LogFAQs > #932686828

#59 Chakotay
"Akuchi Moya. It means no worries. For the rest of this show."

The first problem with Chakotay is that he's a nothingburger with few exceptions from season 3 onward. The writers realized how poorly he was written and went Occam's Razor on themselves, making him increasingly invisible as the show went on. The second problem with Chakotay is that for the seasons he truly existed as a character he sucked. I suppose technically that ought to be listed as the first problem but there's no going back. Speaking of no going back, I cannot return to my youth, when I recognized Chakotay was being written poorly but believed that he would come into his own as the seasons went on. That was a foolish hope for foolish Voyager fans who foolishly believed in love.

Chakotay is a Native American and a Maquis. Both of these things are perfectly fine additions to the crew taken on their own and though the "Native American as a Maquis" is a bit on-the-nose we can just go ahead and blame TNG's "Journey's End" for that one and pretend Chakotay's from that planetary tribe for continuity purposes. But also, who cares in the first place, because Chakotay's Native Americanism is all over the place. One episode he represents a certain belief system; the next he's on another edge of the spectrum. Sometimes -- oftentimes -- everything he cites is completely made-up nonsense. As a white guy this is problematic. Imagine being a Native American! And as for his role in the Maquis, the tension between Starfleet and the Maquis additions to the crew has a short handful episodes very early on where the writers act like they know how to do this sort of thing before admitting that they can't and it goes away. Until a neat episode near the end of the second season where they try to make it seem like the crew did a ton to get over that but they didn't. But I digress. The third problem with Chakotay, you see, is that he's far less interesting as a former Maquis than B'Elanna Torres, leaving his own lines flaccid.

The fourth problem with Chakotay is his actor. Robert Beltran tried to act early on to mixed results -- sometimes he was genuinely decent. But as his writers gave up, so did he. Beltran began earning paychecks just for showing up, and sometimes even that was not necessary. By the final seasons, Chakotay was about as relevant to most episodes as Harry... or less. Beltran is outspoken about his negative experiences with Star Trek: Voyager, and to a point I can appreciate that. But the fifth and final problem with Chakotay is that Robert Beltran was such a loser by the time his easy-money television show was ending that he dared executive producer Brannon Braga, who was dating Seven of Nine's actress, Jeri Ryan, to hook Chakotay up with Seven. Braga took the bait, resulting in one of the stupidest, least-earned, altogether lacking in chemistry, last-second romances in Star Trek canon.

It has been nearly nineteen years since Seven of Nine got together with Chakotay for ??? reasons. I pray this is nullified at long last in the weeks to come, as Seven will be a pivotal member of the upcoming Star Trek: Picard.

Chakotay sucks.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/startrek/images/0/00/Chakotay%2C_The_Fight.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071024225236

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Hi! I'm Quinton.
Did you know that Emilia Clarke will be my wife in 2023?