Fair Trade (episode)

A meeting with an old friend lands Neelix in an ever-deepening hole of trouble.
== Summary ==
=== Teaser ===
For some time, Neelix has been trying to expand his usefulness; he has been considering roles as an engineer, or a security officer, or some other more official job. With Janeway's assertion that the ship is full of opportunity, he goes to Lieutenants Tuvok and B'Elanna Torres directly and starts to pester them with questions, though neither has the time.
As the crew of the arrives at a dense, menacing cloud barrier, Captain Kathryn Janeway asks Neelix to come to the bridge. He's able to identify the looming barrier as the Nekrit Expanse.
=== Act One ===
Neelix admits not much is known about the Expanse, and advises caution. Tuvok notes it is too wide to go around. Neelix also points out there is a space station at the border, though doesn't remember the coordinates. Commander Chakotay finds it and Janeway orders a heading for it. Neelix appears to be apprehensive about it. When they get there, they meet the administer, Bahrat, who agrees to discuss their efforts to take on supplies. Interestingly, he insists on monitoring them on the station as well as any communications, and also demands 20% commission on any trades. 
While Lieutenant Thomas Paris and Chakotay visit the main trading post, Janeway arrives to Bahrat's office with a list of supplies she wants. He's obviously busy, but takes a few minutes. He promises to compile a list of potential suppliers. Neelix, meanwhile, meets up with an old friend, Wixiban ("Wix"), who was in a smuggling operation with him a long time ago, which ended in a run-in with the Ubeans and landed Wix in prison. After the jovial reunion, Wix and Neelix get to talking. While Neelix impresses his old friend with the tales of Voyager, he finally admits that he thinks he may not be needed anymore. His knowledge of space goes only as far as the Nekrit Expanse and he is no longer useful as a guide. As a result, he has been trying to acquire a map of the area on this station. This piques Wix's interest.
=== Act Two ===
On board Voyager, Wix visits Neelix while Neelix was working in his kitchen. Wix was able to help Voyager to get some magnetic spindle bearings. In private, Wix tells Neelix that he knows where to get pergium (a rare commodity that Voyager needs) and a map. He also tells a different story, one of great difficulty and burdensome debts. He is unable to leave the station because his shuttle is being impounded by the station master. Playing upon Neelix's sympathies for him, he asks for a favor: he wants Neelix to get a Voyager shuttlecraft which he and Wix will use to complete a secret transaction in exchange for the pergium and the map. He explains that he is selling medical supplies to get back his shuttle and wants to do it in secret to avoid the station master's twenty percent cut of the profits. All Neelix has to do is hide this information from the crew. Neelix agrees.
They're successful in obtaining the supplies and come back to the station. Unfortunately, the true nature of the transaction gradually becomes apparent when Wix grabs a phaser and they meet the potential buyer. He is Sutok, the same man who tried to sell drugs to Chakotay and Paris when Voyager first docked with the station. From Wix's and Sutok's interaction, Neelix deduces that the medical supplies can actually be used as a narcotic, making this trip not only highly dangerous but highly illegal. Sutok attempts to get the drugs for nothing by trying to kill both Talaxians. This results in a firefight and Wix kills Sutok in self-defense. Several unseen aliens appear, an alarm sounds, and Neelix is knocked down, but the two of them beam out.
=== Act Three ===
Neelix flies the shuttle back to Voyager – leaving the dead body to be found by Bahrat's men. Neelix is furious at being betrayed but Wix soothes him with more emotional manipulation and convinces him to cover it up and not tell anyone on the ship. 
Bahrat informs Janeway that a murder has occurred on the station, and a Federation phaser's energy signature was detected at the scene. Janeway briefs the senior officers with Bahrat present, promising that Voyager will give full co-operation during the investigation. Neelix, who is present at the briefing, feels uneasy as Bahrat reveals what he knows so far, which is a lot already.
As part of the investigation, Tuvok questions Neelix about Wix. He distances himself, and doesn't give a lot of information about him. Neelix accompanies Tuvok to the station to interview Wix. Wix gives a cover story of him being asleep at the time of the shootings. After Tuvok has left, Wix tells Neelix that he was acting as an agent for some Kolaati suppliers in the drug trade. The suppliers, not at all happy with the loss of their drugs, agree to let them live if Wix can get some warp plasma from Voyager. Neelix immediately says it has gone too far, but Wix appeals to his situation in nearing the end of his time on the ship. He persuades Neelix to help him once again.
=== Act Four ===
On Voyager, Neelix finds Paris in a supply room. While helping to locate a special container for him, he engages him in asking him about why he was in prison. Paris obliges and admits that what got him into trouble in the first place was that he lied after making a mistake and how if he'd told the truth in the beginning things wouldn't have been as bad as they got. The container is found and he leaves, still thinking about his task and leaving Paris a bit confused. He then goes to engineering to complete the task. Torres is not there, but Ensign Vorik is and so Neelix explains he's just poking around. Still contemplating his situation, he asks Vorik about how he feels about how things turned out on Voyager generally, and he replies he's found it a good challenge. Neelix then leaves him to get the plasma, but he can't bring himself to do it. 
When Neelix and Wix meet at the station at the arranged time, Neelix tells Wix that he couldn't steal from his friends. They are interrupted by Bahrat arresting Chakotay and Paris, who are nearby, charging them with murder and dealing illegal drugs, because they were seen talking with Sutok hours before he was killed. Janeway is furious that Chakotay and Paris were arrested based on circumstantial evidence that does not prove any connection to the crime, but Bahrat is adamant that someone be punished for the crimes by fifty years of cryostatic suspension. Janeway insists Tuvok be present at the interrogation and promises Bahrat she will not let her officers pay the price for a crime they didn't commit. 
However, to save Chakotay and Paris, Neelix devises a plan, which Wix reluctantly agrees to. 
=== Act Five ===
He and Wix tell the truth about the incident to Bahrat, who is furious. They are then able to talk their way out of being put into cryostasis by explaining that these smugglers are defeating internal security and that they will help Bahrat and his men catch the criminals when they return for the plasma. Expecting their attempt to be futile, the station master agrees.
Neelix gets a canister from Bahrat with tainted warp plasma and deactivates the safeties. The suppliers, led by Tosin, arrive to meet with Neelix and Wix. When Tosin accepts the canister he realizes that it is worthless but Neelix quickly tells him the canister has been leaking plasma into the room and any energy discharge from his weapon will ignite the entire section. Bahrat arrives and attempts to arrest them but one of the suppliers fires anyways and the ensuing plasma fire knocks Neelix unconscious.
When he reawakens in sickbay, he is told by Tuvok that one of the criminals has been killed and the rest have been taken in to custody by Bahrat, and Wix has gotten his shuttle back and has gone on his way. Janeway arrives and after dismissing the others, demands an explanation from Neelix. Only then does Neelix come clean to the captain as to how the situation arose: he knows nothing about space from this point, so wanted a map and got caught in a cover-up. After a stern lecture from the Captain, Neelix is prepared to accept his fate, which he presumes to be compelled to leave the ship permanently. To his relief (in fact, he is barely able to contain his excitement) the captain explains to him the fact he can no longer be their guide doesn't matter; the crew is a family, and he cannot simply walk away from his responsibilities. He gladly accepts his sentence of two weeks of cleaning out the ship's exhaust manifolds.
== Log entries ==
*"Captain's log, supplemental. I have called a meeting of the senior staff to inform them of some very disturbing news I have just received."
== Memorable Quotes ==
"Well, do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"Only that I'm terribly sorry."
"Oh, you're sorry? Is that supposed to make everything better? I don't really care whether you're sorry or not, Neelix. At this point, it doesn't matter. I can't imagine what could have made you behave the way you did: lying to us, sneaking around behind our backs, covering up criminal activity. Did you have some misguided reason to think that this was acceptable behavior?"
"No, ma'am."
"You've been one of my most trusted advisors since we began this journey. How can I ever trust you again? How can I ever listen to you without wondering whether you're telling the truth or not?"
"I've never been dishonest to you before, I swear, Captain! I just took one step, a step that seemed perfectly reasonable, and that step led to another and another and then before I knew it, I was involved in something I didn't know how to handle."
"What was it? What was so important that you were willing to throw away your principles?"
"I needed a map."
"A map?"
"Captain, my usefulness to you was at an end. I don't know anything about space beyond this point. I couldn't let you go into the Nekrit Expanse without knowing what you faced."
"You've been on this ship for two years. I'd think by now you'd have learned that the first duty of any Starfleet officer is the truth. You violated that duty, Neelix. And there will be consequences."
"I'm prepared to leave the ship, Captain."
"Oh, no. It's not that easy. You can't just walk away from your responsibilities because you made a mistake. You're part of a family now, and you have obligations."
"But...I can't guide you. I can't advise you. I don't know what's coming."
"But that's not the point, is it? None of us knows what's coming. That's what Starfleet is all about. We are all in this together, Neelix, and we have to be able to count on each other no matter how hard it gets. Do you understand?"
"Yes. Yes, I do."
"Well, that's good. Report to deuterium maintenance at oh four hundred tomorrow morning. You're going to spend the next two weeks scrubbing the exhaust manifolds. That should give you time to think about what I've said. Dismissed."
: - Captain Janeway and Neelix
== Background information ==
=== Trivia ===
* In the UK, this episode was advertised as the beginning of a "new series" ("series" being the British eqivalent for "season"), as the show had been off the air for several months after .
=== Story and script ===
* This episode had the working title "Old Scores". 
* The story for this episode, conceived by freelance writing partners Ron Wilkerson and Jean Louise Matthias, began development in s first season and was originally intended to be included in that season but was kept back so that the episode could be produced instead. Commenting on the idea at a point prior to its development into this episode, Ron Wilkerson said, "[It] would have established Neelix as a much more substantial character. The story was essentially like in the sense that this guy comes on the ship and Neelix pretends he doesn't know him, but in fact they were in jail together and he helped Neelix escape and they split up afterward, and now he's looking to get Neelix to do something for him or he'll reveal his past to everyone." Wilkerson was particularly fond of the concept, describing it as "a nice episode" and expressing much disappointment that it had not been made. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages) Executive producer Jeri Taylor later said of this episode, "It's actually a story that we had lying around since the very first season. We thought that it had a kernel of something in it for Neelix, but we had never been able to develop it to our satisfaction." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7)
* The key, according to Jeri Taylor, was the concept of Neelix becoming less familiar with the space surrounding the starship Voyager. Speaking at the end of the series' third season, Taylor explained, "This last season, I started thinking that if we are going at high warp speed toward home, we would be covering a great deal of distance. That would mean that at some point we would probably run out of the space that Neelix understands. I thought, here is exactly the take for that story we've been trying to do." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7) Indeed, Jeri Taylor was highly pleased that the plot concept from the first season could be revived, as the writing staff of Star Trek: Voyager had unsuccessfully tried to come up with a workable Neelix story for the third season of the series. "We hadn't found a good story for Neelix yet this season," Taylor said at the time, "so I was really delighted to do this one." ()
* The writer of the episode's teleplay was long-time Star Trek science consultant André Bormanis; this installment was his first writing contribution to the series. He had previously pitched some Star Trek story ideas that had not been entirely successful. "I sold two to ST:VOY last year, and we didn't go to teleplay on either of those," he revealed, during Voyagers third season. () He later noted, "I sold a couple of stories to Voyager and then had the opportunity to write a teleplay." Additionally, Bormanis recalled, "They asked me if I was interested in writing a script for season three of Voyager, and of course I said, 'Yes." Bormanis found that making the transition between serving as science consultant on Star Trek and contributing as a writer was "very natural", having read "every draft of every script for TNG, DS9 and Voyager" in his capacity as science consultant. He also enjoyed writing and imagining ideas himself. ()
* André Bormanis introduced the Nekrit Expanse during the script-writing process. He explained, "The Nekrit Expanse is something that I came up with, for my first script for Voyager. We wanted to suggest a region of space that was rather dangerous, that was difficult to navigate. It was too big to go around, we had to figure out a way to go through it. And the Expanse itself, I kind of modeled after some of the regions that we've identified, in telescopes, in our galaxy that you probably wouldn't want to send a space probe into, at least not very far […] So that was the basic idea. You know, sort of a dark and spooky place that would be very difficult to navigate, very dangerous, and we have no idea what's on the other side because it's sufficiently opaque that our sensors can't penetrate very far into it." (Real Science With Andre Bormanis, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
* The episode's final script draft was submitted on . 
* Ultimately, the producers were extremely pleased with André Bormanis' work on this episode's script. He later recollected, "They thought I did a good job with it, and had me do a few more." In fact, this was the first of seven Star Trek: Voyager episodes that Bormanis was involved in writing. He was later granted a place on the writing staff of .
=== Deleted scene ===
* Although a long-running romantic relationship between Kes and Neelix apparently ends in the earlier third season episode , their break-up was never shown, so a scene was written for this episode to give the relationship some closure. The character moment, set in Voyagers science lab, was scripted as scene 48 and starts with a scene description that – referring to Kes and Neelix – includes the significant sentence, "She has no way of knowing that he believes this is the last time he will ever see her." () The scene was filmed, in the set for Voyagers science laboratory. () Neelix actor Ethan Phillips said of the scene, "I go into the science lab and I see Kes, and I haven't talked to Kes since 'Warlord,' which was several episodes back. And I talk to her and I say, 'You know, I know we've drifted apart, and I know that we're no longer a pair, but I want you to know that I still love you and that you'll always be my best friend.' And she receives that information, she hears it and tells me back the same thing, basically. And we have a kind of a closure, and it was a lovely little scene." (Voyager Time Capsule: Kes, VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Phillips also thought the scene, which was approximately five minutes long, was "very beautiful." () He added, "It's right before I'm about to go on this trip where I might get killed, where I present the leaking warp plasma canister to the crazy alien. I wanted her to know that I relished what we had and that I still loved her as a friend." ()
* The scene was deleted from the episode due to time constraints. (; ) Ethan Phillips specified that the scene's removal was "because they had to trim." (Voyager Time Capsule: Kes, VOY Season 3 DVD special features) He regretted that the scene was edited out of this installment. Shortly after completing work on the episode, the actor remarked, "It really was a key scene. I felt we needed an on-camera moment to recognize the fact that this three-year relationship had ended. We certainly didn't get to see them break up on screen in a satisfying way, and we also didn't see them at least have some sort of conversation about what occurred. As it was, there was no real resolution, and I don't think the fans like not having some sense of closure. The producers know my feelings about this and they must have their reasons for doing it the way they did." (, pp. 60 & 62) In a later interview, Phillips expressed, "I think it gave the characters – and certainly would have given the fans – a sense that, 'Well, it's over, but at least we know how it ended.' Then they never included that scene because, I guess, the writers didn't think the arc was important enough to warrant it. I always thought that was a mistake." () The scripted version of the scene can be found, in its entirety, in the .
=== Cast and characters ===
* Jeri Taylor was very pleased with Ethan Phillips' performance as Neelix in this episode. "Ethan Phillips was wonderful," she enthused. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7)
* Ethan Phillips himself thoroughly enjoyed this episode, aside from his disappointment at the scene deletion. He remarked, "Overall, I thought it was a very good show for me." (, pp. 60 & 62) In fact, Phillips cited this episode (in common with ) as a Neelix-related highlight of the third season, remembering, "I was very happy with 'Fair Trade'." () He also noted, "I liked 'Fair Trade' a lot." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7)
* In particular, Ethan Phillips liked how this episode portrays his character of Neelix; the actor cited the installment, for example, as one of several episodes whose scripts excited him, upon first reading them and discovering that they revealed facets of his character that he hadn't known about before. Phillips explained, "There was an awful lot we learned about Neelix. I learned that he did have a shady past; that he was willing to sacrifice his life for the USS Voyager crew; and, in the middle of the show, we also saw that he was willing to jeopardize his position on the ship for the sake of what he felt he owed his friend. We saw that Neelix could be loyal and brave and have a lot of integrity, which are all very important qualities […] I also thought they set the stage for some interesting stuff with Neelix – the ship is now out of his range of knowledge of space, he's as lost as everybody else and he can't serve Janeway as guide any more. At the end of the episode, Captain Janeway tells Neelix that he is a vital member of the crew. I think he needed to hear that, because he needs to feel wanted. That's a big part of who he is." () Further considering the episode's conclusion, Phillips elaborated, "When the captain said, 'You're a member of the crew and you're not leaving,' it was a really good thing for him to hear. He needed to hear it. He really had nowhere to go but back to his old life. For him to have his value to the ship and to Janeway reiterated to him was wonderful." ()
* Ethan Phillips was proud of his own acting herein. "I'm my own hardest critic," he declared, "and I'm pleased with my performance. I liked about 50 percent of it." ()
* Ethan Phillips was also thrilled by the performance that Wixiban actor James Nardini delivered for this installment. Phillips noted, "I thought James gave a very good performance as Wixiban." ()
* Director Jesús Salvador Treviño enjoyed working with both Ethan Phillips and James Nardini, despite the experience being somewhat surreal for Treviño. The director enthused, "Ethan Phillips was great to work with. We were fortunate because he and James Nardini had a great chemistry. It was quite exciting to see them work together because James immediately understood the whole Talaxian thing. I actually forgot I was dealing with actors, because I met James only at the audition before he came onto the set in makeup. I had only met Ethan once as well and then he was on the set as Mr. Talaxian. I was giving direction to two Talaxians." ()
* Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) does not appear in this episode, being one of only two occasions when Wang does not appear, the other being the later third season episode . In his podcast with Robert Duncan McNeill, Wang revealed that his absence was due to depression, which was making him late for work. Wang said that the producers, including Rick Berman, mistakenly believed he was "partying too hard" and gave him two episodes leave to see a counsellor. (The Delta Flyers podcast, episode 313, 17 May 2021)
* Prior to portraying Tosin in this installment, actor James Horan appeared as Jo'Bril and Lieutenant Barnaby in and respectively. He would go on to play Ikat'ika in the episodes and , as well as the recurring character of the Humanoid Figure during the first two seasons of . This is his only appearance in Star Trek: Voyager.
* This is the only appearance of Carlos Carrasco (Bahrat) in Star Trek: Voyager. He previously played D'Ghor in and a mirror universe Klingon in . His next and last Star Trek role was as Krole in .
* Ultimately, Jesús Treviño was generally pleased with all the acting in this episode. He noted, "The performances came out so nicely." ()
===Production===
* This was the first Star Trek episode ever directed by Jesús Treviño. Having previously directed episodes of other television series, a meeting with Jeri Taylor had subsequently led Treviño to helm this episode, prior to being invited to direct both other episodes of Voyager as well as episodes of DS9. One preparation method that Treviño utilized was watching many previous Voyager episodes. He recalled, "Before I did my first episode of Voyager, I had spent several weeks viewing almost every episode that they had done. So when I did 'Fair Trade,' I was pretty clear on the back stories of a lot of the people." ()
* James Horan was unprepared for the experience of wearing the makeup created for Tosin. "The Kolaati was interesting," Horan recalled, "because, as they're putting it on me, they go, 'You don't have a problem not breathing through your nose, do you?'" After laughing, Horan continued by recounting, "No, I guess not.' But fourteen hours later, of course, I'm going [in an extremely nasally voice], 'I've a problem in this." Horan also cited his role in this episode as the worst make-up he ever had to wear for Star Trek, commenting, "In an almost all of them I've had a nosehole, but in this one, because of the way the nose was shaped, as they're putting it on they're saying, 'You don't have a problem not breathing through your nose, do you?' And I'm saying, 'Errr… well, I guess not!' And then 14 hours later I'm gasping." ()
* According to James Horan, the scenes of this installment that involve his character of Tosin constituted "a couple of days' work." ()
* The weapon that Tosin levels at Neelix during the warp plasma undercover bust resembles the Varon-T disruptor prop from . According to the unauthorized reference book (p. 160), all of the Kolaati weapons were stock weapon props from .
* Also according to the book Delta Quadrant (p. 160), the space station set in this episode was a redress of the Akritirian maximum security detention facility from the earlier third season installment .
* The station set was artificially extended via blue screen. Jesús Treviño remembered, "Voyager was to visit a space station out in a different sector of space, and we wanted it to look like a place that would house a lot of different aliens. Of course, we had a limited set. Richard James, the production designer, had built this set and working with him we devised a way in which I could shoot the same set using blue screen… giving our story a much grander looking production scale. What I wound up doing was I shot a plate looking back in the other direction, and then I put that plate of the same environment with different people and I popped it into the blue screen, so in effect it doubled the distance of the set. And I did that three times." () Treviño also noted, at one point, that this episode included a good example of him working "with the art director to make it seem as if a set is far larger than it is." ()
* Ethan Phillips liked working with Jesús Treviño on this installment. Phillips recalled, "I was especially fond of the director, Jesús Treviño. It was the first time we'd worked with him, and he was very inventive and very easy and fun to work with. I think he did a terrific job." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7) Phillips also commented, "Jesus Trevino did a nice job of directing the show – I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of him." ()
* In summation of this episode, Jesús Treviño remarked, "I had a great deal of fun doing it." ()
=== Continuity ===
* In airing order, this episode marks the debut of the recurring character of Ensign Vorik (although he also appears in , which was produced first). This male Vulcan character was introduced prior to his central role in so that audiences would be familiar with him by then. Vorik subsequently reappears at least once a season, right up until the end of the series run. The character was played by Alexander Enberg, the son of Jeri Taylor. On , Enberg once played a character similar to Vorik, appearing as a Vulcan engineer named Taurik in the episode . Jeri Taylor once suggested that Taurik and Vorik were twin brothers.
* This is the first episode in which a Vulcan crew member other than Tuvok appears. Tuvok had previously implied that there were other Vulcans serving on board in .
* Paris' arrest in this episode, on suspicion of murder and illegal drug dealing, represents the third time he has found himself on the wrong side of local laws since arriving in the Delta Quadrant, after being wrongly found guilty of murder in and being wrongly imprisoned for a terrorist bombing in .
* In the later third season episode , a group of Voth scientists visit the Nekrit Expanse station while tracking down Voyager. A canister of warp plasma they acquire at the space station is an acknowledgment of the events of this episode, providing good continuity links between the episodes. However, the writers apparently forgot that the warp plasma was not from Voyager, but a "lower grade substitute" provided by Bahrat.
* At the end of this episode, Janeway tells Neelix, "The first duty of every Starfleet officer is the truth." This is what Captain Picard tells Wesley Crusher in .
* This was the first Star Trek: Voyager episode whose original airing followed the first broadcast of , in which the DS9 crew switched to a new uniform style that audiences had already seen in . Thus, this episode is at the point in Star Trek: Voyagers run when the old Starfleet uniforms worn by the Voyager crew became outdated, due to being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
=== Reception ===
* Both Jeri Taylor and Jesús Salvador Treviño found this episode to be intriguing. "The story was pretty interesting," Treviño noted. () Jeri Taylor remarked, "This was a very questionable show." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7)
* Both Jesús Treviño and Jeri Taylor were also highly satisfied with this episode in general. Taylor once described this installment as "a very strong Neelix story." () Similarly, Treviño referred to the installment as "an excellent show." () He also noted, "I was very pleased with the episode […] and we were able to attain [a] sense of wonder." ()
* This episode achieved a Nielsen rating of 4.2 million homes, and a 7% share. 
* Ethan Phillips believed that this episode's revelations about Neelix were not only news to him but also, possibly, to Star Trek fandom. Regarding the qualities that this episode shows Neelix to have – including loyalty and bravery – Phillips stated, "I don't know that the fans had seen much of those things in him before or perceived him that way until they got to see 'Fair Trade'." () The actor also said that the episode "allowed Neelix to share some of his past with his audience". ()
* Cinefantastique rated this episode 3 out of 4 stars. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 29, No. 6/7, p. 100)
* scored this episode 3 out of 5 stars, defined as "Warp Speed". ()
* The unauthorized reference book (p. 161) gives this installment a rating of 2 out of 10.
* This episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series. It beat out , which was nominated in the same category.
* This episode was also nominated by the Art Designer's Society as one of their five finalists in the category of television.
* Following his work on this episode, Ethan Phillips held onto hope that the dissolution of Neelix's relationship with Kes would be addressed elsewhere in the future, in lieu of this episode's scene deletion. Phillips noted, "I'm still hopeful that we'll address it somehow in a future episode." () He would later express satisfaction with Kes and Neelix's final scene together, in . ()
* At the start of Star Trek: Voyagers fourth season, Ethan Phillips related that the suggestions, in this episode, of Neelix acting as Ambassador for the starship Voyager "I believe is something they're going to explore in this season." ()
* When Ethan Phillips watched this episode years after its production, he found that he was very proud of the episode. On 25 November, , Phillips remarked, "About six months ago, this guy asked me to speak at a college about the business of acting. They showed a bunch of stuff I had done. One thing they showed was an episode of Star Trek – 'Fair Trade,' where Neelix deals with these intergalactic drug dealers. I hadn't seen the show. I don't think I ever saw it. And we all sat down and watched it, and I was just blown away. It was such a good show. The acting, the lighting, the music; the whole production. It was great television, and I was really proud of it." (Voyager Time Capsule: Neelix, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
=== Apocrypha ===
* This episode influenced Jeri Taylor to include the character of Wixiban into her novel Pathways, as part of Neelix's backstory. ()
=== Video and DVD releases ===
*UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.7, 
*As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection
== Links and references ==
=== Guest stars ===
* James Nardini as Wixiban
* Carlos Carrasco as Bahrat
* Alexander Enberg as Vorik
* Steve Kehela as Sutok
* James Horan as Tosin
===Co-star===
* Eric Sharp as Map Vendor
=== Uncredited co-stars ===
* R. Armstead as alien customer
* John Austin as alien customer
* N. Berman as alien vendor
* T. Brace as Garan vendor
* Michael Braveheart as alien customer
* Tracee Lee Cocco as Tak Tak customer
* A. Craig as alien vendor
* C. Engh as alien vendor
* Heather Ferguson as alien customer
* Kevin Grover as alien customer
* Ken Gruz as Tak Tak customer
* Grace Harrell as alien customer
* S. Hawkins as alien vendor
* Sue Henley as 
* Peter Horak as Sutok's henchman
* Steve Hudis as Tosin's henchman
* Donald R. Jankiewicz as Bahrat's guard
* Patrick Jankiewicz as Bahrat's guard
* Irving Lewis as Sutok's henchman
* Mark Major as Tak Tak customer
* Julie Plum as alien customer
* Irving Ross as Garan vendor
* Shepard Ross as alien customer
* E. Shin as alien customer
* Pablo Soriano as alien vendor
* Scott Strozier as Tosin's henchman
* Adrian Tafoya as alien vendor
=== Stunt doubles ===
* George Colucci as stunt double for Ethan Phillips
* Dennis Madalone as stunt double for Steve Kehela
=== References ===
47; 2370; 2371; advisor; ambassador; anarchy; associate; astrometric chart; bartering; bio-mimetic gel; ; concussion; conspiracy; contraband; control interface; cook; coordinate chart; cryostatic suspension; cryostatic prison (cryostatic imprisonment); database; death sentence; decade; Delta Quadrant; deterrent; deuterium maintenance; dilithium matrix; docking port; duotronic probe; duty shift; engineering protocols; engineering systems; environmental control; exhaust manifold; family; Federation; fire snake; food replicator; freighter; gagh; gram; gravitic caliper; guide; henchman; impounded; impulse response filters; interrogation; interstellar dust cloud; isonucleic residue; Jefferies tube; junior grade; Kes; kilogram; Klingon; Klingon Breakfast Buffet; Kolaati; L647X7; L647Y6; learn the ropes; lie; lung disease; M34; magnetic spindle bearing; manifold; map dealer; mess room; mining ship; murder; narcotic; narcotics dealer (aka drug trafficker); Nekrit Expanse; Orillian lung maggot; parts per million; Paxau Resort; percentage; pergium; phase lock; phaser signature; physician; plasma burn; plasma canister; plasma flow; plasma injectors; plasma storm; prime suspect; prison; promotion; reaction control assembly; rhuludian crystal; safety nodes; security officer; security protocol; security rounds; security scanner; self defense; senior staff; smuggler; spectral analysis; standard issue; Starfleet; Station Code 4279, Subsection Beta 325; station manager; supply depot; surveillance records; suspect; Talaxian; Talaxian colony; tavern; toffa ale; trader; trading ship; trafficking; transporter beam; transporter buffer; transport device (container); transporter range; Transporter Room 2; transporter system; transporter technology; tube; type 2 phaser; Type 6 shuttlecraft (unnamed); Ubean; vermin; visual signal; volunteer; Vulcans; warp plasma; warp plasma canister; warp plasma particle; warp propulsion; "Wix"; Wixiban's ship/Wixiban's shuttle; work detail; worm
=== External links ===
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Category:VOY episodes