At the start of Season 4, in the episode [#69 Scorpion, Part 2], a Borg drone whose (abbreviated) name is Seven of Nine is severed, against her will, from the Borg Collective by the [Star Trek Voyager] crew (specifically by Chakotay and Torres) and is kept aboard the ship. There, in the following episode, the Doctor starts to remove as many of her Borg implants as he can manage or is biologically safe for her, and under Janeway's guidance Seven becomes a member of the crew. In the Star Trek universe, this is every bit as profound an event as the decision to bring a Klingon (Worf) onto the bridge of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D in [TNG] as historically, the Klingons had been Starfleet's arch-enemy.

[Scorpion, Part 2]

The origins of the character Seven of Nine grew out of a marathon conversation between Rick Berman and Brannon Braga in spring 1997. While the basic idea came from Braga, Berman immediately took the concept to a higher level by suggesting the character be a female. He reasoned that this would create an entirely new type of character, with enormous potential for the series. In retrospect, it was a brilliant idea, although initially many fans did not think so.

Jeri Taylor: "The idea of having a female Borg was one of those that came largely through spontaneous combustion. It started with Brannon, and quickly gained a great deal of support. We decided to make her a human female who had been assimilated while very young and raised by the Borg. So in essence, she lost her childhood. She has missed a great deal of her humanity."

Poe says that, philosophically, Seven of Nine's presence aboard Voyager is an extension of a Star Trek canon the idea that we are embracing our enemy, which is a precept that has always been espoused by Star Trek, and demonstrated countless times over the last three decades. He asserts that one more time, Star Trek is saying to viewers, "Just because someone looks and acts differently from you doesn't mean they are bad and wrong and should be killed. Everyone has worth. Everyone has value. It may take a bit of doing, and a lot of altering of attitudes, but sentient beings really can peacefully co-exist well with each other." However, I personally think he must mean "embracing our FORMER enemy". If he means "enemy" (no "former") then I disagree with that interpretation of Seven's role in [Star Trek Voyager], because the matter of her being the enemy is dealt with passingly with Torres asking her if she feels guilt and the two of them for a while not getting on together, and with the survivors Caatati species (i.e. not humans) wanting to take revenge on Seven for the Borg's assimilation of their families and indeed almost all their race, but the Caatati's feelings are at least understandable [#71 Day Of Honor]. From very early on Seven is not treated by the Voyager crew as if she is the enemy, let alone as if she is "the enemy embraced" - she has been RESCUED from the Borg Collective and is on the difficult path toward RECOVERING her humanity; she is no longer an enemy and indeed there are several mentions or inferences to her guilt (which she presumably starts feeling after [#71 Day Of Honor] in which she tells Torres that, "Guilt is irrelevant.") at the lives she helped the Borg assimilate.

Seven is also an outsider, a traditional Star Trek character type. (The screenshot is from [#70 The Gift] - Seven's dermal regeneration garment devised by the Doctor, and the first thing she wears after being divested of her Borg armour.) Poe says that she is the first female created in that role, contradicting an earlier statement of his that the outside role was in [Star Trek Voyager] deliberately divided between Torres and the Doctor (he omits Tuvok, presumably because he knows, after close study for his book, what the co-producers had conceived; though I feel Tuvok does make many perceptive observations about humanity; Poe might not consider Tuvok to be an outsider because he is Starfleet; the Doctor is also Starfleet but has not been trained to on medical duty full-time). In Season 4 into 5, and at times thereafter, Seven serves the same purpose as Spock, Data and Odo do in [TOS], [TNG] and [DS9] respectively, namely she makes comments and observations about humans. She also interacts with the captain in a way not possible by anyone else: for instance, she is allowed to call on Janeway in the small hours for a discussion about the nature of individuality in [#105 Latent Image], and receives more sympathetic treatment generally (except, say, at the end of [#84 Prey]) and compared to other crewmembers e.g. Torres (Janeway is not very sympathetic when she visits Torres' quarters after the surgical operation) in [#102 Nothing Human]. Seven's relationship with Janeway is rather in the tradition of Spock and Kirk or Data and Picard. She is Janeway's foil (replacing Chakotay, in my view).

Brannon Braga, co-executive producer: "We struggled for a long time. Initially she had a human name. She was going to be named Annika, or something. We read for actresses with a human name. We wrote the first scripts that way. A little later we thought, "She shouldn't have a human name. She should be set apart in some way." Seven of Nine came from the way the Borg designate drones. One of Twelve, whatever. We went through a long list of variations. Seven of Nine sounded the best, had the right rhythmn. We thought it would be cool for people to call her Seven. That was before the movie 'Seven' which worried us a bit."

Having created the Seven of Nine character, the producers set about giving her a visual image. Her introduction to viewers would be as a fully assimilated Borg. Berman wanted to duplicate the Borg look created by Robert Blackman and Michael Westmore for [Star Trek VIII: First Contact]. Over the next few episodes, starting with [#70 The Gift], Seven's Borg implants and body armour would be gradually removed by the Doctor as she becomes slowly humanised. Significant steps include the moment when she can eat solid food, seen in [#74 The Raven]. Under Berman's careful supervision, Robert 'Bob' Blackman began sketching ideas for the costume Seven of Nine would wear after the initial transition. What emerged was a skintight bodysuit made of a stretch material similar to nylon Lycra. The justification for the design was that it is a dermal regeneration device created by the Doctor and is a technological means of allowing her human body to heal from all the scarring after the Borg armour and implants have been removed. The notion is similar to the full-body wraps applied to severe burn victims. Rationale or no, and one of Star Trek's canons is that things must be believeable thus plausible, the design seemed dictated as much by a desire for increased ratings as anything else. For there was great concern that [Star Trek Voyager] was losing the 18 to 34 year old male audience.

On the right actress, a skin-tight bodysuit would not hurt. However much they wanted a sexy woman in skintight clothing, the producers did not want [Star Trek Voyager] to gain comparisons with shows like 'Baywatch'. To offset the costume's blatantly sexy appearance, the producers gave Seven of Nine a completely sexless personality. She is totally oblivious to the potential effect her presence could have on Voyager's male crew members.

Brannon Braga: "She's got it all: she's got hormones, she's got feelings and emotions, everything human. But having been raised by wolves, Borg in this case, she has absolutely no socialisation. She is without a compass. It's a duality. A character that looks one way, but acts just the opposite."

Casting for the role of Seven of Nine happened rather quickly. One of the actresses called in to read for the part was Jeri Ryan, who had just finished a stint on the short-lived series 'Dark Skies'. She was aware of Star Trek, saying in a later interview: "I don't think anyone born in the latter half of the twentieth century is not aware of Star Trek." but was not a fan, and had only seen snippets of [Star Trek Voyager] episodes here and there.

Ryan auditioned for the part, but was not at all sure she wanted the role.

Jeri Ryan: "I was very ambivalent about the role. I didn't know much about Star Trek. They said she was a Borg, and I didn't know what that meant. My agent said 'Oh, those are the gray bald-headed guys with the metal plates on their heads.' Which was not the right way to describe this character to make me leap at the opportunity."

She was also nervous about being typecast as an alien (a common concern among actors), and worried that Seven of Nine would be re-humanised too quickly and then pushed into a series of shallow romantic encounters.

So when Ryan's agent called her and said the producers wanted a test deal, she ended up saying no. Fortunately for [Star Trek Voyager], Rick Berman was able to allay her concerns and win her over. That gave Blackman a body to fit the costume.

Bob Blackman: "The garment looks so simple. It's probably the hardest, most complicated garment we've ever made. Because it is structured in a way that it will shrink-wrap to the contours of her body. And that's hard to do, because materials tend to go naturally from one high point in a straight line to the next high point. I wanted it to be within the laws of decency according to network Standards and Practices - for it to be as if it were painted on. With a separate substructure underneath so that it wasn't so gratuitous that it revealed every minute detail of her anatomy."

Soundfiles, screenshots and quote from STN

Holding up the corset for inspection.

Bob Blackman

I have not transcribed the soundfiles. Both are of Jeri Ryan describing the Borg make-up and how tough it is to wear it, and the other is her talking about the corset-style costume.

Bob Blackman

Jeri Ryan as Seven

Jeri Ryan in interview

Bob Blackman: "Yeah, it's a fit garment but what do you see, you just see her silhouette, which was what I wanted to do, that was my notion, which is we find a way to contour her quite remarkable body. We did, parenthetically, we did nothing to either minimise or extend her bodily shape, that is her, from top to bottom, and it's a remarkable figure. When you see her in that uniform one of the things that you get that is a sense of provocative is that the bust is actually undercut. You go under, rather than going from the high point down, it actually scoops under and then comes back to her ribcage, and that's a series of hooks that, you know, the whole thing is rigged through this underpinning, and God bless her, the girl, for four years wearing that thing."

The unique substructure Blackman refers to includes a special corset and, overall, gives a suggestion of some sort of external ribbed skeleton just underneath the suit ... a hint perhaps of more Borg remaining than literally meets the eye. The result is not a sim ple jumpsuit. Ryan cannot get dressed by herself. Even with costumer Jamie Thomas's help, it still takes more than half an hour just to get her into the suit. Blackman's approach was strongly reminiscent of the pl-iilosophy espoused by Bill Theiss for The Original Series: It isn't what you see, it's what you think you see. And it's also the sug gestion of what you think you might see, if only you could manage to get just a little better look.

Jeri Ryan: "It's all perception and it's all mystery. That's the best. I have no problem with showing shape. That's all we're showing. That doesn't bother me at all. I think that's a lot more appealing than flesh."

Michael Westmore meanwhile began making the appliances which would initially turn Ryan into a Borg, and then, later, into a recognizable human. The final design included a small star-shaped wheel next to her right car, a "little mechanical gadget that goes around her left eye," and the appliance worn on her left hand. Leaving these small prosthetics on her face and left hand was because they did not want to de-Borg Seven of Nine totally, which would negate the profound advantage inherent in the character.

Jeri Ryan: Rick Berman loved everything everybody did about this character. He tweaked it. He fixed minor things. But he loved the costume, the make-up, the hairstyle. He's tough, and he's a hard sell. And before he tells you he loves it he'll give you twenty-nine things to work on. But he loved it. Everyone did a phenomenal job in putting this character together. The final product was exactly what Rick envisioned when he and Brannon first created this character."

publicity shot; Robert Picardo, who plays the Doctor, once said that when she wore that shiny costume it was like looking into main beam headlights

The developmental process was deliberately kept low-key, almost secretive. There were no on-camera film tests. Most meetings were limited to the producers and to Blackman, Westmore and Ryan. Despite these precautions, word leaked out, and it was not long before the flak from dismayed fans began to roll in. They were not happy about what they had heard regarding the latest [Star Trek Voyager] cast member. Unperturbed, the producers pressed on. When Seven of Nine made her debut in [#69 Scorpion, Part 2], she quickly became enormously popular with viewers. The new character's tremendous popularity is gratifying to everyone, most of all Jeri Ryan. Her heavy fan mail is predominantly from women, who all say basically the same thing: "We were prepared to hate your character, but in fact we love her." Once one sees beyond her looks, as once viewers saw beyond the slicked-back hair, amber eyes and gold skin of Data on [TNG], they can see that Seven is intelligent, strong-willed and independent; she thinks for herself, stands up to the captain, and is not afraid to speak out if she sees something happening that seems stupid or does not make sense to her. It is what is inside the character that matters.

Viewer response to Seven of Nine has been phenomenal. Ratings have increased dramatically, which can only mean new viewers are turning to the series in record numbers. Months after Seven's introduction, [Star Trek Voyager]'s popularity continued to surge. Her presence appears to have become the driving force behind what one producer calls "[Star Trek Voyager]'s renaissance" although I personally feel there are other equally strong factors such as the strong storylines, great acting (the screenshot shows her portraying the Doctor inside her cybernetic systems in [#153 Body and Soul]) and superb film photography, and the fact that, like [TNG], the show had passed the watershed of Season 3. (I am far from being the only fan to have observed that it always seems to take a Star Trek series two to three seasons to become fully established in the hearts and minds of some fans, and from then on it tends to grow in popularity.)

Seven features in numerous stories in Seasons 4 and 5. Many fans jokingly christened [Star Trek Voyager] 'The Jeri Ryan Show', but the reason for the emphasis on Seven during those Seasons was to bring her 'character arc', or personal inner growth and development, up to the same level of development as the other characters. Seven's human personality develops, helped by the Doctor's social lessons, often with hilarious results. The screenshot shows the Doctor and Seven in [#116 Someone To Watch Over Me] in which, as part of the lesson plan, she goes on her first date with the shy Lt. William Chapman; the story was put to ('pitched') the producers by Robert Picardo (who plays the Doctor). Jeri Ryan was to don the Borg costume again, e.g. [#91 Living Witness] and [#157 Shattered], but by the end of the series she has regained her humanity and is involved romantically with Chakotay.