Star Trek: 10 Moments That Confirm J/C (Janeway & Chakotay)

10. The Knots (And The Nots) Of Knots

Little less says prelude to romance than deadly disease, plasma storms, and shrieking spider monkey. At least they had the bathtub, with plans for a boat! Whatever the weather, the microbe, and the fauna, 'New Earth' became a new home, and Resolutions became a pivotal moment for the shipping of J/C, stranded, as they were, from ship.

The semi-permanent camping trip with all the 24th century mod cons was the perfect way to explore the brewing unsaid between the now no longer Captain and her now no longer first officer, both theoretically freer in that environment to explore their feelings than, say, in the middle of a staff briefing.

As related in Star Trek Voyager: A Celebration, viewers at the time had already begun to "latch on" to an implicit attraction between Janeway and Chakotay, a "flirtation" which the writers had "started to subtly play up". However, for Resolutions writer/executive producer Jeri Taylor, the episode was, definitionally speaking, meant to resolve the matter for the characters, that is "specifically to show that the relationship was not going to happen". Nevertheless, an early idea for Resolutions, pitched by writer/producer Ken Biller, as detailed in Cinefantastique, vol. 28, no. 4-5, would have taken J/C even further through a time travel plot in which the pair would have aged 40 years and had "a whole family". By the end of the actual episode, it was back to business as usually unusual aboard Voyager, their feelings for each other having seemingly been left down on the planet along with the house.

Whatever the nots, however, the highly suggestive massage that led from "My knots are getting knots" was difficult to ignore for anyone so much as glancing at the screen. There was then resolution of a different kind when Chakotay clarified his feelings, if through parable, to a Janeway in need of "parameters". Ultimately, he was devoted to her, for she had saved him from himself.