Del Arco And Ryan: Changes And The Borg
3 min read
In a new interview with TrekCore that was conducted at last weekend’s press event for Star Trek: Picard; Jonathan Del Arco and Jeri Ryan talked about returning to the Star Trek franchise, and the possible return of the Borg.
Before accepting the role, Ryan wanted to be sure that bringing her back wasn’t just a reason for fans to see Seven of Nine again. “One of my biggest hesitations in bringing [Seven of Nine] back, when it was first mentioned, was that there has to be a reason to bring her back. Right after I finished Voyager, they wanted to stick her in whatever movie they were doing then. Nemesis.
“I was like, ‘Why? She’s never interacted with any of these [Next Generation] people,’ and Seven would never be there… There’s no reason for her to suddenly be in this crew. It just made no sense, story-wise or character-wise.
“The way they’ve done [Picard] makes absolute sense, the way she’s introduced. I can’t tell you what it is – you’ll have to wait! – but I love why she’s introduced, and it makes perfect sense for her and [Picard’s] paths to cross and interact, because they have a shared Borg history.
“As, of course, does [Hugh]. It is quite seamless, and it makes sense.”
Will the Borg, thought to be vanquished, return in Star Trek: Picard?
“The Borg have changed before,” said Del Arco. “Right? The last time you saw the Borg that were with me we had disconnected from the Collective; when you saw Jeri’s character, she was in Starfleet. So it’s kind of an obvious progress: if you disconnect them from the Collective, what then becomes of them, right?
“Now, I’m not going to answer what happened to the Collective – whether it’s still there or not, is it still a threat… that’s to be revealed. But in terms of our characters, we’re already on the path to change, because we had already disconnected.
“For us, it’s been a furthering of that, but what I will say is that one of the amazing things about the story to me is the marginalization of these people. How these enemies…”
After being cautioned by Ryan against revealing too much, Del Arco hesitated, then continued speaking about how the show will relate to today’s society.
“Marginalization just speaks to the world that we’re in right now. There are marginalized people all around the world, in our own cities and communities, and that is an interesting turn for [Hugh] and for [Seven] as well.
“Later on in the season, when more stuff is revealed about that sort of a scenario and what’s happened to [Hugh], I’ll be able to talk about how, you know, as a gay man who lived through the AIDS epidemic and has seen a lot of hell, I was able to use a lot of my personal experiences to put into the work.”
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