The fight the camera didn’t catch

Jeri Ryan would feel it before the cameras even rolled — a knot of anxiety tightening in her stomach at the mere thought of sharing a scene with co-star Kate Mulgrew. It wasn’t nerves. It wasn’t stage fright. It was something heavier, an unspoken tension that hung in the air whenever they worked together.

Most of the Voyager cast had noticed it. The friction between them wasn’t just rumor; it was real, and for years, it remained unresolved. Ryan, the newcomer, had been thrust into the spotlight as Seven of Nine, the undeniably striking former Borg drone. Mulgrew, the show’s seasoned lead, had spent years crafting Captain Janeway as a strong, independent figure, resisting every attempt to shoehorn her character into a romance. And now, suddenly, all eyes were on Seven.

For Mulgrew, it wasn’t personal — at least, not at first. She had wanted to shift Star Trek away from overt sexualization, to make it about intellect, leadership, and exploration. But the network had other plans. They had brought in Ryan, a beautiful and undeniably sexualized character, to revive the show’s ratings. And it worked.

The strain between them lingered for years, a quiet storm beneath the surface. Ryan kept her head down, delivering performance after performance, while Mulgrew wrestled with her own frustration.

In time, though, something changed. Mulgrew, with the wisdom of hindsight, saw the bigger picture. She later admitted her resentment, acknowledged how difficult she had made things for Ryan, and owned her part in their troubled dynamic.

And then, she did something unexpected — she apologized.

“You did a marvelous job in a very difficult role,” she told Ryan. The past was the past. The tension, the cold looks, the unspoken frustrations—it was over.

Since then, they’ve shared the stage at Star Trek conventions, laughing, reminiscing, and proving that even the deepest rifts can be healed. Looking at pictures from today, it’s quite hard to believe these two didn’t get along on set?

She burned her own catsuit

Seven of Nine’s iconic catsuit may have looked sleek and futuristic on screen, but behind the scenes, it was a nightmare. Seven of Nine’s corset was so tight that Jeri Ryan struggled to breathe while wearing it. Between takes, she often had to lie down just to regain her breath before stepping back in front of the camera.

And the skintight, one-piece design meant Jeri Ryan couldn’t get in or out of it without help from the costume department. Since the suit was a one-piece with no zipper, Jeri Ryan had to be sewn into it every time she wore it, and getting out of it was no easy task

Even something as simple as a bathroom break turned into a time-consuming ordeal, forcing her to “hold it” for long stretches just to avoid delaying filming. A simple bathroom break on set turned into a 20-minute ordeal, which led to her own radio code: “Code Jeri-Twenty.”

Ryan’s frustration with the outfit grew over the years, and by the time Voyager wrapped, she had only one thing left to do — get rid of it for good. With no hesitation, she burned the costume, making sure she would never have to squeeze into it again.