Star Trek - Voyager, Episode 5: Phage (1995)

Lauded by most insiders on Voyager's creative team as one of the most satisfying episodes in the series, "Phage" is indeed a nice balance among character development, story hook, and moral and emotional conflict. With power sources dwindling aboard the ship, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) sends an away team, including Neelix (Ethan Phillips), to a planet in search of dilithium crystals. While there, Neelix is literally robbed of his lungs by the Vidiians, a once-civilized people who are combating a deadly disease called the Phage by stealing organs. Set up with a pair of holographic lungs by Voyager's doctor (Robert Picardo), Neelix is forced to remain absolutely still while Janeway chases the alien thieves.

Writer Skye Dent may be the only person not entirely happy with the show: he describes the Vidiians he had conceived as arrogant and formidable, while their actual portrayal is, in his words, "wimpy." Point taken, but both Dent and Brannon Braga, series producer and cowriter of "Phage," do find a way here to capitalize on one of the few real relationships--Neelix and his lover, Kes (Jennifer Lien)--among the characters at that time, and the result is tender. Best of all, however, is Janeway's visible pain when she has to get tough with such a pitiful people as the Vidiians; executive producer Jeri Taylor says Mulgrew was quite moved by those scenes. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Is Neelix gonna die?

With the annoyance that Neelix's character seemed to cause pretty much everyone else on the ship, I thought this is the episode that he would leave the show.

An alien with a disease called the "Phage" steals Neelix's lungs and graphs them into this own body. After hunting down the lung theft, Janeway demands the organs back, only to find out he's already using them. Kes offers to give Neelix one of her lungs, the alien offers to perform the surgery using their advanced technology to modify organs from 2 unlike species.

This was a good episode, but I feel that the plot was a little weak. Most episodes have a major story line and a couple of minor ones, as well as the other 'day to day' ongoing struggles. This one seemed the lack the minor conflicts. January 7, 2004

Aliens steal Neelix's lungs and Janeway wants them back

One of the prime tenants of Gene Roddenberry's "Start Trek" universe is that plot lines will dress up contemporary issues in futuristic situations. The "Phage" is a devastating plague (think AIDS) that is afflicting an alien race searching the Delta Quadrant for "donors." During an Away Team survey trying to retrieve some raw dilithium, Neelix (Ethan Phillips) is brutally attacked and his lungs are removed. The EMH (Robert Picardo) comes up with a pair of holographic lungs to keep the Talaxian alive, but confined to sickbay for the rest of his life. Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) personally leads an Away Team back to the planet where they discover a medical lab filled with organs harvested from other unwilling donors. The bad news is that Neelix's lungs are not in the lab and when a space ship blasts off from the planet "Voyager" is in hot pursuit. But when they catch up with the Vidiians the crew discovers that these aliens suffer from a horrible plague that destroys their cellular structures that forces them to find healthy organs to replace their own, which is why Neelix's organs have already been transplanted into one of their crew. Thus we come to the big question of this episode: will Janeway kill the Vidiian to get Neelix's lungs back?

"Phage" (Episode 5, Story by Timothy De Haas; Screenplay by Skye Dent and Brannon Braga; Aired: February 6, 1995) plays off the "Star Trek: Voyager" pilot in an interesting way. The ship is stuck in the Delta Quadrant because Captain Janeway put principle ahead of her crew and here we are just a few episodes later and she is confronted with essentially the same decision on a smaller scale. The episode also establishes the principle of bartering and negotiation that serves the crew in good stead as they try to get back home. "Phage" is also the episode when the Doctor comes up with the idea of Kes (Jennifer Lien) being his medical assistant (remember, the EMH was only supposed to a short term solution). It also provides a serious side to the happy go lucky Neelix, who is probably the most cheerful alien in the galaxy. Although he will always remain quaint until the very end of the series, Neelix really does provide necessary social and diplomatic skills and services to "Voyager." June 1, 2003

Slightly bizarre, but good character development

Well, I must say that I enjoyed this episode, even though at first blush, the premise (Nelix gets his lungs stolen by aliens) sounded pretty silly.

However, by the end of this episode, we were further aquainted with the characters of Neelix, Kes, and The Doctor...and we met for the first time a species of aliens (the Vidiians) that would come to plague Voyager's crew throughout many episodes to come.

In short...this was a sleeper episode for me. Before I saw it, I must admit not expecting much. But it turned out to be a lot better than the packaging blurb lets on. July 18, 2001

Fantastic!

This is a fantastic episode. The plot may seem rather funny at first, but is actually quite serious. While search for dilitheum, Neelix has a strange encounter with an alien who removes his lungs. In order to servive, the Doctor makes Neelix a pair of holographic lungs, but he must remain motionless or they won't work. The crew on Voyager goes searching for the aliens who did it and when they find them, the aliens admit to what they did and offer to do a lung transplant for Neelix. Who will donate a lung? This video shows emence bravery on the parts of Neelix and Kes and is definently worth buying. May 18, 2000

Entertaining with Good Characterizations

"Phage" does rely on one slight contrivance to get its plot going, but its a very nice show. The concept is mildy goofy, but the show executes it so well it almost plausible someone's organs can be snatched out from their body using some kind of magical beam. This was the premise behind "Spock's Brain" but DO NOT worry, "Phage" is much smarter than that brainless (pun-intended) travesty. The crew's search for Neelix's lungs is very quick and interesting. Meanwhile, the doctor has created Neelix a pair of holo-lungs. Once we find the thiefs, even they prove interesting. Not usual for Voyager's villians. The final scenes reveal some wonderful characterizations. "Phage" is classic episode of Voyager. April 27, 2000

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