Character Insight No. 161: Best of Seven of Nine

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe. An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.  

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Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the "Best Of" series with a look at the best episodes featuring Seven of Nine, from Voyager. 

(Promotional shot of the character, courtesy wikipedia.org)

Seven of Nine joins the cast in Season 4, likely as a pseudo-replacement for Kes, who was leaving the show after the first three seasons. We are introduced to her in the two-parter Scorpion, where she initially acts as a Borg liaison during a temporary alliance with Voyager, and she is definitely all Borg:

"When your captain first approached us, we suspected that an agreement with Humans would prove impossible to maintain. You are erratic, conflicted, disorganized. Every decision is debated, every action questioned, every individual entitled to their own small opinion. You lack harmony; cohesion; greatness. It will be your undoing."

After struggling with her internal desires to both go back to the Collective and continue to be human for much of this fourth season, she gets a chance to step into the role of teacher and counselor in the episode Drone from Season 5. An advanced Borg is accidentally made by a transporter accident with her implants and the Doctor's mobile emitter, and Seven has trouble training it during a short but eventful life:

"You are hurting me"
"You will adapt"

Later in Season 5, the Borg tries to tempt Seven to rejoin the collective by threatening to assimilate her friends on Voyager in the epic two-part episode Dark Frontier, as reviewed this week on Episode Insight. We see Seven's history as Annika and her father again as a drone, but the best scenes are interplay with the Borg Queen.

"They left behind their trivial, selfish lives, and they've been reborn with a greater purpose. We've delivered them from chaos into order."
"Comforting words. Use them next time instead of 'Resistance is futile.' You may elicit a few volunteers."

Finally, on a lighter note, Seven learns from the Doctor some tips for dating and romantic relationships in the Season 5 episode Someone to Watch Over Me. Needless to say, training Seven for a date is somewhat difficult. 

"What are your likes, your dislikes?"
"I dislike irrelevant conversation."

Seven is a good character to help the crew work against the biggest recurring villain of the back half of this show, that being the Borg. It was great to finally see the story of reclaiming a drone play out over a long run rather than previous attempts at the same theme lasting only one episode. 

Until next time, resistance is futile. 

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.

Character Insight No. 160: Renlay Sharr

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe. An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.  
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Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review another recurring character from the background of Voyager, Ensign Renlay Sharr.

(A "high quality" image of Renlay in sickbay, courtesy memory-alpha.org)

Ensign Sharr is a background character who does not appear until the fifth season of Voyager, which means apparently she was working below decks in her own version of the redshirt diaries before appearing on the actual show. When she does appear, it is most often on the bridge at stations like the conn, making her a Starfleet command track officer.

Like other faces in the crowd for Voyager, Renlay provides a consistent background character when we see various activities affecting the entire crew.  For example, she has to undergo a deep image picture scan with the rest of the crew thanks to one of the EMH's programs in the episode "Latent Image."  She is also seen at various crew celebrations like at the marriage feast for Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres in the episode Course: Oblivion, as well as in the mess hall to watch a crew ping pong tournament in the episode Relativity. 

She is also subject to be background evidence of crew suffering on multiple occasions. One example is in the episode Bliss, where she and others are affected by the neurogenic field of a bioplasmic organism. Another example comes in the episode Memorial, where her and another regular background character Ashmore ,who we also recently profiled, were traumatized by an alien beacon that made them relive flashbacks of a slaughter of Nakan colonists. 

One of the only times we see the character speak is to an alien visitor in the episode Survival Instinct. But it is unfortunately just a part of background crowd noise while Seven of Nine talks with Naomi.

Here's to you, late season background Voyager character. You certainly allowed stand ins to be much cheaper while paying for the inevitable bigger salaries on the regular crew in the later years of this show. 

Ensign Sharr was played by regular extra Erin Leigh Price, but she received no credit for these 15 or so appearances. She has also appeared as a vampire chick in Buffy, and in a few shorts like The Leftovers and Farm Sluts. We'll leave that last bit to your imagination, as it's much better than the plot synopsis you will find online.

Stay tuned next week as we return finally to some in the Best Of series. If you have a favorite character, please send a tweet @BuckeyeFitzy with requests to do first!

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter.