Summary
IsStar Trek: Voyager’s Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) inStar Trek: Deep Space Nine? It’s not outside the realm of possibility, becauseStar Trek: VoyagerandStar Trek: Deep Space Nineoverlapped for six years in theStar Trektimeline.Star Trek: Voyager’s Delta Quadrant setting should preventVoyagercharacters from appearing inDeep Space Nineand vice versa, butStar Trek: VoyagerandStar Trek: DS9crossovers did happen, like Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ) from the Mirror Universe inDS9season 3, episode 19, “Through the Looking Glass”, andVoyager’s Robert Picardo as EMH engineer Dr. Lewis Zimmerman inDS9season 5, episode 16, “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”.
Star Trek: Deep Space Ninealso played a huge role in establishing the Maquis, whichStar Trek: Voyager’s Commander Chakotaybelonged to.Star Trek: Deep Space Nineseason 2, episodes 20 & 21, “The Maquis” shows the rise of the Maquis, comprised of civilians and Starfleet officers motivated to retaliate against both Cardassians and the United Federation of Planets, because neither has their best interests in mind. The conflict between Starfleet and the Maquis fromDeep Space Ninecontinues on a smaller scale inStar Trek: Voyager, when Commander Chakotay’s Maquis crew must work with the USS Voyager’s Starfleet officers in the Delta Quadrant.Could Chakotay be inDS9as setup forVoyager?
Star Trek: Voyager & DS9 Crossed Over In The Mirror Universe
Despite being stuck in the Delta Quadrant, a Star Trek: Voyager crew member briefly crossed over into the Mirror Universe to join the DS9 cast.
Is Star Trek: DS9’s Starfleet Admiral Related to Voyager’s Commander Chakotay?
Or Is It A Coincidence That It Sounds Like Chakotay Is In DS9?
InStar Trek: Deep Space Nineseason 2, episode 2, “The Circle”,it sounds like Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) is talking toStar Trek: Voyager’s Commander Chakotay, but it’s actually Starfleet Admiral Chekote (Bruce Gray). OnThe Delta Flyerspodcast, hosted byStar Trek: Voyageractors Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill, Wang reads a list of theDS9episode’s guest stars, and theStar Trek: Voyageralum questions the similarity to their USS Voyager Commander. Read Wang and McNeill’s quotes below and listen toThe Delta Flyers, starting at the 11:40 timestamp.
Garrett Wang: “Bruce Gray is Admiral Chekote. And I’m thinking, guys, why would you repeat a name again? Clearly, Voyager was being written about this time. Was it something that was in the head of … the executive producers?”
Robert Duncan McNeill: “Maybe they didn’t even make the connection that they had already used this name, and somebody in their subconscious just threw it out in a room, and it came to life again. It’s just a weird coincidence.”
The name ofStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Starfleet admiral in “The Circle” is pronounced just likeStar Trek: Voyager’s Commander Chakotay.Admiral Chekote’s name is spelled differently, so he isn’t related to Commander Chakotay, but that distinction isn’t immediately apparent without subtitles or captions turned on. As McNeill points out, it’s"a weird coincidence"— and it’s not the first time that a seemingly coincidental and unusual name has been repeated onStar Trek.
Bruce Gray also appears as Admiral Chekote inStar Trek: The Next Generationseason 7, episode 4, “Gambit, Part 1”.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Repeated A Distinctive Name From Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek: Voyager’s Chakotay And Star Trek: DS9’s Chekote Weren’t The First Star Trek Sound-Alikes
Long before bothStar Trek: Voyager’s Commander Chakotay andStar Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Admiral Chekote ever evoked uncanny similarities,two otherStar Trekcharacters had very similar uncommon names.The creator ofStar Trek: The Next Generation’s Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) is named Dr. Noonian Soong (Brent Spiner), and that sounds suspiciously like the infamousStar TrekvillainKhan Noonien Singh(Ricardo Montalbán) fromStar Trek: The Original SeriesandStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. At first glance, this seems like a glaring oversight, but there’s a reason that Khan Noonien Singh and Dr. Noonian Soong’s names sound alike.
Star Trekgives an in-universe explanation for the similarity between Khan Noonien Singh and Dr. Noonian Soong’s names inStar Trek: Enterpriseseason 4, episode 4, “Borderland”.
Allegedly,Star Trekcreator Gene Roddenberry named both Khan Noonien Singh and Dr. Noonian Soong to attract the attention of a man named Kim Noonien Singh, an old friend from the military that Roddenberry had lost touch with. If someone who worked on bothStar Trek: Deep Space NineandStar Trek: Voyagerwanted to honor a person in their own life,that could explain the similarity betweenDS9’s Admiral Chekote andVoyager’s Commander Chakotay. McNeill and Wang’s explanations also make sense, as either a coincidence or an accidental similarity. Either way,Star Trek: Voyager’s Commander Chakotay isn’t inStar Trek: Deep Space Nine— just someone with a similar name.
