Jeri Ryan may have been hired because of her beauty, but Seven of Nine was one of the best characters in the entire Star Trek franchise.
Watching her strut around Voyager in her jumpsuit was mesmerising, and she was a very interesting character.
But did you know she had a secret enemy on set?
The game behind Jeri Ryan’s success.
When Jeri Ryan appeared on the set of Star Trek: Voyager in 1997, the series was on the brink. Ratings were falling, the stakes were high, and the producers knew they needed something or someone to turn the tide. Seven of Nine came along.
A former Borg drone cut off from the Collective, her character was a fusion of cold precision and buried humanity, a puzzle waiting to be solved.
And when she appeared in season four, the effect was instantaneous. Ratings soared – by a staggering 60 per cent. The network bet on her, counting on her striking presence to draw viewers in. And it worked.
But what they may not have expected was how good she really is. Not just a mesmerising figure in a tight-fitting uniform, but an actress of surprising depth. She didn’t just play Seven – she became her, layer by layer, allowing glimpses of vulnerability to shine through the steel.
One episode in particular stands out, in which Seven, shattered by a cascade of personalities, moves quickly from one personality to another. It was a performance that should have won her an award, a demonstration of talent beyond the sci-fi trappings of the series.
She was hired to save Voyager. And got something much bigger.
Why she turned down the role four times
Jeri Ryan, born Jeri Lynn Zimmermann, was born on 22 February 1968 in Munich, West Germany, and moved to Los Angeles after college to pursue acting full-time.
In 1997, she was relatively unknown when the creators of the TV series Star Trek: Voyager chose her for the role of Seven Nine. Surprisingly, Ryan turned down the role not once, but four times.
But why didn’t she want to join? In a January 2020 interview, Jeri Ryan revealed that when producers first approached her about Star Trek: Voyager, she had never watched the series. Curious, she decided to watch one episode – and quickly regretted it. She described it as ‘the worst hour of television’ she had ever seen.
They gave me a copy of the film First Contact, so I could at least see what the Borg was like. ‘They also gave me a copy of The Grand Encyclopedia of Star Trek, whatever that is, so I could add to my Star Trek knowledge,’ Ryan explains.
Only after relentless persuasion from executive producer Geri Taylor did she finally agree to take on the iconic role of Seven of Nine, a Borg drone freed from the collective consciousness of the Borg.
The fight that the camera didn’t catch
Jeri Ryan felt it even before filming began – a knot of anxiety tightened in her stomach at the mere thought of sharing a scene with her colleague Kate Mulgrew. It wasn’t nerves. Not stage fright. It was something heavier, an unspoken tension that hung in the air whenever they worked together.
Most of the cast of Voyager had noticed it. The friction between them wasn’t just a rumour, it was real, and for years it had gone unresolved. Ryan, the new girl, found herself in the spotlight as Seven of Nine, Borg’s undoubtedly striking former drone. Mulgrew, an experienced series lead, had spent years establishing Captain Janeway as a strong, independent figure, resisting every attempt to shoehorn her character into the novel. And now, suddenly, all eyes were on Seven.
For Mulgrew, it wasn’t something personal – at least not at first. She wanted to move Star Trek away from overt sexualisation, to make it intellectual, leadership and exploratory. But the network had other plans. They introduced Ryan, a beautiful and decidedly sexualised heroine, to revive the show’s ratings. And it worked.
The tension between them had lingered for years, like a quiet storm beneath the surface of the earth. Ryan kept her head down, giving performance after performance, while Mulgrew struggled with her own frustration.
Jeri Ryan and Kate Mulgrew at the 14th Annual Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas / Getty Images
Over time, however, something changed. Mulgrew, possessing the wisdom of hindsight, saw the bigger picture. She later acknowledged her resentment, acknowledged how much she had made Ryan’s life difficult, and acknowledged her role in their volatile dynamic.
And then she did something unexpected – she apologised.
‘You handled a very difficult role beautifully,’ she told Ryan. The past was a thing of the past. The tension, the cold stares, the unspoken disappointments – it was all behind them.
Since then, they’ve made appearances at Star Trek conventions, laughing, reminiscing and proving that even the deepest of rifts can be overcome. Looking at today’s photos, is it hard to believe that these two didn’t get along on set?