Would you trade Kira for Ro Laren? Or maybe put them both on DS9?

I must say, although I loved Nana Visitor as Kira in DS9, Michelle Forbes' performance as Ro Laren in TNG is utterly epic. Would DS9 have been a better show with her instead of Visitor?

Alternatively, do you think DS9 could have been improved by bringing in Ro Laren once or twice a season as a guest? I for one would have really enjoyed seeing Kira and Ro sharing screen time, and something tells me they would have had quite the rivalry. Perhaps Ro could have fallen under the influence of Kai Winn and become a "fundamentalist" or even turned to the Pah-Wraiths. She certainly would have been a darker character than Kira...

 

I would've shot Visitor out of a cannon and into obscurity if it meant we would have gotten Forbes to play Ro Laren.

 

No. We gained a lot by having a completely new character that wasn't Starfleet at all. Ro couldn't have had near the impact as Kira.

This, however, would have been pretty cool.

 

Yeah, I gotta agree with Kira being the better move than Ro as the DS9 first officer. Though it would've definitely been nice to have Ro show up during some of the Maquis episodes with Tom Riker or Eddington. Or even leading her own cell.

 

I'm happy with the way we got it. I wouldn't have been opposed to Ro guesting in an ep or two, but I'm glad we got Nerys.

 

If Ro was also in Starfleet, she couldn't have treated Sisko like Kira did. There would have been less conflict.

 

I think maybe having Ro still in the Maquis but being and old friend of Kira's would have been cool. Sort of like Sisko & Cal Hudson.

But having her as a regular on the show replacing Kira would have been weird. We'd have an all-Starfleet (except Odo) senior staff on a Bajoran station!

 

While it would have been nice to have Ro in some of the Maquis centric episodes, I'm glad they went with a new character.

It was the right decision to go with a character that wasn't starfleet - it would have looked very odd if, on a Bajoran space station, there were no Bajorans in the command staff (unless you count Odo).

 

Funny, I thought Ro was Bajoran?

 

I'm sure if Ro was casted for DS9, she'd have resigned from Starfleet and put on the Bajoran uniform the moment her people won their independence.

 

Totally agreed on that point. In fact, I would think the Federation would have insisted upon it to avoid a conflict of interest. Nevertheless, the writers could have used her ex-Starfleet status to play up the conflict with Kai Winn.

Ironically, I got the sense that Kira was less hostile to Starfleet than Ro was, even though she was a part of it. Ro had a pretty dark, bitter streak to her character, and she didn't seem to get along very well with most of the others in the Federation. They tried to do that with Kira but I never completely bought it.

 

Yes.

Forbes is an immense actress and Visitor has an annoying voice.


Also in the DS9 relaunch, Ro is Bajoran millitia, although the timing is off it would have been possible to make it work.

 

Loved, loved, loved Kira. I'm glad everything worked out the way it did.

You know, I'm really surprised they never did this. Lord knows they brought in every other TNG character imaginable.

 

I never liked Ro so I'm glad we got Kira who was great.

 

I would have loved it if Forbes had accepted to play the character for the first season. I think Avery Brooks and her would have been sensational together. Then she leaves or die at the end of season 1, and is replaced by another Bajoran officer who's even more intense than Ro, Major Kira.

 

Ro and Kira both on DS9? Cat fight!

 

I get the feeling that Ro was able to claim being a Bajoran citizen to escape the consequences that were awaiting her after she betrayed Starfleet, or she was in prison for a while and then upon release went back to Bajor.

 

Pretty much exactly what happened. After the Dominion War showed up, she was something of a celebrity for having fought the Cardassians and Dominion both in the Maquis, apparently her cell wasn't wiped out and kept harassing the Dominion during the war, and the Bajorian militia offered her a commission. Though later on it was revealed that Picard quietly talked Starfleet into dropping the matter too.

 

I would absolutely not trade Kira for Ro.

But if I could add Ro without losing Kira I'd absolutely do that.

Ro/Kira might have had some interesting chemistry. The hardcore Bajoran versus the anti-Bajoran. The Prophet devotee versus the Bajoran who doesn't give a crap about the Prophets. The resistance fighter versus the woman who hid out in a Federation prison. Kira would have hated Ro, and it would have been awesome to see that.

I also tend to think that after what happened with Cardassian and the Dominion, nobody pursued the Maquis survivors that hard afterward.

 

Ro was a cool character, and her anti-social, don't-give-a-crap attitude was fun to see amid all the squeaky-clean TNG characters, but with DS9 I think you really needed someone like Kira who could get emotionally invested and want to fight for Bajor, and who could kind of represent the culture as a whole.

Plus which, we already had one cold and aloof character on the show in the form of Odo.