• Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    55·
    2 days ago

    I’m not 100% clear on Voyager’s behind the scenes history, but even if she was hired as a mid-series fan-service ratings booster, Ryan added a LOT of good story lines and could act circles around the rest of the cast. The only two comparable were Mulgrew and Picardo, and two of those three were often leading the best episodes.

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
      32·
      2 days ago

      She was actually a very capaple actress, but in the beginning her writing was terrible, just ‘bikini borg babe’.

      It was the opposite of Terry Ferrell who had great writing at the beginning which petered out in the middle.

    • Mercuri@lemmy.world
      231·
      2 days ago

      I love Ryan and she definitely came into her own with great acting, but initially she wasn’t as great an actor. BUUUT that totally worked because she was Borg so her wooden acting was perfect for the role! And as she improved as an actress that came off as 7of9 becoming more human.

      IIRC there was a late season episode where different parts of Voyager were stuck in different time periods and 7of9 was supposed to be her original Borg self and Ryan had such a massive problem with it because she’d essentially forgotten how to be a bad actor.

    • SatyrSackOPEnglish
      26·
      2 days ago

      I believe she was added just because some executive producer (no idea who that could have been) wanted to add a “sexy Borg babe”. But as you said, she ended up doing such a great job that she became one of the highlights of the series.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
        20·
        2 days ago

        Whereas Jolene Blalock was a fine actor, but never really rose much more above ‘sexy Vulcan’ in terms of writing. She had the good episode here and there, but they never really wrote her out of the ‘decontamination gel’ hole they put her in.

        And that’s why people remember Seven fondly and are relatively ambivalent about T’Pol.

        • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
          18·
          2 days ago

          they never really wrote her out of the ‘decontamination gel’ hole they put her in.

          That’s not entirely accurate. They did put her in the captain’s chair in one episode…but also made her wear a crop-top uniform. Yeah, your point stands.