Jeri Ryan is “still sad” that a romance between Voyager’s holographic Doctor and Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager never materialized.
Summary
- Jeri Ryan is “still sad” that Seven of Nine didn’t develop romantic feelings for the Doctor, despite their close friendship and shared understanding as outsiders in humanity.
- The Doctor and Seven of Nine shared a unique bond as they both struggled with their existence as not fully human and not entirely machine, which made their friendship more meaningful and genuine.
- While Seven’s friendship with Ensign Harry Kim was significant, her relationship with the Doctor had a deeper impact on her, and the Doctor became her first best friend on the USS Voyager.
Star Trek: Voyager‘s Jeri Ryan says she’s “still sad” that Seven of Nine didn’t return the romantic feelings that the USS Voyager’s holographic Doctor (Robert Picardo) had for Seven. The Doctor was committed to helping Seven of Nine recover Seven’s humanity after leaving the Borg Collective, with lessons designed to help Seven understand what it meant to be human. In Voyager season 5, episode 22, “Someone to Watch Over Me”, the Doctor’s attempt to help Seven understand dating resulted in the Doctor accidentally falling in love with Seven. Although Seven didn’t reciprocate, the Doctor and Seven of Nine continued to share one of Star Trek‘s best friendships.
Seven of Nine also found an unlikely friend in operations officer Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang), after Harry’s one-sided crush on Seven fizzled out, but Seven’s friendship with Harry Kim wasn’t nearly as impactful as Seven’s relationship with the Doctor. Jeri Ryan comments on Seven of Nine’s potential relationships with the Doctor and Harry in The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. Read her quote below:
I loved the relationship that Seven developed with the Doctor, and I’m still sad Seven didn’t fall for him. He was so sweet. I loved the dynamic between them. They shared the same sort of being outside humanity and looking-in aspect. He was a hologram and wanted things he couldn’t have, and lived vicariously through Seven a lot. I liked Harry for being like a little puppy dog with his tail between his legs, and they became friends. In fact, I think the first time you’d ever seen Seven crack a smile was because of Harry.
Related
Every Doctor Love Interest In Star Trek: Voyager (Including Seven Of Nine)
Despite the fact that Star Trek: Voyager’s Doctor was a hologram, he had quite a few romances over the course of the show’s seven seasons.
The Doctor Was Seven Of Nine’s First Best Friend
Common ground helped the Doctor connect to Seven of Nine.
Seven of Nine might be the first to say that the Borg did not have friends. Human friendships were imprecise, without clear parameters dictating the behavior required of their participants, and the presence of indeterminable emotions made any relationships with others needlessly inefficient. Solitude was safer and cleaner than allowing others to complicate Seven’s life. Visiting the Doctor was, at first, simply a way for Seven to maintain physical functionality, but the Doctor also tasked himself with maintaining Seven of Nine’s social functionality, and could speak to Seven in terms that Seven understood, since the Doctor also operated on a program. This relationship was acceptable.
Because the Doctor and Seven of Nine were both outsiders among the USS Voyager’s crew — not completely human, and not entirely machine — they existed in a common middle ground, so Seven trusted the Doctor more easily, and experienced friendship without needing to abide by arcane social customs. The Doctor saw Seven’s potential, but recognized Seven as she was before trying to help Seven learn those customs to integrate with Voyager’s crew, the way the Doctor wanted to do himself. The romance between the Doctor and Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager that Jeri Ryan hoped for would have been sweet and supportive, even though it was not to be.
