Veteran Star Trek writer producer Brannon Braga, the same writer who controversially wrote the deaths of both James T Kirk and Charles "Trip" Tucker", has revealed in a new interview that he also wanted to kill off another of Trek’s best known characters: Seven of Nine.
Braga on Seven and Voyager finale
Braga’s latest comment comes from an interview in the latest issue of SFX magazine (via SciFi Pulse), where he reveals how he thinks the Voyager finale could have benefited from one more element, namely the death of Seven. Braga states:
"It was my feeling that Seven Of Nine should have died. If you watch the episode ‘Human Error’ written by Andre Bormanis, it was not only a heart breaking episode in that Seven Of Nine learns, as she begins to explore her human emotions, that she can’t experience them. There’s a Borg chip inside her that will kill her if she tries to do so. First of all, that’s kind of an interesting ‘rape victim’ analogy or whatever you want to call it, about a damaged woman who can’t get past what happened to her, but I also always saw it as a crucial episode that would set up the finale.
"This was a woman who knew she was neither here nor there. She couldn’t go back to the Borg, nor would she want to, but she could never be fully human, so she was doomed. And I wanted to have her sacrifice herself to get her shipmates home."
Here is a clip from the episode "Human Error", where Seven learns that emotions can kill her (sorry audio is out of sync).
Kill Seven?
After taking so much flack for killing Kirk in Generations and Trip in the Enterprise finale, it is surprising that Braga would open up the floor to suggest even more death. However, it is an interesting prospect. Of course the Voyager finale "Endgame" did kill of Seven in an alternate timeline, which was then ‘fixed’ by the future Janeway going back in time to set things right. However, that death was not tied into her Borg implants reacting against emotions, but was just a mention of a death on some away mission.
So what do you think? Would killing off Seven in the Voyager finale have been a good thing?
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Interesting it may have added some depth to an otherwise lackluster finale
Brannon Braga should have had the USS-Voyager die and break at the end of the show. They should have shown that it was falling apart. Sorta like the battlestar galactica. I don’t think it was necessary to kill 7 of 9.
Yes! More Star Trek characters need to die. Do you realize how dangerous their profession is? It would have been good to see her sacrifice herself to bring them home, like they sacrificed voyager to bring her home to humanity.
But Janeway would have been a better character to kill. Her mission was to get her crew home, and after she accomplished that, here character feels flat.
Nothing was going to fix ‘Voyager’ by the time it had gotten to the finale…you either liked the series or didn’t. Killing Seven wouldn’t have made the finale any better. The show was over with at the point. Killed Kirk and Trip but let Seven live….yup there isn’t any justice in the world. (NOTE: Kirk and Trip aren’t really dead as far as I’m concerned.)
I hope they can bring as much dramatic depth to the Star Trek sequel.
@4
My thoughts exact about the show. But i still think they could have redeemed themselves a bit in season 7. First illustrating that the “journey” was taking a toll on the family and the ship. Things like…. a ship falling apart, desperation and characters emotional struggle with the idea that the ship is falling apart. Anyways, what do i know? Brannon and Berman obviously knew what they were doing. They treated Ronald D Moore like crap on Voyager since his ideas were horrible (sarcasm). Ron then took his “crappy” ideas and remade BSG (very similar context to voyager). BSG is probably the greatest sci-fi show of our time. Good job Brannon and Berman. You are my heroes.
He would say something like that.
Both Kirk & Trip’s deaths were done awkwardly & pointlessly, killing off anyone besides Janeway would have been failtastic. Besides, Voyager & Enterprise did nothing but harm Star Trek’s legacy.
Thanks, but your times has passed, Brannon.
Jeri was recently at Creation’s East Coast con, where she mentioned that the whole Borg chip was a plot element that got dropped for some reason. Her and Beltran were originally told their little romantic thing was a one episode deal, and she was surprised with their being together in the finale and all that.
– Kelly
The Convention Fans Blog
The fact was the backstory of Voyager was depressing – a ship lost in a quadrant? Not very Star Trek like.
…I am glad he didn’t get his way. Because he has some serious issues with death scenes; as in he’s really bad at them. Kirk’s death was handled so wrong, I mean seriously? A bridge? And Trip…just no. He didn’t really even need to die.
The Voyager finale was a terrible, missed opportunity. Man do I wish they had taken some time in season seven to build up to it . . . give some REAL closure instead of an alternate timeline that teased with closure but yanked it away. The actual ending, the moment we’d waited for over seven years, was anti-climatic. Voyager was about a forced blended family and their home: Voyager. The Voyager finale should have been about getting “home” and dealing with re-assimilating into their old/new home. I didn’t want to see a possible future that got erased, I wanted to see these characters changed because of their experiences. it just didn’t give me that — not hte way I hoped for, anyway.
I don’t know how fandom in general accepted the ending . . . I loved TNG’s ending, I loved DS9’s ending. With Trek VI, I loved TOS’s ending. But Voyager just fell flat. Having 7 of 9 die . . . could have been interesting, if it had been driven by her character’s arc. Sacrificing herself so her adopted family could return to their home: that’s a satisfying conclusion, and considering Voyager was the only home she had . . . she didn’t have the same drive as the rest of the crew to get home, but she did have the drive to help them because she loved them and they loved her. There’s some cool “family” and “home” elements that could have been brought out there.
Brannon Braga must have abandonment issues in his psychological make-up. He seems strongly compelled to kill off people he knows (or has created) before they ultimately leave him.
They killed off Chacotay in the final episode, if
I remember correctly…the grave stone at the
beginning of the episode. I only liked maybe
four episodes, the Pilot, a couple in the middle,
and the final episode. Sad.
Yeah, that would have worked SO well. To kill off a character that was designed to replace a character that SHOULD have been killed off in Season 4 (Harry Kim). I think Braga wants more attention to how badly he f***ed up Voyager.
I think the only character that was killed off right was Spock in WOK. Kirk, Tasha Yar, Jadzia, Lt. Carey and Tucker were all done to shock people. (Granted Crosby and Farrell wanted out of the show, but their deaths were done poorly.)
@ 15
Chakotay died in another time line. After granny Janeway traveled into the past and helped them come home…. Chakotay survives and hence forth another timeline is created in the Trek-universe. Alternate universe explanation to everything in trek ;)
Voyager was created with Kes presumably scheduled to grow old and die by the conclusion of a long series run so it’s not entirely surprising that Braga might, subconsciously even, plug Kes’s replacement into that arc.
Well SOMEONE didn’t take the break-up very well!
Almost anything would have made the conclusion to Voyager better since the show really floundered for the final few seasons. There was no build-up to that finale, and thus no real payoff. They used the Borg as the ultimate crutch, and whenever they’d write themselves into a corner or run out of ideas they would go sprinting to the Borg again.
Robert Beltran was pretty ruthless about a lot of those final scripts on Voyager as well as the shafting his character received. Voyager had such a promising setup but they totally blew it by essentially making it TNG in the Delta Quadrant. There were a few bright spots like Equinox (which actually explored the idea of a ship on the edge with no command to turn to) but they were too few and far between.
The USS Voyager should have ended up like the Bluesmobile, running in a mad dash across the Delta Quadrant until it lands and falls apart in front of the Cook County Assessor’s Office. ;)
“Ship’s got a lot of pickup.”
They should have just put her in ever tighter fitting costumes until she could finally breath no more and gracefully fell over a expired.
I think i’d have enjoyed following that one over the preceding weeks. ;-)
I forgot everything about Voyager.
Why does someone have to die to end a show/movie? Kirk dying in Generations is a great point. There was no need to bridge the gap between TOS/TNG, but whatever, Kirk is killed buy a rusty bolt on a rock cliff. What a way to go for Starfleet’s most decorated officer. FML
Star Trek VI and TNG: All Good Things are the best written endings to send a cast of characters on their merry voyages.
I don’t know, I kind of like Voyager, yes some episdoes and season were blah, but for me the year of hell episode was best. I don’t think seven’s death would have been necessary plot wise although interesting. Kes’ character got robbed a good right off, I would have rather had her die a meaningful death or to just leave to explore with her own race. The finale was a decent one I felt, except I think with the credits rolling you could have filmed the welcome home celebrations, family friends, what happened with the former maquis.
However I agree with yall about the ship falling apart.
It really needed that look to it over the course of the season especially in the interior and exterior as you’re telling me all those hull breaches magically were taken way and repainted.
I think a good death would have been Voyager herself in the finale and having to blow her up to bring the crew home.
I agree braga shouldn’t have killed Trip, or Kirk. Kirk should have someone squeaked out of the death’s grip once again proving Kirk prevails over the no win scenario. Trip I don’t feel is dead, dead as the finale was a hologram program reliving the events of Enterprise. So we assume by records he is possibly dead, but could have survived.
Didn’t the whole crew die several times in different timelines? Oh wait..they did.
Voyager was a great show. Braga likes killing off major characters that fans love. I’m surprised he didn’t get his way.
Kirk had to die someday, so I get that. The Trip death was..wait for it…LAME. But so was the whole BS final episode…but of course, we all know these things..
All Braga is trying to do is get people to listen to him by saying “controversial” things. Who care what he says anymore. He was good, but mostly bad for the Star Trek series.
Let him talk about how Seven should have died. Here’s the thing…she’s alive in the Prime Timeline. The *only* timeline that matters.
history has proven you are wrong about a great number of things Brannon. Please do retire, play Playstation and relax in some corner, and don’t ever try to pry your way into Star Trek again. Because YOU almost killed the frakking franchise boyo!
I think it would have been a bad idea because the whole concept of Seven was for a person who was once Borg to readjust to being human, all the lessons she had learned would go to waste with her death.
Being on Voyager helped her prepare for truly rejoining humanity once they reached Earth.
I *did* hate the Seven & Chakotay romance. Blech.
what is it with writers and killing off people. killing off trip sucked. Don’t kill people. killing 7 would have only made it worse.
stop killing people! you evil evil man!
YES SHE SHOULD HAVE DIED.
Yours truly,
A JetCer.
—-
Just kidding.
Maybe if she died in a way that truly “ended” her story (e.g., sacrificing her life to save someone else, as mentioned) then it would be fine. If she was the one who used the SC4 for the final scenes of Endgame, it would have worked.
bah! Killing Seven would have done nothing to improve the finale–as others have mentioned most of the characters deaths in trek were pointless n not particularly well done–tasha yar perfect point–killed by an oil slick-the very touching hologram finale speech was so great it almost redeemed her death–and seeing her character pop up in other episodes was great-her romulan incarnation was also well done–deaths of characters has become too cliched with tucker to data–im glad 7 did not suffer a similar lousy death–
Firstly as much as we acknowledge the mistakes Brannon Braga may have made it’s important to remember that he co-wrote Star Trek: First Contact which is by far the best of the TNG movies and probably in the top four at least of the eleven Star Trek films. Killing Seven would have served very little purpose as did killing Trip in the last episode of Enterprise, it was a needless death and the character deserved better than that. I wasn’t too fussed about killing Kirk (who is my all time favourite character) as it seemed his destiny to die saving the world/universe had been forfilled and with the latest movie we also saw the birth of Kirk so we have seen his full ife cycle! Also the fact that Kirk and Picard wer together on film made Generations a worhtwhile film, even if it’s not a fan favourite.
It’s interesting that this subject has come up recently as new information from Braga re: the 7 of 9 character. I did an interview with Brannon in 2007 where he revealed this information. Obviously, my little youtube video doesn’t have the reach of StarPulse. If you’re interested the video link is below. He mentions it about 2:20
http://www.youtube.com/cewarner#p/c/4196566982C69D5A/39/G_xTX_WcrK0
I do feel like killing off a main character would have upped the stakes a bit and taken away some of the stigma Voyager had with the reset button. I’ve always been a big fan of Joss Whedon because he’s never afraid to take such risks. It always make it feel like anything can happen and that there are real consequences.
It probably would have been similar to Data’s death in Nemesis – afterall; Data and Seven are both pretty similar in the arcs that are created for those two characters – therefore I probably would have hated it.
If the writers were willing to create a really compelling and believable and most importantly, emotiional, death of Seven then I’m sure it would have been the greatest Voyager episode there ever was and I probably would have accepted the death.
But the writers obviously were not willing to stretch the evelope at that point. They must’ve been to busy on there’re Enterprise project at that point…!
He had some of the worst star trek ideas ever.
Thankfully he no longer writes star trek, and i hope it stays that way.
I keep thinking about how Braga co-wrote some things with Ron Moore. Man, how much better Trek would have been if Moore had just written it all by himself.
10
She mentioned that at Vegas as well.
37
He also had a lot of cool ideas that I liked. I happene to like him as a writer.
Voyager was part of the era of Star Trek that took no risks. Many have already mentioned how interesting it could have been if it had been more like the re-imagined BSG. Oh well, it was what it was.
Here’s another outstanding idea for a series finale from the man who brought us ENT: These are the voyages. Wow, this guy really knows what the fans want.
Killing James T. Kirk, it was a good idea. Not only cementing the end of the original series movies, before JJ showed up, but it gave Kirk that sense of going down guns ablazing. As well the situation brought forth what Kirk had always known, he’ll die alone.
Killing 7 of 9, bad, bad, bad. It made sense that she dies in the alternate timeline, cementing Janeway’s urge to take her future self’s suggestion of taking the shortcut home. But killing her anyways … what’s the point? An act of spite from the Queen? Even that act of spite from the Queen made sense, it would be totally pointless for the Queen.
Killing Trip, mixed, but still seemed pointless on a poorly written and poorly executed episode.
I would have killed off Brannon in the finale.
Now that would have been cathartic.
I’m sure Braga is imagining a universe of criticism without all the sarcasm.
Killing off Seven would have been a mistake, IMO. I think there are only so many times you can get away with pulling the heart-strings by the death of a character. No other death in Star Trek could ever top the death of Spock in TWOK, and that should have been recognized and accepted. Killing Kirk’s son was string-puller. Kirk’s unnecessary death was a string-puller. Trip’s death was a string-puller… Killing off a major character in order to evoke an emotional response from the audience is (or should be) a no-no. It comes off as contrived. Spock’s death was not only an integral part of the story, it was an integral part of his character. None of these other Star Trek deaths fit the bill. IMO.
I’d of prefered more of a conclusion to the Borg Arc eluded to in Dark Frontier, I like the idea the collective released her intentionally to prepare her for becoming a queen better equiped to assimilate humanity.
44. Tasha Yar was integral in the development of Data and Worf and paved the way for one of Trek’s best villians Sela
This is probably the one finale sacrifice which would’ve made sense. Seven wasn’t part of the crew to begin with afterall. I thought that was the direction, they were going in at the time. Whereas killing Charles Tucker came so out of the blue, with episodes left to deal with the aftermath, you needed to set it up as a possibility early on and gave fans used to the idea, it go either way. At least with Seven, there was some sense of that with her various relapses into being Borg.
^ should read – “with NO episodes left to deal with the aftermath.”
#29 – “what is it with writers and killing off people.”
It’s called a lack of imagination (or, if you want to be kind, burnout). They need to come up with some big “event” to get people to tune in / buy tickets and rather than actually work to make a good story they just say “Let’s kill off one of our most popular characters. That’ll get people talking.”
Braga contributed some good stories to Trek but by the end he’d clearly run out of ideas; no shame in that, it happens to anyone associated with something for so long. Still, its a good thing he’s no longer involved in Trek’s creative process.
BRANNON BRAGA is the WORST thing that ever happened to Star Trek. He took a beautiful and unique genre and corrupted it beyond recognition.