A Star Trek fan asked Jeri Ryan to describe what aspect of Seven of Nine she relates to most.
When Star Trek: Picard launched, it brought back several key characters from various franchises. Patrick Stewart was back as Jean-Luc Picard, Brent Spiner as Data, Jonathan Frakes was back as Will Riker, Marina Sirtis was back as Deanna Troi, and Jeri Ryan of Star Trek: Voyager was back as Seven of Nine. Bringing back these characters gave old fans an opportunity to share moments with new fans.
As Star Trek has been around since the late 1960s, there are new fans joining the fandom every day. As these fans join, they get to see what was and what is, just like the rest of us. It also opens up the possibility for these young fans to have unique moments with the older and more iconic crew members.
Enter a touching moment that Star Trek.com posted onto their website.
That’s the set-up for this 2019 meet-and-greet between Ryan and a young fan dressed just like Seven of Nine, named Julia. She’s dressed head to toe in Ryan’s iconic silver-suit ensemble from a majority of her Voyager run. The young woman had a question prepared, and Ryan being the welcoming pro, answered it all too brilliantly.
"Julia: What aspect of Seven of Nine do you relate to the most?Jeri Ryan: I like her struggle. I like her struggle to fit in and find out what humanity was and how to be a part of that again. What I like now….on the new series, bringing her back 17 years later, I like that she’s still trying to figure out how to fit in, where she fits in…I like that, I like her struggles and her discoveries."
Jeri Ryan was a needed addition to Star Trek: Picard
Star Trek: Picard was not the warmest received show by fans or critics. Many felt it was way too dark and others felt that it did a disservice to the character. Others liked that it subverted expectations, which coincidently, is my least favorite story-telling technique.
That’s part of the reason why the addition of Ryan’s Seven of Nine helped, albeit slightly. Her addition on it’s own was good, even if her story-arc brought in some of the more hard-to-watch moments the show produced.
The lack of conventional Trek and the lack of recognizable characters also made her introduction needed. It was also fitting that she was added, as Ryan was supposed to be in the last Picard-helmed project originally in Star Trek: Nemesis. Bringing her in this time around was a nice little tip of the cap to an idea that would’ve been very interesting to see play out.