Ro Laren would be the perfect addition to Star Trek: Picard

Given that Star Trek: Picard finds our hero in a very different place in his life, the addition of Ro Laren to the show would be a perfect fit.

Ensign Ro Laren was one of the more interesting and complex characters added to Star Trek: The Next Generation in the show’s later years. Portrayed by Michelle Forbes, Ro Laren was the first Bajoran seen in Star Trek, a race who was fighting a war against the Cardassian Union, who had occupied the planet and was using Bajorans as slave labor to strip the planet of all its resources.

In addition, Ro was one of the first characters that contradicted Gene Roddenberry’s edict that all Starfleet personnel work together seamlessly. Ro had disobeyed a direct order and the result was the deaths of several of her crew mates. When we meet her in “Ensign Ro,” she has been court-martialed and serving time in prison for her crimes. All very un-Star Trek line qualities for a member of Starfleet.

Over the course of that first episode, Captain Picard takes a liking to Ro and convinces her to rejoin Starfleet as a member of the Enterprise, which she accepts. It leads to a relationship unlike any other seen on The Next Generation.

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Ro eventually left Starfleet to join the Maquis and fight the Cardassian occupation of her home world. And as everyone knows, the Maquis were wiped out in the early days of The Dominion War by Cardassian/Dominion fleet. It was always assumed that Ro was killed in the massacre.

Of course, you know what they say when you assume something.

Star Trek: Picard is going to take a look at Jean-Luc Picard after his career in Starfleet is over and how he is now in a very different place in his life. It would be incredibly interesting to see him interact with Ro, another character who is probably in a very different phase of her own life.

The war with Cardassia is long over, Bajor has joined the Federation and all the former members of the Maquis that survived were pardoned decades ago. It would be fascinating to see what became of someone like Ro Laren, a soldier and terrorist with no more conflicts to fight and how she deals with that.

Additionally, Forbes and Patrick Stewart always had an amazing chemistry whenever they shared the screen. Ro respected Picard more than possibly anyone else and Picard knew that but never took advantage of it. It was a character dynamic the show could have used more of quite honestly.

Both Ro Laren and Jean-Luc Picard are in a new and unknown phase of their lives, very different but very similar at the same time. It would be great to see that relationship rekindled and Ro Laren come to the aid of her former captain.

Star Trek: Picard is tentatively set to debut sometime later in 2019.