10 Amazing Behind The Scenes Secrets Of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

10. Ro Laren

We start with perhaps the most famous story from Deep Space Nine's pre-production, and a genuine sliding doors moment in the history of the entire franchise. Major Kira Nerys, both a pillar of this show and arguably one of the greatest female portrayals in all of Star Trek, was never supposed to be a part of the story. In fact, she was thrown in as a last-minute addition when the character Paramount originally envisaged fell apart.

That character? The Next Generation's Ro Laren.

The initial treatments for Deep Space Nine had Michelle Forbes' recurring Bajoran tearaway as one of the major focal points of the show. Early versions of the writer's bible had her acting as both the Federation liaison with the Bajoran Militia, serving as Sisko's First Officer, becoming good friends with (the initially quite uptight) Dax, and having an adversarial relationship with Quark. Sound familiar?

However Forbes really wasn't interested in a full-time run on the show and, after several rewrites were attempted to accommodate her only being used occasionally, a late decision was taken to just write an entirely new Bajoran character; Major Kira Nerys.

It's near impossible to imagine Deep Space Nine without either Kira or Nana Visitor, but that's very nearly what we got.