20 Of The Coolest Female Robots In Science Fiction

Seven of Nine (Image via Paramount Network Television/CBS)

12. Seven of Nine (Star Trek: Voyager)

This one is just a bit of a stretch, I’ll admit. Seven of Nine started her life off as a human girl, Annika Hansen. Her parents are Federation scientists researching the dangerous Borg collective, deep away from safe Federation territory. The Borg are a kind of machine species, intent on assimilating all lifeforms into their mechanical collective. The Borg ultimately find the Hansens and assimilate the entire family into the collective.

“Assimilation”, as such, involves cybernetic enhancements made to a biological being. All Borg maintain connections amongst the collective thanks to a massive hive mind upheld with subspace links. So, no, Seven of Nine isn’t exactly a robot, but it’s close enough for our purposes.

When we first meet her in the second part of fourth-season opening episode “Scorpion”, she’s fairly infested with cybernetic enhancements. There’s a fair amount of plot maneuvering and Star Trek mumbo-jumbo that takes place in the episode, which ultimately leaves Seven of Nine disconnected from the Borg collective. It’s an apparently horrifying experience for individual Borg drones, but she manages to survive.

The rest of her time on Voyager focuses on her attempts to reconcile her mechanical past with her human origins. Medical staff also manage to remove many (though not all) of her cybernetics. She also wears a skintight bodysuit for some reason (real world explanations point to fanservice, obviously). Despite the sexist costume design, Seven of Nine is still an interesting character. Voyager is occasionally goofy and weirdly written, but it shines brightest when exploring Seven of Nine’s emerging humanity.