Not only does Seven of Nine remain one of fans' most beloved Star Trek heroes of the
past, her story has continued beyond Voyager to the franchise's 21st century series. How
did a character named after a couple of numbers become so beloved?
The special feature "Braving the Unknown" on Star Trek: Voyager's season 4 home release
reveals where the idea for Seven of Nine came from. Brannon Braga a producer and writer
on Voyager says the notion of a Borg character joining the crew came to him while watching
an ad for the season 3 episode "Unity."
In the episode, Commander Chakotay finds a planet of Borg who have been disconnected
from the Collective. Unfortunately, conflict rages on the planet as rivalries between different
species re-emerge once ties to the Borg have been severed.
An ex-Borg human named Riley wants Voyager's help to create a new collective on the planet
in order to restore harmony. In the meantime, Riley and other ex-Borgs temporarily connect
Chakotay to their collective in order to heal life-threatening wounds and, eventually, to
use that connection to force Voyager's First Officer to help them. Chakotay's experience
in "Unity" becomes crucial in Voyager's early dealings with Seven of Nine.
Braga said after watching the promo for "Unity" he called Voyager writer Joe Menosky and show
co-creator Rick Berman to make sure having an ex-Borg character join the show's regular
cast wasn't a stupid idea. The consensus was that it was just the opposite.
When Seven of Nine first comes aboard Voyager, she isn't there as a friend. She first appears
in "Scorpion, Part II," the show's season 4 premiere.
Upon entering an area of space dominated by the Borg, the crew of Voyager discovers that
the Borg have bitten off more than they can chew. A race of vicious extra-dimensional
aliens known only as Species 8472 is waging war on the Borg, and winning. Captain Janeway
sizes up the situation, and decides to use this to her advantage. After the ship's Doctor
devises a technology that can defeat Species 8472, Janeway offers it to the Borg in exchange
for safe passage through their space. The Borg then assign Seven of Nine a human assimilated
when she was a child to act as liaison to Voyager's crew.
Once Species 8472 is defeated, Seven of Nine predictably turns on the crew of Voyager.
She tells them their agreement is over and the Borg will assimilate the ship and her
crew. Expecting the betrayal, Janeway signals for her secret plan to be put in motion. Elsewhere
on the ship, the Doctor puts a neuro-transceiver on Chakotay's neck which the First Officer
is able to use to connect with Seven and distract her while Lt. Torres cuts Seven's connection
to the Collective.
Making recurring appearances on Star Trek: Picard, Seven of Nine is one of the only Voyager
regular characters to show up in the franchise after the show's finale. It's ironic, considering
that Brannon Braga planned for her to be one of the only regular characters to not even
survive Voyager.
Speaking to TrekCore in 2013, Braga fielded a question about some fans feeling Voyager
had "de-fanged" the Borg as villains. After talking about the Borg for a bit, he revealed
his own ideas for Seven's fate:
"I think Seven of Nine should have bit the dust. I think there had to be a real sacrifice
for this crew getting home; a real blood sacrifice. Seven of Nine was, for me, designed to be
a character that was gonna die tragically. I planned that."
He went on to describe how he planned for that death to take place, mentioning "Human
Error," one of the final season's later episodes. Seven uses the holodeck to explore her human
side, including a potential romance with Chakotay. As emotions begin to emerge, the Doctor discovers
there's a Borg failsafe device within her if she becomes too human, the implant will
kill her. Braga said,
"It was that moment in my mind that would set up the finale, where she realized she
can't live here, can't live there."
For better or worse, Braga's concept got the thumbs down, and Seven continued her quest
to become more human.
While they start off as uneasy allies, the relationship between Captain Janeway and Seven
of Nine eventually grows into something not unlike that between a mother and daughter.
Behind the scenes, however, it seems clear that Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan were not the
best of friends.
When asked about her relationship with Ryan at the 2014 Star Trek Vegas Con, Mulgrew was
diplomatic, saying, quote "We did not have a deep friendship."
Mulgrew implied that she had initially resented Ryan's casting, saying,
"It was very clear to anyone with eyes in their head that Jeri Ryan's beauty and sexual
appeal were an important part of the numbers. I had thought 'damn, we were going to forgo
all of this with a female captain.' But the demographics proved the audience wanted more
sex and they got it in that beautiful, talented woman."
On a 2013 episode of the Girl on Guy podcast, Ryan opened up about how ugly things got.
She didn't specifically name Mulgrew as the actor in question, but her hints make it seem
impossible for them to be anyone else. She gave examples of the actor refusing to let
makeup and wardrobe crew work with Ryan before closeups, and in some cases saying their lines
to Ryan off-camera while examining their fingernails or thumbing through a book, without even making
eye contact.
When asked what her favorite episodes of Voyager were, Jeri Ryan has shared her fond memories
of episodes that saw Seven exploring her humanity. In particular, she often cites season 5's
"Someone to Watch Over Me."
In the episode, Seven and Torres almost come to blows when the latter discovers that Seven
has been observing and making notes on her and Tom Paris as part of a study on other
species' mating rituals. When the Doctor suggests Seven should try dating on her own, the holographic
physician becomes the reformed Borg's dating mentor.
Among other things, he subjects Seven to a presentation reminiscent of a high school
teacher's sex education lecture, brings her to the holodeck to try her hand at wooing
holographic characters, teaches her to dance, and breaks into a sweet duet of "You Are My
Sunshine."
Over the course of the episode, the Doctor realizes he's developing his own feelings
for Seven. He's just about ready to open up about them when she tells him she will no
longer need to be mentored because after reviewing all the men on board none are suitable as
potential mates. The Doctor thanks Seven and keeps his longing to himself.
Chakotay actor Robert Beltran was known for being honest about his opinions when he wasn't
happy about something, even while Voyager was still on the air. And one of the things
he wasn't happy about was how he felt Chakotay and other characters were short-changed once
Seven of Nine came board.
Speaking to StarTrek.com in 2012, Beltran said,
"When the Seven of Nine character made her entrance, the focus changed. That was fine
with me, but I think writers have an obligation to fill out all the characters if they're
regular characters on a series. I think several of the characters were diminished Chakotay
and Tuvok and Kim and Neelix."
He went on to say he felt Seven was easier to write because she wasn't fully human.
Ryan told the Girl on Guy podcast she thought so much focus was put on Seven because, simply
put, she was new.
She also said she was aware of some of the other cast's resentments and understood them,
though the understanding apparently didn't make things easier. Looking back on the experience,
she said,
"When the new kid comes in and suddenly it's all about them. That was tough. It really
made it an unpleasant work experience."
Seven of Nine isn't the only ex-Borg to join Voyager on its quest back to Earth. In season
6's "Collective," the crew encounters a Borg Cube whose only survivors are children. At
the end of the episode, four of the children come aboard Voyager, where the Doctor uses
the same techniques he used on Seven to remove most of the children's Borg implants.
The oldest of the four is Icheb, a member of a race called the Brunali, who becomes
a recurring character on Voyager.
We eventually learn that Icheb's assimilation into the Borg was somewhat unique. In the
episode "Child's Play," Icheb discovers he was genetically engineered by his parents
with a deadly virus meant to eradicate the Borg. His parents willingly put him on a ship
and steered him toward the Borg in the hopes they would assimilate him and subsequently
be destroyed.
"Icheb's not bait. He's a weapon."
Unfortunately, Icheb is brutally taken away from Seven in the season 1 episode of Star
Trek: Picard, "Stardust City Rag."
In a flashback, we learn Icheb has been captured, and that his body is being harvested for its
cybernetic parts. Seven interrupts the procedure, but Icheb is already dying and in excruciating
pain. He begs Seven to kill him, and she ultimately does.
One of the most well-loved stories of any Star Trek show is the original series episode
"Mirror, Mirror" in which a dark parallel universe is revealed. The tyrannical Terran
Empire replaces the Federation, and evil counterparts of the Enterprise's crew replace the ones
with which we're more familiar.
Subsequent series like Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, and Discovery return to the mirror universe,
though Voyager never got a chance. That's something comic book publisher IDW's 2019
one-shot story Star Trek: Voyager Mirrors & Smoke aims to correct.
In the mirror universe, Janeway is the Pirate Queen of the Delta Quadrant and is perfectly
content to stay far from Earth, where she and her crew can plunder without anyone to
interfere. In this universe, Seven of Nine previously known as Annika Hansen was never
assimilated by the Borg, but her parents were. When Voyager rescues her from Neelix and Kes,
Annika discovers the Terrans know nothing about the Borg.
Ironically, while Annika isn't a Borg in this universe, she still betrays Voyager. Shortly
after she's rescued, she plots with the Doctor to take over the ship and kill anyone who
doesn't cooperate. Their plans are foiled, and interestingly, Annika's motivations for
turning against them are never revealed. Though toward the end of the comic she refers to
her captors as "the humans," suggesting she may be more than she appears.
One of the most anticipated appearances of Star Trek: Picard's first season was the return
of Seven of Nine. She saves Picard and his crew at the end of "Absolute Candor," and
takes center stage in the following episode "Stardust City Rag."
We learn that for years Seven has been a part of a group of vigilantes called the Fenris
Rangers, trying to bring justice to the galaxy in the wake of the Romulan supernova.
As much of a success as Seven's return has proven to be, Jeri Ryan never thought it would
happen. On the Picard aftershow program Ready Room, Ryan told host Wil Wheaton that when
the idea was first pitched to her two years before production, she thought it was a joke.
"This has been a two-year process since this was first broached to me. And I didn't think
it was ever going to really actually come to fruition."
Apparently, it wasn't until the 2018 Creative Arts Emmys when Ryan was shocked to discover
her return to the role was actually a possibility.
While she waited backstage, Picard co-creator Alex Kurtzman told her there was a lot of
discussion about her in the series writers' room.
"And I was like 'What? Really? Okay. I guess it's actually happening.'"
At first, it may seem strange for Seven of Nine to show up in Star Trek: Picard. After
all, the character wasn't around for Star Trek: The Next Generation and we've never
seen the two characters meet before Picard. However, if you stop to think about it, Seven
may have more in common with Picard than anyone he served with aboard the Enterprise.
In the two-part TNG episode "Best of Both Worlds," Picard is assimilated by the Borg
and turned into Locutus. The Collective uses his memories and knowledge to kill Picard's
Starfleet comrades. He's eventually saved by his crew, but the experience leaves deep
scars.
While Seven was assimilated when she was a young girl and spent a much longer time with
the Collective than Picard, they share this terrible bond with one another. This never
comes through more clearly than in an exchange toward the end of "Stardust City Rag." Seven
asks Picard if he thinks he regained his humanity once he was cut off from the Borg. He says
he did, but Seven is skeptical, and gets Picard to admit that there's still a little bit of
humanity he hasn't been able to get back from the Borg.
"But we're both working on it. Aren't we?"
"Every damn day of my life."
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