It’s almost time for Seven of Nine.
On Wednesday (8 p.m., WPWR-Ch. 50), when “Scorpion, Part II,” the fourth season premiere of “Star Trek: Voyager,” airs, a Borg joins the crew of Voyager. And she’ll be played by Jeri Ryan, a versatile actress recently seen as the government agent Juliet on NBC’s “Dark Skies.”
“I wasn’t exactly a `Trek’ fan,” says Ryan, 29, who lives in Chicago. I’d seen the original show a few times and was familiar with `Next Gen.’
“I don’t think there’s anybody born in this half-century who isn’t at least aware of `Trek’ and the phenomenon thereof.”
Now, Ryan’s part of that phenomenon.
“I guess I am,” she says, laughing. “When I got the job I had no idea what a Borg was. I didn’t have a clue where to begin.
“They gave me old Borg episodes, told me what they had in mind for Seven and had me give it a go.”
“Scorpion II” kicks off with Capt. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) attempting to strike a deal with the Borg in order to overcome a common enemy, Species Eight Four Seven Two. Seven of Nine serves as the Borg representative in the negotiations.
Seven of Nine is not an individual, but part of the Collective, a drone on a mission. An instant before the Borg sacrifice their ship to save Voyager, Seven of Nine, several other Borg and Janeway beam aboard Voyager.
“These Borg have defeated their enemy and move on to their next pressing matter, assimilating Voyager’s crew,” Ryan says. “They start to assimilate the cargo bay, but Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and Janeway throw a wrench in the works.
“They catch Seven and sever her from the Collective.”
In subsequent episodes, Seven, as the character will be called, struggles to regain her humanity and individuality, to deal with emotions not felt in years. Almost all of the Borg prosthetics will vanish by Seven’s third show.
“She’s actually rather childlike,” Ryan says. “She’s experiencing so many things for the first time and has no concept of morality and sociability.
“That all makes her a lot of fun and endlessly challenging to play.”
With “Voyager” now in its fourth year and the ratings still not as high as UPN might like, most fans believe Seven has been introduced to imbue the series with a dash of sex appeal.
“I think that’s part of it,” she says. “It hadn’t been that much in the forefront since the original series, when Capt. Kirk did his thing.
“I have no problem with it. As long as they’re writing strong, intelligent stuff, I’m all for it.”
Ryan, an Army brat who was born in Munich, Germany, and raised on military bases from Kentucky to Hawaii, has played her share of ingenues over the years.
She’s appeared in episodes of “Melrose Place,” “The Flash” and “Time Trax,” several TV movies and the unreleased independent feature, “The Last Man.”
” `The Last Man’ is about the last three people on Earth, and I’m the last woman,” says the actress, who shuttles between Los Angeles and Chicago to be with her husband and their young son, Alex.
“I know it sounds like sci-fi, but it’s really not. I hope they get the film released. It’s a small, but very good film.”
Looking back on “Dark Skies,” Ryan notes that she liked the people and the premise, but that NBC had given up on the series by the time she arrived on the scene.
” `Dark Skies’ had a lot of potential,” Ryan says. “The show was just finding its footing when it got canceled
“It was a very different experience from what `Voyager’ has been so far. On `Dark Skies’ we re-enacted events from American history and threw in sci-fi elements, and on `Voyager’ we’re in space with technobabble and alien races.
“The most interesting change between shows was my mindset. On `Dark Skies’ I fought the main alien, which was basically a collective, and on `Voyager’ I’m a member of the collective.
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