It’s been a rough season for Jerry Ryan’s Seven of Nine.
Viewers learned at the beginning of “Picard” Season 3 that she was assigned to the USS Titan under a commanding officer who distrusts her so much that he calls her by her human name, Annika Hansen, instead of Seven of Nine.
That captain, Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), also threw Seven under the bus when Starfleet intelligence came on board, claiming he helped Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) steal the shuttlecraft.
Over the course of the season, Shaw slowly learns to trust his First Officer, but sadly, he is killed in the final episode helping Picard and company escape from Titan after being assimilated.
With his dying breath, Shaw tells her “You have Con, Seven of Nine”, finally calling her by her preferred name. With this, she assumes command of the Titan, even though the ship, like the rest of Starfleet, is under Borg control.
Warning, the rest of this post contains spoilers from episode 10 of “Star Trek: Picard,” titled “The Last Generation.” proceed with caution.
Seven, Raffi, and a ragtag group of survivors, including Titan’s cook, manage to retake the bridge. They improvise a way to incapacitate their assimilated crew without killing them by “tagging” them with their phasers and beaming them into a locked transporter room.
Realizing that they are the only thing standing between the assimilated fleet and an undefended Earth, Seven steps up and gives a very Captain-esque speech:
“I am asking you not to give your life in vain,” she says, recognizing the insurmountable odds. “I am asking you to fight for what lies beneath. Your families. Your children. The Borg Our crew is taken. Our captain is taken. But in this moment, here and now, we are all that is left of Starfleet.
Using cloaking technology, the Titan is able to disable several ships and delay Starfleet’s assault on Earth as well as buy time for Picard to destroy the Borg cube broadcasting orders. But in the end, the Titan is incapacitated. Fortunately, Picard’s mission was successful. The Cube is destroyed and the Earth is saved.
After the dust settles, Seven meets Tuvok (TIM RUSS), his former Voyager crewmate. Convinced that she is not Starfleet material, she offers her resignation. But Tuvok won’t listen to it and holds Shaw’s official review where he recommends her for promotion. Tuvok formally promotes Seven to captain.
“It was great. And playing with her again, it was great,” Ryan told TheWrap at the finale screening of “Picard” on Wednesday, where she carefully danced around spoilers. “And I think it was so fitting that it was Tuvok who does the thing in the scene that we’re not talking about right now. Because of their relationship on Voyager, I thought it was really cute.”
Tuvok and Seven become very close on “Voyager” as the two approach situations logically. Tuvok also helped stabilize the Seven after their neural nets failed in the season 5 episode “Infinite Regress” – an easter egg brought up in episode 7 of “Picard”.
Fast forward a year, and Jack Crusher (Ed Spellers) gets his posting aboard the USS Titan. Or the ship formerly known as Titan. It is re-designated as USS Enterprise G, with Captain Seven of Nine as its commanding officer.
“It was great,” Ryan said of taking command of Enterprise. I mean, “It’s a great position to be on a famous ship.” So that was a great moment.
Will We See the Enterprise G With Captain Seven in a Future “Trek” Show?
“It’s amazing,” Ryan says of the viewers who have called in on the “legacy” show with Seven in Command. “The fan support has been phenomenal. The outpouring of love on social media is amazing. It always happens to Star Trek fans, but this one has been especially cool.”
Even if “Legacy” doesn’t materialize, Ryan says she’s still grateful that she was able to recreate and develop a character she created 20 years ago.
“I think it’s the best imaginable farewell for all these characters that they’ve loved for so long,” she reflected. “We are – as we have been all season – in the best of hands [showrunner] Terry Matalas. He shepherded this franchise and these characters and this world with so much love and so much respect throughout this season. And because he’s actually a fan himself.”
All episodes of “Star Trek: Picard” are streaming on Paramount+.