Chakotay was never particular about his women, which kind of opened the door to Seven coming into the picture. Despite her not being "all that" and sort of blunt in the way she spoke, her innocent distractions made her appear quite charming, at times. Chakotay had better - Kellin, namely - but he also had a lot worse - namely Seska - so Seven was kind of right in the middle, there. And that seemed to suggest, in itself, that she could be some sort of stability for him. What's more - and this is my favourite aspect to the Chakotay/Seven pairing - she acted as a sort of Line of Demarcation, finally severing the last, lingering threads of Chakotay's long-lived infatuation with The Good Captain. Look ... I'd have loved it if Chakotay and Janeway - with their "ay"-alike names - would've paired off. But I hated that he held that torch for her, for so long. If he could never really know, if there were no way to ask Kathryn about it, then ... yes ... some barrier, or another, would've made it acceptable. But not when she steadfastly rejected him. It made Chakotay look like a chump ... and I never did like that.
I felt like it was a possibility starting with Faces. I think Sam would have held out for her husband unless he died or moved on (like Janeway's finance did). However if Sam had found herself widowed or divorced, I don't see any reason why Neelix couldn't have been a potential mate for her eventually. He was already her friend.
All Star Trek relationships have been bad. Worf/Troi, Chakotay/Seven and yes, Trip/T'pol. Chakotay and Janeway would have been interesting. You can at least understand where the relationship came from and what an effect it would have had on them and the ship.
The writers decided to get serious with Paris/Torres in the episode Swarm. It started with the opening scene of them in the shuttle.
I wouldn't say Sarek and Amanda were bad... But yeah, the main characters never really managed smooth sailing with anyone, it seems. Gotta wonder how long Rom and Leeta lasted, or if she and Moogie inspired the Ferengi equivalent of women's suffrage and recognition as legal persons.
How about Geordi and Leah? Remember the finale, where Geordi ended up marrying her and they had children together?
Trip/T'Pol might not have been a good pairing to some. But how many like me predicted it from the first episode in their first scene together. It's just as well Troi didn't stay with Worf. The poor man seemed to have a curse hanging over his head. He lost 2 of his mates to death. @Sophie74656 ,Leah Brahams was married to someone when she visited the ship that time. But I suppose we are to assume she divorced him or he died and she ended up with Geordi. Unless they meant another Leah in the finale. But since that was an alternate reality, maybe they didn't end up together anyway.
It might be characteristic of Geordi to find a brunette named Leah, and marry her. So it could be a different Leah. What I find funny is that everyone had a grim future in that episode but Geordi.
Data became a self absorbed twit. Harry had a fantasy about her. He didn't want a relationship. The only people we saw 7 falling for was unimatrix dude, and Chakotay.
In the ST novels in the USA some people have term marriage contracts maybe Leah Brahm's contract was not renewed so she was free to be Mrs La Forge
^I've read in some of the original series novels about contract marriages. Apparently Kirk was in a contract marriage during the time period between the end of the series and TMP.
Chakotay & Seven made sense because they were stuck in that starship for a long time and weird stuff was inevitable. It's like real life. We've all hooked up with people not right for us only because they were around a lot.
Wasn't Samatha Wildman a married woman before embarking aboard Voyager?! (even if we saw her in very rare occasions, I don't think that Sam was the type of person to turn her back to her marital status, just because of the situation (as a mother forced to raise her child alone, while she is stuck on a vessel for an indefinite period) but maybe I'm wrong ... . Things being what they were, it was never indicated to us that Sam and Neelix could be a couple, especially after Kes left the vessel, like for example, Tom teasing Neelix on the existence of a bet pool on the nature of his relationship with Sam, like we know there was about Janeway and Chakotay... . No, only a good friendship based on respect, understanding of each other (I'm pretty sure that Sam had to encouraged Neelix to pursue his romantic relationship with Dexa, even if it meant leaving her and Naomie behind in S7) and of course, their love for Naomie, as a loving mother (even if we saw them together too rarely) for Sam and as self-proclaimed and offical baby-sitter for Neelix. And it was very well like that!