Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) revealed this week that her half-Borg character will be experimenting more with her humanity and her sexuality, and may become a "tragic" figure as the seventh and final season of Star Trek: Voyager nears its ends. Ryan has been making the rounds among news stations and talk shows discussing Voyager and promoting her upcoming film "Dracula 2000," which will sink its teeth into theaters on December 22. In the movie she plays a TV news reporter who gets bitten and turns into a sexy vampire. She admitted to a local news reporter on UPN News 13 in Los Angeles that in this part she was, to a certain extent, making fun of people like him. It's her first major film role since taking the part of Seven of Nine. "It has been very difficult in the four years that I've been on Voyager to incorporate any film work that has come to me because of the schedule, and both the Voyager and 'Dracula' production offices were very accommodating, so I was very lucky to be able to do it," Ryan said on the news report that aired Wednesday night.
She was asked if the Voyager crew will finally get home by the end of the series. "I don't know, they won't tell me how the season is ending either, so I don't know if we're getting back," she replied. "I assume that we'll get back?that's my prediction?but that's with no inside information." Her character will continue to evolve as the final season progresses, and we can expect to see Seven "do some kind of experiments with her humanity and her sexuality, and trying to re-experience the emotions that she felt for the first time in Unimatrix Zero at the beginning of the season," she said. "And I think that Seven is going to be becoming more of a tragic figure as we end the series, which I think is an interesting choice." When pressed for more detail on what "tragic" means, she responded with a big laugh, "Nope! That's all you get!"
After Voyager ends, she would like to do more films and perhaps a TV sitcom, according to the news report. Ryan was in New York Thursday night making an appearance on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Other than promoting the "Dracula" film, the chat was entirely casual. She spoke about her six-year-old son's first "broken heart," and some of her sorority experiences at Northwestern University, which were "a lot tamer than you think." She also told a story about something bizarre that occurred while shooting "Dracula" in Louisiana: The night before production was to take place at a swamp, the cast and crew received "Alligator Warnings" ? "What to do if you're attacked by an alligator." Next week Ryan will appear on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. (It was previously reported that she was scheduled for the mock news show on Thursday, but her appearance was apparently postponed. An exact date has not yet been promoted.)