When did Chakotay fall into the background?

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I was looking over the Star Trek: Voyager episode guide on Wikipedia. I seem to remember Chakotay being front and center throughout Seasons 1-3. When Seven came onboard, he continued to have a strong prominent role in S4-5. I seem to remember that is was S6-7 where he fell into the background and got reduced to being a cardboard cutout. I also seem to remember a story where Robert Beltran tried to get fired by asking for a raise, but it backfired - he got the raise. Is this story true?

This is meant to be a lighthearted thread to discuss Chakotay and Robert Beltran. Keep it fun, folks.

 

[Lynx]

After the episode Nemesis in season 4.

That was his last grande performance. After this, he was slowly shoved more and more away from the spotlight.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

After the episode Nemesis in season 4.

That was his last grande performance. After this, he was slowly shoved more and more away from the spotlight.

I thought Beltran gave a great performance in the "Year of Hell" two-parter, no? He was also great with Neelix in "Mortal Coil." Looking through the S4 episode guide, I do see what you mean. There's only a few episodes where Beltran / Chakotay get a lot to do. In TOS, TNG, DS9; the "first officer" was always front and center (Spock, Riker, Kira). I always thought Chakotay got the shaft regarding that in VOY's later seasons (4-7). They had a great actor, use him!

 

[Frontis]

Well, at some point Voyager became the "Seven Of Nine Show"
The only other character who developed lately was the Doctor.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Well, at some point Voyager became the "Seven Of Nine Show"
The only other character who developed lately was the Doctor.

Back in the 90's, the general consensus (locally) was that it became the Janeway-Seven-Doctor show and everyone else.

 

[Lynx]

Back in the 90's, the general consensus (locally) was that it became the Janeway-Seven-Doctor show and everyone else.

You must mean that "it became the Janeway-Seven-Doctor show and everyone else were shoved in the background."

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

You must mean that "it became the Janeway-Seven-Doctor show and everyone else were shoved in the background."

You're not wrong, a lot of episodes had the main cast just standing around pushing buttons. How do I get paid for that kind of job?

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

I say from experience when I say it's pretty easy to fall into this trap.

I wrote some fanfiction series in the past, and I fell for it then. And I had easier than Voyager writers. I had no actors, no executives, no network. Just myself. And I still fell for it. Partocularly in onje of my fanfiction series, in ended up being focused on two charatcers only. And one of them wasn't even a major charatcer. And a recurring character which was part of the "main cast" of another series, had apprared more often and was more important that some "main charatcers". I later saw it and fixed it at least for some characters, but I wasnlt able to do it for each one.

So I can at least understand this part of the Voyager's writers "bad writing".

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

He fell into the background because O'l Planky was just too much of a cigar store Indian to carry any scenes, lines or.. sex appeal.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

He fell into the background because O'l Planky was just too much of a cigar store Indian to carry any scenes, lines or.. sex appeal.

Eh?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Chak was called Planky by fans for years because of his wooden performance.

 

[Lynx]

I say from experience when I say it's pretty easy to fall into this trap.

I wrote some fanfiction series in the past, and I fell for it then. And I had easier than Voyager writers. I had no actors, no executives, no network. Just myself. And I still fell for it. Partocularly in onje of my fanfiction series, in ended up being focused on two charatcers only. And one of them wasn't even a major charatcer. And a recurring character which was part of the "main cast" of another series, had apprared more often and was more important that some "main charatcers". I later saw it and fixed it at least for some characters, but I wasnlt able to do it for each one.

So I can at least understand this part of the Voyager's writers "bad writing".

Yes, it is a dangerous trap.

But it's possible to avoid.

And contrary to you, those writers were and maybe still are professional writers! It's their job to come up with stories for all characters. If they can't do that, they are not doing their job and must be replaced.

Which is a reason why I don't buy the pathetic excuses tey came up with when kes was dumped, such as "we couldn't write stories for the character". That was a lie considering the fact that they had came up with good stories for that character up to the moment she was dumped, at least most of those stories.

As for me, when I write a story, I try to involve all character as much as possible even if the main characters may get more action than the others.

When it comes to Voyager, the only character I find it a bit hard to write for is B'Elanna Torres because I'm not good at describing the technical problems she often have to face. But if I simply stick with action scenes for B'Elanna, it works fine.

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

I understand that they're professional writeers and I am not (although main reason for that is that I don't want to have restrictions and commercial writing puts restrictions on you. So I stick to fanfiction).

Also, this is why, except for that "Voyager redone" story you know about, I am mostly writings things with small cast of major characters, or even stories where characters aren't the main focus.

I have one story with one permanent main character, his ship, one to eight (at heigh, but usually up to 4) temporary main characters and quite a lost support characters, one story with three main characters and one story with four main characters.


Anyway, I sometimes find it hard to believe the Voyager writers often came from Next Generation. After all, each character got some episodes for themselves there, especially later in the series. Even Troi and Crusher had some good episodes!

 

[Darth Thanos]

You must mean that "it became the Janeway-Seven-Doctor show and everyone else were shoved in the background."

You mean, a Star Trek show focused only on the Captain, a being of pure logic and a temperamental doctor? Yes, that was something so weird...

 

[Lynx]

You mean, a Star Trek show focused only on the Captain, a being of pure logic and a temperamental doctor? Yes, that was something so weird...

I find it a bit unfair to compare VOY and TOS in that matter.

TOS was created from thne start to have three main characters. Others like Sulu, Rand, Chekov and Uhura were background characters to start with and became more important as the series progressed.

And no one was dumped without any reason.

Voyager was suppoised to have the nine characters we saw in Caretaker. Then in season 4 after three years of good performance from all characters, they bring in a new one who become the big star and shove the others in the background.

A stupid move since Voyager had so many good characters.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I find it a bit unfair to compare VOY and TOS in that matter.

TOS was created from thne start to have three main characters. Others like Sulu, Rand, Chekov and Uhura were background characters to start with and became more important as the series progressed.

And no one was dumped without any reason.

Voyager was suppoised to have the nine characters we saw in Caretaker. Then in season 4 after three years of good performance from all characters, they bring in a new one who become the big star and shove the others in the background.

A stupid move since Voyager had so many good characters.

While frustrating, it's not unusual for a series of 7 years to lose one or more members of the original cast, either because the actor left, or the producers wrote out the character. I do agree that it's frustrating to have a cast of 9 but mostly focus on just 3. This partially continued into Enterprise. Archer, T'Pol, and Trip were the central focus. Reed and Phlox still got stuff to do. Most of the time, Hoshi and Travis just sat on the bridge. At least Hoshi got dialogue.

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

Enterprise writing team shared a lot of people with Voyager, and Voyager wasn't considered a failure by the producers, so I guess they didn't though any change was needed.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Enterprise writing team shared a lot of people with Voyager, and Voyager wasn't considered a failure by the producers, so I guess they didn't though any change was needed.

On the Blu-ray set, Braga recounts how they had an almost entirely new writing staff either when the show started, or when it came back for S2, one of the two, I am pretty sure.

 

[BohandiAnsoid]

Maybe, butn anyway, they had no reason to change the basic principles of the writing. And there are similarities between Voyager and Enterprise.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Maybe, butn anyway, they had no reason to change the basic principles of the writing. And there are similarities between Voyager and Enterprise.

A lot of that comes from UPN who wanted more of the same. I was right, it was after S1 that most of the writing staff had left or been let go.