The well-known story goes that Robert Beltran threatened to quit pretty much every season, and in response the producers would instead give him a pay raise and also give in to his ridiculous demands (like the 7/Chakotay last minute romance). What I'd like to know is, if the writers had barely any plans for Chakotay after a certain point (which they didn't), then why were they so desperate to keep him on the show? Why not go ahead and fire him/let him quit? EDIT: And for the record, Garrett Wang too who was apparently a huge problem for the producers.
Garrett is at least somewhat easy to explain. He ended up on People Magazine's list of 50 most attractive people, and it famously kept him employed at Jennifer Lien's expense when the producers needed to make room for Seven of Nine. In an environment where Voyager was scratching and clawing its way to keep up its ratings, they probably wanted to take advantage of any little thing they could. As for Beltran, I have no idea, but according to Jeri Ryan, both she and Beltran were blindsided by the sudden romance. They had been assured by the producers that nothing like that was going to happen... until it did. It doesn't sound at all like he demanded anything, in that respect. (https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/why_jeri_ryan_felt_seven) Now that doesn't explain why they kept an actor around who was threatening to leave and publicly badmouthing the show, unless of course he never did ask to leave, and the producers rightly did not want to look like they were firing someone for expressing their opinion. But that's all supposition on part with no supporting facts.
The romance between Seven and Chakotay is in my opinion the worst decision ever made during the show’s 7 years. I tend to skip that storyline when I rewatch Voyager. Regarding Beltran: I dislike both Beltran and Chakotay and it seems like I’m not alone. I do think that some tend to love to hate them both. Rumours might arise because of it.
Oh, sure. Bad idea. It’s got the Yuck factor. Watch the scenes while holding cardboard over Chakotay. There. Better.
I liked Chakotay, he added a spiritual maturity to the mix. His acting to me always translated as smooth. The looks didn't hurt either but he so often had a wry or naughty smile during scenes. The romance with Seven was simply without chemistry and that came from both sides. Not blaming the actors but if it's not there it's just not there. It may have been controversial as well but Janeway and Chakotay had far more chemistry.
It is interesting when management hooks up. They have enough in common to make it worthwhile. Maybe they could have paired Seven and the EMH, having already shared her body...dialogue could write itself, and would have all manner of comedy built-in.
Yes, I never saw Chakotay and Seven as a couple. I'm glad Robert Beltran stayed. Despite everything that might have happened behind the scenes he is an important character. Sure, there are bad Chakotay episodes. But this is not Beltran's fault. Garrett Wang did a good Job, he just didn't play a character with depth and development. He was the Ensign because someone had to be the Ensign. Which is ridiculus considering the fact how fast Nog was promoted.
Seven and the Doctor had a lot of 'human' moments together. Because he was not one and her humanity had been suppressed it had more impact seeing them discover various emotions and understandings. Harry had such a prominent role on the bridge, I never thought him remaining an Ensign was a slight.
Beltran frequently has an expression of subtle amusement on his face … almost like he alone is privy to some sort of inside joke. You can see this in many scenes actually (and yeah, he's pretty sexy, of course). I didn't mind the relationship between Chak and 7 as most do, but I do agree that the buildup to that was pretty feeble. The fact that both actors apparently were blindsided by the decision to go that route is no surprise given the end result. Oh, "Natural Law"... what could have been?
I have zero sympathy for Beltran. If he was so upset, he should have quit. He didn't have the guts to do that. He made his decision to stay, so he should have just shut his trap and did his job as required. Ungrateful SOB should be thankful he even had a career. Sure, I know not all actors are exactly rolling in the dough, but that's another reason he should keep his mouth shut. If he needed the money that badly, why risk being fired by shooting off his mouth?
Objectively, I think he did his job, but he certainly did not appear to give his job anything near his best effort. From my own experiences , gratitude is a quality that some people need to learn. Maybe he wasn't there yet.
It’s like he wasn’t......invested in the character. It seemed that when a reaction might be indicated, he would be either daydreaming or pissed with the script enough to drift off. Maybe he wanted the status of Riker. Denied.
Voyager was such a great premise, with a bad execution.. Some great episodes mind you, but on whole, to me the worst series. If your going to do an over arching promise like, oh.. Stuck on the other side of the galaxy.. you have a kind of a show "bible" that when you pitched this, what is going to happen in the 7 year series run. Also in that bible, your characters, who they are, and what will happen to them in said timeline. For Chac.. When Robert got his character "Bio" on who he is playing, in there should been a paragraph atleast on who he is, what he is doing there, and how his character will be evolving in the series. Not just, he's 2nd in command and a native american.. "crickets" Many actors in all the series were upset on there characters "arc" and there screen time. Just being on the bridge saying "hailing frequencies open" is not a character, or driving the boat saying warp 4.9 aye sir. Why I like Babylon 5, all characters had a story to tell, each evolved, and JMS had the broad strokes of what each characters purpose was, including a trap door to let them exit. None were just wallpaper.. ( though that "Ace" in season 2 was.. and why he was vaporized .. ) Why I'm happy shows are more arc driven now adays, though they still don't plan out the whole series, and there season arcs don't have enough meat to fill out a whole 22 episode season. (cough CW cough) I kind of wish they'd "Redo" the lost story line in another star trek series.
In the age of NFL players kneeling during the anthem I'm rather conflicted on the philosophy that people hired to do a job shouldn't be allowed to talk about it...
Because the players who are kneeling aren't bad-mouthing their own teams. That's the difference. You can bet that if a player on any team (in any sport) kept shooting his mouth off in public about how much his team sucks, you can bet they'd get kicked to the curb.