Star Trek: Picard Made Raffi And Seven Lesbians Because They Looked Hot Together
In a new interview, Michelle Hurd explained the origins of Raffi's relationship with Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Discovery.
Star Trek: Picard, which debuted earlier this year on CBS All Access, has had its share of returning Star Trek characters, from Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker, Brent Spiner as Data, and of course, Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. One of the biggest surprises, however, was the appearance of Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager. Even more surprising was the reveal that Seven of Nine had started a romantic relationship with a member of Picard’s crew, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). In a new interview, Hurd explained the origins of this relationship, and it’s not because of character development or good storytelling.
In an interview with Screen Rant, Hurd said the decision to put Seven of Nine and Raffi in a relationship was simply because Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd looked good together. It seems as though the writers of Star Trek: Picard saw them standing near each other at a comic book convention and that’s when inspiration struck. Hurd says in the interview of this new relationship:
“We kind of knew it was coming. Our writers are so phenomenal. The whole world of Star Trek is that all of our writers and producers and everyone involved is receptive to the world, right? To what’s happening in the world, and what’s happening to that, and they put it in the scripts. And I will say that we were all at a comic con and Jeri [Ryan] and I were just hanging out, and one of our cast members took a picture of us. We were both looking good, whatever, and [the photo] goes back to our producers and writers and literally, you could just see them looking at that picture and they were like [makes whispering sounds]. It just made them go, “Wait! This could be a possibility”. So they sort of floated it to us and we were like, “all good!”
The relationship between Seven of Nine and Raffi was only teased at near the end of Star Trek: Picard’s first season, so one would imagine that this thread will be picked up in Season Two. As of right now, both Hurd and Ryan are both scheduled to appear in the show’s second season, although it doesn’t seem as though Ryan is joining the main cast in the upcoming season.
Very little is known about what else is coming in Star Trek: Picard’s second season, although there have been a few hints here and there. In an interview with Wil Wheaton, Stewart said that the first four episodes of the next season are unlike anything he’s read for Star Trek before and that these episodes feature unexpected situations.
As previously mentioned, Star Trek: Picard has been a reunion of sorts for many characters within the Star Trek universe. While nothing has been confirmed quite yet, earlier this year, Stewart did appear on The View and asked Whoopi Goldberg if she would reprise her role of Guinan for Star Trek: Picard’s second season. Goldberg said that she would accept the invitation to appear on the next season, with Goldberg saying, “Star Trek was one of the great experiences, from beginning to the end.” Goldberg appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation with Stewart from 1988 to 1993.
Production for Star Trek: Picard has also been pushed back, due to the difficulties of shooting during the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems likely that the series will shoot next year, and would probably also be released on CBS All Access later in the year. Considering CBS has also been airing Star Trek: Discovery on CBS, due to a lack of new programs made during the pandemic, it’s also highly possible that the network could also bring Star Trek: Picard to CBS as well.
It will be some time before viewers get to see the future of Seven of Nine and Raffi, but it seems as though it is an idea that the writers have had on their minds for quite some time, so hopefully, their story will get a solid arc behind it in Star Trek: Picard’s second season, whenever that occurs.
