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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 recognisable characters in all of Star Trek, with that eyepiece,
00:05that semi-glove, and that very severe bun. But who is Seven of Nine, and what do we really know
00:11about her? I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture, and here are 10 things you never knew about Seven of
00:17Nine. Before we get into the video as a whole, I just want to take a second to say thank you so
00:21much for your support. Please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe. You've helped us
00:25grow this channel. We are aiming for 200,000 subscribers by summer of 2022, and you can
00:32help us get there just by hitting that subscribe button if you haven't already. So thank you so
00:36much again, and let's get to it. Number 10, Susan Gibney was turned down for the part. Susan Gibney
00:41is best known to Star Trek fans for one of two roles. Dr. Leah Brahms, one of the original designers
00:46of the Enterprise D, and complicated love interest of Geordi LaForge. She is also recognisable as
00:51Captain Erica Bentine of the USS Lakota from Deep Space Nine. She also auditioned for the
00:55part of Captain Janeway, receiving a screen test after Genevieve Bourjold left the role.
01:00Though she would lose out on the part to Kate Mulgrew, with Gibney deemed too young to lead
01:04a show, she was invited back to audition for the part of Seven. Unfortunately, her youth
01:08once again went against her. Though she has only appeared on screen in four episodes of
01:12Star Trek to date, her character may yet see a return in Star Trek Picard. She is said to
01:16be working at the Daystrom Institute, the workplace of Dr. Agnes Jurati. In at least one possible
01:20future, LaForge has married Dr. Brahms, so depending on which timeline the show exists in, there's
01:25still an outside chance of Gibney returning to the show alongside Jerry Ryan's Seven as
01:29well. Number 9, Seven of Nine is a fashion icon. While the various costumes that Seven wears
01:35may have caused issues for Jerry Ryan herself, in both terms of comfort and the ability to breathe,
01:40there 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
01:50the one character in Star Trek who doesn't wear a Starfleet uniform, who is more easily recognisable
01:56than any other. The design of Seven has carried over into the other entries in the franchise.
02:00In fact, Gersha Phillips, costume designer of Star Trek Discovery, had her outfits front
02:05and centre when planning the party scene in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad. Kayla
02:09Detmer is outfitted with form-fitting pants and platformed high heels. Her top, though clearly
02:14less body-hugging than anything Jerry Ryan was given to wear, was inspired by the material
02:18that was often used to make Seven's clothes. Though the overall result is less catsuit
02:22and more inspired by, the design of the character remains as iconic with his later era of Star
02:27Trek as it did in the 90s. Number 8, The Borg Babe.
02:31Brandon Braga recalled that after the idea for a Borg crewman sprang into his head, he called
02:35Joe Manoski to workshop the idea. Feeling that he was onto something, Braga then called Rick
02:39Berman. In Braga's words, it was Berman who said, make it a Borg babe. Executive producer
02:44Jerry Taylor is less certain that it was purely Berman's idea. She later said that the idea
02:49of a female Borg crewman was an idea that came about quickly, though she credited Braga
02:53with the idea. She certainly did agree, however, that the full story behind the character was
02:57workshopped by all of them.
02:59With the falling ratings for Star Trek Voyager throughout the third season, and the looming
03:02departure slash firing of Jennifer Lien, there was room for another female member of the ensemble.
03:07There was little mystery as to why she was given such form-hugging outfits, nor why it
03:11was Lien who got the chop. Garret Wang only survived the season 3 cull as he had been voted
03:15one of the world's sexiest people that summer. Having received no such lofty honour, Lien
03:20was out, Wang got to keep his job, and the search for Seven's performer began.
03:24Number 7, Seven of Nine vs Perra.
03:27The initial casting sheets for Seven of Nine actually referred to the character as Perra.
03:31This iteration of Seven would have ended up as a very different character from the one
03:34the audiences eventually received. Perra had been witness to the slaughter of all of her
03:38friends and family while located on Kelta Prime. After this event, she claimed that her
03:43humanity died. Unable to deal with the torment of losing everyone she had ever known, she
03:47found comfort in the collective consciousness of the Borg. This goes away toward explaining
03:51some 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
04:00aren't truly explored until Dark Frontier. Annika Hansen, as the character was later renamed,
04:05was captured as a young girl when her parents vastly underestimated the collective. Raised
04:09as Borg, this would explain her resistance to humanity. While certainly traumatic, it is
04:14oddly a less bloody introduction to the Borg for the young girl, so in a way, this is closer
04:19to a happier beginning for her?
04:21Number 6, Jerry Ryan and Those Costumes. Seven is instantly recognisable in the silvery catsuit
04:27that made its debut in the closing scene of The Gift. Despite its iconic status, it only
04:31appeared in a further two episodes, Revulsion and Day of Honor. The material that was used
04:35to construct it, while designed to be form-fitting, did its job a little too well. Jerry Ryan struggled
04:40to breathe in it, especially while sitting, which became a problem in the long shoots
04:45in high heels. A new version was constructed, this one a brown colour, though ostensibly the
04:49same design. This appeared in The Raven, going through a revision for its debut in Scientific
04:53Method. The costume would change several more times throughout the show's fourth
04:56to seventh seasons, peppered with returns of the Borg outfit, a Starfleet uniform in
05:00two episodes and several appearances as Annika rather than Seven. Ryan never doubted the reasoning
05:06behind the wardrobe. She freely admitted to knowing she was cast for Sex Appeal, an obvious
05:10attempt by the producers to bolster failing ratings. The strategy paid off.
05:14Number 5, if Branham Braga had been in charge, Seven of Nine would have died. Braga had envisioned
05:19Seven as a character who would not belong for the franchise. According to him, she would have
05:23sacrificed herself in an attempt to get her found family home, dying a hero along the
05:27way. The showrunners at the time, Ken Miller and Rick Berman, were having none of it.
05:32Though death tends to mean very little on Star Trek, with the notable exception of Jadzia
05:36Dax on Star Trek Deep Space Nine, they stepped in to ensure that Seven was not killed off.
05:40That suited Jerry Ryan perfectly, as it ensured a little more job security, but it also paved
05:44the way for many of Voyager's stronger episodes from season four onward. That is not to say,
05:49however, that Braga didn't get his wish from time to time. Seven died in Timeless, Relativity,
05:53Coarse Oblivion, sort of, and Endgame. Considering that Braga and Ryan were dating for much of
05:58her stint on Star Trek Voyager, one has to wonder what exactly was the psychology behind
06:03having one's lover killed frequently on screen, though perhaps some questions are best left
06:07unanswered. Number 4, Seven was the wild child in Branham Braga's eyes. The emergency medical
06:13hologram had started life as the stand-in for Data or Spock character on Star Trek Voyager. Tuvok not with
06:18standing as the Vulcan on board. However, for Branham Braga, the character simply wasn't
06:23compelling enough to honour a legacy of the strive to become more human. He looked to the true story
06:28of Victor of Aveyron, or the wild child, that had been depicted on film in 1970 by Francois Tuffaut,
06:34which in turn was based on the study by Dr Jean-Marc Gaspar-Retard in 18th century France. Victor was a
06:41young boy who had been raised by wolves from a young age, discovered again by humans and reintroduced to
06:46society. He struggled initially, unable to communicate verbally, never having learned to
06:50speak 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. Judy 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
07:35inhabitant 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 project,
08:28while Seven would become Janeway's. Number 2. Ryan vs. Mulgrew. It is now well known that Kate Mulgrew and
08:35Jerry Ryan did not get along during their first few years together on the show. Both have opened
08:39up about their experiences, with Ryan speaking about how unsettled, upset and nauseous it made
08:44her having to deal with the wall of dislike that faced her day by day when filming with Mulgrew.
08:50However, while Mulgrew's treatment of Ryan was undoubtedly unfair and unprofessional,
08:54she was dealing with a complete turnaround of what the show was, in her opinion, supposed to be about.
09:00From the beginning, the shadow of Bujol hung over her. The executives from Paramount spent the first
09:04few months watching her act, unsure as they were now that Bujol had walked off. In defiance to this,
09:10but also to highlight the importance of a strong female lead, Mulgrew was adamant that she would
09:14not be their sex symbol to hang the marketing on. In several interviews given during the first year,
09:19Mulgrew championed the writing, stating clearly that Janeway was being written and portrayed as a
09:23captain first and as a woman second. Then Seven of Nine appeared. This deeply frustrated Mulgrew,
09:29who felt that the character represented everything that she had been railing against in the first three
09:33years. She admitted later that it was wrong to have focused this frustration on Jerry Ryan,
09:37with both actors, long since, thankfully seeming to have buried the hatchet.
09:41Number 1. She's become a beacon for survivors of cults to rally behind.
09:45The Borg are nothing if not a metaphor for cults in society. They draw you in. They take over your
09:51mind and body. There is no hope of escape. Resistance is, in fact, futile. Then, along comes Seven of Nine to
09:57prove that no, in fact, it most certainly is not. Twitter user StarSpider penned a piece for Vice,
10:02in which they detailed their path to recovery after escaping a cult. They had spent much of
10:06their twenties as a member of, then prisoner too, this group that did all it could to erase
10:11their individuality. After escaping, they realised that they were now completely unable to function
10:16as an individual. This is reflected in the use of language that Seven uses during her removal from
10:20the Collective. Throughout the events of Scorpion, she predominantly uses We to identify herself,
10:25while from the gift onwards she starts using the singular I as she regains a measure of individuality.
10:30Through years of therapy, they identified with the journey that Seven goes through after her
10:35liberation from the Collective. First there is anger, then a dubious attempt to endure
10:40this individuality. Later comes regret before acceptance. In Seven, they were able to see many
10:45elements of their own journey leading them toward, if not total recovery, and at least a place much
10:50further along than where they had been when they left. In Star Trek Picard, Seven asks Jean-Luc if he truly
10:56feels like he has recovered from his assimilation. He confesses he doesn't. Together, they acknowledge
11:01the need to keep on fighting to regain that semblance of self, as fitting a message for anyone to rally
11:07behind as there can be. Thank you very much everyone who enjoyed our list today. If you reckon there's
11:11anything else that we should have included, please drop it into the comments below. Please, as I said,
11:15don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember that you can catch us over on Twitter at
11:18TriCulture. You can catch myself at SeanFerrick on Twitter as well. Check out my podcast at
11:22You'reOnCrackMate on Twitter. You can catch it on Spotify and the usuals as well. You look after
11:27yourselves, everyone, until I see you again. You look after your friends and family. You live long
11:30and prosper. Thanks very much.
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