Seven of Nine and The Doctor should’ve been coupled in Star Trek: Voyager

Seven of Nine has had a lot of romantic options since she was introduced for Star Trek: Voyager, none more deserving than The Doctor.

When actress Jeri Ryan was brought on board for Star Trek: Voyager to start season four, no one really knew just how impactful she would be on the show, let alone the franchise. Her turn on Star Trek was so popular, she was penciled in for a major role in Star Trek: Nemesis, but she ultimately turned that down. She would then be brought back for Star Trek: Picard nearly 20 years later to reprise her role as Seven of Nine.

During her time on Voyager, she became quite the controversial figure, with many fans (and probably rightfully so) claiming she was only brought on to be sex appeal for the series. The character absolutely surpassed her original purpose and became one of the most fan-favorite characters still to this day. Due to how she was presented, Ryan’s Seven of Nine was quickly given a few storylines on Voyager where she would see herself as the target of several crushes from crewmembers.

The first is obvious, with Harry Kim, who crushed on just about anything or anyone he could. Then there was the Emergency Medical Hologram simply called The Doctor, who was an advanced photonic “lifeform” medical officer, designed after his creator Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. Due to his advanced programming, The Doctor was able to ultimately develop emotions, making his character arguably the best on the show. The last love interest, on Voyager anyway, was with Commander Chakotay. It developed in season seven and was arguably the least impressive arc the show ever managed.

Ultimately, The Doctor should’ve been the one to whoo Seven of Nine’s heart.

The relationship between the two was carrying and expressive, though not always honest, as The Doctor never told Seven of Nine how he felt in the season five episode, Someone to Watch Over Me. While The Doctor’s affinity for Seven of Nine was always there after the episode, he never again showed the same reactions to her.

Yet, if the writers were so hell-bent on getting Seven of Nine into a relationship, then why go with Chakotay, and not The Doctor in season seven? The Doctor is a deeper character, and the fact both are heavily mechanical in nature compared to their crewmates makes them almost uniquely designed to understand one another in a way that no other crew member could. Beyond that, the development of The Doctor would’ve gotten even more dynamic and complex. Highlighting new emotions like lust, delving deeper even more into things like jealously, and eventually tackling relatively foreign concepts, like mating with photonic light.

Instead, they put the two heartthrobs together and got boring chemistry.