Ryan On ‘Star Trek: Voyager’
2 min read‘Star Trek: Voyager’ and thoughts on Seven of Nin. Playing a character like Seven of Nine meant playing a great, well-written character for Jeri Ryan
As reported by the Official Star Trek Magazine, Star Trek: Voyager was not Ryan’s first science-fiction series. She worked for a short while on Dark Skies. Ryan discussed how different it was to go from her days on Dark Skies to playing Seven of Nine on Voyager. “Well, ‘Dark Skies,’ I look back on as a glowing, wonderful moment because that was my first series,” said Ryan. “It wasn’t given a fair shake by the network. But it was, I think, very good writing and incredible acting. But it was very, very brief. I was only on the last seven episodes before the show was canceled. Then I went straight from that into ‘Star Trek.’ Kind of a tough leap for me to make because I’m not a science fiction person myself. Never have been. And ‘Dark Skies’ was a little easier because it was a period piece, was set in the 1960s, was pretty cool, and while it was about aliens and wasn’t reality, it was still a little more realistic and a little more palatable for someone to do who was not a ‘Star Trek’ or science fiction fan.”
But once she got into playing Seven of Nine, Ryan found her to be a satisfying character. “She was a great character to play,” said Ryan. “She was so beautifully written. And it was fun watching her grow and change, become more human and learn about all those things. It was a great role for an actor. In a lot of ways, [working on Voyager] was a great four years. It was tough. But it was really great. She was a wonderful, rich character that I got to play. It was great working with the people I got to work with. It was a hoot. It was fun raising my son in space for four years. He came on the set all the time. He loved it.”
Seven of Nine was written so well, in Ryan’s opinion, that even if she could go back and redo something or do something new, she wouldn’t. “I really don’t think there was anything that I wanted to do that didn’t get done with that character. We did everything we could do. And I think it was a good time to say good-bye and move on. I don’t know how much longer it would have been interesting.”
As for Seven of Nine, what did Ryan think happened to her character ten years after returning from the Delta Quadrant? “Well, from what they showed us in the last episode, I assume she’s married to Chakotay,” said Ryan. “And she’s living with humans. So who knows?”
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