Story By: Ronald Wilkerson and Jean Loiuse Mattias
Directed By: Jesus Salvador Trevino
Rating: **** (out of 5)
The events here is the perfect example of Voyager writers keeping tabs of the series as a whole and the characters in an ongoing journey. It�s something I never thought of, but Neelix only knows about his little area of space and it�s wonderful that the writers actually acknowledge Voyager is moving because after almost three years in the Delta Quadrant Voyager has continually encountered the Kazon and the Vidiians! Only finally is Voyager letting go of that past and starting to encounter many one off races on its journey. I�m surprised that Neelix�s knowledge has extended as far as it has, at least we are tackling this issue though because Neelix could�ve continued being knowledgeable and it wouldn�t have been realistic.
�Fair Trade� shows Neelix trying to find usefulness, as he is aware that he doesn�t know space any further. In simply trying to find a map to help his friends on Voyager he gets into trouble, his good intentions fail.
Neelix hasn�t had too many great character moments; I suppose �Jetrel,� �Elogium,� �Parturition,� Tuvix,� �Investigations� and perhaps �Macrocosm� are Neelix�s only real episodes and even then none of these have really done much for him, Neelix has always been pushed into the background for bigger issues. Now finally we get the first fully Neelix, in your face, episode; and �Fair Trade� makes me wish we could have more, light hearted episodes similar to this. Well this isn�t all that light-hearted but it�s Neelix�s good intentions that give charm to the episode.
All Neelix wants to do is find a map, but on a space station were criminals and thugs are all over the place he was bound to find himself in trouble, especially once he finds his Talaxian friend who convinces Neelix to do the things he most uncomfortable doing, lying to his friends and colleagues. The story pretty much goes that Neelix�s conscience is eating away at him for all his lying and he gets into a lot of trouble with his friend who also lies to Neelix about things. In the end Neelix gets into deep trouble in the wrong crowd and eventually has a cunning plan to get out of trouble while having to face Janeway about his actions at the end. There�s nothing at all the matter with this story, but it is just kind of a normal episode encompassed in an interesting shell.
I don�t know about anyone else, but when a really good episode comes along on Voyager there is a different feel to it, when the episode is crap there is another feel to the episode. It�s almost as though the directors know when the episodes crap and purposely create this different and bad feel to an episode. With �Fair Trade� a lot of it was �the crap feel� but it was mainly Ethan Phillips� distinguished performance as the annoying but somehow lovable Voyager hedgehog that makes this one enjoyable and makes you care about Neelix, one of the most underused characters on Voyager.
Neelix�s lecture from Janeway was touching, Janeway�s words to Neelix, especially when telling him about the Starfleet way of doing things which made Neelix happy because that is what he wants, he wants to be a hero and he wants to have varied and numerous skills. Neelix is like a child want to �play with the big boys.� Neelix want to be further involved with Starfleet.
The credit here lies with Ethan Phillips, finally I can say I like this character and want to see more him; �Fair Trade� was a nice big step in the right direction, a direction I hope Neelix continues on.