Movies - TV
Robert Beltran Has Some Regrets About His Star Trek: Voyager Romance
by WITNEY SIEBOLD
At the start of "Star Trek: Voyager" in 1995, Robert Beltran ("Eating Raoul") played Chakotay, a Native American member of The Maquis, an anti-Federation resistance group. Becoming the first officer, he took to advising Captain Janeway and became a father figure to the rest of the crew.
Chakotay wasn't often seen developing unique one-on-one relationships with the characters on the show. However, he did have a relationship with an Ensign early in the show, and Chakotay was later forced into a relationship with Seven of Nine.
Beltran revealed in an interview that he was ambivalent about the relationships his character had on the show. He does feel that the series took a turn for the worse when writer and co-creator Jeri Taylor left it in the hands of Brannon Braga, romantic partner of Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine).
In an interview, Beltran called Seven of Nine, among other characters, “omnipotent” and said, “I think a lot of the tension and drama that was available was lost because you have to really dig hard to find tension in all-knowing, all-seeing characters.” Despite these feelings, Seven of Nine is still a popular character, and has been featured on the show “Star Trek: Picard.”