icheb on voyager

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Child's Play

• Episode aired Mar 8, 2000

When Icheb's parents are located, Seven of Nine should be overjoyed, but instead does not believe their tale of Icheb's original assimilation. When Icheb's parents are located, Seven of Nine should be overjoyed, but instead does not believe their tale of Icheb's original assimilation. When Icheb's parents are located, Seven of Nine should be overjoyed, but instead does not believe their tale of Icheb's original assimilation.

• Michael Vejar
• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Michael Piller
• Kate Mulgrew
• Robert Beltran
• Roxann Dawson
• 11 User reviews
• 4 Critic reviews

• Capt. Kathryn Janeway

• Cmdr. Chakotay

• Lt. B'Elanna Torres

• Ensign Tom Paris

• Seven of Nine

• Ensign Harry Kim

• (as Mark A. Sheppard)

• Naomi Wildman

• Voyager Computer
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Mark Sheppard (Leucon, the father of Icheb) is the son of fellow Voyager guest star William Morgan Sheppard , making him one of the few children of a Star Trek guest actor to appear on Star Trek.
• Goofs Seven says she never saw her parents after they were assimilated. In fact she later saw her father (as a drone) at the Borg Queen chamber in the episode "Dark Frontier."

[first lines]

Captain Kathryn Janeway : [looking over Rebi's and Azan's science project] Why potatoes?

Seven of Nine : Their first idea was to clone Naomi, but I suggested they start with something smaller.

• Connections Featured in Star Trek: First Contact Review (2009)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Voyager - Main Title (uncredited) Written by Jerry Goldsmith Performed by Jay Chattaway

User reviews 11

• Sep 13, 2018
• March 8, 2000 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 44 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• Memory Beta continuity database
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• Starfleet personnel (25th century)
• Starfleet cadets
• Starfleet ensigns
• Starfleet command division personnel
• Starfleet first officers
• USS Voyager personnel
• 24th century births
• Deep Space Station K-7 personnel
• Starfleet commanders
• 1.1 Early life
• 1.2 Return to Earth
• 1.3 Starfleet Academy
• 1.4 Death at Vergessen
• 1.5.1 Starfleet commission
• 1.6 25th century
• 1.7 Alternate realities
• 2.1 Connections
• 2.2 Appearances
• 2.3 External links

Biography [ ]

Early life [ ].

Icheb was born on the Brunali homeworld in the latter half of the 24th century . Prior to 2376, Icheb's people sacrificed him to the Borg , in order to halt the Collective's attacks on their world. In doing so, Icheb was assimilated, and became one with the Collective, and was immediately placed in a maturation chamber due to his immaturity.

Return to Earth [ ]

When the USS Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant in 2378 and a Borg nano-virus erupted on Earth , Icheb (along with Seven of Nine ) was taken into custody by Starfleet Security . During this time, he was prevented from regenerating normally and his Brunali physiology re-asserted itself. Shortly afterward, his remaining Borg implants were surgically removed, and he enrolled in Starfleet Academy . ( VOY novel : Homecoming )

Starfleet Academy [ ]

Icheb was admitted into Starfleet Academy a semester after Voyager' s return to Federation space.

Death at Vergessen [ ]

In 2386 , Icheb was kidnapped and taken to Vergessen , where a surgeon hired by Bjayzl harvested his Borg parts while he was still alive. Seven of Nine arrived on Vergessen, killed the surgeon but arrived too late to save Icheb. She euthanized Icheb, at his insistence. ( PIC episode : " Stardust City Rag ")

First Splinter timeline [ ]

In 2378, Icheb watched over Naomi Wildman as she herself began at the Academy. ( VOY novel : Unworthy )

Icheb was in his fourth and final year at the Academy by September 2381 . ( VOY novel : The Eternal Tide )

In late 2381 , Icheb was recruited by Chakotay to participate in a ritual known as Pacrathar through which Icheb, Chakotay, and Seven would be joined mentally. The ritual was intended to draw Seven out of a comatose-like state which she had entered following the trauma of the Caeliar absorption of the Borg into their gestalt and the death of her Aunt Irene Hansen . The ritual worked and Seven was rescued from the psychological break, thanking Icheb and asking him to watch over Naomi during Seven's absence from Earth. ( VOY novel : Unworthy )

Starfleet commission [ ]

Ensign Icheb in 2382 .

In 2382 , Fleet Admiral Leonard James Akaar promoted Icheb to the rank of Ensign and assigned him to the Project Full Circle fleet. ( VOY novel : Atonement )

Ensign Icheb served as personal assistant to fleet chief engineer B'Elanna Torres . When she became pregnant, he took over more of her responsibilities. Later that year, USS Vesta chief engineer Phinnegan Bryce requested to involve Icheb in a special engineering project. Commander Malcolm Roach was aware of the blossoming romance between Icheb and Bryce, but Lieutenant Bryce convinced his superior officer that the reasons to include Icheb were practical in nature. ( VOY novel : Architects of Infinity )

By 2385 , Icheb had been adopted by Annika Hansen and was continuing his course work at Starfleet Academy. ( STO website : The Path to 2409 )

25th century [ ]

Icheb was mentioned in a letter from Commander Naomi Wildman, sent on stardate 85563.8 (July 25, 2408 ) to her mother Samantha Wildman . Naomi received command of Deep Space Station K-7 and noted she had confidence in her crew, which included Lieutenant Commander Icheb as first officer . ( STO novel : The Needs of the Many )

This letter was published, with Naomi and Samantha's consent, in Jake Sisko 's anthology The Needs of the Many in 2423 . ( STO novel : The Needs of the Many )

By 2409 , Icheb still held the rank of Lieutenant Commander and remained first officer of Deep Space Station K-7. ( STO mission : " Neutral Zone Diplomacy ")

Icheb in 2409

Alternate realities [ ]

Icheb in an alternate timeline

In an alternate timeline created when Chakotay traveled to the future due to his body being charged with chroniton particles, Icheb was still on Voyager , and had been given a commission as a Lieutenant Commander in the command division by 2394 . Icheb and Lieutenant Naomi Wildman helped Chakotay return to his own time. ( VOY episode : " Shattered ")

In a timeline affected by the Q Continuum 's temporal anomaly crisis , versions of that lieutenant commander, and of Icheb from 2377 , appeared in local space around 2380 and joined Starfleet to help resolve the crisis and related events. ( ST video game : Timelines )

Appendices [ ]

Connections [ ], appearances [ ], external links [ ].

• Icheb article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Icheb article at The Star Trek Online Wiki .
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• 3 Wesley Crusher

Star Trek: Who Is Icheb?

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The story of Icheb in the Star Trek universe symbolizes the franchise's fundamental themes: the quest for individuality, the unwavering strength of the human spirit, and the potential for redemption. His life story, from its inception to its poignant conclusion, stands as a testament to the enduring essence of Gene Rodenberry's creation.

Icheb's journey in Star Trek started as a young Brunali child, born to Yifay and Leucon. He inherited his name from his father, whose middle name was Icheb. His early years were marked by carefree play and dreams of venturing into the unknown cosmos. Yet, the tranquility of his childhood was disrupted when the Borg Collective descended upon his home planet.

RELATED: Star Trek: Important Moments In The Borg's History

In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Collective," viewers are confronted with the harrowing sight of Icheb's ruthless assimilation, a traumatic ordeal that befell him when he was barely a teenager. This event marked the commencement of his arduous journey as a Borg drone.

Assimilation, Liberation, and Redemption

Once assimilated, Icheb's identity was forcibly stripped away as he became just another drone, connected to the hive mind of the Borg . His experiences as a drone were chronicled in various Voyager episodes, shedding light on the dehumanizing effects of assimilation. Despite the Borg's attempts to eradicate his individuality, Icheb retained traces of his former self, a spark of hope that would eventually lead to his liberation.

Icheb's turning point came when he was rescued by the Voyager crew in the episode "Imperfection." It was here that Icheb's journey towards reclaiming his soul began. Under the guidance of Seven of Nine, another former Borg drone who had found her way back to humanity, Icheb started the challenging process of rediscovering his individuality.

One of Icheb's most significant moments on Voyager occurred in "Child's Play," where he bravely stood up against his own parents, who had betrayed him and the Voyager crew. This act showcased his growth and determination to define his own path, even in the face of betrayal.

Icheb's journey towards redemption was also intertwined with the crew's efforts to return to the Alpha Quadrant . In "Endgame," the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager , Icheb played a crucial role in their plan to return home. His willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good and the crew's mission demonstrated his newfound sense of purpose and commitment to his newfound family on Voyager.

Post-Voyager Life

After Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, Icheb's journey did not end. He embarked on a life of service and self-discovery. He joined Starfleet Academy and began training to become an officer. This decision reflected his commitment to the principles of exploration and cooperation that Starfleet represented.

Icheb's character continued to evolve in Star Trek: Picard , where he made a surprise appearance in "Stardust City Rag." In this episode, it was revealed that Icheb had become an informant for Starfleet in the wake of the Romulan supernova crisis . This reveal highlighted his dedication to the greater good and his willingness to put his life on the line for the safety of others.

A Tragic End

Tragically, Icheb's journey took a heart-wrenching turn in "Stardust City Rag." In a cruel twist of fate, he fell into the clutches of heartless criminals who sought to exploit his Borg implants for their own gain. This horrific ordeal subjected Icheb to unbearable pain and suffering.

Despite the agony he endured, Icheb's indomitable spirit and determination shone through one last time. In a moment of incredible strength, he managed to convey crucial information to Seven of Nine before his injuries overwhelmed him.

As Icheb lay mortally wounded, tormented by excruciating pain, he made a plea to Seven. With immense compassion, she held him close and, at his request, brought an end to his suffering by using her phaser at point-blank range. In those solemn moments, she whispered, "I'm so sorry... my child," a heartbreaking farewell that underscored the deep bond between them.

Icheb's death was a devastating moment for Star Trek fans. It marked the loss of a character who had grown from a traumatized Borg drone into a symbol of hope and redemption. His sacrifice, though tragic, served as a reminder of the enduring values of Star Trek , where individuals can find redemption and meaning even in the darkest of circumstances.

Icheb's Legacy

Icheb's journey from a frightened young boy to a courageous hero is a testament to Star Trek 's enduring themes of hope, resilience, and the indomitable spirit of the individual. His character arc, spanning multiple series and episodes, remains a striking example of the transformative power of self-discovery and the capacity for redemption, even in the face of the most daunting challenges.

As Star Trek continues to explore new frontiers and tell captivating stories, Icheb's legacy stands out. It serves as a reminder that, in the end, it is humanity’s (or any sentient species') individuality, ability to grow, and capacity for selflessness that define us as true heroes.

MORE: What Was Seven Of Nine Doing Between Voyager & Picard?

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EXCLUSIVE: Manu Intiraymi Talks ‘Voyager’, The Convention Scene, The Circuit

TrekNews.net recently caught up with Manu Intiraymi (“Icheb” from Star Trek: Voyager ) to talk about his time on the show, life after Voyager , and his unique, multi-genre fan-focused Kickstarter project, The Circuit .

Intiraymi came onto Voyager in 2000 as “Icheb,” the young man who had been a Borg drone before joining the Voyager crew. A novice, 22-year-old actor at that point, Intiraymi related the story of how he landed the role.

“I was cast on Voyager by a man named Ron Sterma, and Ron gave me my first job ever on a movie called Senseless with David Spade and Marlon Wayne in 1998,” said Intiraymi. “I was working with them and it was my first job. I was nervous, because I wasn’t from Los Angeles. I was from out of town. I was blown away by the spectacle of a movie production. Suddenly I’m working with two famous people. This was the real deal. I did so many takes that I remember the director started yelling to nobody on set in particular, ‘This horrible actor, what’s this guy’s problem?’ The director grabbed me by the shoulders and got in my face. It was just a horrible day. But that got back to Ron, that I was terrible, so two years later I’m auditioning for Voyager and my agent and Ron are getting a pedicure together, and my agent tells Ron that I’m auditioning for Voyager . Ron says, ‘Oh not that guy, he was awful! We can’t hire him.’ My agent got mad and yelled at him, and the lady who was doing his pedicure cut his foot, so he used that and said, ‘Ron, I cut my foot, you are going to see my client. I’m bleeding for my client! You are going to at least read him.’ And so they brought me in and I read.”

Intiraymi as Icheb on ‘Voyager’

Even though Intiraymi landed the audition, he still had a long way to go before he would become a recurring character. As it turned out, Icheb was one of five young Borg that joined the Voyager crew at the same time, so the task of sticking with the cast meant Intiraymi needed to prove his ability to the cast and crew.

“At the time, I was auditioning for a character called ‘First,’ the character that was the bad Borg, but I didn’t get the part. But the production crew said they wanted me to play another character, a second Borg,” said Intiraymi. “I was bummed out about it, you know? I wanted to play the bad guy. The bad guy ended up dying and the other Borg ended up staying on ship.

“I don’t know if this is the truth, but I don’t know if they had a plan in set, I don’t know how far ahead they were. All of a sudden, they had five Borg kids on the ship, so what were they going to do with these five kids? I don’t know if they knew. As the episodes went by, after the fourth episode, they found a home for the other kids, and they kept me on board. That felt like a test episode, to see if they would keep my character or not. I think they were testing to see if I could carry an episode. I remember Brannon Braga coming down to the set and shaking my hand and saying, ‘Hey, you’re doing good work on the show, I like having you around.'”

Intiraymi with Jeri Ryan on ‘Voyager’

The episode Intiraymi is referencing is the season six installment called “Child’s Play,” where Icheb returns to his home planet and his parents after being assimilated by the Borg, and subsequently severed by the Voyager crew. This episode is only one of 11 in which Intiraymi would guest star.

Like most actors appearing on Star Trek , a substantial amount of research was needed to become in touch with the lore, characters, and themes that began with the Original Series in 1966. Intiraymi was no exception, and while he had a little exposure to the franchise beforehand, he found a thorough review of previous material was needed.

“I was a fan of the films, but I didn’t watch the shows. I wasn’t up on The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine , but I had watched First Contact and Generations , so I was a Star Trek film fan,” said Intiraymi. “When I got the role, I did a lot of studying, and a lot of watching previous episodes and I got the idea of who everybody on board was. I knew I was going to be working a lot with Robert Picardo (“The Doctor”), and I knew I would work with that hot Borg lady (“Seven of Nine,” as played by Jeri Ryan). That was pretty exciting! Jeri turned out to be just one of the coolest, funniest people to work with.”

Oftentimes, actors coming into a series late into its run aren’t always welcomed on set. Being the “new guy,” additions to a cast have to prove they deserve to work on a show where many people have dedicated much of the previous years. The Voyager cast, however, proved to be more welcoming.

“That was the neatest part about the whole experience. A lot of times, when you come onto a new show as the new guy, the cast sort of treats you on the outs for a while. You have to earn your stripes,” said Intiraymi. “On Voyager , I was immediately welcomed. Everybody was really kind, and they were like, ‘hey new kid, what’s up? You want to run the scene? Can we help you?’ It was a team atmosphere, and it was beautiful. I really haven’t seen it since.”

Soon enough, Icheb proved to be a legitimate Voyager crewmember, and Intiraymi began working with the likes of Kate Mulgrew (“Captain Janeway”), Robert Picardo, and Jeri Ryan. Working with such veteran actors, Intiraymi had his work cut out for him. However, it turned out that, at least in one instance, Intiraymi was able to inject a newfound energy into the aging show and its cast.

“Something happened to me early on that gave me confidence. I found all these actors to be really talented people. I worked with Kate and Jeri and Robert more than anybody else. They were just so good at what they did that I just stole as much as I could from them,” recalled Intiraymi. “I remember maybe four or five episodes in, Robert Picardo pulled me aside and he said, ‘You know, you are one good young actor, you know it? Every once in a while, one of you guest stars comes along and wakes the rest of us up. It makes us glad to be here again. You woke this cast up.’ He gave a pat on the back and walked off. That was so cool.”

Unsurprisingly, Star Trek become a daily occurrence for Intiraymi after Voyager wrapped in 2001. Especially as a regular on the convention circuit, Intiraymi has experienced the best of Star Trek fandom, in addition to working with many cast members from each Star Trek series.

“The neatest thing about the Star Trek experience was when I found myself sitting on stage on the 50 th anniversary of Star Trek, ” related Intiraymi. “On my right is Nichelle Nichols (“Uhura” from The Original Series) , on my left is Walter Koenig ( TOS ‘s “Chekov”), and after Walter was Jonathan Frakes ( TNG ‘s “Riker”). Then all the way to my right was Rod Roddenberry (son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry). It was a magical experience. The audience was asking kick-ass questions and they were giving us all this love. For me, this is from work I did 15 years ago. There’s still all this outpouring of love. It is touching. It just floors you on a regular basis. Sometimes, somebody says something that affects your heart, and just really beautiful things happen because of Star Trek and the convention scene. Star Trek is a gift that keeps on giving. The second year of Voyager , I started on the convention circuit and went to Italy and Rome and all over the world, meeting different fans and cultures. Star Trek really gives you that opportunity to go and meet other cultures. It is a magic thing that men and women have come together and created these shows.”

Intiraymi’s work on Star Trek and his experience on the convention circuit has lead him to a passion project, which is currently in the funding phase on Kickstarter. The project, a multi-genre anthology film called The Circuit , is an attempt at a type of film that has never been done before.  Ten separate stories constitute the film’s plot, and each story is based on either an actor’s or a fan’s experience at a convention. On screen, the film stars several Star Trek alumni, including Deep Space Nine veterans Armin Shimerman (“Quark”), Terry Farrell (“Dax”), J.G. Hertzler (“Martok”), and Hana Hatae (“Molly O’Brien”), as well as Voyager alumni Robert Beltran (“Chakotay”), Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips (“Neelix”), and Tim Russ (“Tuvok”), among both other science fiction actors and other Star Trek actors.

“ The Circuit is 15 years of stories gathered together that I had to tell, mixed with genre television,” said Intiraymi. “I love genre television and I don’t think there’s enough anthology productions. There’s a new show called Black Mirror that is a sci-fi based anthology series, so I thought the perfect mix would be Galaxy Quest meets The Twilight Zone , and then sprinkle in some real truth and real events in there. The audience would have to question how much of this is true.”

The Circuit is a tribute to the fans who have attended convention events over the last 50 years. Thus, it only made sense for the fans to be involved in the creation of the anthology movie. Instead of a cameo role or subtle mention, Intiraymi decided to allow fans to submit scripts for the anthology movie, or even possibly join the production crew. This idea dawned on him in the midst of an actual convention.

“I was standing on stage and I was looking out at the audience. I started making eye contact with the 7,500 people that were there, people that I had shared genuine experiences with. I knew their story, and their stories were interesting and it just dawned on me that it was super important to include the fans. So when we got the project together, we immediately decided to open the writing process to whomever wanted to submit a script.”

Fans who are interested in submitting a screenplay can visit thecircuitfilm.com and follow the directions for submitting their ideas. If you donate to the project’s Kickstarter , you can also send a letter to Intiraymi at [email protected] for a chance to become part of the production team. The film’s producers will choose one fan to join each department on the movie, meaning a few lucky fans can work in the makeup and wardrobe department, or assist the camera operators as they film the movie.

The film already includes crew from many professional projects, including Beowolf , Iron Man , Hellboy , Starship Troopers , and Arrow , as well as Star Trek projects For the Love of Spock and Renegades .

“We really want this to be the most fan-collaborative project anyone has ever done,” said Intiraymi. “I’m really excited and looking forward to see what happens. Hopefully the fans are as excited about the film as we are.”

Fans can donate anywhere from $5 to $10,000, and the project has until October 31 to meet its $200,000 goal. This goal will allow Intiraymi and his team to produce the first story of the anthology, and the team’s ultimate goal of $1.5 million would assure the entire 10-part anthology can be produced. Assuming the original $200,000 goal is met, the first installment of The Circuit is scheduled to arrive in Spring 2017.

Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

August 22, 2019 at 8:31 pm

cool guy. he commented on my fan art several times.

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Interview: Manu Intiraymi On ‘The Circuit,’ and Life as Icheb on the Set of ‘Star Trek: Voyager’

| May 20, 2017 | By: Anthony Pascale 8 comments so far

Since his time playing the former Borg drone Icheb during the last two seasons of Star Trek: Voyager , Manu Intiraymi has stayed active with acting roles, but in the last few years he has also turned to producing. His latest project is The Circuit, for which he’s currently seeking crowdfunding for a pilot via Kickstarter . His bigger plan is to eventually make a 10-episode season telling different stories with different sub-genres, along the lines of Black Mirror , The Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories . Star Trek luminaries attached to  The Circuit  include Walter Koenig (TOS), Terry Farrell (DS9), Armin Shimerman (DS9), Ethan Phillips (VOY), Robert Picardo (VOY) and Robert Beltran (who TrekMovie recently interviewed ). TrekMovie talked with Intiraymi about The Circuit and his time on Voyager .

Before we get to The Circuit , let’s start with your last project, the sci-fi horror film 5 th Passenger , which was also successfully crowdfunded.

5 th Passenger was about me being angry at crowdfunding in general. It was during the time of the Trek fan film debacles, but there were also a few other projects that didn’t come through on their promises and there were a couple of court cases beyond the Trek stuff and I remember being pissed about all of that. I got together with my buddy Scotty Baker who had written this sci-fi script that took place in a small escape pod that has blown off this mega-ship, and most of the film takes place on the pod. And we had wanted to make it for about five years and talking about how to get it done, then finally Scotty found these sets from Marc Zicree’s Space Command film that were still up and he said “we could shoot here if we raised the money in four months, could we do that?” There were space hallways and a bridge and a sort of sick-bay looking set, which would save us around $150,000. So I got Tim Russ to come on board and Marina Sirtis and Doug Jones to come on board and later Armin Shimerman.

We decided to crowdfund and raised close to $75,000, and then did another for post-production for a total of about $100,000, but god bless our producer Morgan Loriah who was able to match those funds many times over, and we were able to make a beautiful film that the fans sparked. I am really gassed for people to see it. We are five weeks away from submitting it for the first screening in Toronto a couple of months from now. I think we will sell it right away. We have already talked to Syfy and we’ve got meetings with Lionsgate and we made a really, really strong film. I think the fans are going to be blown away.

So essentially the same team moved from 5 th Passenger to The Circuit ?

Yeah. The unit production manager, the director, the camera guys, the director of photography and a bunch of the same team came over. I also teamed up with these guys who made this World War II movie I was in called Fortress and their digital effects team Radical 3D. These guys worked on Iron Man and Planes and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow . I also teamed up with James Bird who directed a film called Honeyglue , which people should really see. It is the essence of what The Circuit is really about. It’s about bringing heart back to science fiction instead of lasers and robots and explosions. And also Ryan Eggold, who just directed his first big budget film [ Literally, Right Before Aaron ] with myself and Justin Long and John Cho in it. So he came on board to direct, so we have a really talented crew from three different projects to create this sort of anthology series.

You have already passed your initial goal to fund The Circuit pilot and the campaign ends on Monday so you will be making something for sure right? And do you know which actors would be in that pilot?

No doubt we are going to make something. The question is whether we can get to the level where we can get matched funds to make a mini-series off the bat or whether we are just going to start with the pilot and give the Kickstarter people what we promised. We would probably start shooting in September regardless. We have got six screenplays already and there are two I am juggling right now to decide which to do first, but Walter Koenig is definitely going to be in the first one and Robert Beltran. There are about eight of us who are almost sure to be in the pilot.

So what is the stretch goal for this final weekend?

The plan for this weekend is to run what we are calling “ The Circuit Challenge .” We have been on the phone with sci-fi fan groups from around the world and fan clubs from every one of our actors from Star Trek , Star Wars , Buffy , Stargate , Lost Girl , The Wonder Years and more. We are trying to get the entire sci-fi community to tune into a 24-hour live show we are doing on Facebook Live on Saturday. A bunch of our actors are going to come on and talk to the fans. There are going to be new trailers. Hundreds of fans have sent in video to tell us why they believe in The Circuit . They have really touched my heart deeply, seeing these videos.

So whether we just shoot a pilot, or if we can pull off some kind of miracle this weekend and get to $150k which would get us to episode two, and with $200k we get matched funds and get a couple of A-list actors who are interested and make this into a major multi-million dollar project and that is the real stretch. The ultimate dream for this show is to be the Game of Thrones of sci-fi anthology for someone like HBO or Amazon or Netflix or somebody who could spend the millions on each episode and keep the fans involved in it.

How will fans be involved?

We have always said this is going to be collaboration with the fan base and professional filmmakers and celebrities. I’ve spent 17 years going to conventions to keep the bills paid when I am not acting or producing and I meet so many creative people making props and kick-ass makeup artists and costume makers and guys doing 3D modeling. Like Tobias Richter from Germany who has this small studio and he is making amazing visual effects out of there and so he did our effects for 5 th Passenger and I met him at FedCon. There are so many people in the community that want to be in movies and TV and they could be.

So if you want to be involved in The Circuit , then plug into The Circuit . Write me at [email protected] and tell my why and how you want to be involved and show me what you do. At the end of the Kickstarter campaign we are going to pick five fans that are amateurs who are passionate and want to learn something and we are also going to pick five fans that have some talents they can offer.

The simple description for The Circuit is it an anthology series of standalone episodes like Amazing Stories or Black Mirror , with a new cast for each episode. But there is a connecting storyline as well?

In all ten of the planned standalone episode there are references to something called “the circuit,” and what it is and how it affects people’s lives. It is something that exists within the future city of Urbiessa where all the episodes are set. We learn a little bit more about what this thing is and what it does through each episode. So it is a story beneath the story. But as you say they are all ten standalone stories. They are all sci-fi, but they are each in a different sub-genre of sci-fi. The interesting thing is to look at the same world, but through a different twist in genre in each episode.

The city of Urbiessa, the setting for The Circuit

Mentoring and love on the set of Voyager

Let’s go back to the dawn of the century when you started your run on Star Trek: Voyager . At the time they had already made literally hundreds of episodes of Star Trek so they had the production end of it pretty nailed down. Was that a learning experience for your later interest in producing?

Not really. I wasn’t intelligent enough. I was just 21-year-old. I was focused just on acting, but it was certainly an acting workshop for sure. Of course because it was my first and longest gig, you learn how to cover a scene and to block and light. You can’t help but pick these things up if you have any sort of interest in how TV and movies are made. But I was very focused on giving a good performance to keep my job, so acting was the priority.

You say it was an acting workshop. Were there specific actors, directors or producers who were particularly influential or helpful?

All of them. There were a lot of things that were so cool about being on Voyager but especially this. A lot of times when you come on to a show as a guest star or a recurring character, the cast will treat you like “oh, you might take time away from me.” This has happened to me. You are only going to be there for a couple of weeks so they don’t even talk to you. It is this competitive actor weirdness and it sucks. On Voyager there wasn’t anyone on that cast who didn’t take care of me. Plus I was a kid, I was 20 or 21, and I was playing a character that was probably more like 17 or 18, and so they all took really good care of me.

I remember in my first episode “ Collective ” I knew about the Borg and had watched First Contact and all the films but not all of the series. I was a fan of Star Trek but I didn’t know all the little things the Borg did and there was this scene where I needed to talk to the collective. And you know there is this thing the Borg do when they talk to the collective where they tilt their head to the left and do that ‘tune into the collective’ thing. I had no idea about that so when that part came up I remember Bobby [Duncan McNeill] said “this is what the Borg do” and he showed me. They were always mentoring.

Jeri [Ryan] and I got along really well. She was an incredible actor. A lot of my scenes were with her and with Kate [Mulgrew]. That was where the main Icheb character scenes were between the Captain, and Seven and the Doctor. And [Robert] Picardo (The Doctor), around the fifth episode in, when we were doing “ Imperfection ,” I put my heart and my soul into that episode. That episode was about sacrificing something for your family; what would you give up for your loved ones? For me when I see a good piece of television or a movie that rocks me and floors me and makes me feel connected to my fellow human beings, it is the biggest rush.

I knew when I read that episode it was going to have an effect on the world if I did my job so I put my heart into it. And I remember for that final scene where I am screaming at Seven and the Captain and the Doctor and I am going to do this. You are going to take this and try to save her and you don’t have a choice. “Isn’t that what people on this ship do? They help each other.” So after the scene I was huffing and puffing and crying and I had rehearsed my ass off and Robert Picardo took me aside and he said “well young man, every once in a while one of you recurring people come on and it is a pleasure to have you. You really wake us up. You have woken this cast up. You made us all remember why we are here. Thank you, young man.” And then he walked off and right now I am still getting emotional thinking about it. I was kid man, and Robert Picardo was like a stud to me. So getting that from him, I was like, “Oh my god, he thinks I can act.”

And I got that from the whole cast of Voyager . It was a family to me and there is no bullshit to that. There was a really loving energy on that set. The boys had a lot of fun but when the Captain came on set we stopped having so much fun. But not in a bad way, in a good way because we respected her. We would fart around a lot and waste the producers’ time, but when she came to set it was like, “Okay boys, time to work.” It was incredible. It was a great two years.

Manu Intiraymi with Jeri Ryan and Kate Mulgrew in Voyager’s “Imperfection”

Icheb: from Borg brat to complete character

You got there in the last two seasons. Was there an element where they were in a bit of a familiar pattern?  

Yeah, but that is why I say it was an actor’s clinic. They had played their characters for six years and I was coming on a recurring character that they were going to give episodes to that I had to hold as the A-story or B-story. So a lot of the episode counted on me and here were these guys and gals that knew their characters so well and could do their characters with their eyes closed. So all the time with the boys they would be off-camera trying to mess each other up – trying to keep each other’s game up. I had to come into that environment and trying to keep up and I was just tying to get my game on at the time.

So we had to find ways to have fun. You settle into a character. You don’t necessarily phone it in, but it gets easier and easier to do your scenes and to do your work. I didn’t really get to know who Icheb was until probably first third of season seven. They had had six years of that already. It was second nature to them by that time.

Did you know they would keep bringing you back?

I didn’t know Icheb was going to stick around. That is how they were really tricky. If you go back and watch, Icheb almost dies in about seven of the episodes he was in. Each time I would read the episode I would be like, “Oh, they are killing me off.” And then a couple weeks later they would call and that is how they kept me coming back every other episode and then almost kill me and then bring me back.

So you never knew after an episode if you were ever coming back?

Yeah, all the way to the final episode when I found out, “Cool, I’m in the final one and making it home with the ship.”

You talk about getting to know Icheb. He did have a bit of an arc. Were you satisfied with it, or was there more you would have liked to do?

I was definitely satisfied. They brought me in half way through season six. I thought “Collective” was a fun episode. We got these five kids on a ship and for some reason they were not fully Borg and suddenly they leave four of them on the ship and we already have Naomi Wildman on the ship so now you got five kids with Icheb as a young adult but still one of the kids and the writers didn’t know what to do with them.

I remember the first two or three episodes, Icheb was just a bratty kid. He was like, “No, I don’t want to have game time, I want to do what I want to do.” He was just kind of a brat and it was boring and there wasn’t much there and I remembered thinking I am going to be on this show for two years and they are just going to keep me around to be some kind of brat and rarely use me and that is not going to be fun. But then the episode “ Child’s Play ” where they found and sent me back to my parents and they sent me back to the Borg and Voyager rescued me. It was a very dark episode; I think one of the darkest episodes of Voyager . They looked at this question of whether it is okay to sacrifice your children to send them off to war as a sacrifice. It was a heavy episode.

I think it was a test from [executive producers] Brannon Braga and Rick Berman to see if I could handle the character and to see if the fans wanted to see more of this guy. And I remember a few days into shooting Braga came down to the set and he came up to me out of the blue and said, “I just wanted to shake your hand. You are doing great work on the show so thanks for coming on board.” And I knew then they were going to write for me and this kid was going to stick around and it was going to be fun and from that point on it was.

Of course you always want more – you want to be in every episode – but I was very satisfied. The one thing I never got to do that I wanted to do was a holodeck episode. Icheb was so straight-laced and so serious and I don’t think he cracked a smile except maybe once or twice. I would have liked to do a holodeck episode where he got to play somebody different. Someone with some personality or maybe a Fair Haven thing. I was asked but I was not on high up on the pecking order. But the long and short of it is I got to spend two years on a spaceship and getting beamed up and beamed down for a living. It was awesome and I enjoyed every minute of it. And to be there for that final episode, that was awesome.

Manu Intiraymi with Robert Picardo in Voyager’s “Child’s Play”

Saying goodbye to Voyager and hello to Discovery

What was the mood like for that last episode? Was it sad?

I wasn’t there on the last final day, but I am sure that was gnarly. I remember they were tearing down other sets while we were shooting so there was this weird feeling of finality that this was really it. But I also remember a real jovial sense of “We did it!” and now we were going to go do something else. I remember soaking it all in and saying goodbye to everybody. I never stole anything from Paramount but that day I ripped off my Icheb nose and eyepiece and shoved them in my pocket. And then I went and stood at the end of where both stages of the main ship are where you can see down where ‘ Planet Hell ’ is where they build the different sets and the Delta Flyer and where Astrometrics were. And it was like 11 o’clock and I knew it was going to be the last time I was going to see it all and sort of soaking it all in and being thankful for the experience.

You are a fan of sci-fi and Star Trek, so I assume you have seen the new trailer for Star Trek: Discovery . What did you think of it?

I did see it. What blows my mind is how some of the fanbase are quick to bash it. I was blown away by it. I don’t understand how you can get so opinionated about a hype trailer. It is supposed to be hype and sizzle and shots and fun and just a glimpse. But some of the comments I saw, I was like, “Wow guys.” One I saw said “worst captain ever” and I was like, “You just saw a trailer, man.” One thing I have never understood about this franchise I have been part of is how these die-hard fans who love the show are so quick to dismiss and bash and when it is off the air they are screaming for more.

I loved it. I thought it looked cool. I love Sonequa [Martin-Green], I love Doug Jones who is a friend of mine and I am really glad he is on the show. I loved the captain who was in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [Michelle Yeoh], she was amazing. I was impressed. I know some see inconsistencies like with the Klingons. For me Star Trek has always had inconsistencies and it is always going to. Just watch the show and enjoy the show.

Here is what I hope – and this is what The Circuit is screaming about – is to bring back those conscientious and heartfelt episodes that make you feel and think about the important things in our culture that Star Trek used to do. I really hope they do a few of those each season. And if they do that I will be happy.

Manu Intiraymi in the Star Trek: Voyager finale “Endgame”

The Circuit

Manu Intiraymi is the executive producer of the sci-fi anthology series The Circuit , currently seeking funding via Kickstarter . They have already passed their initial goal of $50,000 but there are more stretch goals for more resources to make a pilot. The Kickstarter campaign closes on May 23rd. The video below featuring Star Trek’s Walter Koenig gives an introduction.

Read more TrekMovie interviews here.

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That was a lovely story about Robert Picardo. It’s nice to read pieces like this that confirm your favorable public perception of someone.

Manu sounds like an energized young man (sorry, I know he’s in his late 30s but he’s still way younger than me!) I will definitely check out his crowd funding pitch for The Circuit.

Gotta love his enthusiasm and I always love hearing stories from the set.

God, I hated the character of Icheb.

As Intiraymi himself says, the character started out as little more than a whiny brat. He turned into a rather interesting sidekick for Seven, though, and was the focus of at least two or three standout episodes the last 3 seasons.

“Imperfection” is a damned good episode, though. Voyager doesn’t always get the credit it deserves.

I always liked the episode where we find out Icheb is a weapon and that his people basically bred children to fight the Borg. Great acting from him in that episode too.

Great guy. Great project. I will support it.

I loved Manu really laying into the fans who are quick to bash Discovery for the sake of it. It’s about time somebody broke it down for the keyboard warriors!

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Published Jan 27, 2011

Where Are They Now? Voyager's Manu Intiraymi

No one can forget Manu Intiraymi. Really, with a name like that, he’s pretty unforgettable. But he was also mighty impressive on Voyager , transforming Icheb – the former Borg / Brunali youth – into a memorable recurring role. Intiraymi is 32 years old now, still acting, and branching out into writing and producing as well. StarTrek.com recently caught up with Intiraymi for a conversation in which he looked back at his days on the U.S.S. Voyager and filled us in on his post- Star Trek life. Heading into your audition for Voyager , what did you know about Star Trek in general and Voyager specifically? Intiraymi: I probably saw the first TOS film with my parents (on video) and I saw the other ones as they came out when I was in my teens. I moved out to L.A. in 1996, so I’d probably seen everything up to Generations and First Contact before I did my Voyager audition. I’d seen a few Voyager episodes. I hadn’t seen any of Deep Space Nine . I actually hadn’t seen a lot of Next Generation . I wasn’t a huge fan, but it was a huge enough show that it was hard not to have seen it a couple of times. But I’d say I was probably an original-cast fan more than anything when I got the audition for Voyager . Before I did my audition, I was aware of Jeri Ryan , because they’d pitched the whole “super-hottie on the new Star Trek show” thing and that had reached my world. And I had a friend named Damien who was a big, big Voyager fan, so I’d caught a few episodes when I was at his house. The episode that stuck out in my mind when I actually went in to audition was the one with the invisible aliens on the ship, and they were all doing experiments on the crew. Finally, Seven did something to where she could suddenly see them. I remember watching that at Damien’s house and thinking, “Wow, this show is really cool.” That episode had kind of a Twilight Zone feel to it and it was very well written. What do you recall of the audition itself? In what ways did they guide you? And did they tell you it was for a role that could/would recur? Intiraymi: No, they didn’t tell me it would be a recurring role. I guess they must have known, right? But I went in for “ Collective ,” and I actually auditioned for First, the bad guy that got killed at the end of that episode. They brought me back, all the way to the producers, to Rick (Berman) and Brannon (Braga) and the director, who was Allison Liddi. I got the role and then, when my character didn’t die off, I got a call about a month later saying, “Hey, would you like to do another episode?” Then I got another call a couple of weeks after that and another call after that. That was season six, and when I was still getting called about episodes when season seven started, I figured, “Hey, I think I’m going to be on this show for a while.” You ended up appearing in 11 episodes and Icheb actually had a pretty full story arc. How pleased were you by the character’s evolution? Intiraymi: Ultra-pleased. No one’s going to say they wouldn’t want more, but I can’t be anything but humble for that whole experience. It was awesome. The first couple of episodes, I was a little bummed that Icheb was as whiny as he was and I was really hoping that they’d develop it into somebody who wasn’t just a cranky kid, and they immediately did so. It wasn’t like I said anything. It wasn’t my place, you know? But I was happy, man. Icheb was fun. Which episode stands out most for you? Intiraymi: Most of us who act or paint or write or make music think of ourselves as artists, and we all want to make a piece of art that affects people in a big way, that touches people in some way, shape or form, that makes them feel something. I’ve been in this business about 15 years and I’ve probably done 30 or 40 projects now, and not many of them can I say, “Wow, I know that that affected a lot of people.” I had that with one particular episode, “Imperfection,” where I gave my cortical node to Seven. It wasn’t that I felt it making the episode or that I even saw it watching the episode, but going around to the cons over the years a lot of people have told me that that episode affected them in an emotional way, that their brother or sister or mom was going through a kidney operation or a transplant of some kind, and something in “ Imperfection ” touched them. Any time someone tells me that, even now, it rocks me to the core because it’s why I do what I do. So, “Imperfection” is the episode I’m most proud of. I know it did what I want to do with my life. Most of your scenes on Voyager were with Jeri Ryan. How was your working relationship with her? Intiraymi: She was awesome. I was a young man and I was full of angst because she was such a hot chick, but I couldn’t flirt with her, of course, first of all because she’s 10 years older – though I don’t care about that – but also because she was dating Brannon (Braga). Luckily I figured that one out real quick and didn’t get fired for flirting with Jeri. I always make that joke, but really she was fun and has a great personality and kind of a contagious laugh. She’s a cool woman. So it was fun. Plus, she forced you to bring your best. That whole group was like that. There wasn’t a lot of ego, either. They were a bunch of consummate professionals and getting to work with them – Bob (Picardo), Kate (Mulgrew), Jeri – was like a dream. You’ve continued to work since you wrapped Voyager . What do you have going on now? Intiraymi: I’ve got a WWII film coming out later this year that I’m excited about. It’s called Fortress , and it’s about a plane called Lucky Lass, which flew 17 missions in WWII, from Africa over Italy, and it’s about the crew and the life of Irish-Americans flying those planes in WWII. I play the lead role of Charlie O’Hare, the medic and operator. So it’s a lot of bullets and blood and CGI. I did a romantic comedy recently that’s called Driving by Braille , which is with Ryan Eggold and Tammin Sursok and Steven Bauer, and that might make a splash. It’s a cute comedy for teens. And I did a short called Expired , which is just crazy, and no one’s seen me do anything like it before. It’ll be on the film festival circuit, so hopefully people will get a chance to see that. And I’ve also made a movie called Zah – A Pizza Movie , that I wrote and produced. We spent about $12,000 on it, and it’s a first movie, but I’m really, really proud of it. It was like my film school and hopefully it’ll lay the foundation for me to do more writing and producing and also directing. That’s the ultimate goal, to do it all. And if someone really wants to see Zah, they can go to [email protected], send $20 and their address, and we’ll ship ‘em a copy. I’ve got about 300 copies left.

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While most people cite Seven of Nine as the most memorable Borg in Star Trek , one character that was often by her side was Icheb, her adopted, pseudo-son in season 7. After running into a derelict cube, the Voyager away team found Icheb and five other Borg children as the only survivors. Seven of Nine and the crew took the children in, de-assimilated them, and tried to care for them while attempting to find them homes.

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Most of the children left Voyager, but not Icheb. He went with Seven all the way to Earth. He spent several years as her family in the Alpha Quadrant, before tragically losing his life to Borg poachers. Unfortunately, that's what led Seven of Nine to become the more cutthroat vigilante that she is in Picard . In memory of this unique and well-meaning guy, here are ten things you didn't know about Icheb.

A Living Borg Virus

While the Federation view the Borg as a tremendous, but relatively far off threat, the people of the Delta Quadrant live in constant fear. The Borg regularly harvest their planets for new drones.

On Icheb's home planet, the Borg leave the planet relatively alone as long as the people keep offering up genetic material and children. Eventually, this planet of plant and human geneticists decided to use their skills to try to destroy the Borg. They created a son, Icheb, to be a living weapon against the Borg. His DNA hid a virus that deconstructed their programs and processes, capable of destroying whole cubes. They even tried to do it again, once Icheb returned to them.

One Of Six Borg Children

When Icheb 's internal virus shut down and broke his Borg Cube, the only survivors were him and five other Borg children (including an infant). As they were tucked away in maturation chambers, they didn't get affected by the terrible effects of the virus and were eventually trying to run the cube on their own.

After getting detached from the Borg hive mind, Icheb and the others were under Seven of Nine's care. A large amount of young minds overwhelmed the fairly recent ex-Borg, but they all worked together to figure out more about what humanity meant to them. Except "First". His arrogance led him to an early grave.

"Dated" B'Elanna Torres

Much like Seven, Icheb struggled with a lot of social cues and proper interpretation. When he was learning science from several officers, he took B'Elanna Torres' compliments on his engineering as flirting. Icheb misunderstood the cues so much that, after B'Elanna invited him to rock-climbing for fun he assumed they were dating, even though she was married to Tom Paris.

He also even thought Tom joking about how much time he spent with B'Elanna was a Klingon challenge. Overwhelmed, Icheb "broke up" with B'Elanna, saying they couldn't see each other anymore. Understanding how confused the poor boy was, B'Elanna didn't argue and accepted that their "relationship" was over.

Saved Seven Of Nine's Life

During her time on Voyager , Seven slowly started growing more and more human components to make up for the Borg tech inserted in her. However, that did cause some trouble. For example, at one point it made her cortical node start to fail. Icheb and the Doctor correctly assessed that only some transplanting of a different Borg cortical node could save her.

RELATED: Star Trek: 10 Crazy Seven of Nine Theories That Were Actually Confirmed

Even though it put his own node and life in danger, Icheb happily offered up his safety to try to save Seven. And, luckily, the procedure worked. While both of them struggled to understand the connection in more human terms, they still cared deeply for one another, enough to put their lives in danger.

Dreamed Of Joining Starfleet

The closer Voyager got to the Alpha Quadrant, the more everyone on ship dreamed of what they would do once they got there. Over time, Icheb came to greatly admire the Starfleet officers around him. because of that, he decided that he wanted to join Starfleet when they went back. He even started some of his training while on their way, learning from Harry Kim, B'Elanna Torres, and Seven of Nine herself.

In an alternate future, he also became one of the key members of Voyager while it still struggled to get back to Earth. During the real timeline, he did become a Starfleet officer but lost his life while in the uniform.

Beat A Vulcan in Kal-toh

Where the writers made a lot of mistakes with Wesley as this super-genius, they did a lot better with Icheb. He knew he was smart, but he was wildly curious and wasn't full of himself. His curiosity and social struggles made him more down to earth and complex. After all, when the kid beat a Vulcan in Kal-toh his first time, he insisted it was beginner's luck.

But, that really just shows how intelligent he is. He can pick up most anything mathematical or scientific with ease because of the linear, logical way his brain works. The Borg made him that way. Now, is he any good at art? No clue. But let's just give him this cool win against Tuvok.

Expert in Astrophysics and Genetics

The longer Icheb spent on Voyager, the more knowledge he gained. After all, between the lack of other children (after the others left) and the busy work-load of the ship, there was a lot to do. He slowly started to gain quite a few responsibilities and exceeded expectations of him.

Because of all the science happening around him and the holes in the ship's roster, Icheb eventually became a quick expert in the astrometric lab with his adopted family, Seven, as well as in genetics, the traditional science of his people. By the time they got back to Earth, he was a highly skilled young man ready to join Starfleet with a lot of real experience under his belt.

Friends With Q Jr.

One of the other properly aged friends that Icheb ever made was Q Junior, a rebellious young man who caused way more trouble than he was worth (at first). However, over time, his relationship with Janeway and "Itchy" as he called him opened the kid up. They learned that he really struggled with having no structure and no one to believe in him. Icheb and Janeway eventually put him on a better path.

RELATED: 5 Things In Star Trek: Voyager That Make No Sense (And 5 Fan Theories That Do)

That is until he almost got Icheb destroyed because of his bad reaction to his father being a bad dad. Either way, no matter how much trouble their friendship was, Icheb and Q Jr. were fast friends that changed each other's lives forever.

Admired Captain Kirk

Despite his more rigid and science-oriented mind, Icheb came to admire Captain Kirk quite a lot during his studies on Voyager. For class, he even wrote a 35-page essay on the guy. Considering how much of a passionate charmer the captain was, it's a fascinating person for Icheb to admire.

Perhaps, much like Spock, he really appreciated Kirk's mastery of things that were difficult for him. Janeway did ask him never to write such a long essay ever again, though. While Kirk was a new and fascinating captain to Icheb, from the Delta Quadrant, Janeway probably read more than enough on him in her time.

Seven's Second "Son"

Part of the tragedy of losing Icheb was that he was the only person Seven considered family. Unlike the other Borg children, who she still cared about, Icheb was the one who went all the way back to Earth with her. They were outsiders from the Delta Quadrant and they leaned on each other.

However, Icheb wasn't her only child. In an early Seven of Nine episodes, a collection of her nanites collected some DNA and created a proverbial womb in sick-bay, eventually growing into a full-blown, future tech Borg. And like Icheb, she had to watch that child of hers lose their life in front of her.

NEXT: Star Trek: Seven of Nine's Tragic Story Deserves Its Own Spin-Off

The Untold Truth Of Seven Of Nine

Some of the most popular good guys are former bad guys. In  Star Trek , there's no more perfect example of this than Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine — a former member of the villainous Borg who became a fan favorite character on  Star Trek: Voyager . 

One of the more singular aspects of Seven's character is how popular she became in spite of how late she showed up. Seven of Nine isn't introduced to Voyager  until the season 4 premiere. Few regular characters introduced so late in a  Trek  series have proven quite so successful. But while her sex appeal, her ongoing struggles to resolve her Borg upbringing with her humanity, and her more badass posturing proved a hit with fans, it's clear her introduction to  Voyager  wasn't universally embraced behind the camera. 

Regardless, Seven of Nine's popularity endures. Not only does she remain one of fans' most beloved Trek  heroes of the past, her story has proven to continue beyond  Voyager  to the franchise's 21st century series. To learn about how a character named after a couple of numbers could earn so much adulation, keep reading for the untold truth of Seven of Nine.

Seven was inspired by an earlier episode

The special feature "Braving the Unknown" on Star Trek: Voyager 's season 4 home release reveals where the idea for Seven of Nine came from. Brannon Braga — a producer and writer on  Voyager — says the notion of a Borg character joining the crew came to him while watching an ad for the season 3 episode "Unity." 

In the episode, Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) finds a planet of Borg who have been disconnected from the Collective. Unfortunately, conflict rages on the planet as rivalries between different species re-emerge once ties to the Borg have been severed. An ex-Borg human named Riley (Lori Hallier) wants  Voyager 's help to create a new collective on the planet in order to restore harmony. In the meantime, Riley and other ex-Borgs temporarily connect Chakotay to their collective in order to heal life-threatening wounds and, eventually, to use that connection to force  Voyager 's First Officer to help them. Fittingly, Chakotay's experience in "Unity" becomes crucial in Voyager 's early dealings with Seven of Nine. 

Braga said after watching the promo for "Unity" he called other  Voyager  writer/producer Joe Menosky and co-creator Rick Berman "to make sure it wasn't a stupid idea." The consensus was that it was just the opposite. Braga said he and Berman "talked about it for a couple of hours and we just thought, 'This is a really cool idea. This could be really just the thing we need."

Seven, Ambassador of Borg

When Seven of Nine first comes aboard  Voyager , she isn't there as a friend. She first appears in "Scorpion, Part II," the season 4 premiere of  Voyager . 

Upon entering the area of space dominated by the Borg — a necessary hurdle on their journey back home — the crew of  Voyager  discovers that the Borg have bitten off more than they can chew. A race of vicious extra-dimensional aliens known only as Species 8472 is waging war on the Borg and winning. Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) decides to use this to her advantage. After the Doctor (Robert Picardo) devises a technology that can defeat Species 8472, Janeway offers it to the Borg in exchange for safe passage through their space. The Borg assign Seven of Nine — a human assimilated when she was a child — to act as liaison to  Voyager 's crew. 

Once Species 8472 is defeated, Seven of Nine predictably turns on the crew of  Voyager . She tells them their agreement is over and the Borg will assimilate the ship and her crew. Expecting the betrayal, Janeway signals for her secret plan to be put in motion. Elsewhere on the ship, the Doctor puts a neuro-transceiver on Chakotay's neck which — because of his previous experience with ex-Borg — the First Officer is able to use to connect with Seven and distract her while Lt. Torres (Roxann Dawson) cuts Seven's connection to the Collective. 

Barbie of Borg

It didn't take long for some fans to call Seven of Nine " Barbie of Borg" among other, more explicit nicknames. The jokes suggested some fans thought Seven of Nine was brought on board mainly for sex appeal. From what we've heard from the creators and actors since  Voyager 's finale, it seems clear they weren't all that wrong. After all, while Brannon Braga's initial conception was just for a Borg crew member, when talking about that inspiration on the  Voyager  season 4 home release, he said it was co-creator Rick Berman who said "Make it a Borg babe." 

Jeri Ryan has no illusions about how much sex appeal played into her character's popularity, but she also feels her character offered a lot more regardless. Speaking to  HuffPost  in 2012, Ryan said , "I don't have a problem with Seven's overtly sexual physical appearance, if only because of the way she was written and developed. If it was a crappy character, then OK. But she was so nuanced and beautifully written."

Ryan has a point. After all, once she's introduced on  Voyager , so many stories revolve around Seven and her relationships with the rest of the crew. Without a layered, interesting character, none of those stories would have been possible. Fans may have shown up for the "eye candy," but they stayed for the stories.

She was meant to die

Making recurring appearances on  Star Trek: Picard , Seven of Nine is one of the only  Voyager  regular characters to show up in the franchise after the show's finale. It's ironic, considering that Brannon Braga planned for her to be one of the only regular characters to not even survive  Voyager . 

Speaking to  TrekCore  in 2013, Braga fielded a question about some fans feeling  Voyager  had "de-fanged" the Borg as villains. After talking about the Borg for a bit, he revealed his own ideas for Seven's fate: "I think Seven of Nine should have bit the dust. I think there had to be a real sacrifice for this crew getting home; a real blood sacrifice. Seven of Nine was, for me, designed to be a character that was gonna die tragically. I planned that."

He went on to describe how he planned for that death to take place, mentioning "Human Error," one of the final season's later episodes. Seven uses the holodeck to explore her human side, including a potential romance with Chakotay. As emotions begin to emerge, the Doctor discovers there's a Borg failsafe device within her — if she becomes too human, the implant will kill her. Braga said, "It was that moment in my mind that would set up the finale, where she realized she can't live here, can't live there."

For better or worse, Braga's concept got the thumbs down, and Seven continued her quest to become more human.

Seven vs. the Captain

Whle they start off as uneasy allies, the relationship between Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine eventually grows into something not unlike that between a mother and daughter. Behind the scenes, however, it seems clear that Mulgrew and Ryan were not the best of friends. 

When asked about her relationship with Ryan at the 2014 Star Trek Vegas Con, Mulgrew was diplomatic, saying , "We did not have a deep friendship." Mulgrew implied she'd initially resented Ryan's casting, saying, "It was very clear to anyone with eyes in their head that Jeri Ryan's beauty and sexual appeal were an important part of the numbers. I had thought 'damn, we were going to forgo all of this with a female captain.' But the demographics proved the audience wanted more sex and they got it in that beautiful, talented woman."

On 2013's  Girl on Guy  podcast, Ryan opened up about how ugly things got. She didn't specifically name Mulgrew as the actor in question, but her hints make it seem impossible for it be anyone else (e.g. she says most of her scenes were with "this person"). She gave examples of the actor refusing to let makeup and wardrobe crew work with Ryan before closeups and in some cases saying their lines to Ryan "off-camera picking their nails, thumbing through a book... without even making eye contact." 

Learning to date with the Doctor

When asked what her favorite episodes of  Voyager  were, Jeri Ryan has shared her  fond memories of episodes "when Seven was really starting to explore her humanity." In particular, she often cites season 5's "Someone to Watch Over Me."

Seven and Torres almost come to blows when the latter discovers that Seven has been observing and making notes on her and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) in her study of mating rituals. When the Doctor suggests Seven should try dating on her own, the holographic physician becomes the reformed Borg's dating mentor. Among other things, he subjects Seven to a presentation reminiscent of a high school teacher's sex education lecture, brings her to the holodeck to try her hand at wooing holographic characters, teaches her to dance, and breaks into a sweet duet of "You Are My Sunshine."

Over the course of the episode, the Doctor realizes he's developing his own feelings for Seven. He's just about ready to open up about them when she tells him she will no longer need to be mentored because — after reviewing all the men on board — none are suitable as potential mates. The Doctor thanks Seven and keeps his longing to himself. 

Some of the crew felt crowded by Seven

Robert Beltran was known for being honest — even while  Voyager  was still on the air — when he wasn't happy about something. And one of the things he wasn't happy about was how he felt Chakotay and other characters were short-changed once Seven of Nine came board. 

Speaking to StarTrek.com  in 2012, Beltran said , "when the Seven of Nine character made her entrance, the focus changed... That was fine with me, but I think writers have an obligation to fill out all the characters if they're regular characters on a series. I think several of the characters were diminished — Chakotay and Tuvok and Kim and Neelix." He went on to say he felt Seven was easier to write because she wasn't fully human.

Ryan told the Girl on Guy  podcast she thought so much focus was put on Seven because, simply put, she was new. "Now the writers, who have been writing for the same seven characters for three years, are salivating for something new to write with," Ryan said. "Consequently, all the scripts revolved around Seven of Nine and her relationship with the other characters, of course."

She also said she was aware of some of the other cast's resentments and understood them, though the understanding apparently didn't make things easier. "When the new kid comes in and suddenly it's all about them. That was tough," Ryan said. "It really made it an unpleasant work experience. "

Icheb, the son she never had

Seven of Nine isn't the only ex-Borg to join  Voyager  on its quest back to Earth. In season 6's "Collective," the crew encounters a Borg Cube whose only survivors are children. At the end of the episode, four of the children come aboard  Voyager ,   where the Doctor uses the same techniques he used on Seven to remove most of the children's Borg implants. The oldest of the four is Icheb (Manu Intiraymi), a member of a race called the Brunali, who becomes a recurring character on Voyager.  

We eventually learn that Icheb's assimilation into the Borg was somewhat unique. In "Child's Play," Icheb discovers he was genetically engineered by his parents with a deadly virus meant to eradicate the Borg. His parents willingly put him on a ship and steered him toward the Borg in the hopes they would assimilate him and subsequently be destroyed. 

Unfortunately, Icheb is brutally taken away from Seven in the season 1  Star Trek: Picard  episode "Stardust City Rag." In a flashback, we learn Icheb (now played by Casey King) has been captured and his body is being harvested for its cybernetic parts. Seven interrupts the procedure, but Icheb is already dying and in excruciating pain. He begs Seven to kill him, which she does while sobbing.

Seven in the Mirror

One of the most well-loved stories of any  Star Trek  show is the original series episode "Mirror, Mirror" in which a mirror universe is revealed where the tyrannical Terran Empire replaces the Federation, and evil counterparts of the  Enterprise 's crew replace the ones with which we're more familiar. Subsequent series like  Deep Space Nine ,  Enterprise , and  Discovery  return to the mirror universe, though  Voyager  never got a chance. That's something IDW's 2019 one-shot comic  Star Trek: Voyager — Mirrors & Smoke  corrects. 

In the mirror universe, Janeway is the Pirate Queen of the Delta Quadrant and is perfectly content to stay far from Earth, where she and her crew can plunder without anyone to interfere. In this universe, Annika Hansen was never assimilated by the Borg, but her parents were. When  Voyager  rescues her from Neelix and Kes, Annika discovers the Terrans know nothing about the Borg. 

Ironically, while Annika isn't a Borg in this universe, she  still  betrays  Voyager . Shortly after she's rescued, she plots with the Doctor to take over the ship and kill anyone who doesn't cooperate. Their plans are foiled, and interestingly Annika's motivations for turning against them are never revealed. Though toward the end of the comic she refers to her captors as "the humans," suggesting she may be more than she appears. 

She never expected to return

One of the most anticipated appearances of  Star Trek: Picard 's first season was the return of Seven of Nine. She saves Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) and his crew at the end of "Absolute Candor," and takes center stage in the following episode "Stardust City Rag." We learn that for years Seven has been a part of a group of vigilantes called the Fenris Rangers, trying to bring justice to the galaxy in the wake of the Romulan supernova. 

As much of a success as Seven's return has proven to be, Jeri Ryan never thought it would happen. On the  Picard  after show  Ready Room , Ryan told host Wil Wheaton, "This has been a two-year process since this was first broached to me. And I didn't think it was ever going to really actually come to fruition." She said one of the series writers, James Duff, pitched the idea to her two years earlier, but she thought it was a joke. 

Apparently, it wasn't until the 2018 Creative Arts Emmys when Ryan was shocked to discover her return to the role was actually a possibility. While she waited backstage,  Picard  co-creator Alex Kurtzman told her there was a lot of discussion about her in the series writers' room. Ryan's response? "And I was like 'What? Really? Okay. I guess it's actually happening.'"

Seven and Locutus, two of a kind

At first, it may seem strange for Seven of Nine to show up in  Star Trek: Picard . After all, the character wasn't around for  Star Trek: The Next Generation   and we've never seen the two characters meet before  Picard , but if you stop to think about it, Seven may have more in common with Picard than anyone he served with aboard the  Enterprise . 

In the two-part TNG  episode "Best of Both Worlds," Picard is assimilated by the Borg and turned into Locutus. The Collective uses his memories and knowledge to kill Picard's Starfleet comrades. He's eventually saved by his crew, but the experience leaves deep scars. We see him suffering from it in subsequent episodes as well as in 1996's  Star Trek: First Contact . 

While Seven was assimilated when she was a young girl and spent a much longer time with the Collective than Picard, they share this terrible bond with one another. This never comes through more clearly than in an exchange toward the end of "Stardust City Rag." Seven asks Picard if he thinks he regained his humanity once he was cut off from the Borg. He says he did. Seven asks, "All of it?"

Picard answers, "No. But we're both working on it. Aren't we?"

Seven says, "Every damn day of my life."

Things are finally looking up for the Voyager 1 interstellar spacecraft

Two of the four science instruments aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft are now returning usable data after months of transmitting only gibberish, NASA scientists have announced.

I was once sitting with my father while Googling how far away various things in the solar system are from Earth. He was looking for exact numbers, and very obviously grew more invested with each new figure I shouted out. I was thrilled. The moon? On average, 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away. The James Webb Space Telescope ? Bump that up to about a million miles (1,609,344 km) away. The sun? 93 million miles (149,668,992 km) away.  Neptune ? 2.8  billion  miles (4.5 billion km) away. "Well, wait until you hear about Voyager 1," I eventually said, assuming he was aware of what was coming. He was not.

"NASA's  Voyager 1  interstellar spacecraft actually isn't even in the solar system anymore," I announced. "Nope, it's more than 15 billion miles (24 billion km)  away from us  — and it's getting even farther as we speak." I can't quite remember his response, but I do indeed recall an expression of sheer disbelief. There were immediate inquiries about how that's even physically possible. There were bewildered laughs, different ways of saying "wow," and mostly, there was a contagious sense of awe. And just like that, a new Voyager 1 fan was born.

It is easy to see why Voyager 1 is among the most beloved robotic space explorers we have — and it is thus easy to understand why so many people felt a pang to their hearts several months ago, when Voyager 1 stopped talking to us.

Related:  After months of sending gibberish to NASA, Voyager 1 is finally making sense again

For reasons unknown at the time, this spacecraft began sending back gibberish in place of the neatly organized and data-rich 0's and 1's it had been providing since its  launch in 1977 . It was this classic computer language which allowed Voyager 1 to converse with its creators while earning the title of "farthest human made object." It's how the spacecraft relayed vital insight that led to the discovery of new Jovian moons and, thanks to this sort of binary podcast, scientists incredibly identified a new ring of Saturn and created the solar system's first and only "family portrait." This code, in essence, is crucial to Voyager 1's very being.

Plus, to make matters worse, the issue behind the glitch turned out to be associated with the craft's Flight Data System, which is literally the system that transmits information about Voyager 1's health so scientists can correct any issues that arise. Issues like this one. Furthermore, because of the spacecraft's immense distance from its operators on Earth, it takes about 22.5 hours for a transmission to reach the spacecraft, and then 22.5 hours to receive a transmission back. Alas, things weren't looking good for a while — for about five months, to be precise.

But then, on April 20, Voyager 1  finally phoned home  with legible 0's and legible 1's.

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"The team had gathered early on a weekend morning to see whether telemetry would return," Bob Rasmussen, a member of the Voyager flight team, told Space.com. "It was nice to have everyone assembled in one place like this to share in the moment of learning that our efforts had been successful. Our cheer was both for the intrepid spacecraft and for the comradery that enabled its recovery."

And  then,  on May 22 , Voyager scientists released the welcome announcement that the spacecraft has successfully resumed returning science data from two of its four instruments, the plasma wave subsystem and magnetometer instrument. They're now working on getting the other two, the cosmic ray subsystem and low energy charged particle instrument, back online as well. Though there technically are six other instruments onboard Voyager, those had been out of commission for some time.

The comeback

Rasmussen was actually a member of the Voyager team in the 1970s, having worked on the project as a computer engineer before leaving for other missions including  Cassini , which launched the spacecraft that taught us almost everything we currently know about Saturn. In 2022, however, he returned to Voyager because of a separate dilemma with the mission — and has remained on the team ever since.

"There are many of the original people who were there when Voyager launched, or even before, who were part of both the flight team and the science team," Linda Spilker, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , who also worked on the Voyager mission, told Space.com in the This Week from Space podcast on the TWiT network. "It's a real tribute to Voyager — the longevity not only of the spacecraft, but of the people on the team."

To get Voyager 1 back online, in rather cinematic fashion, the team devised a complex workaround that prompted the FDS to send a copy of its memory back to Earth. Within that memory readout, operators managed to discover the crux of the problem — a corrupted code spanning a single chip — which was then remedied through another (honestly,  super interesting ) process to modify the code. On the day Voyager 1 finally spoke again, "you could have heard a pin drop in the room," Spilker said. "It was very silent. Everybody's looking at the screen, waiting and watching." 

Of course, Spilker also brought in some peanuts for the team to munch on — but not just any peanuts. Lucky peanuts. 

It's a longstanding tradition at JPL to have a peanut feast before major mission events like launches, milestones and, well, the possible resurrection of Voyager 1. It  began  in the 1960s, when the agency was trying to launch the Ranger 7 mission that was meant to take pictures of and collect data about the moon's surface. Rangers 1 through 6 had all failed, so Ranger 7 was a big deal. As such, the mission's trajectory engineer, Dick Wallace, brought lots of peanuts for the team to nibble on and relax. Sure enough, Ranger 7 was a success and, as Wallace once said, "the rest is history." 

Voyager 1 needed some of those positive snacky vibes. 

"It'd been five months since we'd had any information," Spilker explained. So, in this room of silence besides peanut-eating-noises, Voyager 1 operators sat at their respective system screens, waiting. 

"All of a sudden it started to populate — the data," Spilker said. That's when the programmers who had been staring at those screens in anticipation leapt out of their seats and began to cheer: "They were the happiest people in the room, I think, and there was just a sense of joy that we had Voyager 1 back."

Eventually, Rasmussen says the team was able to conclude that the failure probably occurred due to a combination of aging and radiation damage by which energetic particles in space bombarded the craft. This is also why he believes it wouldn't be terribly surprising to see a similar failure occur in the future, seeing as Voyager 1 is still roaming beyond the distant boundaries of our stellar neighborhood just like its spacecraft twin,  Voyager 2 .

To be sure, the spacecraft isn't fully fixed yet — but it's lovely to know things are finally looking up, especially with the recent news that some of its science instruments are back on track. And, at the very least, Rasmussen assures that nothing the team has learned so far has been alarming. "We're confident that we understand the problem well," he said, "and we remain optimistic about getting everything back to normal — but we also expect this won't be the last."

In fact, as Rasmussen explains, Voyager 1 operators first became optimistic about the situation just after the root cause of the glitch had been determined with certainty. He also emphasizes that the team's spirits were never down. "We knew from indirect evidence that we had a spacecraft that was mostly healthy," he said. "Saying goodbye was not on our minds."

"Rather," he continued, "we wanted to push toward a solution as quickly as possible so other matters on board that had been neglected for months could be addressed. We're now calmly moving toward that goal."

The future of Voyager's voyage

It can't be ignored that, over the last few months, there has been an air of anxiety and fear across the public sphere that Voyager 1 was slowly moving toward sending us its final 0 and final 1. Headlines all over the internet, one written by  myself included , have carried clear, negative weight. I think it's because even if Voyager 2 could technically carry the interstellar torch post-Voyager 1, the prospect of losing Voyager 1 felt like the prospect of losing a piece of history. 

"We've crossed this boundary called the heliopause," Spilker explained of the Voyagers. "Voyager 1 crossed this boundary in 2012; Voyager 2 crossed it in 2018 — and, since that time, were the first spacecraft ever to make direct measurements of the interstellar medium." That medium basically refers to material that fills the space between stars. In this case, that's the space between other stars and our sun, which, though we don't always think of it as one, is simply another star in the universe. A drop in the cosmic ocean.

"JPL started building the two Voyager spacecraft in 1972," Spilker explained. "For context, that was only three years after we had the first human walk on the moon — and the reason we started that early is that we had this rare alignment of the planets that happens once every  176 years ." It was this alignment that could promise the spacecraft checkpoints across the solar system, including at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Those checkpoints were important for the Voyagers in particular. Alongside planetary visits come gravity assists, and gravity assists can help fling stuff within the solar system — and, now we know, beyond.

As the first humanmade object to leave the solar system, as a relic of America's early space program, and as a testament to how robust even decades-old technology can be, Voyager 1 has carved out the kind of legacy usually reserved for remarkable things lost to time.

"Our scientists are eager to see what they’ve been missing," Rasmussen remarked. "Everyone on the team is self-motivated by their commitment to this unique and important project. That's where the real pressure comes from." 

Still, in terms of energy, the team's approach has been clinical and determined. 

— NASA's Voyager 1 sends readable message to Earth after 4 nail-biting months of gibberish

— NASA engineers discover why Voyager 1 is sending a stream of gibberish from outside our solar system

— NASA's Voyager 1 probe hasn't 'spoken' in 3 months and needs a 'miracle' to save it

"No one was ever especially excited or depressed," he said. "We're confident that we can get back to business as usual soon, but we also know that we're dealing with an aging spacecraft that is bound to have trouble again in the future. That's just a fact of life on this mission, so not worth getting worked up about."

Nonetheless, I imagine it's always a delight for Voyager 1's engineers to remember this robotic explorer occupies curious minds around the globe. (Including my dad's mind now, thanks to me and Google.)

As Rasmussen puts it: "It's wonderful to know how much the world appreciates this mission."

Originally posted on Space.com .

Monisha Ravisetti is Space.com's Astronomy Editor. She covers black holes, star explosions, gravitational waves, exoplanet discoveries and other enigmas hidden across the fabric of space and time. Previously, she was a science writer at CNET, and before that, reported for The Academic Times. Prior to becoming a writer, she was an immunology researcher at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She graduated from New York University in 2018 with a B.A. in philosophy, physics and chemistry. She spends too much time playing online chess. Her favorite planet is Earth.

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June 14, 2024

Voyager 1 Is Back! NASA Spacecraft Safely Resumes All Science Observations

NASA’s venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft has resumed normal science operations with all four functioning instruments for the first time in more than six months

By Meghan Bartels

Artist concept of Voyager 1.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s beloved Voyager 1 mission is back to normal science operations for the first time in more than six months, according to agency personnel. The announcement was made after NASA received data from all four of the spacecraft’s remaining science instruments.

The venerable spacecraft launched in 1977 and passed into interstellar space in 2012 , becoming the first human-made object to accomplish that feat. Today Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are NASA’s longest-running missions . But the title has been challenging to hold on to for spacecraft that were designed to operate for just four years. The aging probes are stuck in the deep cold of outer space, their nuclear power sources are producing ever less juice, and glitches are becoming increasingly common.

Most recently, Voyager 1 faced a communications issue that began in November 2023. “We’d gone from having a conversation with Voyager, with the 1’s and 0’s containing science data, to just a dial tone,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), of the spacecraft’s troubles in an interview with Scientific American in March.

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After more than six months of long-distance troubleshooting—Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles from Earth, and any signal takes more than 22.5 hours to travel from our planet to the spacecraft—mission personnel have finally coaxed Voyager 1 to gather and send home data with all its remaining science instruments, according to a NASA statement .

The fix required months of analysis to track the issue to a particular chip within the spacecraft’s flight data subsystem. That chip’s code couldn’t be relocated in one fell swoop, however, so mission personnel split the information chip into chunks that could be tucked into stray corners of the rest of the system’s memory. NASA began implementing the new commands in April . And in May the agency directed the aging spacecraft to resume collecting and transmitting science data. Voyager 1’s plasma-wave subsystem and magnetometer bounced back immediately. Its cosmic-ray detector and ow-energy-charged-particles instrument required additional troubleshooting, but both are now finally operating normally, according to NASA.

And although the spacecraft is back to normal operations, the work isn’t quite over. To complete spacecraft recovery from the glitch, mission personnel still need to resynchronize timekeeping software across Voyager 1’s three computers and to maintain the recorder for the spacecraft’s plasma-wave instrument, in addition to completing smaller tasks.

Taken together, Voyager 1’s four remaining instruments offer scientists a precious glimpse of interstellar space. Voyager 1 and 2 are the only two operational spacecraft to cross out of the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles that marks the influence of the sun across the solar system. This bubble grows and shrinks as the sun passes through its 11-year activity cycle . Inside the heliosphere, space is dominated by particles of the solar wind, while outside of it, cosmic rays reign.

Scientists never dreamed that Voyager 1 would be able to taste these exotic particles. Its primary science targets were Jupiter, Saturn, and the latter planet’s rings and largest moon, Titan—all of which the spacecraft flew past within a few years of its launch. But the mission has survived every challenge to continue trekking through the solar system and into interstellar space, informing scientists about its environment along the way.

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Voyager 1, After Major Malfunction, Is Back From the Brink, NASA Says

The farthest man-made object in space had been feared lost forever after a computer problem in November effectively rendered the 46-year-old probe useless.

By Orlando Mayorquín

Several months after a grave computer problem seemed to spell the end for Voyager 1, which for nearly a half century had provided data on the outer planets and the far reaches of the solar system, NASA announced on Thursday that it had restored the spacecraft to working order.

“The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space,” NASA said in its announcement about Voyager 1, the farthest man-made object in space.

Since the problem surfaced in November, engineers had been working to diagnose and resolve the issue, a tedious and lengthy process complicated by the fact that it takes almost two days to send and receive information from Voyager 1, which was the first man-made object ever to enter interstellar space and is currently more than 15 billion miles from Earth.

The space community had been holding its breath since last year as the prospect of fixing the aging probe appeared as dire as ever.

In February, Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager mission project manager, said the problem, which hindered Voyager 1’s ability to send coherent engineering and science data back to Earth, was “the most serious issue” the probe had faced since she began leading the mission in 2010.

Voyager 1 and its twin probe, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 on a mission to explore the outer planets. NASA capitalized on a rare alignment in the solar system that enabled the probes to visit the four outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — by using the gravity of each to swing to the next.

Its planetary mission a success, Voyager 1 continued its journey toward the edge of the solar system, and in 1990 it snapped a fabled photo of the Earth — a tiny speck in an infinite darkness that became known as the “pale blue dot.”

In 2012, the probe became the first to cross into interstellar space and had since, along with its twin, which followed six years later, collected data about the heliosphere, the space around the sun directly under the sun’s influence.

Perhaps as profound as the pale blue dot, each spacecraft is equipped with a golden phonograph record loaded with sound recordings and images showing humanity and life on Earth, begging to one day be discovered by another civilization.

The outlook for recovering Voyager 1 improved substantially in April , when NASA reported that it had managed to get the probe to send back “usable” data about its engineering systems and its health. That was followed by news late last month that the team had restored functionality to two of Voyager 1’s science instruments, allowing it to send back science data and continue its mission.

On Thursday, the agency announced that it had brought the remaining instruments back online and restored Voyager 1 to its normal operations.

Still, Voyager 1’s new lease on life may not last very long. NASA has previously estimated that the nuclear-powered generators on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were likely to die around 2025. But Voyager 1 has already demonstrated that it can beat the odds. Ms. Dodd hopes both Voyager spacecraft can reach the mission’s 50th anniversary in 2027.

Orlando Mayorquín is a breaking news reporter, based in New York, and a member of the 2023-24 Times Fellowship class , a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Orlando Mayorquín

What’s Up in Space and Astronomy

Keep track of things going on in our solar system and all around the universe..

Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other 2024 event  that’s out of this world with  our space and astronomy calendar .

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Manu Intiraymi

Manu Intiraymi ( born 22 April 1978 ; age 46) is an actor who portrayed the former Borg drone Icheb in eleven episodes of the sixth and seventh seasons of Star Trek: Voyager .

In 2015 , Intiraymi reprised his role as Icheb for the fan production Star Trek Renegades . The film is directed and starring Tim Russ , was written and produced by Ethan H. Calk and Jack Treviño , and features fellow Trek alumni Walter Koenig , Gary Graham , Robert Picardo , Rico E. Anderson , Courtney Peldon , Clint Carmichael , Richard Herd , Jason Matthew Smith , John Carrigan , Ryan T. Husk , and Tad Atkinson . John Eaves worked as art director on it.

Personal [ ]

Intiraymi was born in Santa Cruz, California. His first name, Manu, is Hawaiian meaning "bird". His surname, Intiraymi, is Incan meaning "Festival of (the Incan sun-god) Inti". He identifies as bisexual. [1]

Intiraymi started his acting career with featured parts in episodes of Pacific Blue (1997, with Richard Herd and Jeremy Roberts ), Unhappily Ever After (1997, starring Nikki Cox ), JAG (1998, with Paul Collins , Steven Culp , and Bennet Guillory ), Smart Guy (1998, with Tahj D. Mowry ), The King of Queens (1999), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1999, created by Jonathan Schmock and guest starring Bebe Neuwirth and Mark Colson ), and 24 (2001).

His first feature film roles include supporting parts in the comedy Senseless (1998, with Jenette Goldstein , Richard McGonagle , Greg Grunberg , Alexander Enberg , Brad Dourif , Ivar Brogger , Cyia Batten , Jack Shearer , Len Costanza , John Wilkie , Janet Dey , Rubin Knight , Bruce Dobos , and Andray Johnson ), Go (1999), Whatever it Takes (2000, with Joe Gieb and Adam Harrington ), and the short comedy Eyeball Eddie (2001, with Keno Deary ). He was also featured in Pearl Harbor (2001).

Following his two years on Voyager , Intiraymi appeared in an episode of Las Vegas (2005, starring Nikki Cox and with Nan Martin and Darlena Tejeiro ) and appeared in the comedy Orange County (2002, with George Murdock ), the comedy Zah-A Pizza Movie (2009), the short drama Masterpieces (2010), the short comedy Expired (2011, with Mark Chaet and Robert Clendenin ), the drama Driving by Braille (2011), J. Edgar (2011, with Jack Donner , William Bebow , Tom Archdeacon , Zach Grenier , Stephen Root , and David Clennon ), Literally, Right Before Aaron (2011), and the war drama Fortress (2012, with Sean McGowan ).

In 2012 he portrayed the recurring character Billy in six episodes of One Tree Hill where he worked with Barbara Alyn Woods . Further credits include the action film Abstraction (2013), the short horror film Pray with Us (2014), and the drama Benjamin Troubles (2014).

In Unbelievable!!!!! (2015) his co-stars included Dina Meyer , Olivia d'Abo , Nana Visitor , Linda Park , Michael Dorn , Nichelle Nichols , Jeffrey Combs , Chase Masterson , Julie Warner , Tim Russ, Walter Koenig, Robert Picardo, John Billingsley , Armin Shimerman , Michael Forest , Connor Trinneer , Celeste Yarnall , Barbara Luna , Garrett Wang , Gary Graham, Crystal Allen , Gary Lockwood , Anthony Montgomery , Beverly Washburn , Jasmine Jessica Anthony , Vaughn Armstrong , Jack Donner, Menina Fortunato , Sean Kenney , and Kevin Carlson .

Other projects in 2015 include the romance Promises , the short science fiction drama Instant (with Phil Morris ), the science fiction film 5th Passenger (with Tim Russ, Marina Sirtis , Armin Shimerman, Ryan T. Husk, Hana Hatae , Rico E. Anderson, Jodi Johnston , and co-producer and makeup effects supervisor Thomas E. Surprenant ), the action drama Six Gun Savior (with Tim Russ and Jason Matthew Smith), and the fantasy film The Green Fairy (with Robert Miano ).

Intiraymi also appeared in the action film The Dark Zone (2016, with Tim Russ and co-produced by Ryan T. Husk).

Star Trek appearances [ ]

• " Collective "
• " Ashes to Ashes "
• " Child's Play "
• " The Haunting of Deck Twelve "
• " Imperfection "
• " Nightingale "
• " Shattered "
• " Lineage "
• " Human Error "
• " Endgame "

External links [ ]

• Manu Intiraymi at Wikipedia
• Manu Intiraymi at the Internet Movie Database
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)

After Months of Glitches and Gradual Fixes, Voyager 1 Is Fully Operational Once Again

A fter a technical malfunction late last year rendered all of its subsequent readings as useless , NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft—which has spent nearly a half-century in space—has been brought back online and is once again fully functioning.

“The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space,” NASA said in a press release .

Launched in 1977 and drifting some 15 billion miles away from Earth, on the outer reaches of our solar system, the satellite is both one of the world’s oldest-tenured crafts and currently the most distant—making its recovery from what was once presumed a dismal prognosis nothing short of miraculous.

Last November, the satellite began transmitting unintelligible strings of data, as opposed to the binary code it is supposed to send, back to NASA’s scientists. Initial efforts to diagnose and fix the problem were tedious. New commands took nearly a full day, 22.5 hours, to reach Voyager 1, and responses took an equal amount of time.

“Finding solutions to challenges the probes encounter often entails consulting original, decades-old documents written by engineers who didn’t anticipate the issues that are arising today,” Miles Hatfield wrote in a December NASA press release . “As a result, it takes time for the team to understand how a new command will affect the spacecraft’s operations in order to avoid unintended consequences.”

Waiting 45 hours between individual troubleshooting efforts was tedious. But incremental gains were made, and after five months of steady trial and error, the team found that Voyager 1’s problem lay in its flight data subsystem (FDS), which packages earthbound data. They pinpointed one faulty chip in particular, and were able to engineer a work-around.

In April, they enjoyed a breakthrough: a health and status report that indicated the satellite was still capable of lucid communication.

“Today was a great day for Voyager 1,” Linda Spilker, a Voyager project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said in a statement from that weekend, CNN’s Ashley Strickland reported. “We’re back in communication with the spacecraft. And we look forward to getting science data back.”

The team didn’t need to wait long. In late May, two of the spacecraft’s four scientific instruments began sending usable scientific data once again: the “bunny-eared” plasma wave subsystem , which protrudes 30 feet off the spacecraft and measures electron density, and the magnetometer instrument , which measures and analyzes the magnetic fields of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

“NASA has previously estimated that the nuclear-powered generators on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were likely to die around 2025,” the New York Times’   Orlando Mayorquín reports.

But, if they can survive until 2027, both spacecraft will reach their 50th anniversary.

Voyagers 1 and 2 are NASA’s only spacecraft to have explored outside of the sun’s heliosphere. Over the decades, they have explored the solar system’s gas giant planets and 48 moons . They also carry the Voyager Golden Records , intended to share sounds and images of Earth with alien civilizations.

“That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives,” astronomer Carl Sagan famously said in 1990 on the day Voyager 1 took the iconic “pale blue dot” image of Earth at a distance of 3.7 billion miles from the sun.

Where is Voyager 1 now? Repairs bring space probe back online as journey nears 50 years

After many months of extremely long-distance repairs, NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe is fully operational once again.

“The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space,” the agency announced last Thursday, and has resumed its normal operations.

The spacecraft , now travelling through interstellar space more than 15 billion miles from Earth, began sending back corrupted science and engineering data last November.

Over the ensuing months, engineers worked to troubleshoot the problem, a tedious and complicated process given the vast distance between Earth and Voyager 1. Each message took 22.5 hours to transmit, meaning each communication between engineers and the spacecraft was a nearly two day long process.

By April, NASA engineers had traced to root of the problem to a single chip in Voyager 1’s Flight Data System, allowing them to begin rearranging lines of computer code so that the spacecraft could continue transmitting data. Last month, NASA announced that it had restored functionality to two of the spacecraft’s science instruments, followed by the announcement last week that Voyager 1 had been fully restored to normal operations.

Voyager 1: Still traveling 1 million miles per day

Launched in 1977 along with its sister craft Voyager 2, the twin craft are robotic space probes that are now the longest operating spacecraft in history. Their initial mission was to study the outer planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, but they have continued their long journey in the ensuing decades, travelling farther and wider than any other man-made object in history.

In 1990, Voyager 1 transmitted the famous “ Pale Blue Dot ” photograph of Earth, taken when the spacecraft was 3.7 billion miles from the Sun.

By 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space, where they have continued transmit data on plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles in the heliosphere – the outermost region of space directly influenced by the Sun.

As part of their one-way mission, both Voyager spacecraft also carry copies of the “ Golden Records ,” gold plated copper discs containing sounds and images from Earth that were curated by the astronomer Carl Sagan.

Currently travelling roughly one million miles per day, Voyager 1 will continue it journey until at least early next year, when NASA estimates that diminishing power levels may “ prevent further operation .”