I was just reading the Wikipedia entry for one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite stories, Chakotay from the television series Star Trek: Voyager (which was a rediculously well-written television show!)
To my surprise, I read that some critic criticized Chakotay, who is Native American, as a "creature of white fantasies" and "far more stereotypical than Tonto"
What?
Are we talking about the same character?
Chakotay is a classic second lead, a second captain who is more than a little bit of a wise sage. Two parts Picard, one part Gandalf. The classic second lead who provides guidance and advice to the main hero. The kind of character that would be stereotypically played by a white guy.
A second captain and a bit of a wise sage at the same time.
He is the one who is always comforting a stressed- out Captain Janeway and giving her sage advice. He and Tuvok.
If Chakotay is a creature of white fantasies, then he must be Merlin, for Chakotay is the classic second lead who provides wisdom to the hero.
And furthermore, Chakotay's role is deeply ingrained in the premise of the show.
In this show, the starship Voyager has been thrown way across the galaxy and is many years' travel from any known charted space, and even farther from home. The crew faces that they might not get home in their lifetimes. Captain Janeway is not just the captain of a ship- she is the leader of a community- a community of orphans, far from home.
She needs help. They need community leaders. They- she- need the guidance of a character who is two parts Picard and one part Gandalf.
No wonder the show has two such characters- Chakotay and Tuvok.
These two characters are fundamental to the show. Captain Janeway cannot do it alone. Chakotay and Tuvok are the characters who, with Janeway, lead the community. They are the George Washingtons of this forlorn wandering nation. They are the community leaders.
It is for being a fearless community leader as well as a hero that Captain Janeway is one of my favorite Star Trek characters. But it would be rediculous to expect her to do it alone. She needs all the help she can get. One great hero cannot get a whole community through a great crisis alone.
Chakotay, with Tuvok, is that leader. The second leader that Captain Janeway needs. He and Tuvok are absolutely central to the entire show.
There's a reason that Chakotay- and Tuvok as well- is a strong, quiet stoic type- that is exactly the kind of leadership that the starship Voyager needs! A level head, a comforting shoulder and a steady hand at the wheel. They do not need a nervous, reckless leader- not if they are to make it through their long voyage! But although he is a quiet character, like Tuvok he is far too deep and subtle to be a stereotype, and his wisdom is very real!
Chakotay is two parts Picard and one part Gandalf. That's a hell of a combination.
That is why Chakotay is one of the great characters in all of Star Trek.
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P.S. Tuvok, of course, is also one of the great characters in all of Star Trek as well! Thank you to Robert Beltran and Tim Russ and the great writers of Star Trek for these two great characters!
P.P.S. If you like them, great. But as far as I'm concerned, everything after Star Trek: Voyager and the ninth movie is a bad dream Captain Kirk had after a dinner of spicy Klingon food and a bad episode of CSI from the dystopian early 21st Century that his Humanity rose above! Enjoy them anyway if you like them! You get to choose!
(although I haven't seen the new serieses, only Enterprise and the new movies, so don't take my word about the newer serieses!) (I haven't seen much. But what I have seen, which is just bits, is awful. Not even Star Trek: CSI. Worse than Star Trek: CSI. More like Star Trek: Terror. But I have only seen a few short bits. (by accident!))
(Captain Kirk's early 21st Century was much worse than ours. Ours is much better once you get past America into places like Japan and the European Union!)