10 Terrible Decisions That Led To Star Trek Losing Key Players
4. Star Trek Voyager Needs Ratings So Either Jen Or Garrett Is Getting The Chop
While it is now well known that Seven of Nine was brought on board the ship to boost the show's ratings, the character was something of a late in the day addition.
Voyager's third season suffered from low ratings and had originally been due to conclude with Year of Hell, yet the Scorpion plotline was hastily written to introduce Seven and save the show.
The producers didn't want to raise the number of main cast members to 10 and so the two names that were circulated for dismissal were Garrett Wang and Jennifer Lien.
However, during the summer hiatus, Wang was selected as one the 50 Most Beautiful People for 1997. Rather than swing the sword down on him, they brought it down on Lien instead. The Gift was written as her send off, and that was that.
While Jeri Ryan was an excellent addition to the show, the manner in which Star Trek lost Jennifer Lien is still something of a sour note, made only slightly better by her catharsis in the season six episode Fury.