Ro Laren

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ro Laren
Ro Laren
Species:	Bajoran
Gender:	female
Hair color:	brown
Eye color:	brown
Home planet:	Bajor
Affiliation:	Starfleet Maquis
Posting:	USS Wellington Prisoner on Jaros II USS Enterprise-D helmsman
Rank:	Ensign, Lieutenant junior grade, Lieutenant
Portrayed by:	Michelle Forbes

Ensign (later Lieutenant) Ro Laren is a recurring character on Star Trek: The Next Generation, played by Michelle Forbes.

She served aboard the USS Enterprise-D under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard during the fifth through seventh years of the Enterprise's mission.

[edit] Overview

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Ro joined the crew in the fifth season of the series as a troubled young Bajoran officer who had been court-martialled while serving on the USS Wellington, for disobeying orders on an away mission, resulting in eight deaths. She was imprisoned on Jaros II, but Picard gave her a second chance and made her one of his crew.

Once past initial hostility, Ro formed friendships with several Enterprise crew members, including Lieutenant-Commander Geordi La Forge and Commander William Riker. Of Bajoran descent, she had a great dislike for Cardassians. Although Picard had great faith in her, her hatred for the Cardassians would later win out over her loyalty to him.

In her first episode, entitled "Ensign Ro", she was given a full pardon in exchange for going on a secret mission to help stop dissident raids, in order to protect a treaty with Cardassia.

In "The Next Phase", Ro and La Forge were presumed dead after a transporter accident while returning from rescue operations on a disabled Romulan ship. Upon regaining consciousness they discovered they had become invisible and intangible to everyone but each other, "cloaked" in an unexpected manner. Ro also initially believed they were dead, converted to a ghostlike existence, which awakened a number of Bajoran spiritual beliefs she thought she'd abandoned decades earlier. By invisibly observing the crew of the Romulan vessel, Ro and La Forge discovered the accident, as well as the damage to the Romulans' ship, was the result of a Romulan weapons test, and that the Romulans were performing a subtle act of sabotage that would destroy the Enterprise the moment that ship's crew engaged their warp drive. After discovering and defeating a similarly-cloaked Romulan operative, Ro and La Forge found a way to alert the Enterprise crew and return to normal, warning Picard and averting the plot.

In the episode "Rascals", Ro, Picard, Guinan and Keiko O'Brien are transformed into adolescent versions of themselves, while retaining their adult intelligence. As children, they foil a Ferengi plot to steal the captured Enterprise and sell the crew as slave labor. During this episode, some of the unpleasant backstory of Ro's original childhood was revealed. The adolescent Ro was portrayed by Megan Parlen.

In her final episode, entitled "Preemptive Strike", the newly-promoted Lieutenant Ro was asked by Starfleet to infiltrate the rebel Maquis, who were undermining the Federation treaty with Cardassia. During the mission she became increasingly sympathetic to the plight of the Maquis and, in the end, she betrayed Starfleet and joined the rebel group. Picard saw this as a personal betrayal of him.

Ro Laren appeared in these episodes as well:

According to her personnel file seen in the episode "Conundrum", Ro was born on January 17, 2340 on Bajora to Ro Talia and Gale, and attended Starfleet Academy from 2350 to 2354.

As a Bajoran, her family name comes first. When she first came aboard the Enterprise, Picard referred to her as "Ensign Laren". She corrected him, saying that Laren was her given name and Ro was her family name, and she was correctly referred to as "Ensign Ro."

[edit] Trivia

Forbes passed up two separate opportunities to be in other Trek series. The first was with Deep Space Nine. The second was with Star Trek: Voyager, which featured Maquis characters, one of whom was intended to have been Ro.

The non-canon Deep Space Nine continuation novels have made it clear that Ro survived the destruction of the Maquis and led her own anti-Dominion group in the latter days of the Dominion War. Following this, she returned to Bajor, where she was given a commission in the militia and assigned to DS9 as Chief of Security. Over the next year, Ro encountered Picard again, with whom she made peace. When Bajor joined the Federation, Ro intended to leave her post hastily to escape punishment for her crimes, but was convinced by Picard to accept a pardon and rejoin Starfleet.

Ro was also to have appeared in a proposed episode of Star Trek: Voyager called "The Sentry" (the episode was never actually filmed, although script outlines were made).

While Ro wears her traditional Bajoran earring in her left ear, other Bajorans consistently wear it in their right ear. The non-canon novels explain this by saying she wears her father's earring in his memory, but in the "wrong" ear as she is not a believer in the Prophets.