I think the Neelix and Tuvok scene was necessary to the episode, as it was a direct mirror to the Doctor's actions, showing the sliding scale of morality when it comes to harming one for the common good. Tuvok is willing to threaten and scare Gar to benefit the crew, but would go no further. The more morally flexible Neelix was willing to non-fatally poison him to get results, something which disturbs Tuvok until Neelix tries to justify with false equivalence. And then that's contrasted to the the Doctor's willingness to lethally poison Chellik and further to Chellik's defence of murder to protect a society. Where does one draw the line and, as Neelix suggests, if you're willing to get on the scale at all, do you lose any right to a moral highground?

I get that I'm a few years late for the big debate on this one, but I've just got to put my tuppence in. I'm amazed at the unanimity in the comments that Janeway was wrong with the ending - that there was one immoral answer, which was the one that she chose, that this was akin to the Vidians harvesting organs. I would regard it as much more akin to the previous episode, The Thaw.*

In that episode, they are killing a lifeform that was a gestalt of others, in order to save them. Yes, that lifeform was awful and enjoyed torturing people, but it was a lifeform dependant on the unwilling sacrifice of others to exist and they made the decision that the original lives were more important. This one was a lot more complex and difficult, because Tuvix had done nothing wrong and was eminently likeable, but his existence was the result of two people being trapped (not dead, to my mind, trapped) and allowing him to continue meant killing Tuvok and Neelix by not rescuing them.

I don't know if I agree with Janeway's decision. But it certainly wasn't as cut and dried as a lot of the comments here would have it. She did "murder" Tuvix, but making the other choice would have been "murdering" Tuvok and Neelix by inaction. There was no good choice and I am so impressed with this show that they committed to that rather than science-babbling their way to a compromise or making it so that Tuvix couldn't survive and so had to be split, which was what I was absolutely expecting to happen. They made it hard all the way and I've got a lot of time for that.

Has anyone suggested Red Dwarf/has Mark watched it outside of the site? Was watching it the other day and would kill to see a completely unspoiled perspective on the show.

I'm just focussed on how much I empathise with Tuvok' "I prefer to sit on my own and read" followed by Parris *continuing to talk to him*!! Thank you for being "helpful" but I don't want to be sociable - I have a book.

I am absolutely astounded that Mark liked this one. Literally taken aback. I really thought he'd hate it with as much fire as I did.

It's a story which demonstrates in great detail that the jobs at Kerblam are tedious, stressful, ableist, dehumanising, and all-around awful (and sadly, only a very mild exaggeration of real life). And the win condition of this episode is that now more people get to do those jobs? Yaay?

I *knew* that waiter had infuriated me before!

I actually found that strikingly squicky, because his reasoning is solely that he's taken (and if that changes, he'll "let her know"). Nothing about, "I'm your boss, your mentor, you are literally in school, and there is a massive power imbalance between us," which seem to me to be far more pertinent issues.

As alchemypotato said, thank you for doing them. They've been a highlight of rewatching along with Mark and are very much appreciated.

****Because it's a show which depicts democratically elected politicians as corupt and slimy, reporters as obnoxious and crooked and the military as righteous and openly cheers on them taking power and cleaning up the swamp and views any criticism of that as automatically in bad faith and worth dismissing.****

You raise a few good and deeply uncomfortable points.

I love this episode so much - I remember watching this season for the first time and wondering what the hell would happen after Endgame with still two episodes left to go. Then Rising Star happened and that clearly tied up all the loose ends, so what the hell was this going to be? Glorious is what it was. Utterly pointless in terms of the main plot, but such an interesting and innovative episode.

I devoured trivia about it and looked up all the fan theories. The most interesting was the bit with the holograms - apparently Richard Biggs hated playing an evil Dr Mengele style Franklin and almost refused to do it, which is what I attribute his rushed and phoned in line delivery to. Bruce Boxleitner on the other hard apparently *loved* the idea of playing a facist dictator and watched Hitler's Nuremberg speeches to get the body language, cadence and intonation down perfectly. Worth rewatching the scene and watching for that, as it is an eerily impressive Hitler impersonation.