Well I can relate to that because I often get intimidated by many seasons of serialized television. IMO there’s too much serialized television these days. Fortunately, TOS is completely episodic - not serialized at all, with each episode being a completely standalone story that you don’t really need to watch any of the other episodes to understand. Like The Simpsons, everything always returns to the status quo at the end of each episode.
TNG and VOY were, like, two-thirds episodic and one-third serialized, while DS9 and ENT were more like one-third episodic and two-thirds serialized. Discovery and Picard were fully serialized, and TBH if I hadn’t already watched TNG and already developed an emotional attachment to those characters, I would have found Picard to be a slog too.
Anyway, on to your question. Tuvix is an episode of VOY wherein two characters - Tuvok and Neelix - get into a transporter accident which merges them into a single being, who names himself Tuvix. At first the Doctor declares that the merger is irreversible so the crew just decides to accept Tuvix and move on. Tuvix proves to be an valuable member of the crew, with the abilities of both Tuvok and Neelix, and even a few new character traits entirely his own. But weeks later, the Doctor discovers that the process is in fact reversible… at which point Tuvix announces that he refuses the separation procedure, as although it would bring back Tuvok and Neelix, it would essentially be death for him. As the ship is currently stuck in unknown space, 70 years from home, the only authority in a position to decide what to do is Captain Janeway. I’ll let you see how that turns out. Fans considered the ending to be extremely dark, and there continues to be “trolley problem”-esque debate over what the right thing to do was. Most memes play up the coldness of Janeway’s decision, portraying her a sociopathically bloodthirsty.
Well I can relate to that because I often get intimidated by many seasons of serialized television. IMO there’s too much serialized television these days. Fortunately, TOS is completely episodic - not serialized at all, with each episode being a completely standalone story that you don’t really need to watch any of the other episodes to understand. Like The Simpsons, everything always returns to the status quo at the end of each episode.
TNG and VOY were, like, two-thirds episodic and one-third serialized, while DS9 and ENT were more like one-third episodic and two-thirds serialized. Discovery and Picard were fully serialized, and TBH if I hadn’t already watched TNG and already developed an emotional attachment to those characters, I would have found Picard to be a slog too.
Anyway, on to your question. Tuvix is an episode of VOY wherein two characters - Tuvok and Neelix - get into a transporter accident which merges them into a single being, who names himself Tuvix. At first the Doctor declares that the merger is irreversible so the crew just decides to accept Tuvix and move on. Tuvix proves to be an valuable member of the crew, with the abilities of both Tuvok and Neelix, and even a few new character traits entirely his own. But weeks later, the Doctor discovers that the process is in fact reversible… at which point Tuvix announces that he refuses the separation procedure, as although it would bring back Tuvok and Neelix, it would essentially be death for him. As the ship is currently stuck in unknown space, 70 years from home, the only authority in a position to decide what to do is Captain Janeway. I’ll let you see how that turns out. Fans considered the ending to be extremely dark, and there continues to be “trolley problem”-esque debate over what the right thing to do was. Most memes play up the coldness of Janeway’s decision, portraying her a sociopathically bloodthirsty.