I disagree on the critic against Neelix.

OK, he could be annoying, I mean his jealousy when it came to Kes. A small wonder that she didn't dump him already in season 2 (which should have been done by the writers at least in the middle of the season), his annoying behavior against Tuvok and his somewhat crazy antics with naming himself "Morale Officer", all of a sudden becoming a journalist and his over-eager will to please and make an impact.

But on the other hand, all those things actually showed a deeply hurt, vulnerable person who basically had gone through hell before joining the Voyager crew.

He had lived a papy life with his family on Rinax. All that was ruined when the Hakoonian-Talaxian war broke out. he had to flee from Rinax to Talax avoid being forced to fight in the war, from Talax he saw his home world be destroued by the Metreon cascade which was created by the Haakonians.

Those expreiences made him a drug addict, he became addicted to Rhuludian crystals but was finally saved by Wixiban who forced him to abandon the drug. (According to the book Pathways written by Jeri Taylor). Then he had to flee again from the Ubeans after a failed scam, thus have to abandon Wixiban.

All of that was the reason why Neelix became such a troubled soul.

Then he started to trade with the Kazon, fell in love with Kes, managed to rescue her from the Kazon with the help of the Voyager crew and then he and Kes joined the Voyager crew.

But that was no relief for his troubled soul.

Instead he found himself lost on a ship where everybody else was so much more skilled in everything than he was. His reationship with Kes started to crack the day they came on board Voyager. Kes found a new life on the ship with new friends, lots of things to learn and explore and she became a nurse on the ship. All that made her grow as a person and enjoy her new life on board Voyager.

Neelix on the other hand started to feel useless. He was a terrible cook, his knowledge of the area which Voyager was traveling through was so-so, I remember that Janeway in some Voyager book (I can't remember exactly which one right now) mused about Neelix as a guide, that he helped them half of the time and put them into trouble the rest.

Neelix was aware of all that and therefore his eager to please. To prove his importance for the crew, he came up with all those stunts like becoming "Morale Officer", journalist, Ambassador and all that.

He also came up with a lot of stunts for making the crew happy because making other people happy would ease his own despair.

Unfortunately, Neelix's unsecurity sometimes backfired. he was so afraid to lose Kes that he became extremly jealous which in fact made him lose Kes and all o0f the other things he did actually made him look ridiculous in front of the other crewmembers.

But to be honest, that didn't make him a bad character or just a clown. Neelix was actually a tragic person and as such actually one of the most exciting, interesting and realistic Star Trek characters, far from the always reliable and sometimes quite boring Starfleet cut-outs.

To start with, i found Neelix a bit comical. But the episode which changed that was Jetrel, in which Neelix's tragic background was revealed. My perspective of Neelix changed after watching that episode for the first time. From that on, I could see a reason for his behavior, even if he came out as jealous, stupid or silly.

As for annoying characters, I must admit that there are characters I've found much more annoying than Neelix.

I must admit that I didn't like Seven for a long time. What I didnt like was that she replaced Kes and the over-focus on the character which was the result of that. All that constant praising of her as "the sexy babe", "the beautiful Borg" and the constant rambling about "Seven saved the show" actually annoyed me. Later on, I have got another perspective of the character which made her much more acceptable.

I did find Wesley a bit annoying to start with but when I got connection to the Internet and saw all the hatred against him, i actually started to like him! Honestly, he wasn't that bad.

I also saw Jake as a weak spot for DS9, at least in the first season. The typical kid in the series and a bit whiny. But he became better and better during the series.

I wasn't that fond of Pulaski either back then and I was happy when Crusher returned, although I never really disliked Pulaski. As it is now, my perspective of her has changed, she was actually quite good and I wish that she could have showed up in some later TNG episodes or some DS9 episodes.

I wasn't that fond of Lwxana Troi and Worf's son Alexander either. The episodes they were in were often a bit dull. But in recent years I've found them quite OK.

As for Worf, I actually like him but I can't stand that he killed off Gowron in that not so good DS9 episode, one of the few DS9 episodes I don't like. But I blame that more on the writers than the character itself and since I've come up with a solution in which Worf doesn't kill Gowron but a false "Gowron", I feel no anger against Worf.

I won't go into later series like ENT and DSC because they were so horrible that all characters came out as horrible too.

But to be honest, there's only one Star Trek character I really dislike and that's Raffi Musiker.

I didn't like her in PIC and I really dislike her after reading a certain book which I hate, a book in which she plays a very unsympathetic role from my point of view.