They may have hired Jeri Ryan for her beauty, but Seven of Nine turned out to be one of the best
characters in the entire Star Trek franchise.
Watching her walk around Voyager in her body suits was kind of mesmerizing – but her character was really interesting, too.
when Jeri Ryan stepped onto the set of Star Trek: Voyager in 1997, the show was teetering on the edge. The ratings were slipping, the stakes were high, and the producers knew they needed something — or someone — to turn things around. Enter Seven of Nine.
A former Borg drone severed from the Collective, her character was a fusion of cold precision and buried humanity, a puzzle waiting to be solved.
And when she appeared in season four, the effect was immediate. Ratings skyrocketed — by a staggering 60%. The network had gambled on her, banking on her striking presence to pull in viewers. And it worked.
But what they might not have anticipated was just how good she truly was. Not just a mesmerizing figure in a skintight uniform, but an actress of remarkable depth. She didn’t just play Seven; she became her, layer by layer, letting glimpses of vulnerability slip through the steel.
One episode, in particular, stands out—one where Seven, fractured by a cascade of personalities, shifts from one identity to another in rapid succession. It was a performance that should have earned her an award, a showcase of sheer talent that transcended the show’s sci-fi trappings.
They hired her to save Voyager. What they got was something far greater.
Why she turned down the role four times
Jeri Ryan, born Jeri Lynn Zimmermann on February 22, 1968, in Munich, West Germany, moved to Los Angeles after college to pursue acting full-time.
In 1997, she was relatively unknown when the creators of Star Trek: Voyager set their sights on her for the role of Seven of Nine. Surprisingly, Ryan turned down the part not once, but four times.
But, why didn’t she want to join? In a January 2020 interview, Jeri Ryan revealed that when producers first approached her about Star Trek: Voyager, she had never seen the show. Curious, she decided to watch an episode — and quickly regretted it. She described it as “the worst hour of television” she had ever seen.
”They gave me a copy of First Contact, the movie, so I could at least see what a Borg was. They also gave me a copy of the Big Star Trek encyclopaedia, whatever it is, so that I could bone up on my Star Trek knowledge,” Ryan explained.
It was only after relentless persuasion from executive producer Jeri Taylor that she finally agreed to take on the iconic role as Seven of Nine, a Borg drone who was freed from the Borg’s collective consciousness.
The fight the camera didn’t catch
Jeri Ryan would feel it before the cameras even rolled — a knot of anxiety tightening in her stomach at the mere thought of sharing a scene with co-star Kate Mulgrew. It wasn’t nerves. It wasn’t stage fright. It was something heavier, an unspoken tension that hung in the air whenever they worked together.
Most of the Voyager cast had noticed it. The friction between them wasn’t just rumor; it was real, and for years, it remained unresolved. Ryan, the newcomer, had been thrust into the spotlight as Seven of Nine, the undeniably striking former Borg drone. Mulgrew, the show’s seasoned lead, had spent years crafting Captain Janeway as a strong, independent figure, resisting every attempt to shoehorn her character into a romance. And now, suddenly, all eyes were on Seven.
For Mulgrew, it wasn’t personal — at least, not at first. She had wanted to shift Star Trek away from overt sexualization, to make it about intellect, leadership, and exploration. But the network had other plans. They had brought in Ryan, a beautiful and undeniably sexualized character, to revive the show’s ratings. And it worked.
The strain between them lingered for years, a quiet storm beneath the surface. Ryan kept her head down, delivering performance after performance, while Mulgrew wrestled with her own frustration.
In time, though, something changed. Mulgrew, with the wisdom of hindsight, saw the bigger picture. She later admitted her resentment, acknowledged how difficult she had made things for Ryan, and owned her part in their troubled dynamic.
And then, she did something unexpected — she apologized.
“You did a marvelous job in a very difficult role,” she told Ryan. The past was the past. The tension, the cold looks, the unspoken frustrations—it was over.
Since then, they’ve shared the stage at Star Trek conventions, laughing, reminiscing, and proving that even the deepest rifts can be healed. Looking at pictures from today, it’s quite hard to believe these two didn’t get along on set?
She burned her own catsuit
Seven of Nine’s iconic catsuit may have looked sleek and futuristic on screen, but behind the scenes, it was a nightmare. Seven of Nine’s corset was so tight that Jeri Ryan struggled to breathe while wearing it. Between takes, she often had to lie down just to regain her breath before stepping back in front of the camera.
And the skintight, one-piece design meant Jeri Ryan couldn’t get in or out of it without help from the costume department. Since the suit was a one-piece with no zipper, Jeri Ryan had to be sewn into it every time she wore it, and getting out of it was no easy task
Even something as simple as a bathroom break turned into a time-consuming ordeal, forcing her to “hold it” for long stretches just to avoid delaying filming. A simple bathroom break on set turned into a 20-minute ordeal, which led to her own radio code: “Code Jeri-Twenty.”
