Like other shows in the franchise, Star Trek: Voyager had a soft spot for certain characters and assigned the bulk of the storylines to these select few. While the show boasted of a stellar cast, the series still had Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Janeway and Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine at the center in most episodes.
Jeri Ryan proved to be an asset for the show, driving many viewers, but the attention given to Seven of Nine led to the series sidelining one of the best Vulcans. Tim Russ brought the character of Commander Tuvok to life in the best way possible and the character’s story was also interesting. Alas, he did not get the necessary screentime.
Star Trek: Voyager had to dedicate massive amounts of screentime to Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine
It is an open secret that Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine was conceived so that a younger demographic would come to watch Star Trek: Voyager. The Borg survivor had a lot of screen time dedicated to her as she unlearned everything the Borg had fed her. She shared many sequences with Kate Mulgrew, despite some trouble brewing between the two.
Jeri Ryan’s s*x appeal definitely had its advantages. But it ended up leaving some of the main cast, who were there before season 4, to be left in the lurch. Characters such as Commander Tuvok and B’Elanna Torres were never fully realized despite their talents and interesting character arcs. A lot of the show’s screen time went into Seven of Nine.
Tim Russ, who was aware of the concentration of Ryan’s character, saw it in a different (and more positive way). He said that because Jeri Ryan joined in the fourth season, her backstories and storylines had to catch up with the others in the cast. Hence, a lot of time was dedicated to her initially. He said to Trek Movie,
With the late coming of Jeri Ryan’s character, they had to get her established and get the backstory on her character up to speed so that she was along with the rest of us. And they focused on her to do that. And it would have taken a few storylines from everybody just getting that process done. That was a decision they made.
Russ also mentioned that some storylines had to be sacrificed for that to take place and that it happened all the time.
Sidelining Tim Russ was a terrible decision taken by Star Trek: Voyager, but there was a reason for that
Tim Russ as Commander Tuvok is one of the most underrated performances in the franchise. He may not be the most famous Vulcan, but he definitely was among the best, and Star Trek: Voyager’s treatment of him was a mistake. However, the popularity of the show and his association with it did reportedly get him a lot of jobs over the years.
Many stated that Russ was probably one of the only actors to have understood the Vulcan culture the best and his performance speaks to that. While the show was busy with Jeri Ryan, missing out on such characters was collateral damage. Russ had a simple reason as to why it happened,
We introduced other characters, like Seven of Nine, later on in the series, which I think changed the dynamic of how many storylines were going to be allotted to everyone. Plus, we had nine people in the cast. So that’s nine characters to all have backstories and storylines. And then some of them are ensemble storylines. It doesn’t leave a tremendous amount of room for everybody to get that many storylines that are interesting or different, and we don’t know how many stories they might have broken that were not used.
He mentioned that it was part of the process in show business and that he was happy with the few storylines he did get where his character was fully explored.
Star Trek: Voyager is available to stream on Paramount+.
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