10 Star Trek Undercover Operations That Went Wrong

Anyone who took the time to get to know Ro Laren, even a little bit, would have realised that the mission in Preemptive Strike was never going to end any other way.

With the Maquis on the rise, Starfleet sends Ro to infiltrate the resistance fighters. It's a terrible decision that leaves you wondering (yet again) if the professionals planning covert operations possess any common sense. No one in the room put their hand up and said, 'Maybe sending a traumatised Bajoran to infiltrate the rebels fighting Cardassian tyranny isn't a good idea'?

We know they have the ability to alter anyone to look Bajoran if that was crucial (but it wasn't). So sending Ro into such a compromising position feels outright irresponsible. Her harrowing childhood in a refugee camp culminated in the murder of her father by a Cardassian...a crime she was forced to witness. She struggled to find her feet in Starfleet, and just as she started to fit in, they sent her to the Maquis.

Ro can personally relate to the heartbreaking plight of the people she meets while undercover. She identifies with their stories, with their loss, and with their need to fight back. And most of all, it's her chance for redemption.

Ro once confessed to Picard that, as a child, she had been ashamed of how her father begged for mercy while being tortured by a Cardassian, and had even been ashamed of being Bajoran. The Maquis was her chance to finally stand up as a Bajoran and fight her oppressors. So it seems almost inevitable when her undercover mission leads to Ro joining the Maquis for real.

And frankly, Picard can keep his patriarchal outrage over her decision. The man who rage-quit Starfleet because he didn't agree with their moral stance has no place throwing stones at Ro's decision to do the same. The only real difference was that Ro chose to do something about it, while Picard chose to make wine.