Seven of Nine

[Praetor]

I have been contemplating the creation of Seven and while it's rather obvious she was intended to attract a certain demographic of male viewers to the show, I do feel that she was an interesting character. She was the classic outsider template, and her struggle to regain humanity that she 'skipped' by being assimilated as a child was, for me, compelling.

That said, what do you think? What would you have changed about the character to make her more interesting, or would you have done away with her?

 

[Tachyon]

For me she was interesting. But there were times I wished she had been more in the background in order to Chakotay, Tuvok and/or B'Elanna to shine more.

 

[es!]

She's one of the most interesting characters to me, together with Janeway and the Doctor.

 

[Piper]

She was an interesting character, albeit one a bit in the Data mold. My only quibble is that at times it felt she overshadowed a lot of the other regulars.

 

[Kirk1980]

In relation to the rest of the Voyager crew, she was fascinating.

 

[Brit]

I think the premise of Seven –of-Nine was very interesting, I think the execution of the character wasn’t in most cases. She was the different drone; there were things unique to her like the emotional damper. No one else from Picard to Icheb had one.

I think she should have been more childlike in her relationships with other crew members; she was kind of that way with Naomi. She was assimilated at the age of six, her emotional growth had to have been stunted right then with the exception of the time she spent in Unimatrix Zero (one she couldn’t remember).

She had all this knowledge and no experience to know what to do with it. There was tremendous potential there and all the producers did was put her in a cat suit and make her the female version of Wesley Crusher.

She was Trek’s traditional “outside character” (Spock – TOS, and Data – NG, Odo – DS9 – and even the Doctor on Voyager). The outside character adds conflict, a different point of view. That worked with Spock, Data, Odo, and the Doctor because each of them had some authority. Seven really didn’t have any authority on Voyager so a lot of her conflict came off as grousing. She was pretty adolescent in her dealing with others.

I voted that she was interesting sometimes; actually she had great potential that was never used.

Brit

 

[exodus]

I feel eps. like "Raven", "Infinate Regress" & "Body & Soul" to name a few, prove that a show like Voyager needed a character like Seven to capture our attention. Other characters like Kim, Chakotay or Neelix could bare display one personality or emotion, while Tuvok, Torres, Doc & Janeway could give several at the drop of a hat. That IMO is why many of Seven's best scenes envolve interaction with one of those 4. TPTB had great forethought for Seven as well. They knew that the catsuit wouldn't hold audiences for long if there wasn't also some depth to the character beyond the phyical.

 

[Vic Sixx]

Interesting, Fascinating and Smokin' Hot!

 

[exodus]

Interesting, Fascinating and Smokin' Hot!

HOLLA!!!!

 

[teya]

My favorite character on Voyager.

I remember a student of mine--a teenage refugee from a war-torn area--saying that Seven was to her an inspiration, that no matter what someone had in her past, there was hope for redemption.

She was smart, she was strong, and most importantly, she didn't give up on her quest--even when crew members treated her like so much space detritus.

 

[joyofvgr]

She was a good character made even better by a great actress.

 

[The Badger]

... it's rather obvious she was intended to attract a certain demographic of male viewers to the show...

That's not quite true.
When B&B originally decided to have an ex-Borg on the show (stated rationale for their decision: 'Hey, why not!'), it was intended for the character to be male. It was only when Jennifer Lien chose to leave that they re-considered the role as female, to keep the gender balance of the series in place.
Whilst the character was not always well written (though at times she was), Jeri Ryan's excellent performance meant that Seven was always interesting.

Didn't hurt that she was stacked.
And if I may offer my own opinion, which seems to run contrary to that of many on this board, I like the catsuit. It's exciting!

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Sometimes. Sometimes not.

She was kinda interesting at first, but she ended up suffering the same fate as Data - too much of that whole 'being human' drama. Plus, in her case it wasn't original to begin with as we'd already essentially gone down that road with Data.

That said, she did have some good individual episodes and Jeri Ryan was a decent actress.

So sometimes, sometimes not for me.

 

[kimc]

I think she started out as interesting but in the last season became a "Mary Sue".

 

[mirandafave]

Definitely interesting. Trying to adjust to being human, her odd mixed feelings about returning to Earth - not quite seeing it as home so her motivation on Voyager itself was different to the rest of the crew except Niaomi and Neelix.

Character had lots of potential and had some fascinating stories and parts to play. As time went though over used to the detriment of the others. Once upon a time Torres would have come up with the ways to save the ship.

Liked the tensions she created within crew and personally against Janeway, Torres and her friendship with the doctor.

 

[Tachyon]

I think she started out as interesting but in the last season became a "Mary Sue".

I didn't like Seven in the last season either. Suddenly she had become some expert on human nature, which was something I personally didn't find very convincing.

 

[Praetor]

Both she and the Doc reached Mary Sue status around the same time, IMO.

 

[exodus]

... it's rather obvious she was intended to attract a certain demographic of male viewers to the show...

That's not quite true.
When B&B originally decided to have an ex-Borg on the show (stated rationale for their decision: 'Hey, why not!'), it was intended for the character to be male. It was only when Jennifer Lien chose to leave that they re-considered the role as female, to keep the gender balance of the series in place.
Whilst the character was not always well written (though at times she was), Jeri Ryan's excellent performance meant that Seven was always interesting.

Didn't hurt that she was stacked.
And if I may offer my own opinion, which seems to run contrary to that of many on this board, I like the catsuit. It's exciting!

After seeing PKTrekGirl's towel dropping BSG avatar, the catsuit is artistic and tame.

 

[joyofvgr]

(*scrolls frantically looking for PKTrekGirl's last post*)

OK. Found it.

 

[joyofvgr]

That's not quite true.
When B&B originally decided to have an ex-Borg on the show (stated rationale for their decision: 'Hey, why not!'), it was intended for the character to be male. It was only when Jennifer Lien chose to leave that they re-considered the role as female, to keep the gender balance of the series in place.

I thought Jennifer Lien was fired, although they did intend to fire Garret Wang, but changed their minds when he was voted one of People Magazine's most eligible bachelors, or something like that. Perhaps if Want had gotten the boot, Seven would have been a male? This is the first I ever heard that.