Jeri Ryan

            On Sunday I finished working out the chords to “Rock Around the Bunker” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I got caught up on my journal.

            For lunch I had a bowl of the spicy and greasy soybean and onion soup that I’d made the day before.

            I spent a few hours on research of day schools versus residential schools.

            I had a bowl and a half of soup for dinner and a bowl of beaches and strawberries with coconut milk. I watched the fourth episode of Star Trek Picard.

            Spoiler alert!

            This story like the two before it begins with a flashback to fourteen years before. On the planet Vashti Picard has relocated several Romulan refugees who are all grateful. Among them is a boy named Elnor who is being cared for by Romulan nuns. Fourteen years later as Picard and his crew head for Freecloud, Picard wants to stop at Vashti to find a warrior nun to bind herself to his cause. He finds, still living with the nuns, Elnor, who has grown into a young man and is now a skilled warrior. At first he rejects Picard because he feels he abandoned him. The general population of Romulan refugees now feel anger towards Picard because he had promised to help but failed them. One of them challenges him to a sword battle but suddenly Elnor steps in and warns him that if he attacks Picard he will die. The man moves towards Picard but Elnor makes a few quick moves with his body and sword and the man’s head tilts and falls from his shoulders. Picard and Elnor are beamed up to their ship. Picard severely chastizes Elnor for unnecessarily killing the man and makes him promise to only kill if he is told to do so. Suddenly the ship is attacked by the ship of a local warlord. Cristobal has to evade both the warlord and the defences of the planet Vashti. Some of his crew consist of holograms of different races and ethnic groups but they are all based on his body. The ship is taking fire and losing shields when suddenly a small ship with an obviously extremely skilled pilot manoeuvres and dodges quickly and expertly until it has destroyed the enemy ship. But the craft that rescued them has been damaged and is about to explode. They beam the pilot aboard and it is Seven of Nine. She tells Picard he owes her a ship, just before she loses consciousness. Finally somebody interesting has arrived in this story.

            Seven of Nine of course is played by Jeri Ryan, who at the age of 21 became Miss Illinois and finished third in the Miss America pageant. After Star Trek Voyager she joined the cast of Boston Public. In her first starring role in a film she played the last woman on Earth. She also speaks French. She was not a Star Trek fan before taking on the role of Seven of Nine. She thinks that helped her performance because Seven of Nine was also in many ways a blank slate.