LogFAQs > #932765209

#57 Chakotay
I am a Native American Indian Warrior. Let's do the Tomahawk Chop. Go Braves.

Speaking of lead characters who were nothing but a weight on the show they came from, sup Chakotay. I walked into Voyager HYPED. They had built up the Maquis vs Federation combat really well in DS9 and seeing that conflict presented as the central concept of a new show was a really fun idea. You can see the writers' project in the show's setup where you have federation officers Janeway and Tuvok aligned in one corner with Maquis officers B'Elanna Torres and Chakotay in the other with the slippery Tom Paris in the middle serving as the balance of power and Harry Kim as an after thought, even here at the moment of conception.

Chakotay's complete and utter lack of compellingness as a character - or really the actor's lack of chops as a dramatic lead in a genre television setting - nearly instantly quashed this entire setup. It didnt survive halfway though season 1 outside of being an important part of B'Elanna's character arc, despite the entire rest of the show undermining her dogged determination to have character development. And that....transformation of the show from what it could have been to what it was was quite the disappointment.

Chakotay has a couple episodes I quite like from a TOS-style schlock perspective - The Fight being the chief episode among those. It also seems quite clear to me that Chakotay's actor is far more comfortable doing romance and soap opera acting as those moments are the ones in which he shines - much to Quinton's chagrin re: Seven of Nine later in the show. The fact is he never really gets better. The show continues to suffer under the weight of having a terrible secondary lead until they quietly demote him from that role.

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Board 8's Voice of Reason
https://imgur.com/AWY4xHy