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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 Bujold 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 Giratti.
01:19In at least one possible future, LaForge has married Dr. Brahms, so depending on which timeline
01:24the show exists in, there is 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 Sainest 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 Star Trek as it did in the 90s. Number 8, The Borg Babe. Brandon Braga recalled that after the
02:32idea for a Borg crewman sprang into his head, he called Joe Manoski to workshop the idea. Feeling that he
02:37was onto something, Braga then called Rick Berman. In Braga's words, it was Berman who said,
02:42Make it a Borg Babe. Executive producer Jerry Taylor is less certain that it was purely Berman's
02:47idea. She later said that the idea of a female Borg crewman was an idea that came about quickly,
02:52though she credited Braga with the idea. She certainly did agree, however, that the full story
02:56behind the character was workshopped by all of them. With the falling ratings for Star Trek Voyager
03:00throughout the third season, and the looming departure slash firing of Jennifer Lien, there was room for
03:05another female member of the ensemble. There was little mystery as to why she was given such
03:09form-hugging outfits, nor why it was Lien who got the chop. Garrett Wang only survived the season
03:14three cull, as he had been voted one of the world's sexiest people that summer. Having received no
03:18such lofty honour, Lien was out, Wang got to keep his job, and the search for Seven's performer began.
03:24Number 7, Seven of Nine vs Perra. The initial casting sheets for Seven of Nine actually referred to the
03:29character as Perra. This iteration of Seven would have ended up as a very different character from the one
03:34that audiences eventually received. Perra had been witness to the slaughter of all of her friends
03:39and family while located on Kelta Prime. After this event, she claimed that her humanity died.
03:44Unable to deal with the torment of losing everyone she had ever known, she found comfort in the
03:48collective consciousness of the Borg. This goes away toward explaining some of her reluctance to leave
03:53when she is liberated by Captain Janeway. In The Gift, it is explained that she was assimilated as a
03:57child, but the circumstances of her assimilation aren't truly explored until Dark Frontier. Annika Hansen,
04:03as the character was later renamed, was captured as a young girl when her parents
04:07vastly underestimated the collective. Raised as Borg, this would explain her resistance to humanity.
04:12While certainly traumatic, it is oddly a less bloody introduction to the Borg for the young girl,
04:17so in a way this is closer to a happier beginning for her? Number 6, Jerry Ryan and Those Costumes.
04:24Seven is instantly recognisable in the silvery catsuit that made its debut in the closing scene of The Gift.
04:29Despite its iconic status, it only appeared in a further two episodes, Revulsion and Day of Honour.
04:34The material that was used to construct it, while designed to be form-fitting,
04:38did its job a little too well. Jerry Ryan struggled to breathe in it, especially while sitting,
04:42which became a problem in the long shoots in high heels. A new version was constructed,
04:47this one a brown colour, though ostensibly the same design. This appeared in The Raven,
04:51going through a revision for its debut in Scientific Method. The costume would change several more times
04:55throughout 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.
05:04Ryan never 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 Branham 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, sort of, and Endgame.
05:55Considering that Braga and Ryan were dating for much of her stint on Star Trek Voyager, one has to
06:00wonder what exactly was the psychology behind having one's lover killed frequently on screen,
06:05though perhaps some questions are best left unanswered.
06:08Number 4, Seven was the wild child in Branham Braga's eyes. The emergency medical hologram had
06:13started life as the stand-in for Data or Spock character on Star Trek Voyager, Tuvok notwithstanding
06:19as the Vulcan on board. However, for Branham Braga, the character simply wasn't compelling enough to
06:23honour a legacy of the strive to become more human. He looked to the true story of Victor of Aveyron,
06:29or the wild child, that had been depicted on film in 1970 by Francois Tuffaut, which in turn was based on
06:36the study by Dr Jean-Marc Gaspar Attard in 18th century France. Victor was a young boy who had
06:41been raised by wolves from a young age, discovered again by humans and reintroduced to society. He
06:47struggled initially, unable to communicate verbally, never having learned to speak French. However,
06:51under the care of Attard, he learned to function around humans again, though it took quite a while.
06:57It was from this that Seven sprang, removed from the collective after spending most of her life with
07:01them. She needs to learn how to communicate as an individual, while also attempting to understand what
07:05it means to be a part of the crew. Both Seven and Victor need time to adjust, though, through the
07:10patient tutelage of a mentor, they both flourished. Number 3. She was named after Catwoman and Friday's
07:15Child. Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Star Trek crossed over with a DC
07:20Comics property. In this case, Seven of Nine was inspired in part by Catwoman. Julie Newmar, who had
07:26appeared in the Adam West Batman television series, also appeared in the original series episode
07:31Friday's Child. Here, she played Aline, the heavily pregnant inhabitant of Capella 4. Newmar had also
07:37appeared in a short-lived sitcom named My Living Doll. The show, which ran for 25 episodes between 1964
07:43and 1965, focused on Dr. Bob MacDonald and Rhoda, a lifelike android played by Newmar. She had the
07:50sub-designation of AF-709. Rhoda was to be a project by Bob in how to make the perfect woman who doesn't talk
07:59back. The show was billed as a comedy, though ratings were poor. Bob Cummings, who played
08:03MacDonald, asked to be written out halfway through the season, exiting in the 21st episode. Newmar
08:07received praise for her comedic timing. In Star Trek, Rhoda is also said to be the inspiration
08:12behind the character Data. My Living Doll has also been credited as being responsible for making the
08:17phrase, does not compute, popular in media. Though Seven of Nine is quite far removed from the docile,
08:23man-pleasing Rhoda, both characters are projects of a sort. Rhoda is MacDonald's pet project,
08:28while Seven would become Janeway's. Number 2, Ryan vs Mulgrew. It is now well known that Kate
08:34Mulgrew and Jerry Ryan did not get along during their first few years together on the show. Both
08:39have opened up about their experiences, with Ryan speaking about how unsettled, upset and nauseous
08:44it made her 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
08:59about. From the beginning, the shadow of Bujol hung over her. The executives from Paramount spent the
09:04first few months watching her act, unsure as they were now that Bujol had walked off. In defiance to
09:10this, but also to highlight the importance of a strong female lead, Mulgrew was adamant that she
09:14would not be their sex symbol to hang the marketing on. In several interviews given during the first year,
09:18Mulgrew 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
09:33three years. 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 one, she's become a beacon for survivors of cults to rally behind. The Borg are nothing if not
09:47a metaphor for cults in society. They draw you in, they take over your mind and body, there is no hope of a
09:53escape. 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.
10:12After escaping, they realised that they were now completely unable to function as an individual.
10:16This is reflected in the use of language that Seven uses during her removal from the collective.
10:20Throughout 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
10:34liberation from the collective. First there is anger, then a dubious attempt to endure this
10:40individuality, later comes regret before acceptance. In Seven they were able to see many elements of their own
10:46journey leading them toward, if not total recovery, then at least a place much further along than where
10:52they had been when they left. In Star Trek Picard Seven asks Jean-Luc if he truly feels like he has
10:57recovered from his assimilation. He confesses he doesn't. Together they acknowledge the need to
11:02keep on fighting to regain that semblance of self, as fitting a message for anyone to rally behind,
11:07as there can be. Thank you very much everyone who enjoyed our list today. If you reckon there's anything
11:11else 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
11:18at TrekCulture, 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 till I see you again, you look after your friends and family,
11:29you live long and prosper. Thanks very much.
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