Tom and Chakotay History
An Explanation
(From my point of view *sly grin*)
 
 
 

So what is the past history between these guys and what makes it so interesting?

Well for a start they are both *damn* gorgeous. I have to confess and say that I am more of Tom Paris fan than Chakotay, but when faced with the burning question of who he should end up with I had to pick Chakotay.  Why?  Because the first slash fanfiction I read had him paired with Harry and that just didn't sit right for some reason.  There are those who write Tom and Harry fanfic so if you do like that pair try the slash archive (to be found through KSNicholas slash listings). Probably because he was never destined for this relationship, as his heart was always and forever Chakotay's, (dazes off into a dream world of complete romantic'ness *ahem*) and well I then read one with him and Chakotay and well...there you go.  In actual fact the first proper story I read about Tom was Margaret Berger's 'In His Mind's Eye' a wonderful story, no slash, but she does write brilliant C/P slash at her homepage.

Anyway when I started watching Voyager - and it didn't take long to get hooked - I started reading more and more stories with him and Chakotay and it all seemed so right, you know. When you compared them on screen ot the way they are depicted in the fanfiction you start to think - 'yeah, I can see this'.
 

So what *exactly* is their past?

Okay okay!  In the first episode 'The Caretaker' their characters are introduced as being enemies from when they were in the Maquis together, even though Tom wasn't in there for very long. Chakotay viewed him as mercenary who was only out for what he could get and started on him as soon as he saw him on Voyager after the array. "What was your price this time?" There was a lot of tension and animosity between them and I would argue that this wasn't transcribed very well in the series which seemed to forget the little fact that at the beginning they were supposed to hate each others guts. Tom saved Chakotay's life, something you could very easily read a lot into and from that moment onwards Tom was supposed to own Chakotay's life. In repayment Chakotay would act as Tom's 'bodyguard' against the other Maquis who viewed Tom as a traitor to the cause. This also seemed to be conveniantly forgotten along the way.

Both Tom and Chakotay's characters kinda got lost I think as the first two series wore on, particularly Chakotays. They tried to investigate Tom's with the story arc in season 2 but as Robbie McNeill said in a Starburst issue once, it wasn't really all that well done not in dealing with the character of Tom Paris.  I do agree though that the idea he suggested to the writers first of all would have been a much better idea (again quoted from same said Starburst issue - find out issue number later). To have Tom and Chakotay in prison together and Tom pretend to be a traitor when infact he is getting them out of there, in order to prove to Chakotay that he isn't a traitor the way Chaktay thought. Cause it is Chakotay's character that needed to see Tom in a different light.  Of course I'm bias being a C/P'er but hey we all have our sins. *grin*

Tom and Chakotay have had a wobbly start with all the misunderstanding that have gone between them.  Chakotay believed/views that Tom was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, all the opportunities that life had to give and that he turned round and threw them away without a second thought.  All the things that Chakotay himself had to fight for, for example his Starfleet career.  Chakotay gave his up for his beliefs and to protect his homeworld, he resigned on principal, whereas Tom 'was forced to resign'.  Tom became the thing that was the exact opposite of what he believed in and held sacred.  Of course he did/does not know the whole story of Tom's past - neither do we in canon and this is something that really needs to be explored in the future.
 

What differences are there between the characters in the
show and the ones portrayed in C/P?
(Mainly a rant about Tom Paris....*sheepish grin*)

In a lot of fanfic and mine thats gonna be written (at some point) there is a strong idea that Tom had a horrible childhood and is the 'weaker' one out of the two.  He is seen to have been abused both physically and mentally as a child, beaten and ignored.  His father portrayed as a monster who had not time for his family and when he did it wasn't a very nice time.  I think this is not the only explaination for the development of Tom'd character but I also believe it to be a very plausible one and one that would go a long way in explaining a few things about his behaviour.

Small things that have been given away in the script over the past four season's that if you look closely enough you start to wonder at.  Certain things given away in scenes such as where he crosses the threshold and is on the biobed dying (and still looking damn cute!) and starts rambling to the Doc in his feverish state.  He talks about people crying and his childhood and his father and how he didn't approve how he would say it was a sign of weakness and how he didn't trust people who didn't cry and how it was starnge.  But what he remembered most about being a kid was the times he spent crying in his room.  *Big* hint here don't you think?  Why would a young kid with all the opportunities of his upbringing and life ahead of him spend most of his time crying in his room?  He also says that he would lock himself in there and people would leave him alone (?!) and he would do what he wanted; read, play games.

We are also given the fact that he is claustrophobic in season four when they have to go into stasis, so much to the point that he comes out of stasis four times even though it would eventually kill him (I think it would - I haven't actually seen this episode its just what I've got from other people's reviews).  We aren't given an explanation for this.  A lot of fanfic'er have made up their own ideas about *this* morsel and have come up with a variety of explanations.  Personally I think that it is a very intriguing aspect to look into from the series point of view.

In the fanfic (and mine) Chakotay comes to realise that there is more to Tom than meets the eye.  That the real Tom Paris lies beneath layers if defenses and barriers that he has used most of his life.  He sees that he has misjudged the young man and begins to realise that he likes the man he finds underneath.  The animosity between them is explained by the lack of acceptance of their feelings for each other (this will be the basis of many of my fanfic) ignoring what they feel about each other and instead turning it into friction ie. all the tension between them is in fact sexual tension.

Certain aspects of Tom's past along with rants about his relationship with Chakotay are delved into in the epsiode guide which examines (or will when I get it up and running) certain bits that are given away in the series and what can be taken from what they say.
 
 

 
 
 

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