Star Trek: 10 Things You Never Knew About Seven Of Nine
Seven Of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct Of Unimatrix Zero One, We Hardly Knew You.
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00:00She's easily one of the most recognisable characters in all of Star Trek, with that
00:03eyepiece, that semi-glove and that very severe bun.
00:08But who is Seven of Nine, and what do we really know about her?
00:12I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture, and here are 10 things you never knew about Seven of
00:17Nine.
00:18Before we get into the video as a whole, I just want to take a second to say thank you
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00:35So thank you so much again, and let's get to it.
00:37Number 10.
00:38Susan Gibney was turned down for the part.
00:41Susan Gibney is best known to Star Trek fans for one of two roles.
00:44Dr. Leah Brams, one of the original designers of the Enterprise-D and complicated love interest
00:48of Geordi La Forge, she is also recognisable as Captain Erica Benteen of the USS Lakota
00:53from Deep Space Nine.
00:54She also auditioned for the part of Captain Janeway, receiving a screen test after Genevieve
00:59Bujold left the role.
01:00Though she would lose out on the part to Kate Mulgrew, with Gibney deemed too young to lead
01:04a show, she was invited back to audition for the part of Seven.
01:07Unfortunately, her youth once again went against her.
01:10Though she has only appeared on screen in four episodes of Star Trek to date, her character
01:14may yet see a return in Star Trek Picard, as she is said to be working at the Daystrom
01:17Institute, the workplace of Dr. Agnes Jurati.
01:19In at least one possible future, La Forge has married Dr. Brams, so depending on which
01:23timeline the show exists in, there is still an outside chance of Gibney returning to the
01:27show alongside Jerry Ryan's Seven as well.
01:30Number 9.
01:31Seven of Nine is a Fashion Icon.
01:33While the various costumes that Seven wears may have caused issues for Jerry Ryan herself,
01:38in both terms of comfort and the ability to breathe, there is no denying that they were
01:42instantly become iconic.
01:44Whether it was the silvery catsuit, the brown catsuit, the blue catsuit, the grey… you
01:49get the drift.
01:50Seven may be the one character in Star Trek who doesn't wear a Starfleet uniform, who
01:54is more easily recognisable than any other.
01:57The design of Seven has carried over into the other entries in the franchise.
02:00In fact, Gersha Phillips, costume designer of Star Trek Discovery, had her outfits front
02:04and centre when planning the party scene in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.
02:09Kayla Detmer is outfitted with form-fitting pants and platformed high heels.
02:13Her top, though clearly less body-hugging than anything Jerry Ryan was given to wear,
02:16was inspired by the material that was often used to make Seven's clothes.
02:20Though the overall result is less catsuit and more inspired by, the design of the character
02:24remains as iconic with this later era of Star Trek as it did in the 90s.
02:29Number 8.
02:30The Borg Babe
02:31Brandon Braga recalled that after the idea for a Borg crewman sprang into his head, he
02:35called Joe Manosky to workshop the idea.
02:37Feeling that he was onto something, Braga then called Rick Berman.
02:40In Braga's words, it was Berman who said,
02:42Make it a Borg Babe.
02:44Creative producer Jerry Taylor is less certain that it was purely Berman's idea.
02:47She later said that the idea of a female Borg crewman was an idea that came about quickly,
02:52though she credited Braga with the idea.
02:54She certainly did agree, however, that the full story behind the character was workshopped
02:58by all of them.
02:59With the falling ratings for Star Trek Voyager throughout the third season, and the looming
03:02departure slash firing of Jennifer Lien, there was room for another female member of the
03:07ensemble.
03:08There was little mystery as to why she was given such form-hugging outfits, nor why it
03:11was Lien who got the chop.
03:12Garrett Wang only survived the season three cull as he had been voted one of the world's
03:16sexiest people that summer.
03:18Having received no such lofty honour, Lien was out, Wang got to keep his job, and the
03:22search for Seven's performer began.
03:27The initial casting sheets for Seven of Nine actually referred to the character as Pera.
03:31This iteration of Seven would have ended up as a very different character from the one
03:34the audiences eventually received.
03:36Pera had been witness to the slaughter of all of her friends and family while located
03:40on Kelta Prime.
03:42After this event, she claimed that her humanity died.
03:44Unable to deal with the torment of losing everyone she had ever known, she found comfort
03:48in the collective consciousness of the Borg.
03:50This goes a way toward explaining some of her reluctance to leave when she is liberated
03:54by Captain Janeway.
03:55In The Gift, it is explained that she was assimilated as a child, but the circumstances
03:59of her assimilation aren't truly explored until Dark Frontier.
04:02Annika Hansen, as the character was later renamed, was captured as a young girl when
04:06her parents vastly underestimated the collective.
04:09Raised as Borg, this would explain her resistance to humanity.
04:12While certainly traumatic, it is oddly a less bloody introduction to the Borg for the young
04:17girl.
04:18So, in a way, this is closer to a happier beginning for her?
04:24Seven is instantly recognisable in the silvery catsuit that made its debut in the closing
04:28scene of The Gift.
04:30Despite its iconic status, it only appeared in a further two episodes, Revulsion and Day
04:34of Honour.
04:35The material that was used to construct it, while designed to be form-fitting, did its
04:38job a little too well.
04:39Geri Ryan struggled to breathe in it, especially while sitting, which became a problem in the
04:44long shoots in high heels.
04:46A new version was constructed, this one a brown colour, though ostensibly the same design.
04:50This appeared in The Raven, going through a revision for its debut in Scientific Method.
04:54The costume would change several more times throughout the show's fourth to seventh seasons,
04:57peppered with returns of the Borg outfit, a Starfleet uniform in two episodes, and several
05:01appearances as Annika rather than Seven.
05:04Ryan never doubted the reasoning behind the wardrobe.
05:07She freely admitted to knowing she was cast for sex appeal, an obvious attempt by the
05:10producers to bolster failing ratings.
05:13The strategy paid off.
05:14Number 5.
05:15If Bran and Braga had been in charge, Seven of Nine would have died.
05:18Braga had envisioned Seven as a character who would not belong for the franchise.
05:22According to him, she would have sacrificed herself in an attempt to get her found family
05:25home, dying a hero along the way.
05:28The showrunners at the time, Ken Miller and Rick Berman, were having none of it.
05:32Though death tends to mean very little on Star Trek, with the notable exception of Jadzia
05:35Dax on Star Trek Deep Space Nine, they stepped in to ensure that Seven was not killed off.
05:40That suited Jerry Ryan perfectly, as it ensured a little more job security, but it also paved
05:44the way for many of Voyager's stronger episodes from Season 4 onward.
05:48That is not to say, however, that Braga didn't get his wish from time to time.
05:51Seven died in Timeless, Relativity, Course Oblivion, sort of, and Endgame.
05:56Considering that Braga and Ryan were dating for much of her stint on Star Trek Voyager,
06:00one has to wonder what exactly was the psychology behind having one's lover killed frequently
06:04on screen, though perhaps some questions are best left unanswered.
06:08Number 4.
06:09Seven was the wild child in Bran and Braga's eyes.
06:12The emergency medical hologram had started life as the stand-in for Data, or Spock, character
06:16on Star Trek Voyager, Tuvok notwithstanding as the Vulcan on board.
06:20However, for Bran and Braga, the character simply wasn't compelling enough to honour
06:23a legacy of the strive to become more human.
06:26He looked to the true story of Victor of Aveyron, or the Wild Child, that had been depicted
06:31on film in 1970 by François Tuffaut, which in turn was based on the study by Dr Jean-Marc
06:37Gaspard Ittard in 18th century France.
06:40Victor was a young boy who had been raised by wolves from a young age, discovered again
06:44by humans and reintroduced to society.
06:47He struggled initially, unable to communicate verbally, never having learned to speak French.
06:51However, under the care of Ittard, he learned to function around humans again, though it
06:56took quite a while.
06:57It was from this that Seven sprang, removed from the collective after spending most of
07:01her life with them.
07:02She needs to learn how to communicate as an individual, while also attempting to understand
07:05what it means to be a part of the crew.
07:07Both Seven and Victor need time to adjust, though through the patient tutelage of a mentor
07:11they both flourished.
07:12Number 3.
07:13She was named after Catwoman and Friday's Child
07:16Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Star Trek crossed over with
07:20a DC Comics property.
07:21In this case, Seven of Nine was inspired, in part, by Catwoman.
07:25Judy Neumar, who had appeared in the Adam West Batman television series, also appeared
07:30in the original series episode Friday's Child.
07:32Here, she played Aileen, the heavily pregnant inhabitant of Capella 4.
07:36Neumar had also appeared in a short-lived sitcom named My Living Doll.
07:40The show, which ran for 25 episodes between 1964 and 1965, focused on Dr. Bob McDonald
07:46and Rhoda, a lifelike android played by Neumar.
07:50She had the sub-designation of AF-709.
07:54Rhoda was to be a project, by Bob, in how to make the perfect woman who doesn't talk
07:59back.
08:00The show was billed as a comedy, though ratings were poor.
08:02Bob Cummings, who played McDonald, asked to be written out halfway through the season.
08:06Exiting in the 21st episode, Neumar received praise for her comedic timing.
08:09In Star Trek, Rhoda is also said to be the inspiration behind the character Data.
08:14My Living Doll has also been credited as being responsible for making the phrase,
08:18does not compute, popular in media.
08:20Though Seven of Nine is quite far removed from the docile, man-pleasing Rhoda, both
08:24characters are projects of a sort.
08:26Rhoda is McDonald's pet project, while Seven would become Janeway's.
08:33It is now well known that Kate Mulgrew and Jerry Ryan did not get along during their
08:37first few years together on the show.
08:39Both have opened up about their experiences, with Ryan speaking about how unsettled, upset
08:43and nauseous it made her, having to deal with the wall of dislike that faced her day by
08:48day when filming with Mulgrew.
08:50However, while Mulgrew's treatment of Ryan was undoubtedly unfair and unprofessional,
08:55she was dealing with a complete turnaround of what the show was, in her opinion, supposed
08:59to be about.
09:00From the beginning, the shadow of Bujold hung over her.
09:03The executives from Paramount spent the first few months watching her act, unsure as they
09:07were now that Bujold had walked off.
09:09In defiance to this, but also to highlight the importance of a strong female lead, Mulgrew
09:13was adamant that she would not be their sex symbol to hang the marketing on.
09:17In several interviews given during the first year, Mulgrew championed the writing, stating
09:21clearly that Janeway was being written and portrayed as a captain first and as a woman
09:25second.
09:26Then, Seven of Nine appeared.
09:27This deeply frustrated Mulgrew, who felt that the character represented everything that
09:31she had been railing against in the first three years.
09:34She admitted later that it was wrong to have focused this frustration on Jerry Ryan, with
09:38both actors, long since, thankfully, seeming to have buried the hatchet.
09:41Number 1.
09:42She's become a beacon for survivors of cults to rally behind.
09:45The Borg are nothing if not a metaphor for cults in society.
09:49They draw you in.
09:50They take over your mind and body.
09:52There is no hope of escape.
09:53Resistance is, in fact, futile.
09:55Then, along comes Seven of Nine to prove that no, in fact, it most certainly is not.
10:00Twitter user Starspider penned a piece for Vice in which they detailed their path to
10:04recovery after escaping a cult.
10:05They had spent much of their 20s as a member of, then prisoner to, this group that did
10:10all it could to erase their individuality.
10:12After escaping, they realised that they were now completely unable to function as an individual.
10:17This is reflected in the use of language that Seven uses during her removal from the
10:20Collective.
10:21Throughout the events of Scorpion, she predominantly uses We to identify herself, while from the
10:25Gift onwards, she starts using the singular I as she regains a measure of individuality.
10:31Through years of therapy, they identified with the journey that Seven goes through after
10:34her liberation from the Collective.
10:36First there is anger, then a dubious attempt to endure this individuality, later comes
10:41regret before acceptance.
10:43In Seven, they were able to see many elements of their own journey leading them toward,
10:47if not total recovery, then at least a place much further along than where they had been
10:52when they left.
10:53In Star Trek Picard, Seven asks Jean-Luc if he truly feels like he has recovered from
10:57his assimilation.
10:58He confesses he doesn't.
11:00Together, they acknowledge the need to keep on fighting to regain that semblance of self,
11:05as fitting a message for anyone to rally behind as there can be.