Star Trek's Tuvix Actor, Tom Wright, Defends Voyager's Most Controversial Decision
The "Star Trek" fan base is passionate, and its denizens still debate certain episodes decades after they premiered. A prime example is "Tuvix," an installment of "Star Trek: Voyager" that debuted in 1996. The episode is controversial because it sees Tuvok (Tim Russ) and Neelix (Ethan Phillips) tragically merge to create a hybrid called Tuvix (Tom Wright), only for Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to restore them to their original selves, effectively killing the new entity. However, Wright has defended the call to end his character, even though some people disagree with him.
"Speaking as the character, every entity alive is hardwired to want to survive," Wright said during a Trek Talks panel. "So that's going to be Tuvix's default thinking. But myself, as an actor, I saw that he had to go. There wasn't enough justification for losing two entities for the sake of one. ... I absolutely loved the character. ... There's an artistic side to me that would love to keep on playing that character forever and ever, but the practical side of the entire ball of wax dictates something different."
Janeway's decision to eliminate Tuvix can arguably be chalked up as a time when "Star Trek" went too far. Still, some might say that she made the right call, as she had to save Neelix and Tuvok. With that in mind, what do the other cast members think about the controversial moment?
The Tuvix episode divided the Star Trek: Voyager cast
Tuvix was created following a botched transporter accident, so he wasn't supposed to exist at all. As such, Tim Russ believes Captain Janeway made the correct call, as her first responsibility is to Neelix, Tuvok, and the rest of the USS Voyager crew. "[Tuvix is] an anomaly, one of a kind. You can't survive, whereas the crew people that he's replaced ... already have a family; we have lives," he said during the panel.
Meanwhile, Ethan Phillips agreed that Tuvix was created by accident, so Janeway restoring Neelix and Tuvok isn't akin to killing another living being. However, the actor also said that it's a complicated subject for which he doesn't have a clear-cut answer: "By executing Tuvix, she's not making up for a murder or anything like that. He has almost a right to live because of this accident. I wouldn't know where to begin to decide."
While those arguments are valid, there's no denying that Janeway's decision to get rid of Tuvix hurt her character in the eyes of some people. Lieutenant Tom Paris actor Robert Duncan McNeill told the panel that the storyline made Janeway look unsympathetic, and as a result, she had to earn the fans' affection all over again. However, do "Star Trek: Voyager" fans share McNeill's sentiment?
Captain Janeway's dilemma is complicated
The "Tuvix" episode is a moral quandary in the eyes of many "Star Trek: Voyager" viewers. The fan base is just as split as the cast members over Captain Janeway's decision to restore Neelix and Tuvok, and this has led to some interesting discussions. According to Redditor u/Marcuse0, Neelix and Tuvok didn't grant permission to be combined into a singular entity, so Captain Janeway assumed they'd want to be restored. Furthermore, there were no guidelines for best dealing with this type of scenario. "This is why Janeway's decision is so easy to paint as a bad or callous one," they wrote. "She literally has no moral framework to fall back on in terms of rights or preference."
Additionally, bringing back Tuvok and Neelix may have been the right call because the transporter accident didn't kill either being. As u/ChronoLegion2 wrote, "Death is irreversible, and Tuvok and Neelix were still in limbo, as it were. If they can be brought back, then they're not really dead."
There's a strong case to be made that all three characters deserved to live, but should an anomaly like Tuvix have replaced two crew members who were technically still alive, or is being stuck in limbo effectively a death sentence? According to u/gazamcnulty, the transporter accident was unfortunate, but it sealed Neelix's and Tuvok's fates, so wiping out Tuvix was wrong. "The way I see it, Neelix and Tuvok tragically lost their lives the moment Tuvix was created," they stated.