Riddles (VOY S6 E06)

Riddles (Star Trek: Voyager, S6 E6) was recommended by Annalise (she/her) pronounced: ahna-lease, who said: Every re-watch of Voyager, my partner and I have lightly different feelings about Neelix. During a rewatch in 2020, as we were isolated from our loved ones, his desire to make their journey more comfortable, to find connections to their homes, really makes him endearing. A little of that has stuck with me during the rewatches since then.

His relationship with Tuvok is one I find amusing and where you see how hard Neelix tries to make people feel seen and connected. Suddenly, in this episode Tuvok needs Neelix and recognizes that he feels safe with Neelix, is evidence of all of Neelix's hard work paying off. It would have been so easy (and natural) for Tuvok and Neelix to be mutually antagonistic for the whole series (Tuvok hating him for being silly, and Neelix hating Tuvok for being so serious), but Neelix genuinely likes Tuvok. He doesn't understand how Vulcans work in the slightest, but his responses to Tuvok show a genuine care and good intentions, like a kid who sees an adult in distress and offers them a favorite toy.

As a Neurodivergent person, I do love quotable TV, and I also find myself quoting the riddle about the calendar often when I'm working on my own scheduling and a little bit hungry.

Riddles first aired on November 3, 1999, written by story by André Bormanis, teleplay by Robert Doherty, and directed by Roxann Dawson

Returning from a diplomatic mission, Tuvok is attacked by a cloaked intruder and suffers neurological damage.

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