Ensign Ro

Stardate 45076.3: Admiral Kennelly assigns the Enterprise to help resolve tensions with the Bajora, an isolated, once-advanced race whose territory was long ago taken by the Cardassians. Since then, the Bajora have carried out terrorist attacks on the Cardassians, and now, according to Kennelly, the Bajora have traveled outside their own system and attacked a Federation outpost. The Enterprise is to contact the Bajoran terrorist leader Orta and offer serious discussions after years of sympathetic talk and no action. Ensign Ro Laren, herself a Bajoran – recently court-martialed but pulled out of prison by Kennelly – is assigned to the Enterprise. Ro is an abrasive officer who does not want to be on the ship or the mission. She does, however, tell Picard to contact Keeve, leader of a Bajoran colony that has no technology and isn’t even able to adequately feed or clothe its own people. On another planet, Picard contacts Orta – after being abducted by Orta’s guards – and discovers that the Bajora do not have the resources to attack anything beyond their own system. Ro then reveals to Picard that Kennelly is aware of this, and that she and the Enterprise are being used by the Cardassians to quietly get rid of the Bajora “threat” by escorting them straight into the Cardassians’ line of fire.

teleplay by Michael Piller
story by Rick Berman and Michael Piller
directed by Les Landau
music by Dennis McCarthy

Cast: Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro), Cliff Potts (Admiral Kennelly), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan), Scott Marlowe (Keeve Falor), Frank Collison (Gul Dolak), Jeffrey Hayenga (Orta), Harley Venton (Transporter Technician), Ken Thorley (Mr. Mot), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice)

Notes: Michelle Forbes was later offered the chance to bring Ensign Ro to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a regular, but she opted to pursue a film career instead, and the character of Major Kira Nerys was created to fill the gap.