Voyager, Neelix and Replicators.

[FaxModem1]

As a note, this was what the mess hall looked like before Neelix got his hands on it.

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/ ... cators.jpg

[Isolder74]

As a note, this was what the mess hall looked like before Neelix got his hands on it.

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/ ... cators.jpg

How did he rip all that stuff out without the Captain noticing?

[FaxModem1]

Either Janeway only went to the Captain's dining room once in a blue moon, or Neelix put something in her coffee to affect her observation.

Actually, I wouldn't put that above him. I'm now imagining Neelix drugging Janeway's coffee and that influencing her behavior.

[FaxModem1]

I want to make an observation, in the episode "Infinite Regress", Neelix gets half a point for proper storage. When Seven, possessed by one of the personalities she assimilated(long story), as a Klingon, storms into the Mess Hall and looks for something to eat. The Klingon personality shuffles through several bowls of vegetables and finally finds meat in the fridge to eat.

First off, kudos to Neelix for putting meat and some vegetables in the fridge. I say some, because the man either has a policy of having snacks available for everyone at night for crew members to walk in and eat, or he doesn't bother to pack up all the foods and ingredients when he's sleeping in the mess hall. I stress this point, because in this episode, it's contingent on the Mess Hall being deserted and no one watching Seven eat the food and ransacking the kitchen. However, the man later complains that people are eating his food when he's not there later on, so it can't be for crew member snack purposes.

So, Neelix doesn't observe proper storage techniques for raw vegetables. One wonders how much of his food supplies have spoiled due to his lack of proper care.

[madd0ct0r]

depends on the vegetables dude. I don't keep onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, celeriac, bannas, apples, limes, plums, shallots, oranges, in the fridge either.
During the winter, even cabbage get's to stay on the worktop.

[Isolder74]

Some of those vegetables don't keep well in the refrigerator. Onions, Garlic and other roots generally don't like cold moist places (so they rot faster there). There are other fruits and vegetables that while they keep longer in the fridge, putting them there results in a lowering of the flavor of those foods. This is true of things like Tomatoes which have flavor compounds that turn of permanently once below a certain temp (which why most fast food tomatoes taste like crap). So while they keep longer in the cold it's better to use them quickly instead. In those cases cooking them into a sauce and storing that is often a better option as the cooking locks those flavors in place.

Of course Neelix's storing pratices seem convoluted at best or just plain incompetent.

[Havok]

Huh. I didn't know that about veggies and fruit Isolder. Thanks.

[PeZook]

You know, I've been rewatching Voy and at the start it does seem Neelix is helpful and competent: in "Phage", he rips up the captain's dining room, which he obviously couldn't have done without the crew noticing ; And they come to eat in his galley and seem quite content.

He also gives them coordinates of important places and tries to make himself useful as an away team member. He only turns into an annoying dickhead later on in the show.

Of course in the pilot he does piss of the Kazon for no good reason whatsoever, so...

[Sleck]

You know, I've been rewatching Voy and at the start it does seem Neelix is helpful and competent: in "Phage", he rips up the captain's dining room, which he obviously couldn't have done without the crew noticing ; And they come to eat in his galley and seem quite content.

He also gives them coordinates of important places and tries to make himself useful as an away team member. He only turns into an annoying dickhead later on in the show.

Of course in the pilot he does piss of the Kazon for no good reason whatsoever, so...

What about 'Basics', where he claims to have survival skills and gets a crewman killed?
'Yes, you stay here and pick up these bones alone. Don't worry about what left the bones here, or that we have no idea about what might live around here or what dangerous predators may be about. Just stay here and pick up the bones, right next to the scary cave which would be a great place for a predator's lair.'

[PeZook]

Well, he starts turning into a dickhead in the very next episode, so...

[Isolder74]

You know, I've been rewatching Voy and at the start it does seem Neelix is helpful and competent: in "Phage", he rips up the captain's dining room, which he obviously couldn't have done without the crew noticing ; And they come to eat in his galley and seem quite content.

He also gives them coordinates of important places and tries to make himself useful as an away team member. He only turns into an annoying dickhead later on in the show.

Of course in the pilot he does piss of the Kazon for no good reason whatsoever, so...

Yet the captain didn't notice, how does that work?

Of course that important place is suppose to be the location of Dilithium Ore but it turns out he's completely wrong about it so I'm dubious on using term helpful there.

He's not very useful when he just wanders off alone in order to get his lung stolen either.

[PeZook]

Yet the captain didn't notice, how does that work?

Because she's a poor and inept leader with no authority and thus nobody told her or thought twice about ripping up her dining room?

Of course that important place is suppose to be the location of Dilithium Ore but it turns out he's completely wrong about it so I'm dubious on using term helpful there.

Well, their sensors can't tell it's not actually loaded with dilithium, so it's not exactly fair to blame him that he didn't thoroughly explore the planetoid earlier.

He's not very useful when he just wanders off alone in order to get his lung stolen either.

He didn't violate Chakotay's orders. It's just that Chakotay is an idiot as well and split everybody up into single-man teams. In an unknown place. Underground.

[PeZook]

Oh ho ho check this out:



This is from the end of "Ex Post Facto" in the first season: the burners/hot plates are in the same place they're not in later in season 2 ; Which means Neelix removed them at some time in between in favor of the horrible ones.

They're either electric, and were removed to conserve power as Voyager's problems worsened, or Neelix is setting the kitchen up to be as difficult to use as possible. I'd favor the second explanation, since running a couple electric hot plates shouldn't seriously task the electrical generation capabilities of an antimatter powered starship. Hell, you could probably set up some solar panels outside to run those for free

[Isolder74]

If you are up to it go ahead and add that to the Plastic Chef Neelix page under the safety nightmare section.

I see we are just finding more and more evidence of Neelix doing thing obtuse on purpose rather then because it's needed or helpful.

Seeing the levels of arm twisting he goes through to keep his kitchen under his thumb maybe he does replicate pasta and then pretends to have made it himself.

[madd0ct0r]

those look like gas to me

[PeZook]

those look like gas to me

The pipes would seem to indicate that, yes. All the more damning he took them out.

[Isolder74]

BTW I knew I saw some normal hotplates somewhere while watching the show. It's just the last time I'd watch was a while ago then I saw Investigations on a TV rerun and tried to get that video capture. I guess I really need to update my tv tuner card.

Incedentally, his 'improved' stove was in place by at least Tuvix. I'm afraid I don't have a copy of the show to go ever it myself to see when he starts using those horribly convoluted burners.

[PeZook]

They're there since day 1. He's seen cooking on them when the captain realizes he ruined her dining room, but they're off to the left of the two burners in my latest cap.

[Isolder74]

Wow, that's was kind of what I was thinking looking at that picture, as it did not look like those burners were being used considering all of the junk piled on top of them.

Frankly there is no good reason why he can't use those burners as more burners means being able to cook more dishes at once. Also if they are where you say they are then there's room for Neelix to have a Sous Chef to help him meet the demand of feeding the crew.

[Ted C]

Putting aside the issue of gas or electric for a moment, why the hell is there a colander on the burner?

[Isolder74]

From the looks of the image, the other burner just has a mixing bowl sitting on it. Edit: A dirty one by the looks of it.....

Why is the colander there? Who knows, all it does is stand out like a crow at a dove convention to further point out how little Neelix seems to know about cooking.

[madd0ct0r]

or he's just put it down for a minute, since I can't see any worktop space.

For all you know he's about to drain some carrots in it, and them simmer the carrot water in the low pan with a little meat juice, marmite, ground chilli, pepper and maybe a dash of honey for thickening.
The left hand pot looks like a aluminum crockpot with superficial discoloring on the outside - maybe some tomato juice got on it during cooking and he's not taken it to engineering to be rebuffed?

[Isolder74]

You are giving Neelix way to much credit. Look about the rest of the area, it's cluttered and disorganized. He is not using those as burners, he's just sticking random crap on top of them. It doesn't matter why he has dirty dishing just lying about in his work area, as they show in Ratatouille a cluttered kitchen is a useless kitchen.

This picture is just one of many nails in the coffin of Neelix's inability to properly manage a kitchen. No a good kitchen does not have random vegetable scattered about without rhyme or reason. No well managed kitchen is played out like Neelix does his. No experienced cook would ever have work areas filled with so many pieces of random kit just lying about.

For someone who know what many of those items and tools are used for why they shouldn't be where they are just sticks out worse. It's like Chuck points out with the use of bad technobabble, the more you know about it the worse it looks.

[Broomstick]

I have to wonder if the appalling state of Nelix's kitchen was supposed to be a joke of some sort, but nobody got it. Either that, or nobody connected to the show had ever actually done any cooking in real life... which seems improbable to me.

[Broomstick]

(double post)