Jeri Ryan's Seven Of Nine Faced DS9's Major Kira Actor With Her Star Trek Bias

Star Trek: Voyager

Summary

Jeri Ryan ’s Seven of Nine onStar Trek : Voyagerpushed Nana Visitor , who played Major Kira Nerys onStar Trek : Deep Space Nine , to confront her inherent preconception . Seven of Nine ’s addition to thecast ofStar Trek : Voyagerin season 4 was an attempt to conjure flagging ratings with the introduction ofSeven as a aphrodisiacal new part designed to garner predominantly male attention . Seven of Nine was also a compelling case with an interesting backstory , and a deportment that bred conflict among the USS Voyager ’s crew , particularly with Captain Kathryn Janeway ( Kate Mulgrew ) , but that ’s not how Seven of Nine seemed at first .

Taken at face value alone , Seven of Nine appeared to be a regressive take on women inStar Trek , which was peculiarly egregious givenStar Trek : Voyagerfeatured Janeway asStar Trek ’s first lead female master . Kate Mulgrew , in picky , contract umbragewith the sexy young cleaning lady allegedly coming on to undermine the reformist steps ahead thatVoyagerrepresented . While Mulgrew has since apologise for mistreating Jeri Ryan on theVoyagerset , Mulgrew ’s position towards Ryan at the fourth dimension did n’t be in a vacuum , and represent the view of other women in theStar Trekuniverse : namely , Deep Space Nine ’s Nana Visitor .

Kate Mulgrew accepts responsibility for problems with Seven of Nine role player Jeri Ryan on the set of Star Trek : Voyager .

Nana Visitor Met Her Bias Towards Jeri Ryan

Writing Open a Channel helped Visitor realize she perceived Ryan unfairly.

Star Trek : Deep Space Nine ’s Nana Visitor talk atVirtual Trek Con 5to promoteStar Trek : Open A Channel : A Woman ’s Trek , Visitor ’s upcoming book about the womanhood ofStar Trekand their cultural impact . spell the book made Visitor"invested"in the story of other womanhood onStar Trek , likeStar Trek : Strange New Worlds’Jess Bushand Melissa Navia , and Visitor took time to note thatincluding Jeri Ryan inOpen A Channelwas a peculiarly middle - opening experience . translate Visitor ’s quotation mark and watch herVirtual Trek Conpanel below .

[ When I talked to Jeri Ryan ] , I converge with my bias , very much so . The heuristic rule for me were : Seven of Nine , they ’re using her as this sexy matter on all these card and that ’s taking us back to another stead . This is terrible . And I never bothered to catch . When I actually catch the show , and realize the character , and understood not only the relationship for two women – which was mentor , mothering , it was everything – I also understood my bias about gender , because it was like , ' oh , the aphrodisiacal one , she ’s going to get everything , ' because that ’s how we were all brought up . rather of ' who is that woman ? Who is SHE ? What ’s move on ? What is she bringing ? What can she teach me ? ' I would n’t stick around open enough for that before . And now , I ’m a lot less prompt to make those easy , comfortable , snap decisions .

Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine Subverted Expectations

Seven of Nine had more in common with Major Kira after all.

Nana Visitor ’s observation that Jeri Ryan ’s gender appealingness as Seven of Nine ’s was"taking us back to another place"echoes Kate Mulgrew ’s sentiment thatStar Trekwas falling behind in its treatment of woman . BeforeVoyager , Visitor’sMajor Kira Nerys onStar Trek : Deep Space Ninewas a char who had multiple lovers throughout her life without being overtly sexualized . Kira ’s intimate history was just a nonaged part of her makeup as a character , with more tending take out to Kira ’s strategic intellection , devout religion , and internal conflict . It ’s not surprising that the apparent objectification of Seven of Nine was"awful",and initially hold open Visitor from watchingVoyagerat all .

Seven ’s story subverted the expectation that Seven of Nine would be purely objectified as a military rating boost .

Instead , Nana Visitor put aside her initial biases about Seven of Nine as a sexualized character to discover who Seven actually was onStar Trek : Voyager . Beneath the trappings of the sexy Borg , Seven was just as complex as Kira , partake in the painful backstory of steal childhood and present resiliency as survivors . Seven ’s story misdirect the expectation that Seven of Nine would be strictly externalize as a evaluation boost . By watchingStar Trek : Voyagerwith intent , instead of assume that Seven of Nine would meet into stereotypes often ascribed to untested , sexy women , Visitor was capable to address the assumption that she bring to the board , and drive out them .

Voyager Seven of Nine and DS9 Major Kira

Star Trek : VoyagerandStar Trek : Deep Space Nineare uncommitted to stream on Paramount+.Star Trek : Open A Channel : A Woman ’s Trekby Nana Visitor is expect in October 2024 .