10 Star Trek Characters With Wasted Potential

Probably more than anyone else on this list, we here at TrekCulture have been banging on about just how much potential Ensign Ro Laren had from the start, only for it all to be wasted.

Such was Ensign Ro Laren's promise from day one, she lent her name to her first appearance in The Next Generation. Her entry early in season five was as bold as the choice of eponymous title. Outspoken, brash, and mistrustful of authority, Ro was no typical Ensign, usually portrayed as bright-eyed and eager-to-please.

When Ensign Ro first beamed aboard the Enterprise-D, she came equipped with a complex backstory the likes of which most actors could only dream for their characters. Played to note-perfect perfection by the outrageously talented Michelle Forbes, Ensign Ro (surname first as per Bajoran tradition) was initially ostracised by certain members of the Enterprise-D crew, who questioned her very presence on the ship. Having disobeyed orders during her previous assignment to the USS Wellington, eight members of her away team had died. She was subsequently court-martialled and sentenced to prison. Even those amongst the crew (Doctor Crusher and Deanna Troi) who sought to welcome Ro, were shunned by her. It would take a little gloriously Guinan 'I tend bar and I listen' magic to help the lost Ensign to start to find her feet.

In the same episode, we learnt the tragic and deeply moving reason Ro had always felt the need to keep her shields up around others. When she was a child (just seven years old) under the brutal Occupation of the Cardassians, Ro was forced to witness her father's interrogation, torture, and eventual death. At the time, Ro felt ashamed of her father "for being weak" and, as a result, ashamed of even being Bajoran. Later, she realised how unfounded this sentiment was, but somehow the sense of shame had remained ingrained within her. She no longer wanted to feel that way about her Bajoran heritage. The scene in which she reveals this fact, from the episode Ensign Ro, is an acting tour de force from Forbes – each word of Ro's speech carefully weighted and delivered to masterful effect. Even the supremely talented Patrick Stewart, her scene partner, must have had to up his game that day!

Ro remained on board the Enterprise and appeared in several episodes throughout the remaining seasons of TNG. Whilst they were some of the best, such as Disaster, Conundrum, and Cause and Effect, they were more standard sci-fi fare than her introductory episode had been. As a result, save perhaps for certain moments in The Next Phase, there was little development for Ro and so, what had started out as a character with such promise and such intrigue, felt like a bit of a wasted opportunity by the time we reached her final, and character-defining, episode Preemptive Strike.

Things were not meant to end this way, however. Producers had wanted Ro Laren to transfer to Deep Space Nine to become the station's first officer from the very beginning of that show. The character even appears in the DS9 series bible as having volunteered for duty there, gaining a promotion to lieutenant, and eventually forming meaningful relationships with Sisko, Dax, and Odo. Sadly, Michelle Forbes turned down the offer of the transfer, and so the character was rewritten to become the equally wonderful Kira Nerys.

Still, Ro would have made for a fascinating addition to DS9. The mind boggles at the possibilities! We never did get any closure for the character either after she joined the Maquis. What role did she go on to play within the group? What happened to her during the Cardassian-Dominion offensive against the Maquis? Did she survive and fight in the Dominion War?

So many questions we want answered at TrekCulture. Short of Seán seeking out the Bajoran Orb of Wisdom, however, those answers may never come.