Better that Michelle Forbes wasn't in DS9?

[JesterFace]

Ro Laren was originally planned to be the 1st officer on DS9. However, I think it's better that she declined to be in the series. There would have been 1st officer on the station that had disobeyed orders and people had lost their lives because of that.

Putting an officer with that kind of history as the second in command of the station would have been silly. She got her "job" back too easily in TNG? They needed her help on one mission and suddenly she is flying around on the flagship. Besides, I think Nerys was far better character. We didn't get to know Ro as well as Nerys but still.

 

[Kilana2]

The Maquis war represented by Eddington, so we didn't need Ro. But she's an interesting character. If not as regular, I'd like to have seen her as recurring guest.

 

[Orphalesion]

I'm glad she declined, since that's why we got Kira and I like both Kira and Nana Visitor as an actress better than Ro and Forbes.
As for Ro getting jobs "easily". Well, it's a show. If they want a character/actor they're gonna find a justification, however flimsy. Torres (yet another character who was invented because Forbes declined a role) got her position as Chief Engineer on Voy also rather easily for being a Marquis.
That being said I would have preferred Ro over Torres, if only to keep the Klingon stuff out of Voyager (though they would have probably found another way to shoehorn it in).

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I really enjoyed Ro as a character, but if she'd accepted then we would've been deprived of Trek's all time best character.

Had Ro appeared more often on TNG and given time to go through, or at least start, a redemption arc (with at least one promotion) then her appearance on DS9 would've made sense, she'd be atoning for her previous mistakes and have to face a tragedy that would always be with her and affect her in a very personal way, not that she'd ever show that in public. She would also have an interesting story thread with how she got along with other Bajorans, and their views on her. The character had lots of potential on DS9 and I can see why they were keen to have her transfer to the show, there's probably some alternate universe out there where Michelle Forbes decided to opt for the steady pay cheque and accepted.

 

[kkt]

Nana is a superb actress, better in my opinion than Forbes. I am happy for all the circumstances that led to her being a regular.

Starting with a fresh character gave the writers a lot of freedom to make Kira different from Ro. Kira is more religious and shows more freely her past as a terrorist and some PTSD resulting from that, which I think adds to her character.

There are interesting things they could have done if Ro became 1st officer. She could have sympathized with the Maquis and gone off to work with Eddington, or instead of Eddington. Maybe she and Eddington would have dated and/or gotten married. Or after much soul searching she could have decided to stick with Starfleet and cope with turning her back on the Maquis. If she went with the Maquis we would have had to deal with getting a new 1st officer and Bajoran liason officer, which could have interesting or not depending on how it was handled.

But I'm very pleased with Kira's arc as it is.

 

[dupersuper]

Yeah, Ro's cool, but I love Kira. Plus, there are always the post-series novels if you want to enjoy Ro on DS9.

 

[Tosk]

I've always been glad Forbes turned it down. (Once I knew about it, of course.)
Nothing against Ro or Forbes, but we got to have a blank slate character, and Nerys being non-Starfleet made for a lot of interesting interplay.

 

[HugeLobes]

Having a character completely new to Starfleet regulations who actually spent her whole life fighting for Bajor seems like a better fit. If it wasn't, they would have just come up with another character with the same background as Ro Laren, which is more or less what they did with Tom Paris.

More importantly, I just prefer Nana Visitor's acting. Not that Michelle Forbes isn't equally good in her own way, but I think for Trek you need to adopt a slightly more over-the-top style. That ended up being even more the case in DS9 than it did in TNG, and Nana is great at bringing a huge amount of energy and passion to the role without making her scenes feel too silly or forced. It's part of why her interactions with Sisko were so great.

Somehow I don't think Forbes would have walked that line as well.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I honestly wish we could have had them both.

 

[somebuddyX]

I'm happy with how it went down with them creating Kira but only now do I see the story potential in bringing in Ro for even just an episode, maybe set around early season 2 DS9. I wonder how people like Kira would react to people like Ro and vice versa, arguments about getting out and staying behind and who has the better life and things of that nature. I'd never really thought about why Ro wanted to join Starfleet or how that came about and I think that could have been cool to explore onscreen. Those two actresses would have made those scenes great.

 

[USS Firefly]

I think It would be great if we had Ro in season 7 instead of Ezri

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I think if she were going to be there, it would need to be from the beginning. (And I'm not just saying that because I hate when people go on about replacing Ezri.)

Her greatest additions to the franchise would be in 1) really fleshing out her character long-term, so not just 1 season, and 2) really expanding and complicating the different facets of the Bajoran pov (which isn't really even a big part of the show anymore by season 7). I'm imagining tons of interesting interaction - maybe some friendly, maybe some not - between Ro and Kira, two very similar people who took/were thrust on deeply different paths in life.

Kira needed to be the first officer, though. I never understood the idea that Ro was intended to be first officer of the station that was supposed to have an *integrated* Starfleet/Bajoran crew. Her earring doesn't change the fact that she's a Starfleet officer who hasn't seen Bajor since before she hit puberty. That position had to go to someone who was already there long before the Federation showed up, or there would be no workable balance of power on the station.

If we need to nominate who she'd 'take the place of', I can only say I could live without Keiko and Miles or Bashir, or even just with much less emphasis on them. But I don't think that's really necessary, in the end. They didn't write anyone off when Worf was added to the show, or during the period that had Eddington on the main cast. And there were multiple runs where 'recurring characters' were basically main cast in everything but name. The writers were good enough to be able to add an extra person to the ensemble without having to totally remove someone else to make room for them.

 

[Tosk]

You know where Ro could have been awesome? If all else were equal, and then we had caught up with her post-TNG in her Maquis role. An ex-Starfleeter Bajoran who we already know is exactly the voice for DS9 to make the Maquis question harder to answer.

or during the period that had Eddington on the main cast.

Eddington was never added to the main cast.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

You know where Ro could have been awesome? If all else were equal, and then we had caught up with her post-TNG in her Maquis role. An ex-Starfleeter Bajoran who we already know is exactly the voice for DS9 to make the Maquis question harder to answer.

Eddington was never added to the main cast.

Ah, just felt like it, then.

 

[suarezguy]

Ro was a good character but Kira was a better character, it was a much better idea for the first officer to have lived in Bajor and have been part of the Bajoran forces rather than another Starfleet member.

 

[Tosk]

Ah, just felt like it, then.

He's probably in the "medium use" category of DS9's recurring cast. Nine eps over the course of three years.

 

[kkt]

I think if she were going to be there, it would need to be from the beginning. (And I'm not just saying that because I hate when people go on about replacing Ezri.)

Her greatest additions to the franchise would be in 1) really fleshing out her character long-term, so not just 1 season, and 2) really expanding and complicating the different facets of the Bajoran pov (which isn't really even a big part of the show anymore by season 7). I'm imagining tons of interesting interaction - maybe some friendly, maybe some not - between Ro and Kira, two very similar people who took/were thrust on deeply different paths in life.

Kira needed to be the first officer, though. I never understood the idea that Ro was intended to be first officer of the station that was supposed to have an *integrated* Starfleet/Bajoran crew. Her earring doesn't change the fact that she's a Starfleet officer who hasn't seen Bajor since before she hit puberty. That position had to go to someone who was already there long before the Federation showed up, or there would be no workable balance of power on the station.

If we need to nominate who she'd 'take the place of', I can only say I could live without Keiko and Miles or Bashir, or even just with much less emphasis on them. But I don't think that's really necessary, in the end. They didn't write anyone off when Worf was added to the show, or during the period that had Eddington on the main cast. And there were multiple runs where 'recurring characters' were basically main cast in everything but name. The writers were good enough to be able to add an extra person to the ensemble without having to totally remove someone else to make room for them.

I would certainly not take away Miles. He was the show's great Everyman. And there were episodes centered on him at least once or twice a season, good episodes. Keiko maybe could have been taken away, but she was only in, what, about 30 shows in the whole series, and she helped fill out Miles' character. And it's a show about humans and humanoids, so they pretty much need to have a doctor. Voyager got stuck with the EMH, and I'm glad we didn't get something like that on DS9.

 

[kkt]

Ro was a good character but Kira was a better character, it was a much better idea for the first officer to have lived in Bajor and have been part of the Bajoran forces rather than another Starfleet member.

Yes. Kira is also the Bajoran government's liason to the station, and as such is probably nominated by the government, or maybe they give Sisko a short list of candidates from whom to chose. So she would have to be someone the Bajoran government would trust, so not a Bajoran who'd been living offworld all her life, grown up and serving in Starfleet.
And while Kira could be a pain the butt sometimes at least there would be no doubt where her loyalties lay.

 

[HugeLobes]

There's no character I'd give up for Ro. TNG and VOY put too many cast members in without really thinking about why there were needed (at least in my opinion), but DS9 followed that Old West idea so well that every character felt vital. I guess the only odd one out would be early Dax, but they fixed her character well over the years.

Ro might have been good for the odd episode, but I'm not sure why she'd be necessary for anything when Kira and Odo are around. Just seems like they'd be better placed for any story you might want to tell with Ro.

And definitely no to losing Miles!

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I wouldn't trade Kira for Ro, but I would have loved to have both.

Kira, a Bajoran who fought on Bajor during the Occupation, and is a devout religious believer.
Ro, a Bajoran who fled the homeland, stayed safe in Starfleet during the Occupation with no spiritual beliefs.

They could have had wonderful arguments and grown to tolerate and accept each other.