Star Trek: Voyager's Tuvix Actor Took Cues From Past Neelix And Tuvok Moments

In the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Tuvix" (May 6, 1996), the jolly hobbit-like chef Neelix (Ethan Phillips) and the emotionless Vulcan security officer Tuvok (Tim Russ) are on a botanical mission together, collecting rare alien fauna for survival purposes. When they beam back to the U.S.S. Voyager with a bag of plants, however, the transporter goes haywire and accidentally fuses them into a single amalgamated being. The new entity bears a perfect blend of Neelix and Tuvok's physical appearances, and possesses both of their memories and personalities. The new being calls themself Tuvix (Tom Wright) and soon incorporates themself into the crew, finding that they are happy as an amalgamated being with their own identity.

"Tuvix" is one of the most notorious episodes of "Voyager," as the two-beings-in-one premise sounds like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. It's doubly notorious for its conclusion. It turns out the Voyager's engineers have found a way to separate Neelix and Tuvok back into their original forms, but would require Tuvix's body to do it. Tuvix, however, no longer wishes to be separated. Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) orders Tuvix essentially to their execution so that she can have her original crew back. Tuvix protests all the while, screaming that what Janeway is doing is morally wrong. She does it anyway. Was Janeway right? The question has been asked a lot since 1996.

Tom Wright gives a great performance as Tuvix, cleverly incorporating speech patterns and mannerisms from both Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips while slowly emerging as a character of his own. Wright took to Reddit back in 2014 to answer questions about his various "Star Trek" roles, and he pointed out which mannerisms from Russ and Phillips he tried to imitate most closely.

Note that Neelix and Tuvok are opposite ends of the character spectrum. Neelix is friendly, squeaky, and talkative. Tuvok is cold, taciturn, and has a basso voice. Neelix would lean over eagerly, while Tuvok would stand bolt upright. Neelix was engaging and lively, while Tuvok was aloof and uffish. It was up to Wright to find the happy medium between the two actors' performing styles. When asked about which mannerisms he noticed from his forebears, Wright replied:

"The folks at Voyager were kind enough to send over several tapes for me to watch. Honestly I don't remember which episodes they were, but I did study them with intent. As for the quirks of each character, I noticed that Ethan was always cheerful and that his voice had a sing-song quality. I also used his eyes, which were always sparkling. Tim was just the opposite. His inflections were always very measured and deliberate. His gaze was usually piercing. Also their postures were very different. That was key."

A fan noticed that Wright incorporated a lot of nervous hand gestures into his performance, a cue he took from Phillips. Wright admitted that studying Phillips gave him a great deal of insight in how one might play Neelix.

Wright never returned as Tuvix (thanks, Janeway), but he did play a different space alien in the "Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Storm Front." In that episode, some time travel shenanigans placed the characters into World War II where they learned time traveling super-agents had disguised themselves as Nazis. Wright played one of the Nazi aliens, a character named Ghrath.

Most recently, Wright appeared on the TV series "Daisy Jones & the Six," along with the 2022 feature film "That's Amor."