Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Season 2, Episode 2
Original Air Date: September 4, 1995
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| via Memory Alpha |
Chakotay has been granted the use of a shuttlecraft so he can perform the pakra, a (Star Trek-invented) memorial ritual for his father. I don't understand why he couldn't have done it in his quarters but it's as good an excuse as any for what comes next. He accidentally stumbles into Kazon territory. Once there, he has a hostile encounter with a young Kazon who sounds awfully familiar...
One of the asks of the writers for Season 2 was better development for Chakotay - a good call. On NextGen, despite second-billing, Riker definitely suffers in the competition for quality material with Data and Worf. The same could easily have happened with Chakotay (and may yet) without deliberate effort. "Initiations" is a good start. However, I always get nervous when they lean too heavily on the Native American heritage angle. For starters, they would have done well to give him a more specific ethnicity. The producers saw him as Sioux in the beginning, later Hopi. The tribe wasn't named on-screen until a fictional one was invented for him. Also, they could have cast a Native actor. There were plenty of good ones around in the mid-90s. Robert Beltran is technically Latino. Why not tap into his actual cultural identity instead?
The biggest mistake regarding Chakotay, though, was not letting the Maquis story play out for longer. Once Seska was gone, his character lost dimension he never quite got back. Now, Beltran is quite frank in his own assessment of the situation. I recommend David Wharton's piece on Giant Freakin Robot.
But at least for a while in Season 2, they were trying.
One of the most frequent criticisms of the episode has to do with the guest star who played Kar, the young Kazon. Before we dig into it, let me emphasize that I find the criticism entirely unfair and I'll explain why.
Kar was played by Aron Eisenberg, better known as Nog on Deep Space Nine. While the makeup is completely different, the voice is instantly recognizable. Some critics found this off-putting, complaining that it took them out of the narrative. I dispute this criticism for two reasons:
- Eisenberg had to audition for the part. It's not as if they created the character for him. They made him earn it. And he did.
- 29 years later, it's entirely possible someone might watch the series in the opposite order. I did. When I first started digging into NextGen-era Trek back in the DVR days, Voyager episodes were available to me while DS9 ones were not. So, I saw this episode first and never would have realized the connection.
Furthermore, Eisenberg is great in the part. Evidently, he and Beltran had loads of fun working together. Beltran likened it to working with comedian Don Rickles.
Acting Notes
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| via Wikipedia |
Patrick Kilpatrick (great name) played the role of Razik, First Maje of the Kazon sect Chakotay encounters. It's the first of three Trek appearances for the actor. Kilpatrick was born Robert Donald Kilpatrick, Jr. in Orange, Virginia, August 20, 1949. He graduated from Richmond University, then attended NYU for grad school.
He's earned his living as an action film villain. Movies include Class of 1999, Minority Report and The Presidio. Beyond Trek, television appearances include Babylon 5, ER and The X-Files.
In 2021, Kilpatrick ran in the California Governor recall race. The recall failed. Kilpatrick won 1.2% of the vote.
I'll always argue that it was fan disinterest, and mockery of, the Kazon that did in Chakotay, whose arc in the first two seasons was ultimately so tied up in them thanks to Seska, herself one of the most compelling characters of the series, and everything fans claimed they wanted from the Maquis and were equally convinced they didn't get...Except they did. And Chakotay (when you reach "Maneuvers" you'll hopefully see it yourself; it remains one of my favorite episodes and the highlight of the character's whole run in the series, a great performance from Robert Beltran, unlike anything else a Star Trek actor has accomplished, and probably what led to his one-off episodes like "Distant Origin," where he's the compelling dramatic anchor to a story otherwise unrelated to Voyager affairs)...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, like Bajoran politics, pushed to the side in DS9 due to fan apathy, it was a huge loss those same fans never appreciated, much less their direct role in it happening. I liked Chakotay. I always liked him. I didn't need him to be an antagonist, since I never viewed the Maquis as inherently antagonistic. Some of its members certainly had axes to grind (Seska, Torres, Ro), but Chakotay was never one of them. He was the voice of calm reason. If he had been in the original series, he would've been Spock. But he utterly lacked ego, which even Spock could never claim. A truly misunderstood character, hobbled, marginalized, but never short of compelling, given the chance. The more Janeway obsessed over her decisions, the more Chakotay sat back. He was actually an audience surrogate, later.
To be clear, I find Chakotay quite likeable. I also have no problem admitting Robert Beltran is a stronger actor than Frakes - more comfortable in his own skin, far less "watch me handsome" posturing. He just doesn't get the material.
DeleteI would imagine that's difficult to anticipate in the early development of a series. Some characters are going to inspire lots of memorable stories, some are not. Tom Paris shows so much promise in the pilot - since then, not so much. The two best characters so far - Doctor and Kes - felt like obligatory add-ons at the outset. Even developing Janeway has been slow. In contrast, DS9 stories jump off the page, no matter who the focus is. Voyager never reaches that level.
Then, of course, Seven is a game-changer. But we've got a ways to go for that.