Note that Bashir is not yawning, but doing that weird wall shuffling-screaming thing that no one understands, probably not even Siddig or the director at the time of filming.
Now MOOOOVE ALOOOOOONG HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEM! (Whacks those weird wood sticks together.)
What?! Hell no… Maybe in the last couple of seasons, but early on? One of the biggest travesties of Voyager was how when Seven of Nine became a regular cast member, they just kinda stopped giving Chakotay anything to do which made Beltran kinda out act and stop giving a shit.
The one where he’s stuck in his own mind communicating with some aliens via a mental boxing match was really good. The character himself was awesome. It truly is a shame the writers/producers just didn’t care as much as having more eye candy on screen.
Just to preface my opinion, I think it’s ok to disagree on this haha. HOWEVER I don’t think it’s much of a travesty anytime Chakotay didn’t get to have a main plot. He’s a really wooden actor (made all the more obvious by mulgrew’s strength) who was given a really poorly defined character (as you can see by the way his hobbies are, like, whatever they needed to be for the plot to move? And never the same?) And sure, the powers that be wanted eye candy… but seven did end up being a super substantial character. She had some of the best stories and made all the best characters better just by being there. She was an amazing foil!
Yeah, don’t get me wrong; Seven wasn’t a bad character at all. And I completely agree that Chakotay was a bit under-defined as a character. But I simply attribute that to the writers themselves not really being interested in him enough to define him better or use him more. Maybe that was because of Beltran’s acting… I love theatre and such, but I can’t say I’m all that good at telling good acting from bad acting… If I can believe their feelings, that’s good enough for me and I always thought Beltran shows a lot of emotion in his eyes. 😅
The native American consultant they hired was a fraud and his episodes were cultural appropriation in a bad way.