Seven of Nine

Seven of Nine

Species	Human Former Borg drone
Home planet	Tendara Colony
Affiliation	United Federation of Planets Borg Collective Starfleet
Posting	Astrometrics USS Voyager
Portrayed by	Jeri Ryan

Seven of Nine (born Annika Hansen) is a fictional character on Star Trek: Voyager, portrayed by actress Jeri Ryan. Born human, she was assimilated by the Borg at the age of six. Eighteen years later, Voyager left Borg space with Seven on board, after attempts to negotiate passage through Borg space prove only semi-successful. After The Doctor had removed the majority (82%) of her cybernetic implants, her human organs began to reassert themselves, but Seven still required a cortical node to control the remainder of her cybernetic implants. Although her link to the Collective had been severed, Seven of Nine still maintained the ability to sense nearby Borg activity.

Character development

After being cast, actress Jeri Ryan acknowledged that she had hardly even seen Star Trek, and had no idea what the Borg were. To prepare her, the producers gave her a copy of Star Trek: First Contact and the Star Trek encyclopedia.^[1]

Seven of Nine made her debut in the episode Scorpion: Part 2 (September 3, 1997) where she was introduced as a representative of the Borg in its alliance with the Voyager crew against the threatening Species 8472. After the resolution of the alien threat, she attempted contact with the Borg collective and also tried to assimilate the crew. During this process, she was severed from the collective and forced to adapt to being an individual. In the following years, the Voyager writers wrote several plot lines revolving around Seven's exploration of the positive and negative sides of human individuality. The cyborg nature of the character is seen as representing a challenge to "simple conceptions of connections/disconnections between bodies."^[2]

Ryan maintained that the main topic about Seven was "humanity" and stated that her character was pivotal to the success of the show, because she "brought conflict to the show, which was sadly lacking. ... The Voyager crew was just one big happy family." After the addition of the former Borg drone to the starship's crew at the start of the fourth season of Voyager, the shows' weekly viewer ratings increased by more than 60%.^[3] Ryan's arrival on the show was accompanied by a massive publicity campaign in TV magazines and newspaper supplements. Maintaining Star Trek tradition, "Seven of Nine was an outsider who could comment on humanity and all of its follies as well as serve as a foil for Janeway’s character."^[4] She also remarked that "combining non-human qualities with an attractive human appearance," as in Seven's character, was a great move by the producers.^[5] In terms of portrayal, she said that "keeping a straight face" while showing suppressed emotion was an enjoyable challenge.^[6] Regarding her infamous form-fitting one-piece costume, Ryan commented that it was extremely impractical and uncomfortable, but worth the reward of portraying a character like Seven.^[7]

During the course of the series, Ryan portrayed Seven as a logical, matter-of-fact, extremely blunt young woman with difficulties expressing human emotion. Seven sometimes behaved condescendingly towards "human weaknesses" and "human inefficiency", but slowly grew loyal to the crew she later called her "collective." A recurring theme writers established was flashbacks of her life before her assimilation. By the end of the series (2001), Seven develops social skills and engages in a romantic relationship with Chakotay. At this time it was also discovered by the Doctor that part of Seven's inability to feel and express emotion was due to the programming/design of Borg "cortical implants." A Borg drone that felt and/or expressed emotions was seen by the collective as "defective" as these feelings were a sign of "individuality." Hence the cortical implants were designed to suppress emotions, and if this failed, to deactivate (i.e., kill) a drone who felt/showed emotion.

Pre-assimilation

According to the story line, Annika Hansen was born in Tendara Colony June 2350, to Magnus and Erin Hansen, two exobiologists. In 2355, her parents took her on a research mission to study the mysterious race called the Borg. Seven's parents took their ship, the USS Raven, to great lengths to track the Borg until they finally found a Borg vessel and followed it through a transwarp corridor that took them to the other side of the galaxy in the Delta Quadrant. There, they began extensively studying the Borg for two years undetected because of the Hansens' invention, multi-adaptive shielding, a type of stealth technology. Eventually the USS Raven was temporarily damaged and was detected (VOY: "Dark Frontier") by the Borg. The Hansens were eventually caught and assimilated on their own ship, the Raven; Annika was 6 years old by then.

During those brief years the Hansens spent studying the Borg, they found extensive information on Borg technology. The Hansens studied Borg culture and learned the different Borg designations, as well as the functions of a Borg drone. One important invention was the bio-dampeners they used to transport on board the cube without being detected. This technology was eventually adapted by Voyager's crew during the events of "Dark Frontier" when Captain Janeway tried to steal a Borg transwarp coil.

The Borg years

Seven as a Borg drone.

At some point after her assimilation, Annika was given the Borg designation 'Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One'. The Borg Collective was all Seven of Nine knew, and they provided her with a sense of order.

During her time as a Borg, Seven helped to assimilate millions of individuals, which would later motivate her work on board Voyager as a way to deal with her guilt.

Seven and three other drones of her unimatrix, Two of Nine, Three of Nine, and Four of Nine, were the only survivors of a vessel crash that severed them from the Collective. While the four drones waited by the crash site for another Borg vessel to retrieve them, they slowly began remembering their lives prior to their respective assimilations. Unlike the other drones, the emotionally young Seven wanted to return to the collective, so she set up a miniature collective among the other drones. After re-assimilation, the other three drones were eventually severed from the Collective but remained mentally linked because of Seven's actions (Survival Instinct).

Disconnection

Seven's first appearance in Voyager was in the fourth season premiere "Scorpion: Part 2", in which she briefly served as a representative of the Borg during an ill-fated Voyager alliance with the Borg, and Seven is abruptly disconnected from the hive mind. Janeway anticipated Seven's betrayal and devised a plan to sever Seven's connection with the Borg Collective. Commander Chakotay and Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres executed their plan when Seven tried to take control of the ship and assimilate the Voyager crew. Once she was severed, the Doctor performed surgery to remove most of her Borg implants and returned her to her natural human form. In the aftermath, she was offered the opportunity to be addressed by her given human name, Annika Hansen, but chose to retain her Borg designation, 'Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01', or simply as Seven ("Day of Honor"). Seven declared this 'shorter' form of her designation 'imprecise, but acceptable'.

Following her disconnection, Seven found a mentor in Janeway, who continued to help her come to terms with her humanity, long-since sublimated by the Borg. The Doctor also provided valuable guidance in enabling her to develop social skills so she could blend in with the Voyager crew. The Doctor subsequently became enamored of Seven, but she did not reciprocate these feelings.

Seven sang in three episodes of Voyager. First in "The Killing Game", then in "Someone to Watch Over Me", and finally in "Equinox Pt. II." Her voice was not dubbed during the songs. In the two-part episode "Dark Frontier", Seven reveals some resentment towards her parents for taking their 6-year-old daughter (played by Katelin Jensen) on a risky away mission. She revealed to the doctor her hostile feelings towards them "My parents underestimated the Collective. They were destroyed. Because of their arrogance I was 'raised' by Borg!"

Her character's storyline in the final episodes of the series ends as she pursues a relationship with Commander Chakotay, after running simulations with a holographic Chakotay.

After Star Trek: Voyager

Although Paramount only considers the onscreen, live-action Trek episodes and movies to be official canon, Seven has nonetheless continued as a character in the Star Trek novels. In the 2007 Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Before Dishonor,^[8] by Peter David, which is set after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, Janeway is assimilated by a rogue faction of the Borg, and becomes the new Borg Queen. Seven of Nine, with the aid of Geordi LaForge, Ambassador Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise-E crew, manages to reactivate the Doomsday Machine (also known as the Planet Killer), the deadly device that was neutralized in the Original Series episode "The Doomsday Machine", and becomes its new occupant, merging with the consciousness of its other inhabitants, much like a somewhat more benign version of the Borg Collective. Now calling herself Seven of the One, she plans to use the Planet Killer against the Borg, as it was the one weapon that was specifically designed to defeat them. The backup plan is to implement Operation: Endgame, the computer virus that had been devised to destroy the Borg in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "I, Borg", which is implanted within Seven. Seven takes the Planet Killer to Earth's star system, where the two ships do battle. The Borg manage to absorb the Planet Killer, and put up a firewall that blocks the Endgame virus. Seven manages to communicate with Janeway's consciousness, buried deep within the Queen's mind. During a brief moment of contact, Janeway brings down the firewall, and the virus destroys the Borg cube, with all hands on board. Although Seven manages to escape, Janeway is killed. At Janeway's memorial service, Seven comforts a distraught Captain Chakotay.^[9]

During the final invasion of the Federation by the Borg, Seven of Nine served as a special advisor to the Federation President in regard to the Borg and their tactics. Thanks to the efforts of the crews of the USS Aventine, USS Enterprise, USS Titan, and the Caeliar, the Borg threat was eliminated and the Collective was accepted into the Caeliar's Gestalt. Immediately following this, all of Seven of Nine's Borg implants ceased to function and dissolved (as did those of every other Borg in existence), leaving her as Annika Hansen.^[10]

Attire

After her recovery from the Borg, Seven initially wore a skintight, smooth, silky, voluptuous, empowering, silver catsuit. The silver catsuit was later replaced with dark red, purple, brown and blue catsuits. Seven eventually reverted to the silver catsuit as it was more empowering for her psyche after her experience with the Borg. One exception is the Starfleet uniform she wears in "Relativity". She is seen in other forms of attire in episodes such as "The Killing Game" (1940s-era civilian clothing), "Someone to Watch Over Me" (cocktail dress), "Unimatrix Zero" (pink shirt, grey pants), "Human Error" (elegant red dress and Starfleet uniform, both holodeck recreations), "Equinox, Part II" (sundress), and "Workforce" (futuristic professional attire).

The character's attire was criticized by veteran Star Trek writer/producer Ronald D. Moore, who felt she should have a more Borg-like appearance.^[11] Her outfit also annoyed some who felt that it was an attempt by the show's creators to make her sexually appealing to male viewers, without any storyline purposes intended.^[12]

Other appearances

• Seven of Nine also appears in the video game Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. She joins the Hazard team on a mission to a Borg Cube.

See also

• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture

References

External links

• Seven of Nine at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Official Star Trek bio