Ensign Ro

[EnriqueH]

I'm in the middle of watching Season 5 and I had forgotten that Ensign Ro was a pretty good character.

I know she was kinda like O'Brien in that she was cool enough to keep around, but not committed enough to include in the main credits.

What a shame.

I thought she had a lot of potential.

I was never a Wesley hater, I liked him overall, but Ensign Ro was a nice replacement.

Too bad Michelle Forbes didn't hang around, because she did a great job, particularly in her debut "Ensign Ro", "Disaster", and Conundrum.

If I remember correctly, she was slated to be in DS9, but declined and so instead we got Kira.

I liked Kira, but it would've been cool to have Ro in more Trek episodes.

Anyone agree/disagree?

 

[Zippo and Flask]

I didn't like the character.

 

[DonIago]

Liked the character until her final episode.

Got a kick out of seeing the actress in True Blood.

 

[Mojochi]

Great actress. Good character. Poorly used

 

[Makarov]

I like her, the character is pretty good every time they gave her something to do. Especially The Next Phase, and her first episode. Overall though the character doesn't stand out to me, not even as much as Pulaski. Although the actress is great the character just seemed to float in and out of episodes randomly. In fact I can't remember if they mention a reason for the character not being on the show anymore.

 

[Lance]

Ro Laren was a great character, somebody who came into the Enterprise from the outside and told everybody what smug s**ts she thought they all are. I've always thought the TNG producers knew they were on to a good thing with Michelle Forbes, but when she refused two attempts to bring her into the fold full-time (first in DS9, as first officer and Bajorian liason, and then in VOY as the former Maquis chief engineer), they dropped her character like a hot potato. At the very least, I'd have liked to have seen DS9 give the character the dignity of one last appearance, to wrap up her story once they were done with all the Eddington/Maquis stuff. But I suppose by that point her TNG appearances were five years in the past and that particular ship had already sailed. Still, a pity.

I recently rewatched "Ensign Ro" myself, and something I found very interesting in hindsight is how Ro herself reacts to Jean-Luc's attempts to entice her into Starfleet: bemused, and then she outright tells him it won't work out. A kind of foreshadowing of her later betraying his trust in "Preemptive Strike". He can't say she didn't warn him...

 

[HIjol]

Lance is right with his dignity/wrap-up comment. I liked Ro a lot, and wish she would have stayed aboard.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

For me, she shook up the cast and gave an edge to the show where I felt there wasn't any.

 

[Lance]

Too bad Michelle Forbes didn't hang around.

My understanding is that she expressed interest in making continued recurring appearances, but she simply didn't want to be tied down to a regular role when they asked her to join DS9, and later VOYAGER too. The producers misinterpreted this as being her having no interest in playing the character at all, but Forbes herself never actually walked away from the role. They just stopped using Ro after Forbes turned down VOYAGER.

As I said before, in theory she could have been a semi-recurring character in DS9, but the producers simply never called her back (I seem to recall Forbes specifically saying she wasn't ill-disposed towards appearing on the spin-off, to see how Ro went after she defected to the Maquis, but that she turned down both DS9 and VOY simply because she didn't want to be a 'regular' with a six year contract tying her to the series.)

 

[Mage]

For those who are interested, in TrekLit, Ro eventually became quite an important character:

Spoiler: Spoilers for TrekLit

After the Dominion War ended, Ro was asked to join the Bajoran Militia, and became Chief of Security on DS9. Bumped heads with Kira a lot, but they eventually worked out a good working relationship. When Bajor joined the Federation, and the Militia was to be absorbed into Starfleet, she was all ready to leave, but Picard convinced her that there was a place, even a home, for her in Starfleet. She was pardoned of her crimes, and eventually, 10 years or so after the Dominion War, Ro is now Captain of DS9.

 

[Kinggodzillak]

I started watching Trek during TNG season 5, with Conundrum and Power Play and all those other Ro episodes. Because of that she was as much an instant and essential part of the fabric of the show for me as Picard and Data and all the others, and it was never quite the same without her. When I finally got to see the series in order, I still felt that way; Wesley at the conn just doesn't seem right. That's Ro's chair, and to me it always will be.

The character wasn't always used to the full, it's true, though maybe the expectation that she would go on to DS9 might account for that; that her TNG appearances were meant mostly to establish the character than explore her. But even after the DS9 thing fell through they really should have stuck with her. Forbes was one of the best actresses the show ever had, and if I were to write up a list of the biggest mistakes ever made with Star Trek, shelving Michelle Forbes would have to be in the top 5. Awesome character, terrific performance, just kind of forgotten about. Unfortunately.

 

[Lance]

I started watching Trek during TNG season 5, with Conundrum and Power Play and all those other Ro episodes. Because of that she was as much an instant and essential part of the fabric of the show for me as Picard and Data and all the others, and it was never quite the same without her. When I finally got to see the series in order, I still felt that way; Wesley at the conn just doesn't seem right. That's Ro's chair, and to me it always will be.

The character wasn't always used to the full, it's true, though maybe the expectation that she would go on to DS9 might account for that; that her TNG appearances were meant mostly to establish the character than explore her. But even after the DS9 thing fell through they really should have stuck with her. Forbes was one of the best actresses the show ever had, and if I were to write up a list of the biggest mistakes ever made with Star Trek, shelving Michelle Forbes would have to be in the top 5. Awesome character, terrific performance, just kind of forgotten about. Unfortunately.

I agree.

While I obviously knew all about the attempts to put her in DS9, I never realised until very recently that the producers had made a second pass at trying to get Forbes on board as Ro Laren for VOYAGER (in the role that ultimately became B'elanna Torres, after Forbes turned down the offer). While it obviously explains why Ro was written out of TNG in the way she was, by defecting to the Maquis, I can't quite picture her being a chief engineer, even though I *can* kind of imagine her saying some of Torres' dialogue (particularly in the first season). If anything, they should've bumped Paris aside, and let Ro take the helm instead.

 

[EnriqueH]

I started this as a kind of "Ensign Ro appreciation thread", but does anyone else think it was a mistake for to not commit?

Has she been in anything noteworthy that justified her not committing to Star Trek?

I can understand if she walked and then won an Emmy or Oscar or some kind of major success on another show, but I don't believe she has. In fact, I only remember ever seeing her in Escape from L.A.

 

[Lance]

I started this as a kind of "Ensign Ro appreciation thread", but does anyone else think it was a mistake for to not commit?

Has she been in anything noteworthy that justified her not committing to Star Trek?

I can understand if she walked and then won an Emmy or Oscar or some kind of major success on another show, but I don't believe she has. In fact, I only remember ever seeing her in Escape from L.A.

It was a lifestyle choice, ultimately. She was doing lots of different work and seemed to enjoy the ability to do smaller roles in many diverse things instead of being "nailed down" to a one-character-twenty-six-episodes-every-year-for-seven-years-job.

Perfectly understandable.

As I say, she was on the record as being more than happy to continue doing occasional appearances, but the producers basically washed their hands of her once she turned down their second offer. Which is a shame, because like we've been saying, Forbes performances are powerful, and DS9 had a larger semi-regular cast anyway (so, plenty of room for Ro Laren to join that number).

Also, Colm Meaney (Chief O'Brien) was given special leeway to still go off and do his little 'side projects' as a condition of his agreeing to commit to DS9 as a regular, so he wasn't as 'tied down' to Star Trek as some of the other regulars were. Maybe they should have made Forbes a similar offer... but on the other hand, maybe they couldn't have had two cast members doing that. Another "What If?" scenario.

 

[Ghrakh]

I didn't like the character.

Mostly agree. Always had this "I'm only here until I find something better" vibe.

 

[BillJ]

The character was interesting in "Ensign Ro". Beyond that, she was largely forgettable.

 

[nonbelligerency]

I thought she was a great character. Good actress and fit her character well. She's always been on my top 5 of best looking females on Trek. (Ro, Troi, Lefler, Ishara & Ensign McKnight).

If you want to see Forbes in another good movie, check out Kalifornia.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107302/

 

[Orphalesion]

Also, Colm Meaney (Chief O'Brien) was given special leeway to still go off and do his little 'side projects' as a condition of his agreeing to commit to DS9 as a regular, so he wasn't as 'tied down' to Star Trek as some of the other regulars were. Maybe they should have made Forbes a similar offer... but on the other hand, maybe they couldn't have had two cast members doing that. Another "What If?" scenario.

Since Ro Laren was supposed to fill the part that became Major Kira I don't think it would have been possible to offer Forbes that opportunity since the Bajoran Officer character was far more important to the plot of DS9 than O'Brien.

And I agree in the Episodes she appeared in, apart from her she is very underused. But wasn't her character conceived from the very beginning to just be introduced in TNG and then switch over to DS9?

 

[Lance]

Nah, conceptually the character was created for an episode of TNG, the producers liked what they seen enough to write her into a few more episodes, and then they went into the creation of DS9 on the assumption that Ensign Ro would cross over, just like O'Brien did. If they ever had any kind of grand plan for the character when they first created her, it was never communicated to the actress.

 

[Taelon]

What there any connection between Ro and Sonya Gomez?

Like, was one character supposed to be a substitute for the other because they couldn't get the actress back?