Summary
The character Seven of Nine is one of the most interesting in the entireStar Trekuniverse. Assimilated by the Borg when she was a small child, she spent almost twenty years in the collective before a chance encounter with Captain Janeway and the crew of Voyager resulted in her liberation from the Borg. Her journey ofbecoming human again, as well as her unique observations on life outside the collective, have fascinated viewers since her introduction.
Most fans who have watchedStar Trek: Voyagerare at least passingly familiar with the story of Seven’s assimilation. In season 4, episode 1, “Scorpion: Part 2,” Janeway reads through Starfleet records to learn that Seven of Nine was once Annika Hansen, and she and her parents fell to the Borg. She speculates that they may even be the first humans that the Borg ever assimilated. However, a later episode would explore the Hansens' assimilation in greater depth, expanding on Seven’s character in the process.
Season and Episode
Air Date
July 06, 2025
InSeason 4, Episode 6, “The Raven,“Seven begins to experience hallucinations,which the Doctor speculatesmay be flashbacks. At one point, her hallucinations overwhelm her, and she appears to revert to her Borg programming. She attacks Neelix, steals a shuttle, and flies directly into alien space, upsetting diplomatic negotiations in the process. The Doctor’s scans reveal that something has activatedSeven’s Borg nanoprobes, which are replicating rapidly and regrowing her Borg implants.
When Tuvok beams aboard her shuttle to try and apprehend her, Seven reveals that she is following a beacon, a homing signal intended to call stranded Borg drones back to the colony. However, as Tuvok tells her, there are noBorg ships in the area, no place that they could send a beacon from. Meanwhile, Janeway deciphers Seven’s personal logs and finds that a recurring motif in her hallucinations has been a black bird with piercing eyes: a raven.
While Janeway and the rest try to catch up with the shuttle, Tuvok attempts to reason with Seven. He asks if hallucinations are common when a Borg drone is called by a beacon; she admits that they are not. When Seven tells Tuvok to leave, to escape assimilation and to convey her thanks to Captain Janeway, he observes that her affection and sentimentality are human traits,not Borg ones. Seven continues to insist that she is Borg and must rejoin the collective, but with less and less conviction. She is even, as Tuvok perceives, afraid. Though Tuvok is unsuccessful in persuading her to return to Voyager, she agrees to allow him to accompany her as they land on the planet where the signal is coming from. She warns him that he will be assimilated, but Tuvok is not so sure:
I think this situation is not what it appears.
As Tuvok expected, they do not find a Borg ship waiting for them. Instead, they find a Federation vessel, partially assimilated and long abandoned. Tuvok estimates it has been there for approximately twenty years. Upon entering, Seven has another flashback, and all becomes clear. In her vision, a man and a woman scream as two Borg drag them away, and a small blonde girl hides under a bulkhead. As her parents reach for her, they scream her name:“Annika.“As she snaps out of her hallucination, she tells Tuvok:
It happened here. This is where it began, this is where I was assimilated.
Seven examines the room, recounting what happened here so long ago. She recalls her sixth birthday, and the loving relationship she shared with her parents. She remembers the Borg coming, watching her father try and fail to fight them off, hiding under a bulkhead and hoping she was small enough that they wouldn’t find her. As she recalls the events of that day, she is no longer the cold Borg drone Seven of Nine, but Annika Hansen, a frightened little girl. She brushes dust from a plaque on the ship’s wall, revealing its name:the USS Raven.
There isn’t much time to linger, however. Voyager, pursued by aliens who were angered by Seven’s intrusion into their space, is waiting to pick them up. Seven and Tuvok beam aboard and the ship escapes alien space, leaving Seven’s former home forgotten once again.
Why “The Raven” Is A Key Point In Seven’s Character Arc
Acknowledging Trauma Is A Turning Point
Earlier in the episode, when discussing Seven’s hallucinations, the Doctor suggested that she might be experiencing post-traumatic stress, and her flashbacks were the result ofthe trauma she sustainedat the hands of the Borg. Seven responded that she was not traumatized, but in this scene on the USS Raven, it becomes clear that she was. As humans often do with traumatic experiences, she buried and suppressed the memory of what happened to her, until it all came flooding back when she found the USS Raven.
In the final moments of “The Raven,” Seven of Nine meets with Janeway in her art workshop program on the Holodeck, and shares her thoughts with the captain:
I find myself constructing scenarios, considering alternative possibilities. What if my parents and I had not encountered the Borg? What would our lives have been? I would have been raised by them. They would have influenced who I became, who and what I am.
Janeway has been using this program to encourage Seven to utilize her imagination. With her recent experiences, Seven has been putting that particularly human part of her mind to use. For the first time, she is not only using her imagination, but doing so to picture a life in which she is something other than Borg. As usual, she is relatively stoic as she shares her thoughts, but there’s a touch of regret in her voice. For the first time, Seven acknowledgesthat the Borg took something from herwhen they assimilated her — and she allows herself to mourn that loss.
Until this point, Seven has had difficulty accepting that she is no longer Borg, difficulty finding her humanity. That struggle is ongoing, of course, but in “The Raven,” it’s clear that Seven doesn’t want to be Borg anymore. She no longer wants to return to the collective, and has even taken steps to ensure that she will not receive homing signals again. After confronting her past and acknowledging her trauma, she starts finding it easier to look forward. Seven of Nine may not be able to get Annika Hansen’s childhood back, but she can build something for herself as an individual, without the Borg.
