Terry Matalas always meant for that TNG character to return

Star Trek: Picard showrunner, Terry Matalas, had one character in mind when “Imposters” was being planned. 

This post contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard, Season 3, Episode 5 “Imposters”.

Star Trek: Picard showrunner, Terry Matalas, was always upfront about there being more Star Trek: The Next Generation characters, other than the ones we already knew about, returning to this season. And he didn’t disappoint with the first one as the return was emotional and powerful.

Michelle Forbes, who played Ro Laren, on Star Trek: The Next Generation before ending her short run in the series’ seventh season, surprised everyone when she met Admiral Picard and Captain Riker in the corridor of the Titan. Even more of a surprise was that she was there to investigate both for treason. Star Trek fans are still talking about this top secret appearance that Matalas managed, but we also wanted to know if this episode was written for Forbes because it wouldn’t have worked without her character.

Terry Matalas said this Star Trek: Picard script always needed Michelle Forbes.

In an interview with Collider, Matals said he thought it would be great to do a paranoia thriller with someone with baggage.

"“This story was always– the pitch that I had for it was, “How great would it be to do a paranoia thriller with someone that you have all this baggage with?” The only way to be sure you’re sitting across from the person that you hope you’re sitting across from is to get through your trauma with them. I thought that if we could pull that off, we’d have a really interesting episode of television. But that required us getting Michelle Forbes and convincing the studio and the network it was the right idea, and educating a lot of people on who Ro Laren [was].”"

The series did a wonderful job filling in the details of the Ro/Admiral Picard connection so the viewers who hadn’t seen The Next Generation were caught up to speed. Overall, bringing Ro back in for one last conversation with Picard, for one last chance to resolve thirty year old issues, was a brilliant choice. If all of The Next Generation character returns are going to be like this, we’ve got some fantastic surprises in store for the remaining five episodes.