Post Atomic Horror 270

WHY AM I WATCHING VOYAGER?

In which Jeri Ryan has led an interesting life.

I wouldn't mind joining her Collective. Eh? Eh?

Yes, friends I've once again been on The Post Atomic Horror to talk about Stupid Voyager, and once again, they've both been pretty good episodes. Funny that. First up, we've got Scorpion Part 2. The Borg are everywhere! There's creepy 90's CGI monsters! And a new cast member! Then we talk about The Gift, where the show takes some dead weight and shoves her out an airlock. Listen, won't you? You can find the show here, or just search for Post Atomic Horror on your favorite podcasting device.

Also, there are some pretty sweet space fights.

As I said, we get a new main character on the show this week. Seven of Nine, a Borg drone, stolen from the Collective by the crew of Voyager. Played by Jeri Ryan, she gives the show a much much much much much much much needed shot in the arm. During my research, by which I mean reading her Wikipedia page, I learned some interesting things about Jeri Ryan's life. She was born Jeri Zimmerman on a U.S. Army base in Germany (her dad was a Staff Sargent). She went to Northwestern University where she majored in theater. Then did the model/actress thing for a while. In 1990 she was third runner up in the Miss America pageant. Then in 1991, she married banker/politician/international super spy Jack Ryan, had a kid, then divorced him. This will be important later.

Her first big role was on the NBC show Dark Skies which was an X-Files rip off that was watched by me, Rick Berman, and absolutely no one else. But that got her the Voyager job. She's more or less been a working TV actress ever since. Any non-nerds reading this (and I can't imagine there are many) probably recognize her from Boston Public. At some point during her run on Voyager she started dating noted hack Brannon Braga, proving for once and for all that there is no God.

Fast forward to 2004. Jeri Ryan is in LA, working on  The O.C. or whatever. Her ex-husband is running for Senator in Illinois. Reporters start poking around and they find out that the divorce records have been sealed. Despite both parties insisting that they should remain sealed to protect their son, a judge orders them opened. This is, to put it mildly, a really shitty thing to do. A wacky sex scandal ensues, and Jack Ryan ends up dropping out of the race. He wasn't leading in the polls at the time, but it was close. They replaced him with Alan Keyes who just completely shit the bed. The winner of the 2004 Illinois Senate race of course, was a young man by the name of Barack Obama. So we indirectly have Jeri Ryan to thank for the Socialist wonderland we live in today. Thanks, Jeri.

And here she is being possessed by a Ferengi. Because Voyager.