How Star Trek: Voyager’s Seven of Nine Explores The Narrative Of Learned Humanity
Star Trek has never shied away from tackling problematic issues, from moral gray areas to literally committing accidental biological genocide (looking at you, Janeway), all while exploring. They have always boldly gone where no one has gone before, tackling huge typical issues such as discrimination and diversity (in terms of gender, race, and culture), but they also explore more philosophical questions, often involving a certain omniscient trickster. One of the biggest questions they tackle, time and time again, is what it means to be human.
The most obvious examples of this stems from characters such as Data or Voyager's Doctor, synthetic beings that were created for service functions. Not only are they not classified as human, but they aren't really even classified as being alive — at least not at first. Once they grow and evolve, they explore what it means to be human, although they are constantly straddling the line between perceived humanity, wrapped up with emotion and feeling, and simply replicating human behavior.
Star Trek: How Portrayals Of The Borg Have Changed Since Their First Appearance
While synthetic life is a specific example of learned humanity, there are biological examples that are equally interesting to explore. Before getting to the character Seven of Nine, potentially one of the most interesting examples, it’s key to look at alien lifeforms that adapt the narrative of humanity. Humans in the Star Trek universe are strange and complex beings, with seemingly far more emotional and characteristic range than other life forms. Aliens that appear through the franchise are often simply personified aspects of humanity, rather than fully fleshed out and unique emotionally diverse cultures. As a result of
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