Ok, I get why other Trek fans don't like Chakotay and in my opinion he isn't one of the better characters in all of Star Trek but I wouldn't say that I hate him. I agree with the aforementioned statement that the casting of Beltran for the role wan't a mistake, there had to be a reason for it. I personally don't think that Beltran is a bad actor in my opinion it has to do with a lack of decent writing for his character. The first few seasons of the show had some interesting writing/episodes for Chakotay and then it just stopped. The whole idea of having a Native American Maquis was a good idea, they just didn't go in any interesting directions with the character later on in the series. How many Chakotay centered episodes did we see throughout the series? Not many.
Anyone else not notice anything amiss about Beltran's performance?
- Thread starter sonak
- Start date
No, but it would have been credible. If the Maquis are that anti-Fed and just want to be left alone, you're telling me out of scores of Maquis crew members on a ship stranded in the middle of nowhere given a chance to join a thriving colony without any chance of Federation interference not even one would choose that over possibly never getting back to the Federation where they'd be regarded as traitors or fugitives?
Regarding the core concept of the show, it seemed to be struggling to maintain the values of the Federation without any real Federation presence with the added complication of a sizeable part of the crew being people who left the Federation. That core conflict seemed to have been ditched pretty early on in favour of a TOS or TNG-style alien-of-the-week plot. Now I don't have a problem with that, but if that's where they wanted to go why do the Maquis thing in the first place or why leave the ship in the DQ?
Of course that's way off-topic. It's not my favourite Trek, but I'm prepared to give the characters and individual stories the benefit of the doubt even if the creators failed to deliver on the premise.
Yeah, that's a problem with the Maquis to begin with: They couldn't make up their minds over whether they were Anti-Feds, Anti-Cardassians, were okay with the Feds and just wanted to fight the Cardies, etc.
They should've used a better defined group for the second crew of Voyager instead of the nebulous Maquis.
They should've used a better defined group for the second crew of Voyager instead of the nebulous Maquis.
Either that or say, "this isn't working" and bring the ship home to the AQ - nothing stopping them really, they encountered plenty of wormholes and other things that could have brought them home. Sure some people would have said it was a cop-out, but I reckon the shake-up could have done some good for ratings.
Better yet, they shouldn't have advertised the "Go to the Delta Quadrant" thing at all and just make everyone think it's an Alpha Quadrant show. Then within a few episodes they get pulled to the DQ, and everyone goes "WTF?" with this plot development and how they're stuck there.
If the audience never had any expectations, they'd be more receptive.
If the audience never had any expectations, they'd be more receptive.
......and that would explain why he was to appeal to women.
I can see the logic in the sex symbol argument, he probably did have something of a following among the housewives. Tom Paris was more my type, but even then I wouldn't watch just to see him. Star Trek is so weirdly asexual I've never found myself attracted to anyone on it.
Ok, until new Kirk and Chekov.
My heart, soul and all that I own belongs to the one Jadzia Dax.
My heart, soul and all that I own belongs to the one Jadzia Dax.
My heart, soul and all that I own belongs to the one and only Chakotay,
And I know that I`m not alone.
Besides-Robert Beltran as the "Sex Symbol" of Voyager -there has been a poll in a magazine some years ago. They asked for the Sexiest man of Trek :
the winner was..... Robert Beltran
It's the cleft chin & dimples, it's gotta be.My heart, soul and all that I own belongs to the one Jadzia Dax.
My heart, soul and all that I own belongs to the one and only Chakotay,
And I know that I`m not alone.
Besides-Robert Beltran as the "Sex Symbol" of Voyager -there has been a poll in a magazine some years ago. They asked for the Sexiest man of Trek :
the winner was..... Robert Beltran
They needed to get female fans on board for the show....Captain Janeway filled the intelligence aspect and Chakotay, the physical delight, that kept us ladies watching.
and what a sexy combination.....
and what a sexy combination.....
It's the cleft chin & dimples, it's gotta be.My heart, soul and all that I own belongs to the one Jadzia Dax.
My heart, soul and all that I own belongs to the one and only Chakotay,
And I know that I`m not alone.
Besides-Robert Beltran as the "Sex Symbol" of Voyager -there has been a poll in a magazine some years ago. They asked for the Sexiest man of Trek :
the winner was..... Robert Beltran
Yes...those dimples...
I don't think he really got a great deal from Voyager, as time went on he was just kind of there with not much importance which is not good from a first officer.
His best times were when he clashed with Janeway over certain items like the borg and the equinox crew, but the problem was that Janeway was shown to be almost perfect and always right which does not lead to many clashes.
Also his focus episodes tended to focus around his heratige and thengs like the sky saints or whatever which were not very interesting concepts to begin with.
To be honest a lot of the characters got shunted in later seasons anyway to make room for the doctor/7 of 9/Janway show.
His best times were when he clashed with Janeway over certain items like the borg and the equinox crew, but the problem was that Janeway was shown to be almost perfect and always right which does not lead to many clashes.
Also his focus episodes tended to focus around his heratige and thengs like the sky saints or whatever which were not very interesting concepts to begin with.
To be honest a lot of the characters got shunted in later seasons anyway to make room for the doctor/7 of 9/Janway show.
I never viewed Beltran's lack of emotions as equating to bad acting. I thought that was just him doing what his character is supposed to: be cool and collected. In general, his acting seemed good to me.
On the other hand, I do find Beltran's emotional acting in Caretaker when he has this big goofy grin on his face and says, "Because she's the Captain!" to be extremely bad acting. I'm not sure if he was doing that on purpose due to how cheesy that line was, but if he wasn't doing it on purpose, then IMO he's a very bad actor when he has to show to show emotions.
On the other hand, I do find Beltran's emotional acting in Caretaker when he has this big goofy grin on his face and says, "Because she's the Captain!" to be extremely bad acting. I'm not sure if he was doing that on purpose due to how cheesy that line was, but if he wasn't doing it on purpose, then IMO he's a very bad actor when he has to show to show emotions.
Not really he was just reminding B'elanna that she was Voyagers captain and could do as she pleased with the ship and her crew.
except that B'Elanna's point was that Janeway, who was NOT the Maquis captain, was making major decisions that would impact the Maquis crew. She was basically saying correctly, that Janeway had no right to do this.(she really had no right to do this to her OWN crew, much less non-Starfleet folks.)
Chakotay's response doesn't address this at all, and just says "she's the captain." Which, as I pointed out, is dumb. The Kazon had a captain as well, should the Maquis abide by decisions he makes, too?
