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| First Appearance = "Caretaker, Part I" (''Voy'') }} Chakotay is a fictional character who appears in each of the seven seasons of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek: Voyager''. Portrayed by Robert Beltran, he is First Officer aboard the Starfleet starship USS ''Voyager''. The character was suggested at an early stage of the development of the series. He is the first Native American main character in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. This was an intended move by the producers of the series, who sought to provide an inspiration as with Uhura in ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' for African Americans. In order to develop the character, the producers sought the assistance of Jamake Highwater. Despite first being named as a Sioux, and later a Hopi, Chakotay was given no tribal affiliation at the start of the series, something that was later resolved in the episode "Tattoo". The character first appeared in the pilot episode of the series, "Caretaker". The character continued to appear throughout the series in a main cast role, with his final appearance in the finale, "Endgame". He was featured in an ongoing storyline throughout the first and second seasons which featured the betrayal of his lover Seska (Martha Hackett) until her death in "Basics". Following his experience with disconnected Borg in "Unity", Chakotay was against an alliance with the Borg in "Scorpion" nearly leading to the death of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Despite this, by the end of the series the two characters were in a romantic relationship together. In the ''Voyager'' relaunch novels set after the vessel's return to the Alpha Quadrant, Chakotay is promoted to Captain of the ship but the relationship with Seven is ended. Reviewers of Chakotay were critical of the stereotypical nature of Chakotay's Native American heritage. This led to comparisons with Tonto from ''The Lone Ranger'', and that the inclusion of "Hollywood" versions of vision quests and meditation techniques were contrary to the character's in-universe tribal background.〔 However, he was praised as a role-model for Native American science fiction and called "ground-breaking",〔 as well as the most prominent example of a Native American character within this genre. ==Concept and development== The inclusion of a Native American character in ''Star Trek: Voyager'' was suggested at an early stage in the development of the series. The producers were looking for an ethnic background which hadn't been seen before as a main character in the franchise. It was hoped that a Native American character would prove to be an inspiration in the same way that the appearance of Uhura in ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' later inspired Whoopi Goldberg and other African Americans.〔Poe (1998): p. 174〕 Executive producer Jeri Taylor said that "It seemed to us that Native Americans needed that same kind of role model and that same kind of boost ... the future looks good, you have purpose, you have worth, you have value, you will be leaders, you will be powerful. That was one character choice we had early on."〔 Taylor's notes from the early production in July 1993 describe the character as "First Officer – a human native American male, a 'Queequeg' person who has renounced Earth and lives as an expatriate on another planet. A mystical, mysterious man with whom the Captain has some prior connection, not explained."〔Poe (1998): p. 176〕 A month later this description was expanded with the line "This man has made another choice – to re-enter the world of Starfleet."〔Poe (1998): p. 189〕 Chakotay was not the first Native American character to appear in the franchise, with "The Paradise Syndrome" in the third season of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' showing a group of displaced humans following a Native-American-like culture.〔Wagnar & Lundeen (1998): p. 178〕 The producers aimed to develop some conflict between the members of the crew to produce a scenario similar to the Bajoran/Starfleet relationship seen in ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', but wanted the characters to share the same ideals.〔 In order to do this, the Maquis were created – a group of Federation colonists from the Cardassian border in a disputed territory who were joined by some Starfleet officers who joined them to fight for their rights.〔Poe (1998): p. 201〕 The producers had the Maquis introduced in other ''Star Trek'' series before ''Voyager'' in four episodes; two in ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and two in ''Deep Space Nine''. It was a deliberate reference to the political situation in the West Bank.〔Poe (1998): p. 200〕 In developing Chakotay, the producers sought the assistance of Jamake Highwater,〔Poe (1998): p. 199〕 a writer of more than 25 books of both fiction and non-fiction related to Native American myths and traditions.〔Poe (1998): p. 200〕 Highwater was a controversial choice of advisor, having been exposed by Hank Adams and Vine Deloria, Jr. as taking a fake Native American ancestry in order to sell books.〔Vizenor (1994): p. 181〕 Around September 21, 1993, Highwater gave seven pages of notes to producers regarding Chakotay's backstory but his tribal ancestry was unresolved.〔Poe (1998): p. 206〕 By the end of that month, Michael Piller drafted the first version of the writer's bible for the series in which the character was named "Chakotoy".〔Poe (1998): p. 208〕 By the time Piller wrote the first draft of the story that eventually became the ''Voyager'' pilot "Caretaker", the character was known as "Chakotay" and been made a Sioux. By the third draft of the story, submitted at the start of November, he had become a Hopi, but by the following February he once again had no tribal affiliation.〔Poe (1998): p. 221〕 Winrich Kolbe, the director of "Caretaker", was involved in casting the main cast for the series. He described the casting process for the part of Chakotay as difficult due to the lower numbers of Native Americans who were in the Screen Actors Guild. The casting process came down to two actors, and the producers decided on Robert Beltran who until then was best known for appearing in the soap opera ''Models Inc.'' and was of Mexican heritage.〔〔Treviño (2001): p. 365〕 Beltran wasn't familiar with ''Star Trek'' before auditioning, and went along on the strength of the "Caretaker" script which showed the character becoming the second in command of ''Voyager'' after both their vessels are stranded in the Delta quadrant.〔Booker (2004): p. 126〕 Beltran explained the audition experience, "I felt neutral about the audition, didn't much care one way or the other. I went in the first time and wasn't really trying to get the part. They asked to see me again, and they wanted to see more of an edge to the character."〔Poe (1998): p. 279〕 Chakotay was originally written as a "calm, stoic" character, but Beltran expanded on the character during the audition process, something that Kolbe credited him for.〔 The writer's bible described Chakotay as a very traditional Native American with an altar and traditional art in his quarters. It also mentioned his spirit guide,〔Berman; Piller; Taylor (1995): p. 13〕 something which was picked up in the media report in ''TV Guide''. Beltran wore a facial tattoo whilst playing Chakotay, which was applied with make-up. This earned him comparisons to boxer Mike Tyson after the latter gained a facial tattoo.〔 〕 The design was created by Michael Westmore, who deliberately created it so that it didn't represent any particular tribal culture.〔Poe (1998): p. 283〕 The in-universe story of the tattoo and Chakotay's tribal origins were explained in the episode "Tattoo".〔Wagnar & Lundeen (1998): p. 180〕 Beltran gained the reputation on-set as a comedian.〔 〕 Following the first season and during a group interview with ''The Washington Times'', Beltran joked that he was asked to perform in ''Hamlet'' during the summer in Albuquerque but had been asked to wear Chakotay's facial tattoo.〔 〕 During that time he worked on the Oliver Stone film ''Nixon'' (1995).〔 〕 During the period where ''Voyager'' was run by Taylor and Piller were the executive producers, Beltran gave feedback on the character which was taken into account. He later explained that this ended following the introduction of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine onto the cast and Brannon Braga taking over from Taylor and Piller. Beltran felt that Chakotay was one of the characters alongside Harry Kim, Tuvok and Neelix that were left behind by the new writers who tended to concentrate on Janeway, Seven and The Doctor.〔 Beltran said that he wasn't aware of the effects of the interactions this was having with the crew, and described the situation saying "for me it was like, 'OK, you can fire me if you want to. Go ahead, and I'll leave.'"〔 He compared his experience on ''Voyager'' to working in a car factory, and said that the repetitive scenes meant that it limited his creativity. Beltran explained that it didn't affect his relationship with the other actors, and in the end he felt the producers decided to keep him on the cast as it didn't make "very much difference, except to a very, very small percentage of fans who maybe didn't like what I said."〔 In an interview to publicise the final episode of ''Voyager'', "Endgame", Beltran said that "We all had a great relationship with each other and we've all said how much we enjoy our crew. We have a terrific crew. But at the same time, I'm looking forward to what's next. It's exciting to know that something unknown is next."〔 〕 The final episode introduced a romance between Seven of Nine and Chakotay. Ryan found this confusing for the characters as although it had been suggested in the episode "Human Error", the producers told the pair to forget about the relationship in the in-between episodes until the finale. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chakotay」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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