Chakotay did more to hold the crew together than Janeway. T or F?

I say true. He's the only one who handed down any discipline, demanded that the Marquis integrate themselves into the crew.

Remember that time Janeway cocooned herself into her quarters when crossing the empty area of space? Unacceptable.

Thoughts

 

I do think that Chuckles did a lot more 'off screen' by way of mending of fences than what we ever saw happen on screen.

I'm not sure if it was necessarily a personality thing, though. It was his job as XO of Voyager. Riker was effectively the personel manager on Enterprise too, a conduit between the crew and the captain.

 

Chakotay was willing at times to forget about ever getting back to Earth and settling in the Delta Quadrant. But he was facing possible imprisonment on his return, too. So I'd say no.

 

The XO's job is Human Resources.

He or she has direct minions called department heads, and controls promotions.

Oh, and when the Romulans attack, it's his or her job to say "SHIELDS UP!"

 

I think it's impossible to give a precise answer. It's subjective to his position as an XO and remember that episode where Tuvok is brainwashed? I forget Apparently there were paranoid Maquis still heavily about. Even Chakotay slipped, "your crew."

Neelix was the moral officer. Just because the audience hates him doesn't mean the crew did. I think he held the ship to a point.

 

There's a case to be made for Chakotay being more crucial to the integration than Janeway. It wouldn't have been tough for him to keep the Maquis unhappy with the Starfleet crew. Especially given the top 3 Starfleet officers were:

Janeway, who marooned them in the Delta Quadrant and was coming to arrest them i the first place.

Tuvok, an undercover officer who was going to betray them and lead them into Starfleet's hands.

Paris, a former member of their group who agreed to use his knowledge of the Maquis to help Voyager find and arrest them.

Chakotay accepted them as his superior and colleagues.

Janeway clearly wanted the crew to be integrated and cooperative but in "Parallax" was clearly set on maintaining some sort of high ground between the Starfleet and Maquis crew. Chakotay didn't want a high ground, just a more balanced senior staff to ensure that the Maquis weren't second class citizens on Voyager.

I say true.

 

Janeway and Chak made a good team.

The team was crucial to holding the crew together.

 

Chak probably did a lot more and had much better relationships with the crew as a whole. The only exception probably being the bridge crew (bar Torres). Janeway started as a rather imperious captain and this only became more pronounced as they went along. One does not consort with ones subjects

The problem is, we don't really get to see much of the other crew which makes the relationship dynamics on board voyager difficult to assess. When Chakotay gets all het up in "Repression" about "your crew", this never really made sense to me. By that point, Chak should have developed very strong bonds with the Starfleet crew based on his responsibilities and interactions (far more so than Janeway) so to have him suddenly identify as Maquis again and dismiss all that didn't really add up

Unless they did and it was their shared hatred of him that helped them to bond technically, that would still mean he was a good moral officer

 

Despite the issues between Ryan and Mulgrew, Seven and Janeway acted professional in front of the camera. And Seven standing up to Janeway was nice to watch. Even Chakotay confessed that he had his doubts about Seven to be able to integrate into the crew. Janeway dealt with Seven, Chakotay with the former Maquis. He was failed by Seska, though. All in all, they were a good team.

 

The crew loved Janeway and this is in the actual show. Kes, for example, followed Kathryn around like a puppy. And I'm sure that they saw Chakotay as an extension of her authority. He was always careful not to challenge her in front of the crew, if he didn't agree, for example. He started off on the wrong foot, that's all. It didn't take long for him to prove himself a team player and as someone you'd want to follow into battle. But he loved Janeway at least as much as the crew did and that certainly shows in the final thing. Chakotay is my favourite VOY character, but I will have to vote "False."

 

In the unfilmed, unwritten 3-Parter, Star Trek, Voyager: "Spirit Animal", Chakkie had the crew assemble in the Briefing Room, as a Team Building exercise. The goal was for each member to discover their "Spirit Animal", thereby bringing the crew closer together, and knowing each other on a new and intimate level.

Never before divulged results (incomplete) indicate that Harry's Spirit Animal was a Yellow-Bellied Sap Sucker, and Neelix's was a mollusk. 7 of 9's, perhaps predictably, was a Borg Drone, and Captain Janeway was guided by her Spirit Animal, an Asian Palm Civet. No other SA's came to light.

When asked for comment, Producer Jeri Taylor said, "Janeway and Chakotay, on the Ocean"

 

I was disappointed in Chakotay when he said that too. Very out of character for him. However, I was more disappointed in Janeway when she locked herself in her cabin for weeks on end when they were crossing the void.

 

I like this answer.

 

Riker - yes.

Chakotay - a little.

 

I can agree on that.

But I think that Chakotay was crucial to the cooperation between Starfleet an Maquis. OK, most of the Maquis on the ship were no fools. They probably realized that the only way home was on Voyager. But still, Chakotay was the leader, they respected him and when he agreed to the idea of a "united Starfleet crew", he got almost all Maquis with him.

 

Chakotay wouldn't have been able to "hold the crew together" if Janeway hadn't integrated him into her crew in the first place. The Maquis were considered terrorists and enemies of the Federation. After all, her mission had been to apprehend him and his crew. Janeway could have easily decided to keep the Maquis in the brig. Instead, she had the foresight to offer Chakotay the position of second in command (which should have gone to Tuvok if she had followed protocol to the letter) and to assign his crew to key positions on the ship. B'Elanna would have never been Chief Engineer without Janeway's approval.

She also integrated into her crew aliens and a former Borg drone. Let's not forget that it took Chakotay a long time to accept Seven as one of their own.

I think that they were an excellent command team and played well off each other. Kathryn was more impulsive, but understood science and engineering in a way that Chakotay didn't. Chakotay was more sedate and was a good foil for Janeway. Voyager was in a unique position, they only had each other for support. If they hadn't trusted each other's instincts they would have never made it home. Even during their worst arguments there was no doubt that there was respect and affection between them. Either one of them would have been devastated if something terrible had happened to the other. I'm not sure that Voyager would have survived the seven years in the Delta Quadrant with a different command team.

 

^^
I agree here too.

We must give Janeway credit too. She was smart enough to realize that integrating the 30 or so Maquis into the crew was a lot better than to put them in the brig. She also realized that Chakotay was a reasonable guy who she could work together with, all for the benefit of the crew.

 

I can agree with all of this.

Secondary question:
If Chakotay had resisted to being integrated with the crew, what would Janeway's response have been? Would she have kept them in the brig for the entire journey back? That seems unlikely and unrealistic. Would she have dropped them off at the first uninhabited planet to fend for themselves? That would have gone against all of her morals.

 

I think that if Chakotay and the rest of the Maquis had refused to be integrated into her crew, then Janeway wouldn't have had any other choice but to keep them in the brig. She had to think of the safety of the ship and her remaining crew and couldn't afford a mutiny. The Captain was very smart and resourceful. I think that she would have allowed a period of time to pass until they had calmed down and would have approached Chakotay again. She would have tried to make him understand that it would be mutually beneficial to work together toward a common cause. They were the only humans in the Delta Quadrant and had no chance to get back to Earth for decades to come. Who would want to spend the rest of their lives locked in a brig? The resentments and rivalries of Earth must have seemed insignificant compared to their new reality. Chakotay was a spiritual and honorable man. I doubt that he wouldn't have seen the logic of her reasoning.

 

That would have been a helluva a story arc