'Star Trek: Picard' Brings Back Michelle Forbes' Ro Laren For An Emotional 'Next Generation' Reunion

TV & Film

Apr 16

In the recent episode of Star Trek: Picard, Imposters, Picard and Riker, fresh from their rescue of Beverly Crusher and her son, Jack, are visited by a Starfleet intelligence team, led, surprisingly, by a long-unseen character from Star Trek: The Next Generation’s past: Ro Laren.

Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation know Ro Laren from all the way back at the beginning of Season Five, Episode Two of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ensign Ro, when she was introduced as a disgraced Bajoran Starfleet officer assigned to the Enterprise as part of a conspiracy to help the Cardassians track down Bajoran terrorists for a rogue Starfleet admiral.

RELATED:

Featured

'Star Trek' And 'Beef' Star Patti Yasutake Passes Away At 70

Despite a rough start, she comes clean to Picard about her involvement in the conspiracy and works with him to thwart it, earning Picard’s trust and confidence, as well as the respect of the rest of the crew. Ro became a recurring character as a member of the Enterprise crew, as well as somewhat of a protégé of then-Captain Picard during the rest of the series.

In the penultimate episode of the series, Pre-emptive Strike, Ro was assigned to infiltrate the Maquis, a terrorist group fighting the Cardassians and plaguing Starfleet. However, after bonding with some members of the group, she ultimately betrayed Starfleet by sabotaging her mission and joined the Maquis, angering and embittering Picard. Ro’s post-Star Trek: The Next Generation fate was never resolved, even though the Maquis were later wiped out by the Dominion in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and she was believed by many fans to have perished with them as well.

Ro’s actress, Michelle Forbes, was previously approached to join the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine during its development, however she declined, leading to the creation of the character of Kira Nerys, second-in-command of the station, a role she would have likely inhabited in the series. Ro was, however, brought back in several non-canon post-series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels.

As we have learned recently, however, rumors of her death were apparently greatly exaggerated, as she not only was still alive but, once again, much to Picard’s chagrin, sporting a Starfleet uniform, almost thirty years since the last time audiences last saw her. Current Picard showrunner, Terry Matalas, stated, following the debut of this episode, that he really wanted to bring some closure to the Picard-Ro relationship that was left hanging at the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He found a way to bring her back into the series, embroiled in yet another conspiracy. However, to say that Picard was not pleasantly surprised to see her after everything that had happened between is certainly an understatement.

Ro’s “official duty” in boarding the Titan was to interrogate Picard and Riker about the recent events onboard the Titan, which had been previously sabotaged by what increasingly is appearing to be an entirely new breed of Changelings for the Federation to contend with. Initially, Picard and Ro got off to a rocky start full of bitter recriminations and accusations, with Picard initially believing (wrongly) that she was there to question him about his and Riker’s recent theft of the Titan to save Beverly and his newly revealed son, Jack.

While meeting surreptitiously in the holodeck together, Picard and Ro finally reached an understanding with each other, and Ro confided to Picard that Starfleet had become compromised and that she had managed to get back into Starfleet and work her way into becoming a Starfleet Intelligence Officer. She revealed had been working to uncover the new Changeling conspiracy.

Unfortunately, after coming to terms with each other, Ro was forced to leave the Titan to return to her own ship, only to discover that her security detail was compromised and had planted a bomb on her shuttle before beaming away. Ro, unable to escape, sacrificed herself by crashing her shuttle into the warp nacelle of her ship, the Intrepid, which she deduced had also been compromised, in order to give the Titan crew enough time to escape to safety.

Having come to a better understanding of Ro, Picard was left devastated by her sacrifice, but he and Riker later realized that Ro’s trademark Bajoran earrings, which she gave to Picard before leaving him, secretly contained all the data she had been collecting on the current Changeling threat. The information also led Picard and Riker to their former comrade, Worf, who had been working with Ro and Raffi on the same conspiracy from a different end.

While Ro Laren may have had a checkered legacy as a Starfleet Officer, in the end, she may have just given Picard and Riker the keys to saving the Federation from the current threat, and actress Michelle Forbes gave a wonderfully emotional swan song for her character.

READ NEXT:

Featured