Did Seven of Nine really save Star Trek: Voyager?

What came first, the chicken or the egg? That seems to be the question that surrounds Seven of Nine's arrival to Star Trek: Voyager. Played by Jeri Ryan, the character marked a critical turning point for the show. With many unimpressed with the show's ratings, there was a concerted effort to improve the show's viewership and perception.

So out went Jennifer Lien's Kes and in came Ryan's Seven of Nine. The move worked, as multiple publications picked up the show's new character addition. Featurettes were run, interviews were had, and things generally seemed better over the last four seasons as opposed to the first three.

This has led some to surmise that Ryan's Seven of Nine character "saved" the show. A wildly unprovable statement, but one we're willing to take a look at.

As the franchise show for the fledgling UPN network, Voyager had a lot of good grace with and without Ryan. After all, Voyager was the only show people were tuning into regularly. Over the first three shows that Star Trek was on UPN for, only one show, Voyager, saw beyond a first season.

Take that in. From the winter of 1994, when Voyager debuted, to the summer of 1997, only one show aired a second or third season for that matter. Voyager. Eventually, the network would find success with series like Moesha and The Sentinel, but it took time. Even then, Voyager was still the one with the best ratings.

In fact, not only did Moesha and The Sentinel not top Voyager in the ratings, but neither show could outlast Voyager either, with Moesha coming to a close in 2001 alongside Voyager, and the Sentinel closing up shop the season prior.

So the notion that "Voyager was saved by Ryan's arrival" is a crock. Voyager was the only reason to tune into UPN, and it showed in the ratings. Ratings that dipped when Ryan came on. Now, this is her fault; the longer a show airs, the worse its ratings get. Fans tune out, lose interest or life gets in the way. Plus, things like Tivo started popping up at the end of the show's life, further hurting live viewership numbers.

So it's not Ryan's fault that the show kept losing viewers, that's just life for every show ever. That said, it does further highlight that while the show got more positive coverage and attention from the addition of Seven of Nine, it didn't bring fans back into the fold. Not even a gimmick involving the ultra-popular WWF and an appearance of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would help bolster the ratings beyond a slight one-week bump. Two weeks after his episode, "Tsunkatse", the ratings tanked for the season, highlighting how little impact The Rock's brief appearance helped.

Now, one could argue that while the Network needed Voyager, and its ratings weren't helped by Ryan, the quality of the show improved. Which, isn't unfair. Yet, one could also argue Ryan's debut with the show wasn't the reason why the show got better, but the departure of Lien's Kes was the reason.

Kes was a terrible character, saddled with an actress who didn't have the charisma needed to curry an audience and a fairly one-note character who was more trouble than she was worth. Kes may be the worst character in Star Trek history and no attempts to fix her was ever going to make up for how poor of a concept the character was.

We would also point out that historically, the fourth season is usually when Star Trek "gets good". The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager all followed a pattern of similar critical success following the debut of the fourth season. Writers and producers usually figure out the winning formula in the early years and then lay it on thick in the latter ones.

So no, Ryan didn't "save" Voyager. That said, she was a much-needed breath of fresh air, who gave the series a unique approach and a new character type that really fueled the creative juices of the writing staff. The series arguably used her better in four seasons than anyone else across a similar amount of episodes. So while we don't believe that Ryan or Seven of Nine saved Voyager, we aren't dismissing the notion that she was a great addition to the show.