Summary

• Robert Beltran expresses frustration with the Janeway and Seven of Nine conflict, viewing it as repetitive and making Janeway an infallible character.
• Beltran acknowledges the challenges faced by the writers in maintaining quality over seven years, but believes they took the easy way out by focusing on the Seven of Nine storyline.
• Beltran did not seek more airtime for himself, but rather desired one good scene in each episode. He felt that the conflict between Janeway and Seven of Nine was stretched too far for too long, hindering character development.

Robert Beltran, who played Commander Chakotay on cast of Star Trek: Voyager, the show focused heavily on Seven of Nine, with Janeway's firm guidance playing a major role in Seven's journey back to humanity. Seven's cold Borg efficiency repeatedly clashed with Janeway's scientific curiosity and Starfleet's respect for life, in ongoing moral battles that reinvigorated Voyager after three seasons of flagging viewership. Chakotay, meanwhile, languished without much character development, starring in Voyager episodes that often missed the mark.

The conflict between Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway, and the rich character development that followed, were well-received by most viewers, but Star Trek: Voyager's own Robert Beltran didn't see it that way. Beltran expands on his thoughts in The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years by Mark A. Altman and Robert Gross, explaining his frustration with the direction that Star Trek: Voyager took by focusing on Seven of Nine and Janeway. Read Beltran's quote below:

I know that other people were not happy, but I’ll let them speak for themselves. To me, it was this endless scene that was written episode after episode of these all-knowing, all-seeing, omnipotent characters that were battling each other, going through the same argument over and over between Janeway and Seven of Nine. I have to say that that made Janeway weaker by making her this all-seeing, all-knowing, never-made-a-mistake-in-my-life kind of character. There’s no conflict in that. You really have to search hard to find conflict with those kinds of characters. The Doctor became sort of the same thing. I think they wrote very well for non-humans. People have misconstrued my criticism as that I felt like I should get more airtime. No, no, believe me. By the time that seven years was over, I was counting the days that I didn’t have to work. It was not that at all. In fact, I had conversations with writers telling them, “Look, if you just give me one scene in every episode that’s a good scene, I will be very happy.” So I thought that this thing between Janeway and Seven of Nine just got taken way too far, for way too long. “Let’s make Seven of Nine more human again,” and she would make progress and then the next week she’d be back to the same old half Borg/half human. I know that it’s hard for any television series to maintain a quality over seven years. I know that the writers have a huge challenge in trying to do that, and I sympathize with them. But that’s what they’re paid for. I think that they took the easy way out in many instances.

Robert Beltran Doesn't Get Seven and Janeway

Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway were far from perfect, and full of conflict.

Star Trek: Voyager made it very clear that Janeway and Seven were not always right, so Robert Beltran's claim that Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine were presented as infallible, omnipotent characters displays a surprising lack of media literacy. Janeway and Seven of Nine's best episodes depicted the pair's enormous amounts of conflict, difficult decisions with no clear right answer, and ultimate understanding of one another. Seven's journey to humanity, instead of being consistently reset, initiated significant character growth for Janeway and the Doctor (Robert Picardo). These were interesting stories that audiences responded well to, so it made sense that Voyager focused on them.

By comparison, Chakotay just didn't cut it as a leading character. Beltran's dry performances and Chakotay's lack of conflict with others meant Chakotay's "good scenes" were ing others, as a sounding board for Captain Janeway or confidante for Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). Worse, Voyager's fraudulent cultural consultant pushed authentic exploration of Chakotay's Indigenous heritage out of the picture. The ingredients just weren't there to make Chakotay that compelling or dynamic, but that doesn't excuse Beltran's fundamental misunderstanding of Janeway and Seven's characters and willful ignorance of what Star Trek: Voyager was actually doing with Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine.

Star Trek: Voyager is streaming on Paramount+.

Source: The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek by Mark A. Altman and Robert Gross