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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 recognizable characters in all of Star Trek with that eyepiece,
00:04that semi-glove and that very severe bun. But who is Seven of Nine and what do we really know about
00:11her? I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 10 things you never knew about Seven of Nine.
00:18Before we get into the video as a whole I just want to take a second to say thank you so much
00:21for your support. Please don't forget to like, share and subscribe. You've helped us seriously
00:25grow this channel. We are aiming for 200,000 subscribers by summer of 2022 and you can help
00:32us get there just by hitting that subscribe button if you haven't already. So thank you so much again
00:36and let's get to it. Number 10, Susan Gibney was turned down for the part. Susan Gibney is best
00:42known to Star Trek fans for one of two roles. Dr. Leah Brahms, one of the original designers of the
00:46Enterprise D and complicated love interest of Geordi LaForge, she is also recognizable as Captain
00:51Erika Bentine of the USS Lakota from Deep Space Nine. She also auditioned for the part of Captain
00:56Janeway, receiving a screen test after Genevieve Beaujold left the role. Though she would lose out
01:01on the part to Kate Mulgrew, with Gibney deemed too young to lead a show, she was invited back to
01:05audition for the part of Seven. Unfortunately, her youth once again went against her. Though she has
01:10only appeared on screen in four episodes of Star Trek to date, her character may yet see a return in
01:15Star Trek Picard. She is said to be working at the Daystrom Institute, the workplace of Dr. Agnes Jurati.
01:19In at least one possible future, LaForge has married Dr. Brahms, so depending on which timeline
01:24the show exists in, there's still an outside chance of Gibney returning to the show alongside
01:28Jerry Ryan Seven as well. Number 9, Seven of Nine is a fashion icon. While the various costumes that
01:34Seven wears may have caused issues for Jerry Ryan herself, in both terms of comfort and the ability
01:40to breathe, there is no denying that they were instantly become iconic. Whether it was the silvery catsuit,
01:45the brown catsuit, the blue catsuit, the grey... well look you get the drift. Seven may be the one
01:51character in Star Trek who doesn't wear a Starfleet uniform, who is more easily recognisable than any
01:56other. The design of Seven has carried over into the other entries in the franchise. In fact, Gersha
02:01Phillips, costume designer of Star Trek Discovery, had her outfits front and centre when planning the
02:06party scene in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad. Kayla Detmer is outfitted with form-fitting pants and
02:11platformed high heels. Her top, though clearly less body-hugging than anything Jerry Ryan was given to
02:16wear, was inspired by the material that was often used to make Seven's clothes. Though the overall
02:20result is less catsuit and more inspired by, the design of the character remains as iconic with his
02:26later era of Star Trek as it did in the 90s. Number 8, The Borg Babe. Brandon Braga recalled that
02:32after the idea for a Borg crewman sprang into his head, he called Joe Manoski to workshop the idea.
02:37Feeling that he was onto something, Braga then called Rick Berman. In Braga's words,
02:41it was Berman who said, Make it a Borg Babe. Executive producer Jerry Taylor is less certain
02:46that it was purely Berman's idea. She later said that the idea of a female Borg crewman was an idea
02:51that came about quickly, though she credited Braga with the idea. She certainly did agree, however,
02:55that the full story behind the character was workshopped by all of them. With the falling
02:59ratings for Star Trek Voyager throughout the third season, and the looming departure slash firing
03:04of Jennifer Lien, there was room for another female member of the ensemble. There was little mystery
03:08as to why she was given such form-hugging outfits, nor why it was Lien who got the chop.
03:12Garret Wang only survived the Season 3 cull as he had been voted one of the world's sexiest people
03:17that summer. Having received no such lofty honour, Lien was out, Wang got to keep his job,
03:22and the search for Seven's performer began. Number 7, Seven of Nine vs Perra. The initial
03:27casting sheets for Seven of Nine actually referred to the character as Perra. This iteration of Seven would
03:32have ended up as a very different character from the one the audiences eventually received. Perra had been
03:37witness to the slaughter of all of her friends and family while located on Kelta Prime. After this
03:42event, she claimed that her humanity died. Unable to deal with the torment of losing everyone she
03:46had ever known, she found comfort in the collective consciousness of the Borg. This goes away toward
03:51explaining some of her reluctance to leave when she is liberated by Captain Janeway. In The Gift,
03:56it is explained that she was assimilated as a child, but the circumstances of her assimilation aren't
04:00truly explored until Dark Frontier. Annika Hansen, as the character was later renamed, was captured as a young
04:06girl when her parents vastly underestimated the collective. Raised as Borg, this would explain
04:10her resistance to humanity. While certainly traumatic, it is oddly a less bloody introduction
04:16to the Borg for the young girl, so in a way this is closer to a happier beginning for her?
04:21Number 6, Jerry Ryan and Those Costumes. Seven is instantly recognizable in the silvery catsuit that
04:27made its debut in the closing scene of The Gift. Despite its iconic status, it only appeared in a further
04:32two episodes, Revulsion and Day of Honor. The material that was used to construct it,
04:36while designed to be form-fitting, did its job a little too well. Jerry Ryan struggled to breathe
04:41in it, especially while sitting, which became a problem in the long shoots in high heels. A new
04:46version was constructed, this one a brown colour, though ostensibly the same design. This appeared in
04:50The Raven, going through a revision for its debut in Scientific Method. The costume would change several
04:55more times throughout the show's fourth to seventh seasons, peppered with returns of the Borg outfit,
04:59a Starfleet uniform in two episodes, and several appearances as Annika rather than Seven. Ryan
05:04never doubted the reasoning behind the wardrobe. She freely admitted to knowing she was cast for
05:08Sex Appeal, an obvious attempt by the producers to bolster failing ratings. The strategy paid off.
05:14Number 5, if Brannan 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. According to him,
05:22she would have sacrificed herself in an attempt to get her found family home,
05:26dying a hero along the way. The showrunners at the time, Ken Miller and Rick Berman, were having
05:31none of it. Though 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. That suited
05:40Jerry Ryan perfectly, as it ensured a little more job security, but it also paved the way for many of
05:45Voyager's stronger episodes from Season 4 onward. That is not to say, however, that Braga didn't get his
05:50wish from time to time. Seven died in Timeless, Relativity, Course Oblivion and Endgame. Considering
05:56that Braga and Ryan were dating for much of her stint on Star Trek Voyager, one has to wonder what
06:01exactly was the psychology behind having one's lover killed frequently on screen? Though perhaps
06:06some questions are best left unanswered. Number 4, Seven was the wild child in Brannan Braga's eyes.
06:12The emergency medical hologram had started life as the stand-in for Data or Spock character on Star Trek
06:17Voyager, Tuvok notwithstanding as the Vulcan on board. However, for Brannan Braga, the character
06:22simply wasn't compelling enough to honour a legacy of the strive to become more human. He looked to the
06:27true story of Victor of Aveyron, or the wild child, that had been depicted on film in 1970 by Francois
06:33Tuffaut, which in turn was based on the study by Dr Jean-Marc-Gaspar Redard in 18th century France.
06:40Victor was a young boy who had been raised by wolves from a young age, discovered again by humans and
06:45reintroduced to society. He struggled initially, unable to communicate verbally, never having
06:50learned to speak French. However, under the care of Ytard, he learned to function around humans again,
06:55though it took quite a while. It was from this that Seven sprang, removed from the collective
07:00after spending most of her life with them. She needs to learn how to communicate as an individual,
07:03while also attempting to understand what it means to be a part of the crew. Both Seven and Victor need
07:08time to adjust, though, through the patient tutelage of a mentor, they both flourished. Number 3,
07:13she was named after Catwoman and Friday's Child. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the
07:18last, Star Trek crossed over with a DC Comics property. In this case, Seven of Nine was inspired
07:24in part by Catwoman. Julie Newmar, who had appeared in the Adam West Batman television series, also
07:29appeared in the original series episode Friday's Child. Here, she played Aline, the heavily pregnant
07:34inhabitant of Capella 4. Newmar had also appeared in a short-lived sitcom named My Living Doll, the show
07:41which ran for 25 episodes between 1964 and 1965, focused on Dr. Bob McDonald and Rhoda, a lifelike
07:48android played by Newmar. She had the sub-designation of AF-709. Rhoda was to be a project by Bob in how
07:57to make the perfect woman who doesn't talk back. The show was billed as a comedy, though ratings were
08:02poor. Bob Cummings, who played McDonald, asked to be written out halfway through the season, exiting in the
08:0621st episode. Newmar received praise for her comedic timing. In Star Trek, Rhoda is also said to be the
08:12inspiration behind the character Data. My Living Doll has also been credited as being responsible
08:17for making the phrase, does not compute, popular in media. Though Seven of Nine is quite far removed
08:22from the docile, man-pleasing Rhoda, both characters are projects of a sort. Rhoda is McDonald's pet
08:27project, while Seven would become Janeway's. Number two, Ryan versus Mulgrew. It is now well known that
08:34Kate Mulgrew and Jerry Ryan did not get along during their first 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 day when
08:48filming with Mulgrew. However, while Mulgrew's treatment of Ryan was undoubtedly unfair and
08:53unprofessional, she was dealing with a complete turnaround of what the show was, in her opinion,
08:59supposed to be about. From the beginning, the shadow of Bujol hung over her. The executives from
09:03Paramount spent the first few months watching her act, unsure as they were now that Bujol had
09:08walked off. In defiance to this, but also to highlight the importance of a strong female lead,
09:12Mulgrew was adamant that she would not be their sex symbol to hang the marketing on. In several
09:17interviews given during the first year, Mulgrew championed the writing, stating clearly that Janeway
09:21was being written and portrayed as a captain first and as a woman second. Then Seven of Nine appeared.
09:27This deeply frustrated Mulgrew, who felt that the character represented everything that she had been
09:32railing against in the first three years. She admitted later that it was wrong to have focused
09:36this frustration on Jerry Ryan, with both actors, long since, thankfully, seeming to have buried the
09:41hatchet. Number one, she's become a beacon for survivors of cults to rally behind. The Borg are
09:46nothing if not a metaphor for cults in society. They draw you in. They take over your mind and body.
09:52There is no hope of escape. Resistance is, in fact, futile. Then, along comes Seven of Nine to prove that no,
09:58in fact, it most certainly is not. Twitter user StarSpider penned a piece for Vice in which they
10:03detailed their path to recovery after escaping a cult. They had spent much of their twenties as a
10:07member of, then prisoner too, this group that did all it could to erase their individuality. After
10:12escaping, they realised that they were now completely unable to function as an individual. This is
10:17reflected in the use of language that Seven uses during her removal from the collective. Throughout
10:21the events of Scorpion, she predominantly uses We to identify herself, while from the gift onwards,
10:26she starts using the singular I as she regains a measure of individuality. Through years of therapy,
10:32they identified with the journey that Seven goes through after her liberation from the collective.
10:36First there is anger, then a dubious attempt to endure this individuality. Later comes regret before
10:42acceptance. In 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 when they
10:53left. In Star Trek Picard, Seven asks Jean-Luc if he truly feels like he has recovered from his
10:57assimilation. He confesses he doesn't. Together, they acknowledge the need to keep on fighting to
11:03regain that semblance of self, as fitting a message for anyone to rally behind, as there can be.
11:08Thank you very much, everyone who enjoyed our list today. If you reckon there's anything else that
11:12we should have included, please drop it into the comments below. Please, as I said, don't forget to
11:15like, share, and subscribe. Remember that you can catch us over on Twitter at TrekCulture. You can
11:19catch myself at SeanFerrick on Twitter as well. Check out my podcast at You'reOnCrackMate on Twitter.
11:24You can catch it on Spotify and the usuals as well. You look after yourselves, everyone,
11:27till I see you again. You look after your friends and family. You live long and prosper. Thanks very much.
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