Welcome to Favourite Fridays! Usually I write about YouTuber and Authors, but I’m mixing it up a little bit today and writing about one of my favourite characters. On a quest to introduce me to Star Trek, my husband has finally succeeded in making me a trekkie. My favourite series would have to be Voyager, if only for all of the badass women. One of my favourite characters is Seven of Nine (Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01) and there are many reasons she’s captured my heart.
For a lot of people, and apparently for the cast as well, she was basically a sexy interloper. Her character may have been introduced to boost rating and create sex appeal for the show, but she ended up being handled so beautifully (minus a couple bumps in her first few episodes). While her outfit may have pissed some people off, I actually think it helps her climb to a different level than Janeway and B’Elanna (though both are still epic and amazing and will probably have future posts of their own), specifically because she proves exceptionally well that it doesn’t matter what you wear, what you look like, how much people underestimate you, you can be spectacular. They could have easily turned her into a dumb blonde, but they didn’t, they went a route that elevated her beyond her appearance, even if that’s why she was introduced. Seven is almost ridiculously intelligent and driven to achieve her goals, but you get to see the depths of her fear and confusion as well. Sure her outfit is part of the package, but being gorgeous does not detract from any of her skills and she’s not sexualized beyond her suit (again, minus a couple hiccups in the early episodes where things were still being fleshed out). She is a strong, beautiful and vulnerable character, for all that her strengths make her seem rather invulnerable. Her struggles with her identity are fascinating and I love watching her navigate a world that is completely alien to her despite once being part of it. Part of her reintegration into “society” is taking lessons from The Doctor, which include various topics such as conversation, boundaries and even dating. Her attempts, struggles, successes and failures are so cute you can’t help but love it.
As a Borg drone Seven was a part of the collective, a hive mind that interconnected every single Borg to every other, creating a highly adaptive society that assimilates other cultures in their pursuit of perfection. The quest for perfection is something Seven keeps as part of her, but thankfully abandons the rather traumatic and murderous ways of the Borg. Even as she longs for the community and security of the collective, she finds a way to struggle past that and develop strong relationships with the crew of Voyager. As she charmingly states later in the series, “Voyager is my collective now”. While she can’t really be called tender, she does make an active effort to engage with her crewmates and her friendship with the doctor is nothing short of adorable.
In some ways I think Seven’s struggles were also present in reality since many of the cast were less than friendly towards actress Jeri Ryan. I think it’s such a shame that she was punished because they didn’t want her character to be there. Hating someone for taking a job and for portraying a character you don’t like doesn’t seem right. Regardless of those hardships, Jeri gives a passionate and nuanced performance as Seven.
Thank you guys for joining, I hope you enjoyed this post about Seven of Nine; the strong, vulnerable beauty with a dark past and a bright future.
Thanks for stopping by!
-Erin
PS: Snow’s favourite character is also Seven, she curls up to watch whenever she’s on screen. Willow’s favourite character is Data from TNG.
