Women of Voyager - Seven of Nine
I have a love hate relationship with Seven of Nine or Seven as I’ll refer to her throughout the remainder of this article. She is certainly one of the more interesting characters to be produced in the Star Trek universe with a world of potential story telling and character deconstruction. She is also unfortunately and I don’t believe through Jeri Ryan’s own fault at all a representation of the poorer side of the Star Trek universe’s approach to women.
I’ll get my main gripe out of the way immediately.
The catsuit.
The skin tight obvious ploy at attracting twelve to one hundred year old boys. The most uncomfortable looking costume in Star Trek (this is before T’Pol’s time well kinda if you forget that it’s a prequel and… enough of that my head is going to hurt). For a supposedly enlightened television series in its approach towards diversity and gender Star Trek still has a lot of way to go in how it treats the way women dress in the 24th century. Uhura and the mini skirted women of Star Trek the original series were a product of their time and in their own way because of the times they were liberated, but that’s no excuse now and I’m not going to dwell on this point except to say as a male I’m slightly offended that Star Trek doesn’t think that intelligent strong women appropriately dressed would be attractive enough. End of rant.
Seven herself though is this extraordinary complex character that represents so much of what we all go through. She is the ultimate outsider, foreign to her own people, feared by them and incredibly sheltered. Seven was born Annika Hansen and was assimilated into the Borg at the age of 6.
The Borg violate, they rape, they brainwash.
When the Borg assimilate an individual into the collective they take every part of that individuality and strip you of any privacy. Your body is invaded with Borg technology and twisted to the requirements of the Borg. Nothing is yours.
This all happened to Seven when she was a child and she is reminded of it every time she looks into a mirror or down at her Borg encrusted hand.
It is fortunate that she was rescued by the Voyager ‘family’. Had she been taken in by another crew the results could have been disastrous. It is the family bonds of the Voyager crew that help Seven become more comfortable with herself. She has swapped one collective for another but one that respects the rights of the individual and during her time on the ship she is healed both physically and mentally.
The real joy watching Seven is how she interacts with the crew especially with Naomi Wildman the first child born on Voyager, in many ways Seven was reborn on Voyager herself. It’s also interesting to see her come full circle when Voyager takes on some children who have been assimilated and then separated from the collective. Seven assumes the role model / motherly figure that Janeway served as for her.
This is part two of a three part series examining the women of Voyager - you can read the first part here.
Lee is a a huge popular culture freak, loves comic books, science fiction, soundtracks and writes for Quit Your Day Job.
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May 4th, 2007 at 1:44 am
I always thought of Seven of Nine as the Data of Voyager.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:41 am
It should be mentioned that Seven saved the whole Voyager production - her complicated silver catsuit with its elaborate underwire system to emphasize her sexy figure was the one and only creative idea in the first three seasons.
And I share Ron Moore’s opinion: She was just not enough Borg. This little piece around the eye and that fancy glove: Beauty spots!
May 4th, 2007 at 4:25 am
Yeah, but Seven got Kes kicked off of the show and we loved Kes!
May 4th, 2007 at 9:30 am
MC - I suspect you’re right although I must admit I see the connection but don’t feel it (does that sound weird!?).
Zep - It annoys me that the producers think we are so stupid that we’d accept that stuff as Brog even though it doesn’t look anything like Borg tech. I always said that I think she should have put on the uniform.
Dwacon - LOL I hope Kes left of her own accord!!! They didn’t push her did they? I liked Kes too and I didn’t include her purely because I wanted to do a three part series - I’ll put Kes on my list to look at in the future - unless anyone wants to write up a piece about her!?!
May 8th, 2007 at 4:45 am
I meant that because both Data and Seven of Nine were struggling with the question of what it means to be human after being a machine.
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:18 am
You deleted my comment and that’s cool. But what do you want - this is the real world. sex sells - and they’re going to promote it.
I mean the internet spawned from porn. and here you are blogging.
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Shocked - You are right I did delete your comment because I must admit I figured it was either spam (given the nature of the URL you used) or from someone extraordinarily immature. I apologize.
Unfortunately I can’t recover the comment for everyone to read but it was along the lines of questioning whether or not I was a homosexual.
Which you have to say in all fairness seems to be a rather irrelevant question.
I think I made what I want fairly clear, as a viewer to be treated with a certain level of sophistication especially when dealing with a science fiction based show and not for a show such as Star Trek to resort to the ’sex sells’ cop out.
I must also admit that I missed all of the articles and books examining the phenomenon that is Star Trek that suggested the core reason for such devotion is because the women in the show are sexy. Come to think of it I don’t recall that ever being touted as a major contribution to the success of the franchise.
As for your abridged history of the Internet and how it ’spawned from porn’ I once again find myself at a loss since I am an IT professional and have never had the origin of the Internet placed in that light. Indeed the porn industry has thrived on the internet but spawned it I don’t know.
That all being said though I’m more than interested in inviting you to write up your thoughts in regards to how one should just accept the objectification of women and the devaluing of their roles for commercial success.
Or not, either way is good for me.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I think the writers and producers of Voyager dropped the ball many times regarding storylines and characterizations. It’s sad because the premise had such potential. They giddily overused “time travel” stories and hit the re-set button again and again so that nothing ever felt like it had consequences; hence, the drama was pale in comparison to DS9 for example. Having said that, Jeri Ryan did a fabulous job with what she had to work with as did Kate Mulgrew. I think their talents elevated their characters far above what they would have been in less-skilled hands (e.g. Mr. Beltran’s poor acting.)By the way, I agree, the catsuit was simply embarrassing and detracted from the show.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Good article imho. While I welcome abit of eyesore-relief every now and then, I think they’ve gone overboard with 7of9’s costume. I’ve frequently wondered why she could not have been issued a standard starfleet uniform once the extensive repairs had been completed. The Maquis crew were issued those uniforms right off the bat, so why not her too?
Jeri Ryan is a strong actress, she has engaging eyes and a nice hair-do, not to mention some sexy borg augments, she would definitely be able to hold the audience’s attention in a regular uniform.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I guess they thought that Jeri Ryan’s figure was simply too fantastic not to exploit. Seven stole the show when she comes on board; she is an endless source of comedy, and her social awkwardness and faux pas definitely strike a chord with with the nerds (such as myself) watching the show.