Jeri Ryan: Chakotay/Seven relationship "came out of the blue" + New ABC Show Starts Strong

This week Star Trek Voyager’s Jeri Ryan returned to series television as part of the cast of ABC’s medical examiner show Body of Proof, which started off with strong ratings. While promoting the show, the Seven of Nine actress also talked a bit of Star Trek, including Voyager’s controversial pairing of Seven and Chakotay. Excerpts below.    

 

Ryan: Chakotay/Seven relationship "came out of the blue"

The official Star Trek site talked to Jeri Ryan about her new show and other projects but they did also have an interesting diversion into the finale of Voyager:

The big question everyone seems to have about the Voyager finale, “Endgame,” is this: Did you buy relationship between Seven and Chakotay (Robert Beltran)?

Ryan: It’s not that I didn’t buy it… My problem with that relationship was that it came out of the blue. They had started the set-up of the relationship a few episodes earlier, in the episode (“Human Error”) where Seven was experimenting with her humanity on the holodeck. And so she sort of fell in love with Chakotay there. They said something like her could never have these sorts of relationships because she would die, or whatever. The next episode that we shot after that (“Natural Law”), Seven and Chakotay were stranded on some planet together. We specifically asked the producers – Robert and I – “Now, are we going to play this? Is this going to go somewhere? Because, obviously, we’d need to carry something over from…” And they said, “No, no, no, no! Absolutely not. Don’t play any of that. Nothing’s going to happen.”

So, after that one episode we never played any sort of attraction or anything between the two characters. And then, out of the blue, all of a sudden, they’re dating (in “Endgame”). That was a little annoying, especially when you’ve specifically asked about it and they said, “No, absolutely not.” Then, suddenly they’re in love. That was a little… It’s one of the frustrations of network television. And it’s how you learn, also. You have to try to be the babysitter and the protector of your character.


Ryan questions wisdom of pairing up Seven and Chokotay on Voyager

For more with Ryan Ryan on more her worries of Voyager typecasting, her famous catsuit and more including Body of Proof and her upcoming work on Mortal Kombat, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Leverage, Warehouse 13…read full interview: Part 1, Part 2

 

Ryan’s Body of Proof starts strong

Tuesday saw the series premiere of Body of Proof, the medical examiner show headlined by Dana Delany, with Jeri Ryan playing Delany’s boss. The first episode of the ABC drama was #1 in it’s timeslot with 13.9 million viewers,  which the New York times called "promising" and The Hollywood Reporter calls "a decisive win." 

Here is the latest promo from ABC (USA only).

 

 

37 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

A little unexpected in regards to the romance, but no objections about it overall.

Yeah…. but Voy finale was bad in many way, never mind this.

Would loved to have seen more of Voyager’s life post-return…

It’s obvious how this happened. After years and years the filmmakers finally noticed the similarity between Chakotay’s face tattoo and Seven’s Borg implant above her eyebrow. “Wow, why didn’t we notice this before?! Let’s pair the two!”

I still felt a Seven of Nine/Harry Kim romance would have been ultimately better. I did not like the Seven/Chakotay romance one bit. Chakotay/Janeway is the only logical Chakotay romance, it was intimated, it needed to come to fruition. As for Harry, he deserved the right woman, Seven would have been good for him.

Glad to see Jeri back on TV. Was a big fan of Shark (well, big James Woods fan to begin with) and was sad to see it go. Hoping this one lasts, and Dana Delaney heading up the cast will hopefully keep it strong. Was fun to see her in Castle last year. I’m sure someone, after seeing her on that, scratched their head and said “Oh yeah, she was great in China Beach, weren’t we going to find something for her again?”

So good luck to the cast and crew of ‘Body’. First episode was fun :)

I think that the dissapointment came from the idea that none of us fans were the object of the romance…. one can only dream.

I kinda seen it comeing from the start. In the Ep Scorpin where we first met 7 of 9 Chakotay had to get into her mind and get her away from the Borg. He seen her as a little girl and her hopes and dreams as a little girl and then what the Borg did to her and what she became. So i seen it comeing from day 1.

Seven and The Doctor were a much better matchup. The Chakotay/Seven relationship always wrung pretty false, like they’d run out of people to put together and they pulled their names out of a hat.

However, I feel this is an entirely appropriate time to pull out the old Robert Beltran Gripe Generator – http://www.firsttvdrama.com/funstuff/beltran.html

I watched Body Of Proof last night. What a piece of crap! It just reminds you how good other shows are for their production values!

The Seven/Chakotay romance pretty much came out of nowhere in “Endgame” but it was there simply because to give Admiral Janeway more reasons to alter history: the death of Seven destroys Chakotay’s life.

However, I wasn’t a fan of the relationship.

Another great behinds the scenes example of why Voyager was such a disappointing show.

#5: Augh, yes! I would’ve loved to see Seven and Harry paired up. Poor guy never got ANY action (aside from that charming Irish lass on the generational ship). And Chakotay and Janeway would’ve made tons more sense as well — it had basically the whole series as precedent. Seven and Chakotay, that was as bad as…like…Spock and Uhura. :P

Never mind C7 – Endgame was bad enough as it is.

C7 just made it from “really bad” to “worse than Threshold”.
I mean: Warp 10 + mutating into lizards v.s. two characters who hate each other (note: Chakotay wanted to throw Seven out of the airlock, too) becoming lovers?

YEA SURE WHATEVER. *facepalm*
Now I want to know where C7 really came from. Somebody sick and twisted, I’m sure.

PS: #9: THE GRIPE GENERATOR FTW! :D

I kinda thought the pairing was rather sweet. I figure why the hell not. maybe we never connected the dots leading to their Romance. But I rather was taken by the the matchup….I guess I’m a hopeless romantic

That relationship felt pretty out of the blue to me. I like to think it took place at least a year after the episode before it, to explain how they could have jumped so far in their relationship. Oh wait, but then there’s the B’elanna Torres pregnancy thing…

I thought I read somewhere that the writers threw together Seven and Chakotay because Robert Beltran was complaining about not having anything to do. So they put a Seven in his mouth.

Some things that happen (Seven/Chakotay) in the Delta Quadrant should stay in the Delta Quadrant.

Now if B’elanna Torres and Seven had had that relationship…yea, baby!

Same thing happened to the relationships in ‘These are the Voyages’. It’s like the writers throw characters out of the window on the final episode.

It would have been nice to have had several clues to pay off in end game, even though i thought it was a strong finnish to the series.

If i was the guy who played chakotay i probably would have resorted to begging if the initial suggestion had not been accepted.

It would have been nice to have had several clues to pay off in end game, even though i thought it was a strong finnish to the series.

If i was the guy who played chakotay i probably would have resorted to begging if the initial suggestion had not been accepted.

I didn’t have a fundamental problem with the Chakotay/Seven romance, but after “Human Error” they probably should have worked it in a little better. The attraction was there, then dropped, then came back.

The relaunch novels quickly dropped the romance on the basis that she needed time to adjust to her new life and Chakotay and Janeway did have a brief romance before she went “where no one has gone before.” The novels have continued to portray a close friendship between Chakotay and Seven, however. The novel writers generally do an excellent job with the books and I sometimes wish the novels can be made into episodes. But I digress.

About the only thing that made me smile in “Endgame” was the U.S.S. Rhode Island. Yeah, I know they were making fun of Harry’s ship because it was so small, but dammit, there it was–Federation Starship U.S.S. Rhode Island! Yeah!

With Janeway obsessing over Seven in Endgame like she did-

Old Janeway: SEVEN OF NINE IS GOING TO DIE!

– I was expecting the two of them to actually end up being a couple. They have had more onscreen chemistry than Chakotay ever did.

24. Dave

I’m here in RI also. Never caught any of the “Body” actors at local restaurants, supermarkets, or corner bars. Would love to run into Jeri and Dana, but I think they were locked in some impenatrable fortress while they were here. And surrounded by Borg-like bodyguards, no doubt.

Born and raised in RI. That’s a Galaxy Class Starship there. Hell, the hangar deck’s probably bigger than Warwick, where I grew up.

As for sudden, jarring romances, Chakotay-Seven’s got nothing on Scotty-Uhura in that Shatsterpiece, ST:V. Yikes!

I didn’t like the relationship either, partly because it did come out of the blue but it was the such short notice at the end of the series.

Especially, when the poor Doctor tried again and again show Seven his affections but bumbled it, then within the final episodes of the season she swanned off with Chakotay, giving us some horribly wife cenario in the alternate future.

I can only hope that Seven came round and went with the Doctor and Chakotay seemingly should have had a relationship with Janeway, after getting back to Earth at least.

Capt Janeway has a husband. His name is The Federation. Be realistic people. The two “HOT” people got together. Thats how it works in real life. I have always thought the Voyager finale was the best Trek finale of all. Harry becomes a Captain. Tom Parris gets the he’ll out of the service, and they tore the Borg a new one, all in one episode. Oh, the Dr’s new wife was really hot. So why all the negativity. No wonder there won’t be a new Trek series anytime soon.

I dig Endgame, but mostly just for Mulgrew’s performance, which bounces between quietly emotional and scenery chewing, like all best Trek performances the actors just bounce between extremes. That and the aforementioned tearing the Borg a new one. Take that, ya lousy collective! And having the original Borg Queen back was nifty as well.

But, yes, Seven should have ended up with the Doctor. At least “Joe” went out and got a really hot chick in the alternate timeline that looked a hellova lot like Seven, so he kinda won in that reality.

And, of course, the last minute of the show when they reach home and nicely understated. I think Endgame, if anything, is an excellently paced episode and a finale to the series. A series that, out of all the Trek shows, probably had the best in pacing and wacky plot twists. At least it wasn’t as… shall we say “leisurely” paced as the DS9 finale. The Dominion War ends like, what, 40 minutes into the episode and there’s still 40 minutes of show left to go? Yeesh. There’s hitting the emotional sentimentality button a tad too hard sometimes. I’m not hating on DS9’s “What You Leave Behind” because I do like it, but it does get a little draggy in the back end there.

Harry Ballz became a captain? Why wasn’t I notified?

#33 Because he can’t get Erica Durance to be his First Mate.

I hear Harry Ballz just stranded Erica Durance on Ceti Alpha V. Stay tuned…

Seven/Doctor, all the way. That would have been the most adorable thing since kittens were invented. I mean, they do DUETS. Once in Klingon. COME ON.

#35 She will be avenged!