Jeri Ryan nearly replaced Marina Sirtis in Star Trek: Nemesis
By Duncan Smith
Due to ugly contract negotiations, Marina Sirtis was nearly replaced by Jeri Ryan in the final TNG film, Star Trek: Nemesis.
But for a few strokes of a pen at the end of contentious negotiations, Counselor Deanna Troi’s last on-screen appearance would have been in Star Trek: Insurrection, rather than the final TNG cast movie Nemesis.
During a panel at Star Trek Las Vegas, Marina Sirtis (who played Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation) opened up about a nasty contract dispute leading up to Insurrection. So nasty, in fact, that Paramount Pictures threatened to replace her with Jeri Ryan, who played Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager.
"When I was negotiating for [Star Trek:] Nemesis they literally threatened to fire me and recast Troi, well not actually recast, but they said “We are going to fire you and hire Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager).” And I said “Well Jeri Ryan won’t do it for that money, that is for sure.”"
This confirms something Ryan expressed several years ago at Destination Star Trek London:
"The call [from Paramount] came and they said “Put Jeri Ryan in the movie,” and I’m like “Okay… in what way are you going to put Jeri Ryan in this movie?” “Well, we’re going to replace one of the characters with Seven”…which makes absolutely no sense."
While Voyager had wrapped in 2001, when Nemesis was to filmed, so technically it wouldn’t have been a stretch to include Seven in the movie. After all, now her ship wasn’t on the other side of the galaxy.
However, Seven had no experience with any members of the U.S.S. Enterprise’s crew, and it simply would have been a forced appearance. There was speculation that her appearance would be a mere cameo (much like Kate Mulgrew’s appearance as Admiral Kathryn Janeway, and Ryan was in fact also offered a cameo role in Troi’s wedding to Commander William Riker after turning down a starring role), but it would have strained credulity to say the least.
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In addition to Seven’s appearance in Nemesis being incongruent, Jeri Ryan had just gotten a job on Boston Public and was understandably concerned with getting typecast once again in the role of a catsuited former Borg.
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