Preemptive Strike

[Abi Smith]

Watched Preemptive Strike yesterday and it occured to me that Ro may well have been successfully psychologically manipulated into joining the Maquis.

Evidence:
Ro's former instructor (a father figure), a man she trusts and respects, has left to join the Maquis.
Ro returns to the Enterprise feeling out of place but eager to please Captain Picard (a father figure).
The Maquis are stepping up their military activites, now they have joined by a man skillled in advanced tactics who knows Ro well.
Ro infiltrates a Maquis cell and Macias (a father figure) seems to trust her immediately.
Macias bonds with Ro over hasperat invoking memories of her father.
Macias bonds with Ro over his playing of the belaklavion invoking memories of her father.
Macias dies at the hands of the Cardassians echoing her father's death, cementing Ro's defection.

It seems to me that Ro's instructor left Starfleet with a list of potential officers for recruitment. Knowing of Ro's daddy issues he uses them against her, not her dislike of Cardassians or the political climate, to sway her and override any sense of duty. If Macias lived, Ro would have made the hasperat and Macias would have played the belaklavion badly, empty gestures.

 

[TroiFan4ever]

To me Macias bonding with Ro was my favorite part of this whole episode. The thing about it is, in the episode "Ensign Ro" two years prior, Riker, Picard, and Geordi treated her like a criminal... which she pretty much was, and didn't really want much of anything to do with her but they were forced to work with her. But at the end of Season 7 two years later when she visits the Enterprise, the crew gives her a very warm welcome. But once Ro shows her reluctance to fight against the Maquis, Picard stops trusting her and regards her as a criminal again. That's the thing i didn't like about this episode.

 

[tomalak301]

Ro was such a well written character and this was a nice conclusion to her arc. I think while it was a bummer she didn't go to DS9, this set the foundation for how Kira was written and both became really strong female characters because of it.

 

[Mojochi]

Actually I just don't think Ro ever belonged in Starfleet, & only went as far as she did because Picard made her feel like she should have some kind of purpose... you know, kind of like he did with Wesley... that purpose being his own, & look how well that's been working out for him. It's probably a good thing he doesn't have kids lol He probably would've been just like his own father, except his kids would've felt obligated to join Starfleet & been miserable & left

As for Ro, does she ever really fit in on the D? I mean they all give her that big welcome back party, but I really felt all that was very fake. Some of them like Beverly barely even spent any time with her that we know of. Suddenly they're chums

& here's the thing. Ro herself doesn't even really seem all that comfortable being back, even before the Maqui mission. Her only bonding with any of the crew up to then, was very fleeting imho. Geordi got to know her a tiny bit in The Next Phase, Guinan did the same in Rascals & Ensign Ro, Will had a pretty awkward encounter in Conundrum that is probably never spoken of again, & Picard himself I guess kind of mentored her, but even that was seemingly from a distance. There's really just not a lot of evidence to suggest she was ever really part of the family

So I honestly don't think there needed to be a major conspiracy to get her to abandon ship, so to speak. Frankly, Macias probably reminder her of someone who was far more important to her than any of those fellow officers had been

But once Ro shows her reluctance to fight against the Maquis, Picard stops trusting her and regards her as a criminal again. That's the thing i didn't like about this episode.

I honestly can't say he regards her as a criminal again. He's not an idiot. He can see the writing on the wall. He knows she doesn't have the stomach for this, by a certain point, & he probably believes in his mission, a mission she is clearly attempting to obstruct. He doesn't treat her like a criminal. He treats her like an officer who is deliberately defying duty

Quite frankly, he does the exact same thing to Will in The Pegasus, & that dude's his #1. I think it's unfair to judge Picard so harshly in this circumstance. She has her reason for what she does, & so does he. They may be incompatible, but both can be seen as equally just imho

 

[Qonundrum]

Ro was such a well written character and this was a nice conclusion to her arc. I think while it was a bummer she didn't go to DS9, this set the foundation for how Kira was written and both became really strong female characters because of it.

Michelle Forbes did make it big on the show she jumped to, "Law & Order" was it? She was still perfect as Ro (and the first character TNG had that added both conflict AND chemistry that worked with everyone else in the group), but it's instantly noticed how Nana Visitor sells Kira indelibly from the first second we see her. Imagine both Forbes and Visitor as part of DS9's complement. A perfect cast made perfecter.. well, as "more perfect" and not some "fastidious person trying to hone a craft or skill and won't get any gratitude for it"...

 

[Sgt_G]

She was Dr. Julianna Cox in Homicide: Life on the Streets, but that's in the same universe as Law & Order (the John Munch character was in both).

 

[Discofan]

I think Ro would have made for a better Kira than the one we got.

 

[Abi Smith]

I hear on the grapevine that Preemptive Strike was actually laying the groundwork for Voyager.
Ro got adapted into Torres, Chakotay was her instructor, it plays up the Maquis threat and in the bar there Native Americans, Vulcans and Klingons an allusion to the Val Jean's crew.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Ro never belonged in Starfleet but it was better for her than being an aimless criminal. That's why she later became an aimful criminal.

 

[Mojochi]

Ro never belonged in Starfleet but it was better for her than being an aimless criminal. That's why she later became an aimful criminal.

She'd apparently just found the wrong people to aim her

 

[Tosk]

I hear on the grapevine that Preemptive Strike was actually laying the groundwork for Voyager.
Ro got adapted into Torres, Chakotay was her instructor, it plays up the Maquis threat and in the bar there Native Americans, Vulcans and Klingons an allusion to the Val Jean's crew.

Mm, I dunno 'bout that...Preemptive Strike was written in March '94. B'Elanna and Chakotay were already named and laid out characters in drafts of Caretaker prior to that.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I heard Ro was considered for both DS9 and Voyager but the actress wasn't interested.

 

[Discofan]

I heard Ro was considered for both DS9 and Voyager but the actress wasn't interested.

That's our loss, in both instances.

 

[Abi Smith]

I heard Ro was considered for both DS9 and Voyager but the actress wasn't interested.

Yeah, they retooled Ro into Kira for DS9 and Torres for Voyager.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think DS9 should have had Ro AND Kira. The super-religious, super-patriotic Bajoran who fought in the trenches in the resistance and the atheist Bajoran who was in the Federation the whole time. Great opportunity for conflict and healing.

DS9 never really touched on the resentment the Bajorans who fought in the resistance must have had for Bajorans who spent the Occupation is the safety of Federation worlds, that would have forced them to deal with it.

 

[Mojochi]

I think DS9 should have had Ro AND Kira. The super-religious, super-patriotic Bajoran who fought in the trenches in the resistance and the atheist Bajoran who was in the Federation the whole time. Great opportunity for conflict and healing.

DS9 never really touched on the resentment the Bajorans who fought in the resistance must have had for Bajorans who spent the Occupation is the safety of Federation worlds, that would have forced them to deal with it.

It would've been at least worthy of a single episode, with a guest spot from Forbes

 

[Nakita Akita]

I think Kira and Ro together would be overwhelming to point of toxic.
It would be like having Kirk and Riker together.
I wouldn't see the two strong personalities of each melding very well into a friendship at all. And if they played them at conflict, it would get old too fast or be painful and unbearable.
They could have had Ro in a recurring role though and it might have been very interesting.

 

[Discofan]

I think Kira and Ro together would be overwhelming to point of toxic.
It would be like having Kirk and Riker together.
I wouldn't see the two strong personalities of each melding very well into a friendship at all. And if they played them at conflict, it would get old too fast or be painful and unbearable.
They could have had Ro in a recurring role though and it might have been very interesting.

It's hard to imagine how replacing Kira with Ro would have affected the show but I am almost certain that it would have been for the better. Michelle Forbes is much more nuanced an actress than Nana Visitor and it would have no doubt rubbed off on the entire series.

 

[Roundabout]

I am glad that Ro's story arc ended the way that it did.

Ever since her first appearance on TNG, I got the impression that Ro was really a rebel at heart. I felt that Ro stayed true to her character when she jumped ship to join the Maquis. It was fitting that she found her home with the Maquis.

She found a greater and more worthy (at least to her) cause than Starfleet. Starfleet isn't the be-all-end-all for everybody, just as it wasn't for Wesley or Eddington. Also, seeing the disappointment on Picard's self righteous face was priceless.

Ro was such a well written character and this was a nice conclusion to her arc. I think while it was a bummer she didn't go to DS9, this set the foundation for how Kira was written and both became really strong female characters because of it.

IIRC, in the first few episodes of DS9, Kira had the same hair style as Ro. Somehow it didn't look right on Kira. I assume the writers/make up folks wanted to show some sort of visual continuity between the two Bajoran female characters by using the same hair style. I'm glad they scrapped that style on Kira after only a few eps.

It would've been at least worthy of a single episode, with a guest spot from Forbes

It might have been nice to have seen her guest starring in an episode or two of DS9.

Since we never got to see that, I imagine that she and Eddington did cross paths and strategized. But we will never know (I am not including any novels that she might have been in) if Ro went out in a blaze of glory like Eddington or if she somehow managed to survive and is still roaming around the galaxy.