Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine has had a bevy of allegiances in the “Star Trek” universe. When she is first introduced in “Voyager,” she is, like most of the Borg, fervently dedicated to Borg supremacy and to either eliminating or assimilating everything that isn’t Borg, including Starfleet. It’s not much later, after she has been severed from the Borg connection, that she officially joins up with Starfleet herself.
But Ryan was pretty surprised that, at the end of her arc in “Star Trek: Picard,” she was not only still part of Starfleet, but has been officially promoted to captain of the former Titan (now rechristened the Enterprise-G) by Tuvok (Tim Russ). “I have always avoided pitching ideas of what I want because I’m not a writer. Never have been…” Ryan told Screen Rant. “And personally, I would have never predicted Seven’s season 3 storyline, having her in Starfleet, [and] having her become Captain.”
It is certainly an about-face for Seven, and not the first. When she first appears in Season 1 of “Picard” — having just saved Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart), Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Rios (Santiago Cabrera) from an attack by a space warlord — we learn she is living a life somewhat off the grid. Having bailed on Starfleet, under circumstances that are heavily implied to have involved bigotry against former Borg, she has thrown her lot in with the vigilante Fenris Rangers.
Seven earned that captain’s chair
To be sure, when Picard and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) see Seven as the first officer the Titan, both of them are incredibly pleased. They are also more than a bit put off by the Titan’s captain, Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), who not only denies their every request but insists on calling Seven of Nine by her pre-Borg, “human” name of Hansen, implying a certain amount of anti-Borg prejudice on his own part. Seven spends much of Season 3 openly defying his orders, and in the process proves herself quite the capable leader. Ultimately, Shaw overcomes his dislike of her, passing command of the Titan to her in his final moments, and, significantly, using her preferred name.
“She was certainly not a fan at the beginning of the season when we meet Shaw,” Jeri Ryan told Screen Rant. “And over the course of the season, we saw them develop a begrudging respect for each other, and realize that [t]hey needed each other’s help and support. So it was a sort of push/pull kind of situation and a lot of butting heads. But that acknowledgment at his death was pretty powerful, I think, for Seven.”
It certainly made for a powerful finale, adding to the amount of buzz around the possibility of another “Star Trek” spin-off prominently featuring Seven of Nine. Whether it be “Legacy” or some other iteration — one where perhaps we get to see more of her in the captain’s chair — remains to be seen.
