Theme

In this episode, Neelix's religious faith is seriously challenged; he eventually chooses to live without it. Chakotay serves as a counterpoint to his perspective, encouraging Neelix not to abandon all faith. In Star Trek: The Human Frontier, Michèle and Duncan Barrett discuss this episode as an example of Star Trek's shifting attitudes towards religion, specifically Voyager's treatment of religious faith and how it can change. The Barretts contrast this episode with "Sacred Ground", in which the rationalist Captain Janeway is forced to accept the possibility of forces outside rational explanation.^[4] Both episodes are considered as illustrations of how "Star Trek articulates the conflicts between religion and science that continue — perhaps surprisingly after so much time — to recur in modern western thought."^[5]

[edit] Production

Writer Bryan Fuller also created the death-themed American television programs Dead Like Me^[6] and Pushing Daisies.^[7]

[edit] Cast reaction

Ethan Phillips portrayed Neelix, resurrected protagonist

Ethan Phillips, who plays Neelix, said he felt the episode was the most rewarding of the show for him, and that it was one of his favorites. "I thought that was a beautiful show", he said. "It was very existential ... and very well directed by Allan Kroeker".^[8]