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If you ask any Star Trek fan who has watched 1990s series Star Trek: Voyager what their opinions are of the episode Tuvix, they're bound to have some impassioned statements to make. Thanks to a strong performance from guest star Tom Wright, who played the titular character resulting from a transporter beam accident where regular crew members Tuvok and Neelix were merged into one person, Tuvix continues to ignite debates among Trekkies nearly thirty years after the episode originally aired. Personally, when Tuvix called Kes "sweeting," Neelix's pet name for her, I flinched. 

If you remember, at the end of the episode, Janeway calmly tells Tuvix that he must cease to exist so that Tuvok and Neelix can be returned to their own bodies. Tuvix, not surprisingly, doesn't take the news well. He makes the case for why he should be allowed to continue to live. Janeway remains undeterred though, and the Doctor carries out the procedure to separate Tuvok and Neelix. 

At Florida Supercon 2025's Star Trek: Voyager panel, Janeway actress, Kathryn Mulgrew, addressed the Tuvix controversy directly. When The Doctor himself, Robert Picardo, told Mulgrew that Tuvix is "debated endlessly online," Mulgrew said, "And why? Tell me why? What else was I gonna do?" Mulgrew went on to say, "You know what? It speaks to the depth of her, I think, her flaws... she was deeply flawed, insofar as I loved those men. I loved Tuvok and I loved Neelix. And it was unbearable for me to think of a consolidation, in the form of Tuvix. So I think I did what I did out of perhaps personal love and personal need. But I don't regret it. And I'm very surprised that this argument is ongoing. It shouldn't be. You all would do the same!" You can catch the entire panel video here if you're a Popverse member. 

For me, I would have made the same call as Janeway, though I would hate to be in the same position as her. In the episode, Janeway makes a very strong case for respecting and honoring Tuvok and Neelix's rights as individuals to live in their own bodies and continue their lives separately. Tuvok is a father of four, for goodness' sake! He has a wife! It's already traumatic enough for Tuvok's family to be separated from him while Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant. Now imagine if he returned to them in the form of Tuvix! And Tuvok and Neelix were members of Voyager's crew, not Tuvix, and Janeway had a duty to protect her crewmen. 

Space may be the final frontier, but there's no end to Popverse's love of the Star Trek universe. Hop aboard the starship Enterprise with our Star Trek watch order, explore strange new worlds with our upcoming Star Trek TV shows and movies list, seek out the new life of the franchise, and boldly go where no Star Trek film has ever gone before - with Quentin Tarantino?