See that’s a witty play on ‘7 of 9‘, her character’s name on Star Trek Voyager. Born Jeri Lynn Zimmerman on February 22, 1968 in Munich, West Germany (an Army brat). When her dad retired they settled in Paducah, Kentucky (say it with a hillbilly voice). Went to Northwestern University, won several beauty contests while there (no shit). Caught the attention of me and every other male in America with the arrival of Star Trek Voyager to the TV screen. IMDB bio page has some funny quotes and trivia: “Often plays powerful, authoritative women. Blonde hair and blue eyes. Voluptuous figure (ya think?). Seductive deep voice. Miss Illinois 1989. Was fourth in the 1990 Miss America Pageant and won the swimsuit competition (now that’s a surprise).” Several other great stories there about her Voyager and pageant days. I find her interesting in that she doesn’t seem like a twit, and might be a nice person. YouTube put a clip of her on Voyager in my recommendations. It occurred to me then that of all the Star Trek iterations, Voyager seems to be the least played in reruns. Around here anyway it always that creepy Deep Space Nine or that metro-sexual Next Generation shit.

Having watched some more “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Star Trek: Voyager” and clip shows, I learned a lot. It turns out Jeri Ryan was brought on in the 3rd season to save a sinking ship. Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) really resented that the show couldn’t make it on its merits and had to bring in the sex bomb Ryan. She said in a 2020 interview it was “all on her”, meaning the tension on the set was in no way Ryan’s fault. Then they had various shows where an ‘alien’ would inhabit 7’s body, or 7 would become drunk, and Ryan was able to act out of character in a hilarious way! What I really would like to know is what kind of incredible confidence does she have that she was able to walk around in that skintight costume for 4 years showing every minute detail of her body and not be self conscious at all?? Most women would curl up and die before they’d do that.