One of the most beloved fan-ed relationships in Star Trek: Voyager's premiere landed both ships in the Delta Quadrant, Janeway and Chakotay ed forces, knowing their crews needed to work together to survive.

This tenuous alliance grew into a genuine friendship, but Janeway and Chakotay never became a full-fledged romance in Star Trek: Voyager. Originally, Captain Janeway's intended love interest was Lieutenant Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), but when that petered out, Voyager didn't set up a permanent replacement. Instead, Captain Janeway's love interests were ing visitors or holodeck characters, because it was unprofessional for the Captain to romance a subordinate. But these Star Trek: Voyager episodes suggest Janeway and Chakotay harbored romantic feelings they could have acted on, if not for the barrier of Starfleet professionalism.

6 "Resolutions"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 2, Episode 25

"Resolutions" comes first on this chronological list, but it's also the Star Trek: Voyager episode with the most compelling evidence to Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay as a couple. After contracting a mysterious disease, Janeway and Chakotay depart for a planet that staves off their symptoms. Not knowing when—or if—a cure can be developed, Chakotay starts planning for the long haul. As the walls of their habitat go up, the emotional walls between Kathryn and Chakotay start breaking down. But right before they confess their feelings, their exile is over, because Lieutenant Tuvok (Tim Russ) found a cure.

Chakotay truly believed that he and Kathryn could build a life together.

After returning to the world of uniforms and boundaries, Chakotay and Janeway neither address nor ignore their time as almost-settlers, but they also can't deny that the experience brought them closer together. It's the first time that Janeway and Chakotay can truly be themselves with each other, without a chain of command getting in the way of being allowed to express genuine feelings. Chakotay truly believed that he and Kathryn could build a life together in "Resolutions", and later Star Trek: Voyager episodes ing J/C return to this idea. (He built her a bathtub, okay?)

5 "Coda"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 15

Star Trek: Voyager's "Coda" begins with Janeway and Chakotay laughing about Kathryn's performance as the dying swan in the USS Voyager's talent show. After being attacked by Vidiians, their shuttle lands on a stormy planet, but it's too late: Janeway is dying. Chakotay desperately performs R and begs Kathryn not to leave him—only for the scene to start from the top, with Chakotay and Janeway discussing the talent show. For a moment, it seems like "Coda" will be about Janeway and Chakotay working together to figure out another Star Trek time loop, but that premise doesn't pan out.

Instead, "Coda" is about an alien trying to convince Kathryn Janeway she's dead, and Janeway's stubborn insistence on living anyway. In the alien's projection, Chakotay and the USS Voyager crew mourn their captain a little too quickly. But in reality, Chakotay called in The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and Lieutenant Tuvok to help revive Janeway, because Chakotay won't let Kathryn go that easily. "Coda" ends on a strong note for J/C, as Chakotay checks in on Kathryn, and Janeway suggests celebrating "something worth living for" with champagne and a moonlight sail. There's no way that's not a date.

4 "Scorpion, Part 1"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 26

Commander Chakotay's ardent concern for Captain Janeway's well-being is on full display in "Scorpion". On the borders of Borg space, Janeway is all-in on her plan to negotiate with the Borg, while Chakotay insists on settling a habitable M-class planet somewhere in the Delta Quadrant. Normally, Chakotay respects Janeway's plans—she is the Captain, after all—but in this case, Chakotay isn't afraid to tell Janeway that he believes she's risking all of their lives. More to the point, Chakotay trusts this stark difference of opinion won't permanently damage his friendship with Janeway ... if they survive Borg Space, anyway.

The episode's title comes from the parable of the scorpion and the frog that Chakotay uses as a metaphor for the Borg. In the end, the scorpion can't help but sting the frog, and the Borg can't help but try assimilating Voyager.

Chakotay's plan to cut their losses and stay in the Delta Quadrant protects the USS Voyager crew from the Borg, but it also hearkens back to Star Trek: Voyager season 2's "Resolutions", and the emotions between Chakotay and Janeway that have still gone unspoken. Chakotay has already gotten a taste of what it's like to build a civilian life with Kathryn Janeway on a new planet, however temporary. So, when Voyager settling in the Delta Quadrant becomes a genuine possibility—for everyone's safety—Chakotay already knows that he and Janeway are capable of making it work.

3 "Hunters"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 4, Episode 15

The J/C potential in "Hunters" comes from just two scenes in the entire episode, but they speak volumes. In the USS Voyager's first batch of letters from the Alpha Quadrant, Captain Janeway hears from her partner back home, Mark, who moved on because he believed the USS Voyager was lost forever. Janeway privately explains this development to Chakotay, and later confesses she's been using the idea of Mark to keep herself from moving forward. Without Mark to anchor her heart to Earth, Kathryn is open to a new relationship—and the implication that Janeway is considering Chakotay is strong.

After Star Trek: Voyager season 4, there's not as much J/C content, because Janeway's focus turns more towards fostering Seven of Nine's (Jeri Ryan) humanity, and with the Alpha Quadrant moves the USS Voyager's overall arc forward. With fewer episodes in the spotlight, Chakotay fades into the background in Star Trek: Voyager's second half. But that doesn't mean it's the end of Janeway & Chakotay stories.

2 "Timeless"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 5, Episode 6

"Timeless" opens with Chakotay and Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) investigating an accident that destroyed the USS Voyager 15 years earlier, but the strongest evidence for Janeway and Chakotay as a couple is in the present-day scenes. Janeway invites Chakotay to her quarters for an intimate, dimly-lit champagne dinner celebrating the completion of the USS Voyager's brand-new quantum slipstream drive. There's some doubt about whether to engage the drive in the morning, but when Janeway asks Chakotay if he s her decision to proceed, there's no denying the devotion in the Commander's expression. "Always," Chakotay replies.

In the future-set scenes of "Timeless", Chakotay is partnered with Tessa Omond (Christine Harnos), a young woman who's obsessed with the USS Voyager. When the Doctor questions how Tessa fits into the picture, Harry bluntly replies, "They're having sex." But Chakotay's physical relationship with Tessa lacks the warmth and intimacy of the seemingly platonic relationship Chakotay once had with Janeway. When the future timeline is about to disappear, Chakotay pays lip service to being sad about losing Tessa, but even Tessa knows Chakotay's heart has always been with Voyager ... and Janeway.

1 "Shattered"

Star Trek: Voyager Season 7, Episode 11

On a spontaneous tour of different time periods throughout the USS Voyager's journey, Chakotay encounters a version of Captain Janeway from before Star Trek: Voyager's first season. This Janeway recognizes Chakotay as the Maquis captain she's tasked with apprehending, and nearly throws him in the brig. But Chakotay appeals to Past Janeway with intimate knowledge of the past seven years, proving that Chakotay and Janeway have become as close as can be without crossing the romantic line. As they work together to solve the temporal mystery, it's lovely watching Janeway learn to trust Chakotay all over again.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange", echoes the premise of Star Trek: Voyager's "Shattered" as a kind of Star Trek Eras Tour that recounts the series' changes through history.

"Shattered" is a fantastic retrospective of Star Trek: Voyager that shows how far the Intrepid-class starship and its unlikely crew have come since their fateful voyage began. The lines dividing Voyager's mixed Starfleet and Maquis crew are barely there by season 7, helped immensely by Janeway and Chakotay's partnership setting the standard for the rest of the crew. With their effortless teamwork on full display here, it's easy to see how Chakotay and Janeway could parlay their working relationship into a romantic one, once the USS Voyager gets back home.