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Hypothesis: Raffi was originally intended to be Ro Laren...

eschaton

eschaton

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I was thinking about in the morning the seeming similarities between Raffi and Ro Laren. Both of them are former Starfleet officers who left in disgrace for different reasons. Both of them are very "flawed" characters compared to the normal Starfleet-type character. Both of them had a very close relationship with Jean Luc which ended with a betrayal of sorts. Michelle Forbes and Michelle Hurd are also about the same age, suggesting the characters are around the same age as well.

So that leads me to wonder - was there a time period they were considering having Ro Laren being who Picard turned to for help when he realized he couldn't turn to Riker, Worf, or Geordi? Did they abandon this as a bad idea early in writing, then coming up with Raffi's character? Or perhaps Michelle Forbes turned down a main cast role on Star Trek for the third time in a row.
 
It would be interesting and Forbes is a good enough actor to make it interesting but it might have been to insider to really work plus you would have the betrayl be over something that happened in a old episode and not anything dealing with the Romulans or Synchs.

Jason
 
I doubt they were considering it, as she didn't want to return for DS9, but it would have been cool of course.
 
eschaton said:
I was thinking about in the morning the seeming similarities between Raffi and Ro Laren. Both of them are former Starfleet officers who left in disgrace for different reasons. Both of them are very "flawed" characters compared to the normal Starfleet-type character. Both of them had a very close relationship with Jean Luc which ended with a betrayal of sorts. Michelle Forbes and Michelle Hurd are also about the same age, suggesting the characters are around the same age as well.

So that leads me to wonder - was there a time period they were considering having Ro Laren being who Picard turned to for help when he realized he couldn't turn to Riker, Worf, or Geordi? Did they abandon this as a bad idea early in writing, then coming up with Raffi's character? Or perhaps Michelle Forbes turned down a main cast role on Star Trek for the third time in a row.
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Narratively it does not work because Ro Laren had turned her back on Starfleet a decade before and you have to add the complexity of why she joined, left, joined, left.

The relationship between Picard and Laren would be different - because Laren already had this arc (with a different outcome).
 
Would Ro have been welcomed back into Starfleet, though? It's one thing to give her clemency or dismiss the charges against her for her crimes, and quite another thing to actually welcome her back into Starfleet as anything.

It seems that Raffi being in Starfleet helping Picard evacuate Romulans was an important detail to her character. The reason for her current bitterness and jaded life is because she feels betrayed by Picard and she was drummed out of Starfleet because of her connection to him. Picard was staying true blue to Starfleet during that time and even after. He hadn't stepped out of line at that point. It's presented that only now is Picard willing to work with individuals that are in the gray areas and are non-Starfleet.

I don't see the Picard of 14 or more years ago seeking out Ro's help to evacuate Romulus. I suppose Raffi's character could be really reworked to remove her association with Picard during the Romulan evacuation.
 
eschaton said:
I was thinking about in the morning the seeming similarities between Raffi and Ro Laren. Both of them are former Starfleet officers who left in disgrace for different reasons. Both of them are very "flawed" characters compared to the normal Starfleet-type character. Both of them had a very close relationship with Jean Luc which ended with a betrayal of sorts. Michelle Forbes and Michelle Hurd are also about the same age, suggesting the characters are around the same age as well.

So that leads me to wonder - was there a time period they were considering having Ro Laren being who Picard turned to for help when he realized he couldn't turn to Riker, Worf, or Geordi? Did they abandon this as a bad idea early in writing, then coming up with Raffi's character? Or perhaps Michelle Forbes turned down a main cast role on Star Trek for the third time in a row.
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I doubt it, because every character in this show seems to be broken in some way. You might as well hypothesize that Rios was supposed to be Ro.
 
I'd be really surprised if they ever planned for Ro to appear in Picard. I could be wrong, but hasn't Michelle Forbes said somewhat recently in an interview that she doesn't even remember any of her time on Star Trek and isn't particularly interested in returning to the role?

Back in the mid-90s, I bought a copy of the script for the TNG episode "Preemptive Strike" and there was a note attached to it saying "Now that Ro has joined the Maquis, the stage is set for her to appear in the new "Voyager" series." I had never heard that before, but a quick glance at Michelle Forbes' Memory Alpha page does back-up that she was offered the chance to reprise the role on "Voyager", but like DS9 she turned it down (would she have replaced B'Elanna Torres?). If your hypothesis on her being in "Picard" were true, it would be funny that they tried to get the character of Ensign Ro into three subsequent Trek shows and could never pull it off because Forbes just wasn't into it.
 
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Raffi has a particular set of talents, not to mention personality problems that both fit the current series and have absolutely nothing to do with Ro.
 
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SurvivorJoe said:
I'd be really surprised if they ever planned for Ro to appear in Picard. I could be wrong, but hasn't Michelle Forbes said somewhat recently in an interview that she doesn't even remember any of her time on Star Trek and isn't particularly interested in returning to the role?

Back in the mid-90s, I bought a copy of the script for the TNG episode "Preemptive Strike" and there was a note attached to it saying "Now that Ro has joined the Maquis, the stage is set for her to appear in the new "Voyager" series." I had never heard that before, but a quick glance at Michelle Forbes' Memory Alpha page does back-up that she was offered the chance to reprise the role on "Voyager", but like DS9 she turned it down (would she have replaced B'Elanna Torres?). If your hypothesis on her being in "Picard" were true, it would be funny that they tried to get the character of Ensign Ro into three subsequent Trek shows and could never pull it off because Forbes just wasn't into it.
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Wasn't Ro supposed to the Bajoran character in DS9 instead of the Kira character and Forbes turned down the role because she didn't want to be tied down to a full time role?
She did come back later to TNG for a single episode, so having her appear in some capacity on Picard in a single episode make a bit of sense.
 
If Forbes would do it then I definitely wouldn't mind if she popped up for an appearance in "Picard." It would be nice to find out if Ro survived the Dominion slaughter of the Maquis. (I do realize in the books she survived and went to DS9)
 
Yeah, Ro was always a misfit in Starfleet. Even in the highly unlikely event that the Federation cleared all charges for her involvement with the Maquis for some reason and offered to make her a Starfleet officer again, I don't think she would be eager to come back. Unless Picard himself appealed to her to return and join him on an important mission.

Kor
 
Kor said:
Yeah, Ro was always a misfit in Starfleet. Even in the highly unlikely event that the Federation cleared all charges for her involvement with the Maquis for some reason and offered to make her a Starfleet officer again, I don't think she would be eager to come back. Unless Picard himself appealed to her to return and join him on an important mission.

Kor
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It makes me wonder how Picard can be so sure that Rios was "Starfleet to the core" or whatever in his little speech, as he'd clearly been wrong before. Rios should have just said two words in response to that: "Ro Laren." Of course, it'd go straight over the heads of the fans who missed her episodes.
 
JoeZhang said:
It would also be really odd - why would Rios know of an ensign that Picard served with for a few months at best over 25 years ago?
Click to expand...
Picard: How would you know of an ensign that I served with for a few months at best over 25 years ago??
Rios: :whistle:

(dramatic music plays)
 
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