Ensign Ro

The great thing about 'Ensign Ro' is that it's an uplifting story, despite the subject matter of persecution and oppression. Ros a good character, one that's got "tough break" written all over her, and Michelle Forbes plays her with maximum angst. And even though I've never been all that hot on either race (the Cardassians or the Bajorans), this makes for a good political allegory. Not to mention using Picard as a pawn in a deep-cover scheme to arm the rebels in this fight. There's a terrific scene in which the Captain stares down a Cardassian battle cruiser with finesse, leaning into his diplomatic reputation; and even gets the better of his manipulators.

And in the end, there's Ro, left to either continue a carer in Starfleet or strike out again on her own. Picard makes a great case for her staying on as a recurring character.

This could be the start of a beautiful relationship.

8/10

Ensign Ro Laren is assigned to Enterprise to help identify terrorists responsible for attacking a Federation settlement.

This is an important episode that not only introduces the story arc of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, but shakes up the dynamic of the Enterprise crew with a prickly new character.

The plot involves the clichè of a shady admiral caught up in a conspiracy, but it is really just an excuse to get to know the Bajorans, push the Cardassians further into villainy and give Ro plenty of screen time. All of the above works fine for me.

Initially the conflict between two species seems like one of many that Enterprise gets caught up in, but this one lays the foundation for more related episodes in TNG, the entire premise of Deep Space Nine and one of the main characters in Voyager.

Ro is a fantastic character played superbly well by Michelle Forbes. She is such a great presence and it elevates so many of the scenes that would be average to highly compelling. You can feel the tension in every scene. One pivotal moment when she explains her character history is written as a clunky bit of exposition dialogue, but her performance and the cinematography make it work brilliantly. Forbes plays Ro with strength, vulnerability and has a natural delivery.

Forbes has great chemistry with Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes and Caryn Johnson and the scenes she shares with their characters are highly memorable. It is refreshing to have someone whose face doesn't fit in the happy Enterprise family and be quite combative about her acceptance. The exchanges between all these actors are excellent throughout.

This is a great character episode and does some decent world building within the franchise.

For me, as a stand-alone episode it is an 8/10, but for what it gives the ongoing narrative of the Star Trek universe I think it deserves an 8.5, but I round upwards.

Having seen DS9 the picture painted of Bajor is completely different. This makes me question why they later came and took this storyline and reworked it into DS9. The "Bajora" as they are called have different noses. They do retain the same naming convention of last name first. Their earrings (at least Ensign Roe's) are on the wrong ear. The timeline seems to be correct, the Occupation was 41 years. They speak of the planet Bajor being occupied by the Cardassians in this episode as well, but they claim that the Bajora are an exiled race, not an enslaved one. They paint them as refugees wandering the galaxy looking for a home.

Previously I believe it was mentioned that the Federation had an alliance with the Cardassians. I don't see how the Federation would tolerate that kind of tyranny in a friend, but getting to the point, the basis for DS9 is here but it's all over the place. I don't understand why they didn't just make a whole new plan up for DS9, but I can't say I mind.

There is no mention of the wormhole, or the prophets.

This episode is definitely a little weird to watch after DS9. Still, from a TNG perspective it is a very good episode full of lots of action and twisting plots.

Trivia: Ensign Ro (Michelle Forbes) is more recently Admiral Helena Cain of the Battlestar Pegasus in the Battlestar Galatica series. She was also Dara the daughter of Timicin in Season 4 Episode 22, "Half a Life".

When I first saw this episode I assumed these "Bajora" were going to be just another "Throw Away" Alien Race - One which we'd see once then never again.

I thought the same for another race of reptilian spoon-heads: The Cardassians. And I suppose if both races had not been joined cheek to jowl in this episode, we may have seen less of them if not never again. But in reality, it is not the relationship of Humans to Bajorans, or Humans to Cardassians that made great television tension, it was in fact this trinity, this Menage-a-Alien that had possibilities.

We only get a Glimpse of these possibilities in this one episode, to explore the full gamut there had to be a new Trek show created for it - Ala Deep Space Nine.

I suspected something was up when I saw "The Wounded" and a race of horribly dressed aliens with built in spoons in their skulls suddenly and magically appear in the Future History of Trek, complete with a War with the Federation that our own Miles Edward O'Brien had fought on Setlik 3. Suddenly there was an entire War History between the Federation and The Bloody Cardies.

But this is our first view of The Bajora, and Ensign Ro Laren is the very first Bajoran we ever get to see, although not the first time we get to see Michelle Forbes on The Next Generation as she was in the 4th season episode "Half a Life" and was given some great lines to speak there as well.

The Bajora were originally written as Pariah Vagabonds unwelcome in the Galaxy, living on resettlement camps in the Cardassian Sphere of Influence.

What we are shown in this story, is not intended to be any fully fleshed out History of The Bajora and it was not supposed to be a complete revelation of the Politics of the Cardassian Union. It is merely a glimpse of some goings on within that sphere and due to a new Treaty the Federation has with the Cardassian Union, the federation is now "invited" to "Help the Cardies" solve one of their little problems.

So as such, we get a great look at the way the Cardassians like to deal. They have their own laws and rules that they religiously adhere to, but their ethics are simply not above-board.

So when Ensign Ro is dumped into Picard's lap, the Admiral (Cliff Potts) who had been suckered by The Cardassians did not know what kind of explosive this was- because Picard's Ethics go beyond simply following Federation Rules, he weighs what is right and wrong.

And our Resident Bajoran Terrorist "Orta" (Jeff Hayenga) spells this out: "Things are not what they appear". Orta's group had apparently taken the credit for blowing up a Federation Colony. The only problem is, how could Orta's crappy ships even get to another star system without Warp Drive?

The thing to remember here is that only a small resettlement camp is shown, not the Planet of Bajor. And Ro's "Trunk" is much different than Kira Neres' - Ro has an inverted 3-point star formation pointing down from between her eyebrows toward a very small section of nose ridges. All through Season 5 of TNG through season 6 and finally the one episode of Season 7 where she appears, this "Star" becomes smaller and her nose ridges get larger, in the episode "Preemptive Strike" she looks like all of the other Bajorans on Deep Space Nine.

But if you really take a look at The Bajora as they are referred to here they are exactly the same as the Bajora(n)s which we meet in the first episodes of Deep Space Nine- Their values are the same, and their plight is the same, and they both want, and do not want help from the United Federation of Planets. And the UFP gets stuck in the middle of Bajor and Cardassia- As a kind of Referee. Originally Picard champions this cause, and he hands the responsibility off to "The Sisko" in "Emissary" and it takes us another 7 years to learn that it really wasn't Picard who picked The Sisko -It was The Bajoran Prophets.

Michelle Forbes makes the first of several appearances as /ensign Ro Laren as the Bajoran/Cardassian conflict also debuts.

Ro Laren is a former Star Fleet officer who joined after Bajor was occupied by the Cardassians. She has a real chip on her shoulder and she's reinstated by Admiral Scott Marlowe over Patrick Stewart's objections.

Marlowe has some plans regarding her use in the conflict that Forbes doesn't agree with. She does know the Bajoran political landscape. In fact she makes quite the fool out of the Star Fleet admiral.

Whoopi Goldberg plays an important role here. Guinan is more than a bartender.