#i will not begrudge him the Beef With Trek point. his character especially was not used well + im sure that his problems w the staff only

[el-im]

idk if you/your followers care so feel free to delete this— but robert beltran’s whole thing was that he was a shakesperean actor who was talked into auditioning for star trek because chakotay sounded like a cool character on paper/in the pilot. he kind of actively hates scifi and has always been that way (+again shakespearean actor in the 90s so w that associated pretentiousness) but the idea of playing the first officer who had all this conflict and depth built in bc of the maquis/the war drew him in. when it became clear the writers weren’t gonna capitalize on stuff like his beef with tom/tuvok and that they wouldn’t flesh his character out that much, he was suddenly stuck on a show that he found actively annoying (he thought the format was low stakes bc the audience knows that none of the main cast is gonna die outside of a season finale/premiere and he hated technobabble + had a hard time memorizing it). after his campaigns for better characterization were met with “fuck off” from producer/writers he tried repeatedly to leave (he campaigned very hard to get chakotay killed) but the network wouldn’t let him bc of the demographics that liked him, so his relationship with the other people working on the show (cast and producers alike) deteriorated quickly. i’m not defending him in any way to be clear, he’s an old man who seems like kind of a prick, but just for context i think it’s important to say that part of the reason he’s shitty about star trek is that the creative team/the network treated him badly and made the experience miserable for like 5 out of 7 years (race also definitely played a factor as well, as garrett wang had some similar issues). sorry for dumping voyager drama from 25 years ago into your inbox.

seriously !! divorcing his more recent bitter old man behavior (lmao) from the discussion i think you do get a picture of a pretty abhorrent experience w his treatment from the writers/staff. trek + it's relationship w cast members of color (with few exceptions, the most of the notable of which--i think--being on ds9 w the siskos/bashir, who were fully fleshed out characters whose upbringings/race/culture factored heavily into their attitudes/perspectives/dispositions without becoming their Single Defining Trait) has been pretty notoriously bad. despite the inclusion of nichelle nichols and george takei on tos, they were seldom used beyond background appearances on the bridge (nichelle would laugh in interviews--saying her favorite episodes were whichever ones allowed uhura to "get off the ship" and play a larger part in an ep), w/ takei's sulu being used less often than hers, in my memory... not to mention garrett wang's treatment in voyager + (understandable) beef w berman... i think i can approach/discuss the treatment of asian characters w a little more familiarity just based on my own experiences, but it seems obvious to me that being asked to portray an image of the "nonspecific indigenous person" was neither rewarding for him personally or done with any tact (see--voyager producers consulting "jamake highwater" for a character reference... who had been exposed repeatedly, almost a decade before, for pretending to be cherokee)

anyway! i agree that it's a shame that his character was so underused. i remember being shocked at how quickly the maquis/fleet tension dissolved in the opening few seasons, and it seemed that the occasional seska callback was the only reference really strewn in throughout (at least the beginning of) the show that brought back the separation between them/their vast difference in ideals/behavior. i wish that they'd handled that tension/gradual cohesion with the same grace and patience that they did with seven/the borg children's inclusion in the crew.

#i will not begrudge him the Beef With Trek point. his character especially was not used well + im sure that his problems w the staff only #made that working environment much worse #trek #asks