Since the Star Trek first hit the small screen in the 1960s, there have been a multitude of TV shows and movies set in the popular sci-fi universe. With each addition comes new characters, fantastic mind-bending technology, and exciting new alien races and cultures. While each made their own mark on the franchise, they were never afraid to call back to what came before, honoring events and characters as they are either referenced or re-appear.
The recent series Picard is no exception to this trend, for example with its inclusion of the beloved character Seven of Nine. The ex-Borg first appeared in Voyager, and now returns to win fans over again. A lot of time has passed between the events of The Next Generation and Voyager, however, time taking its toll on the characters. So what exactly has fan favorite ex-borg Seven been doing all this time?
The Seven whom audiences see during the third season of Picard is likely the one that many expected when she reappeared in the show's first season, wearing the Starfleet uniform in a prestigious position in in the Federation's quasi-military. She returns as a fully fledged Starfleet officer, second-in-command on the new USS Titan, the newest iteration of the heavily armed ship once captained by William Riker. Up until that point, however, her career had been somewhat turbulent. In the first season Picard, she was acting as a free agent for the good of the galaxy in a rather Lara Croft/Indiana Jones-style protector of the peace.
This came to a surprise to some longtime Star Trek fans At the end of the mixed reviewed Voyager series, things seemed fairly set in stone as to what she would do next. She planned to enlist in Starfleet with the full endorsement of the morally ambiguous Captain Janeway (later Admiral Janeway), this being something she said she wanted. Instead, however, she joined organization called the Fenris Rangers, a group of chaotic good freedom fighters who were desperately trying to keep the good people of the galaxy safe. This suited her character a lot, a lone wolf of sorts who struggled with social interactions and following rules and regulations. However, it did seem odd that her career desires would have changed so much.
The reason for this was revealed in the second season of Picard, specifically the episode “Hide and Seek.” Seven confides in Raffi the reason, something that seems to go against the false facade of tolerance and acceptance Starfleet maintains. There is a running theme of this throughout the shows: the idea that Starfleet is a lot more scared of the unknown than they first appear to be, pushing the notion of the Federation's conditional love. This can be seen in multiple episodes, through the fear of ex-borg specifically, but also of those perceived as enemy races. The Romulans have been blanketed in distrust for as long as Star Trek has been running, the classic “Balance of Terror” episode from TOS being a prime example, and even in the era of Picard where a turbulent peace had been found, the distrust and prejudice runs deep.
Seven reveals that she did try to enlist shortly after Voyager returned to the Alpha quadrant, but her application was rejected because she had spent considerable time assimilated into the Borg collective. It's not clear how open they were about the reasoning, but it turns out that their rejection of her application was due to their overall impression of ex-Borg. It seems they were still ignorant of the whole process and scared of her purposely or accidentally compromising Starfleet. It’s worth noting that this is just what Seven says, and while there is no reason to not trust her telling of events, Starfleet has employed another ex-Borg with no shown problem: Icheb, the Brunali former Borg drone whom Janeway freed alongside Seven on their long journey home.
Regardless, however, Seven's rejection was firm. Although Janeway threatened to resign over Starfleet's decision, Seven instead chose to stand down and join the rangers, feeling defeated by the prejudice and constant judgment for being who she is. She stayed with them, kicking ass across the galaxy, until the events of Picard. At that time, in light of her instrumental involvement with forging a truce between the Federation and the new Borg, she was given a field commission by Jean-Luc.
The rest of her career has been shown in snippets in the first episode of season 3. Already there seems to be trouble brewing between her and her current captain, much of this rooted in his apparent disdain towards the borg and ex-borg victims. He insists she go by her human name Annika Hansen, something she is shown to visibly uncomfortable with, still considering herself as a free Borg rather than human, but puts up with it. No matter where the season goes, it’ll be exciting to see what happens to the impressive ex-Borg.
