Star Trek: Voyager brought former Borg drone Seven Of Nine into its main cast in season 4, where the popular character had both a positive and negative effect on the overall quality of the show. Played by Jeri Ryan, Seven was born Annika Hansen, a human who was assimilated into the Borg collective as a young child and spent the majority of her young life as a drone until she encountered the USS Voyager. Seven served as the liaison between Voyager and the Borg during their short-lived alliance against Species 8472.
Once the alliance ended, the Borg betrayed the Voyager crew, though Janeway predicted this, and Voyager was able to evade the Borg and sever Seven's link to the collective. Most of her Borg implants were removed by the Doctor, and Seven became an active member of Voyager's crew. Her quest to slowly regain her humanity and push away her Borg past dominated the later seasons of Voyager — for better and worse.
Why Seven Was Brought Onto Voyager
Voyager's ratings were steadily declining by season three. The show never approached the popularity of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which was never a ratings champion in its initial run. Perhaps more concerning, the show was perceived to be creatively stagnant, having wasted its intriguing premise to transform into an uninspired retread of TNG. Both the show's producers and network UPN knew changes were necessary.
Part of the plan to boost ratings was to bring in a new character to the main cast. Writer Brannon Braga had been considering bringing in a Borg character for a while, and Producer Rick Berman deemed this a good idea. It was Berman who decided that the character should emphasize the show's sex appeal, casting the traditionally beautiful Ryan in the role and having her wear a skintight catsuit. Despite the cynicism behind Berman's approach, it worked, as Seven very quickly became the show's most popular character, with the possible exception of Captain Kathryn Janeway herself. Voyager suddenly had a winner on its hands, but the show wouldn't always use the character in the smartest ways.
How Seven Made Voyager A Better Show
Seven was, in many ways, the piece Voyager had always been missing. Most Star Trek: Discovery has kept that tradition alive with the Kelpien Captain Saru. The closest Voyager had until season 4 was the Doctor, the holographic physician who was forced into permanent duty when most of the ship's medical crew was killed. The Doctor is a great character, but Voyager rarely took his obvious journey toward sentience seriously, more often playing the character for laughs.
Conversely, Seven was an immediately fascinating student of humanity when she ed Voyager's crew. Despite the fairly shallow reasons for her casting, Jeri Ryan proved to be a genuine talent, pulling off a tricky balance by portraying an immensely intelligent, occasionally brutal character who was also, in many ways, still a child. It's one of Star Trek's greatest performances, one that immediately stood out among the often bland and underdeveloped Voyager ing cast. Seven's relationships with the Doctor and Janeway made those characters richer by association. While Voyager's main character was always Kathryn Janeway, Seven became something of a co-lead, the Spock to Janeway's Kirk. That dynamic worked more often than not, and provided Voyager with some of its most compelling stories in its second half.
How Seven Made Voyager A Worse Show
Seven was an obviously great character from the outset, but she wasn't immune to the behind-the-scenes turmoil and creative misfires that would eventually come to define Voyager. There was a clear shift away from some of the show's other characters, with the likes of B'Elanna Torres and Chakotay becoming minor players. Some of the show's cast and fans were not pleased with the new paradigm, feeling Seven was getting too much attention and that Voyager was abandoning the ensemble approach that had been so successful for TNG and DS9.
Seven's arrival on Voyager coincided with the show deciding to use the Borg much more often in general. Leaning on one of the franchise's most reliably potent villains seemed like a strong idea for a show that could never produce a compelling antagonist of its own, but the plan backfired. The once-terrifying Borg were de-fanged by Voyager, with Janeway and Seven both able to outmaneuver them with relative ease. The Borg have never really recovered their intimidating reputation, as modern Star Trek shows have portrayed them as fundamentally weakened following the events of Voyager's series finale, "Endgame."
Seven's Legacy Post-Voyager Endures
Seven's story didn't end when Voyager made it home, of course. The character resurfaced almost two decades later on Star Trek: Picard; this version of Seven was looser, angrier, and decidedly more human. Despite Janeway's protestations, Seven was denied entry into Starfleet when she made it back to Earth; the organization was worried about g up someone who had spent most of their life in the Borg collective. Seven instead ed the Fenris Rangers, an organization that fights for justice on the outskirts of Federation space.
Her encounter with Jean-Luc Picard would prove fortuitous. Not only was Seven eventually given a Starfleet commission - she's the first officer of the USS Titan-A in the show's season 3 - she began a romantic relationship with Picard's old friend, Star Trek's Raffi Musiker. Despite bringing her into the fold to boost the show's sex appeal, Voyager was never particularly interested in giving Seven a long term romantic partner, or even exploring her sexuality with any real nuance. Her time on Picard has felt like a natural extension of the parts of the character that worked on Star Trek: Voyager, while jettisoning most of the parts that didn't work. Seven of Nine's future beyond the final season of Picard is unclear, though there are multiple fan campaigns for the character to lead her own show, endorsed by Picard showrunner Terry Matalas. Even if Seven's time in the spotlight wraps up with Picard, her status as an all-time Star Trek icon is more than secure.