Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 6.In the premiere episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 3, we learn that Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), a former crew member of the USS Voyager and an ex-Borg, has finally achieved her dream of joining Starfleet. She not only has an official commission, but she is the first officer of the USS Titan. But her new job isn’t all it's cracked up to be.
Seven is overtly disrespected by Titan’s cranky, borderline racist captain, Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) and she’s deeply unhappy by her career decision, especially since it was at the behest of her former captain, Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her new friend Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart). Despite so much potential, ever since the premiere, Seven’s character has virtually disappeared into the background.
What Is Seven Even Doing on 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 3?
After six episodes, it’s hard to believe that Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine is part of the main cast of Star Trek: Picard Season 3. Aside from an impassioned speech in the premiere, followed by an act of insubordination, Seven has had little to no development in the season. You could probably count the number of scenes she’s been in on one hand. And, even if screen time doesn’t count as a metric for character development, we have to ask ourselves, what has Seven been doing in this season so far? The premiere showed promise of a character willing to either reject her long-held dreams, or reshape her circumstances, but Seven has been a reactive person this season. It’s difficult to believe the belligerent, arrogant Borg who rubbed everyone on Voyager the wrong way and still proceeded to win them over, somehow allows Shaw to deadname her and belittle her in front of the entire Bridge crew. And yet, that’s what Seven does.
It's far more understandable that Seven disobeys Shaw’s orders to take the Titan to the edge of Federation space to help her friend Picard save a life, that of Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden). But then the writers confine Seven to quarters. While there, Seven doesn’t try to do anything. Later, when the Titan has been shot down and is in imminent danger, Seven is relegated to a short scene helping Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers)—but she’s an accessory to the plot, Jack’s visions and the reveal of the Changelings are the main story. This is Seven of Nine we’re talking about, she’s smart, she’s strong, and she doesn’t take any nonsense from anyone, why is she so passive?
Season 3 hasn’t built on anything the show, or Voyager, established about Seven. Outside Seven and Shaw’s dynamic, we don’t know how a freelancing freedom fighter from the Fenris Rangers fits back into the rigid and, frankly, boring missions of the Titan. How does an ex-Borg loner develop relationships with a whole new crew, when Voyager was her collective? Why isn’t Voyager her collective now? We still don’t know. There was a hint of a friendship between Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) and Seven as Sidney is the only crew member on the Titan who calls Seven by her real name. But the two haven’t spoken since. The season is 60% done, we shouldn’t be asking questions, we should be getting answers. We haven’t learned anything new about Seven since the premiere. That’s five episodes where Jeri Ryan is on-screen giving her all and yet acting with absolutely no material. Take Seven out of the story in Season 3, and you wouldn’t even miss her.
Maybe the Cast of 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 3 Is Too Big
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 was always going to be a celebration of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The entire cast is back, and we’re continuing/concluding their stories, so it’s not surprising that someone’s screen time and arc have to suffer, and it looks like Seven drew the short straw.
But it seems that only Seven’s characterization has taken a hit. New characters like Liam Shaw, Jack Crusher, and the two La Forge sisters, Sidney and Alandra (Mica Burton), have all had brief but meaningful character development. Shaw is a particularly arresting character, not least because of Stashwick’s outstanding performance, but because the character has so much gravitas and layers. Jack Crusher, by dint of his parentage, is already a big deal. But, he’s also the main reason for the plot of the season. Jack is surprisingly clever and manages to save the day in two episodes—aside from Picard himself, Jack is the lead of this season. We learn a fair amount about Sidney and Alandra in Episode 6, and they’re legacy characters with a lot of history resting on their shoulders. Yet a beloved established character like Seven is almost forgotten. She might as well be a background character.
One of the biggest issues with Seven’s arc (or lack thereof) is that she doesn’t share scenes with the characters she already has history. Picard has spent the majority of the first six episodes bantering with William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and his new-found son, Jack. Meanwhile, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) has been away on a secret undercover mission, working with Worf (Michael Dorn). But, even in Episode 6, when Raffi arrives on the Titan and meets Seven, Seven is cold and distant to her. They hardly share any time together, and aren’t given any screen time alone. These two are a couple, and while their relationship in Season 2 was rocky, they clearly have a great deal of love for each other. One would have expected their reunion to be the time for Seven to come into her own. But she doesn’t, and before long, Raffi leaves again for another mission and Seven doesn’t react at all. This begs the question of why a queer couple in Star Trek is kept apart and isn’t allowed to display any emotional and romantic feelings towards one another. After all, there’s no doubt who the straight couples and love interests on Star Trek: Picard are.
The first six episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 have done Seven a great disservice and show that it may not have been such a smart move to over-extend the cast list. Not only does Season 3 bring in all The Next Generation cast, plus previous Picard cast members Seven and Raffi, it also adds four new characters, has villains of the week like Sneed (Aaron Stanford) and Krinn (Kirk Acevedo), and a new antagonist in Vadic (Amanda Plummer), not to mention the brand-new Changelings. It’s too much.
Seven is a huge part of Star Trek lore and is a fan-favorite character. She’s now become a queer hero in a franchise that hasn’t always done the queer community justice. Shunting her to a quintessential background role is an insult to Jeri Ryan, Seven, and the many communities who claim Seven as one of their own. There are only four episodes left in the series, and Seven needs closure and some kind of arc. She also needs to do something, instead of being left behind in the story. Give her some action scenes, at the very least — and let Seven and Raffi spend time together!
New episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 arrive on Paramount+ every Thursday.
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