How would you rewrite Chakotay?

[chris of nine]

Write very dry jokes into his banter.

His stonefaced delivery is perfect for that, and it would give him charm instead of smarm.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

Write very dry jokes into his banter.

His stonefaced delivery is perfect for that, and it would give him charm instead of smarm.

We already had Tuvok for telling sort of jokes with a a stone faced!

 

[chris of nine]

Then make all of Chakotay’s dirty. I mean geez, Seven is a laugh riot compared to him.

 

[HugeLobes]

We already had Tuvok for telling sort of jokes with a a stone faced!

Poor Tuvok

"Right, the Chief of Security is going to be a Vulcan!"
"K, so what's his personality?"
"Erm, I just told you."

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

Poor Tuvok

"Right, the Chief of Security is going to be a Vulcan!"
"K, so what's his personality?"
"Erm, I just told you."

Oh come on, it is just a facet of his personality that makes him so endearing!
-> Tuvok is my second favourite character after Janeway (and in 3rd position, Thomas Paris)

 

[HugeLobes]

Oh come on, it is just a facet of his personality that makes him so endearing!
-> Tuvok is my second favourite character after Janeway (and in 3rd position, Thomas Paris)

I think Tuvok and Chakotay were the worst written characters. That's both in terms of ongoing development and their general role as part of the crew. Difference is Tim Russ gave so much to his character; he's probably my favorite of the bunch! Managed to get past the 'Me Vulcan/I Logical' dialogue and actually give Tuvok a little depth. It's amazing what can happen when people actually care about their characters...

 

[suarezguy]

I would have him be a lot more critical of the Prime Directive and of when he thought Janeway was being too devout to it, argue that they're one ship so far away from all other Federation ships/resources that it can be impractical/inapplicable and shouldn't impede their journey. Not aggressive against other species or but more willing to make controversial deals with them.

 

[Captain Killy]

Easy,

Pick a tribe/indigenous people and stick the fuck with it. He could have been Apache, Navaho, Maori or Nahuas instead of the cultural mish-mash they ended up with

 

[Refuge]

I think I'm a cultural mish-mash I was wearing an Aussie T-shirt at the doctor's the other day and a lady in the waiting room called me a good Australian girl. I'm an import but a full citizen

I like Chakotay's spirituality at least the sense of perspective he would offer.

 

[chris of nine]

Now, there it is.

Although SF writers stay away from it, they could have used a god connection with Chakotay, as his “edge”, when caught in a bind.
That is the power his character needs, and it “fits”.

 

[Mareika]

I would break the rule of this thread and recast him.
[...]
Chakotay is never again seen nor heard in the entire series, nor in any other star trek series.

I`m sure I wouldn`t became a Voyagerfan without Robert Beltran as the character Chakotay. I watched TNG and liked it and than I saw the first minutes of the Voyagerpilot with the "Marquis- Chakotay". I was very impressed and falled in love with this man. So I became a hug Voyagerfan and still am. I can`t imagine Voyager without RB and I`m sure I wouldn`t watch it anymore, although I also like all the other characters now. But without RB/Chakotay? Nooo!

 

[Mareika]

How would I rewrite Chakotay?
He should be more of the strong Marquisleader
- more differences with Janeway.
- discussions about her decitions...
He should go on awaymissions like Riker did.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Had a wild idea for how to rewrite Chakotay to make him stand out and become a more complex character, have him be the undercover Cardassian.

But he doesn't make a deal with the Kazon but stays onboard.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

This weekend, a friend of mine who shares of a passion for old series from 70's and to whom I've asked how Native Americans were perceived at that time, proposed to me to watch 2 episodes of The Bionic Woman, called "The Canyon of Death" (s1) & "Out of Body" (s3), and an episode of Incredible Hulk called "Kindred Spirits (with Kim Cattrall) where some characters with a Native American background appeared in the stories. In these three episodes, we heard a flute playing, characters spoke to the spirits of dead relatives and/or once in comatose, managed to get out of their bodies to enter in contact with the main character for getting help and for "Out of Body" and "Kindred Spirits", The wisdom of the elders was highlighted.
So, there was nothing new, already at this time but let's be honest, the Native American background was better described and operated in these episodes from 70's than in Voyager, where, let's be honest, it was turned in farce.

(Oh and about LIndsay Wagner who played the smart and lovely Jaimie Sommers, even if I'm a great fan of Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway as you all know , let me tell you that Wagner would have been a good alternative to Mrs Geneviève Bujold too (besides. Lindsay Wagner, who is a little older than Mulgrew, can clearly act, knowing to play on a range of emotions like compassion, anger, craziness, fear.
I'd say the only differences between Mulgrew & Wagner would have been their size (1.58 m for Mulgrew & 1.79 m for Wagner) and that she would have tried to satisfy the fans (well, most of them! ) in making Janeway/Chakotay reunited in Endgame, just to thank people of their loyalty as she has insisted with the last adventures of Jaimie Sommers & Steve Austin, in getting them married.

In any case, Robert Beltran would not have had more chance to shine with her as leading actress, because as Mulgrew, Lindsay Wagner was known to know what she wanted: to perform a strong woman who hasn't need a man to tell her what she needed to do. )

 

[Four Lights]

The character acted like a statue most of the time. I'd of lightened him up a lot more and given him some jokes and more humorous moments. That and developed a real heart to heart connection between him and the captain. I know they tried at this up to a point, but I guess once Janeway was turned into a dominatrix in season 5, that became impossible.

 

[chris of nine]

Chakotay had some joke lines, but his delivery was flat.

Paris: “Can’t you just turn into a bird and fly us out of here?”
Chakotay: “You’re too heavy.”


Tuvok: “Vulcan literature doesn’t HAVE demons.”
Chakotay: “That explains its popularity.”

More like a table read than comic retorts. There were more.
Anyone?

 

[Pink Thing]

I’d do real Native American stuff and not the stereotype crap we got.

I’d give him more action roles. I thought he was at his best in sequences like Displaced and Waking Moments. I would have put him in more situations like that. If he and Seven had more ‘Save the ship on their own’ moments their pairing would feel more natural.

I dont understand how Chakotay expressing Native cutlure is a streyotype?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I dont understand how Chakotay expressing Native cutlure is a streyotype?

It's well documented that the 'expert' they hired for Native American culture gave them lots of really inaccurate information. But basically they portray Native American culture as being all about obscure spiritual rituals. Or as an article I found online puts it, 'Although Star Trek: Voyager hence makes an explicit effort to draw a more nuanced picture of Native American spirituality, the program is still unwilling to complicate the binary construction of the spiritual versus the rational.'

So to answer your question, he's *not* expressing real Native culture, and he's not expressing his fake native culture in a way that represents how actual Native Americans apply their spiritual roots to modern living.

 

[KimMH]

Who remembers Bearclaw from the 1980's DC comics' Trek series? That's how I'd do Chakotay.

Dangit Daniel. My TO-READ list is already unmanageable.

This thread has been fun with some really great suggestions.

I liked Chakotay as was; he was flawed and human. Feel like he was meant to represent a longing for spirituality, inconsistently written as it was.

I would have made his embrace of his father’s beliefs a longer and angrier arc. People who reject the family religion are often angry and hurt and feel betrayed.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

Chakotay had some joke lines, but his delivery was flat.

Paris: “Can’t you just turn into a bird and fly us out of here?”
Chakotay: “You’re too heavy.”


Tuvok: “Vulcan literature doesn’t HAVE demons.”
Chakotay: “That explains its popularity.”

More like a table read than comic retorts. There were more.
Anyone?

Well, this is what was often reproached to Robert Beltran's acting (and not necessarily the anti-Chakotay): sometimes, he overplayed (especially in scenes where Chakotay's character was supposed to be frustrated and/or angry -> ex: during the face-to-face between Janeway & Chakotay in Sickbay after Janeway woke up from her coma in "Scorpion - part 2" and she announced to her XO her intention to work with Borgs), and some others, his delivery was flat (I remember among others, a scene in s3 in which he told to Janeway his will to retreave his baby from the Kazon's vessel. Of course, she offered him the help of Voyage/her crew the crew to do it and his reaction was "euh, thank you" or something like that. It was not so much Chakotay's words spoken which were shocking but the way Beltran played this scene, which reflected no emotion (neither in physical expression or intonation. Result: this moving scene fell flat ! (while Ryan, Russ were able to express so much with the minimum of words and gestures).