….Ro Laren……played by Michelle Forbes….to resolve some issues….


Star Trek: Picard Boss Explains the Surprise Return of a Next Generation Favorite: 'It Felt Like We Had to Do It'

....We knew this season of Star Trek: Picard would see Jean-Luc cross paths with a lot of his former Enterprise crewmates — but we didn’t see this one coming.

In Thursday’s episode, Starfleet sent a team of investigators to question Jean-Luc and Riker about their insubordination aboard the Titan, and the team was led by… Ro Laren, the Bajoran lieutenant played by Michelle Forbes on Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Jean-Luc was left deeply disappointed by her on TNG when she left the Enterprise to join a band of resistance fighters.) Forbes reprised her role as Ro Laren this week, and it was clear the wounds between her and Jean-Luc hadn’t exactly healed over the years.

“It felt like one of the last great unexplored stories of Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Picard showrunner Terry Matalas tells TVLine. “It ended in such a kind of tragic way, those two, and now we’re back decades later. One wonders: What happened to Ro Laren?”

Jean-Luc still felt betrayed by Ro Laren’s abrupt departure all those years ago, labeling her a “traitor,” and he also suspected she could be one of the changelings that have infiltrated Starfleet. That led to a riveting scene where Jean-Luc and Ro held phasers on each other while arguing about their old rift on the holodeck — “You broke my heart,” he told her, and she replied: “And you broke mine” — and that intense conversation convinced Jean-Luc that she was the real Ro Laren.

For Matalas and the Picard writers, “the opportunity to tell a story that’s essentially a paranoia thriller, where both of them are looking at each other, not entirely certain if each other are who they say they are, and the only way to verify their identity is to work through this kind of catharsis about how they feel, [felt] like it could be good television.” He admits “it was a tough one to crack, but it was brilliantly written by our writers, and I think it’s satisfying. But it felt like we had to do it.”

By episode’s end, Ro Laren exposed the changelings within Starfleet and nobly sacrificed herself, piloting a shuttle carrying a bomb into another ship to allow Jean-Luc and the Titan time to escape. “She sets them on the path, hopefully, that could save the galaxy,” Matalas notes.....


……..STNG character……returns……?!

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2023 05:46PM by NewtonMP2100.

Nice interviews-thanks!

I just watched the episode, and here's what I have to say:

1) Michelle Forbes is a superb actress and has aged VERY well.

2) Despite that, I take issue with the "brilliant" writing: her backstory made no sense whatsoever (the Maquis were completely wiped out, remember?), and the writers have now taken so many liberties with things that it's become farcical. Ferengi who look like ugly humans? A Vulcan crime lord? Changelings who all bring buckets with them to regenerate in and don't disintegrate after death? Etc.

3) If they had wanted to go the "conspiracy" route, I would have preferred them go literal and do a return of the alien crayfish things, rather than what we're getting.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Odo was forcibly changed into human-form with organs and blood.

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Tiangou
Odo was forcibly changed into human-form with organs and blood.

Right, but that was because the Changelings also removed his shapechanging abilities...

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

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PeterB

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Tiangou
Odo was forcibly changed into human-form with organs and blood.

Right, but that was because the Changelings also removed his shapechanging abilities...

If he died, do you think his "organs" would have kept their shape?

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Tiangou

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PeterB

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Tiangou
Odo was forcibly changed into human-form with organs and blood.

Right, but that was because the Changelings also removed his shapechanging abilities...

If he died, do you think his "organs" would have kept their shape?

Yes, but I'm not sure how that's relevant. The Changelings turned Odo into a complete human, sans shape changing abilities. What they're apparently now doing is changing shape but now emulating to the point of having organs and (somewhat) retaining shape after death. Also, in terms of plot holes, it's inconceivable that the Changelings would decide to stay in the Alpha Quadrant for any serious amount of time, since they'd be away from the Great Link. And leaving shifter-goo? That's again inconsistent with what we've known of the Changelings... if it were true, then Starfleet needn't have bothered with blood screenings. Face it, it's just a LOT of plot holes and retconning.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

SPOILERS AHEAD, MATEY!!

YE BE WARNED!!

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PeterB
Yes, but I'm not sure how that's relevant. The Changelings turned Odo into a complete human, sans shape changing abilities...

Mimicking human form well enough to evade Dr. Bashir's scans may have taken the power of the Great Link to accomplish back then, but it's decades later.

You think that human technology and medicine can evolve, but other species are stuck where they began?

I find this aspect among the least objectionable of the elements they introduced in this show.

If anything, it's surprising that they never bothered to improve on their mimicry to this level prior to the Dominion War... Tho I can see that as their lack of pressure to change their ways until faced with losing a war for the first time in their history. War is often a very strong driver of innovation.

What I do dislike about this part of the story is that they've indicated that these shape changers are actually rebels who broke off from the Great Link.

Okay, it's possible for one shape changer already isolated from the Great Link to break away, but multiple shape changers spontaneously departing from it to pursue revenge for... What? Odo changed the entirety of the Great Link by imparting his empathy to it. So, they are trying to destroy the Federation because they don't like having empathy? I'm not getting that as a good motive.

And how many are there? Previously, it was indicated that a handful of shape changers were able to destroy entire civilizations. Yet, they've identified and killed at least 6 between a pair of starships, four on the previous ship, one that Worf snagged and took down. They're throwing lives away. Aren't all shape changer lives valuable to the point where a single loss is a massive cultural tragedy?

This isn't retconning. It's ignorance, arrogance, and lack of understanding of the previous material. The only show that I can think of with comparable disdain for what has come before is Doctor Who.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2023 12:58PM by Tiangou.

These guys have been helping me cope with the stupidity of ST/P.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2023 05:55PM by Black.

Quote
Tiangou
SPOILERS AHEAD, MATEY!!

YE BE WARNED!!

Quote
PeterB
Yes, but I'm not sure how that's relevant. The Changelings turned Odo into a complete human, sans shape changing abilities...

Mimicking human form well enough to evade Dr. Bashir's scans may have taken the power of the Great Link to accomplish back then, but it's decades later.

You think that human technology and medicine can evolve, but other species are stuck where they began?

I find this aspect among the least objectionable of the elements they introduced in this show.

If anything, it's surprising that they never bothered to improve on their mimicry to this level prior to the Dominion War... Tho I can see that as their lack of pressure to change their ways until faced with losing a war for the first time in their history. War is often a very strong driver of innovation.

What I do dislike about this part of the story is that they've indicated that these shape changers are actually rebels who broke off from the Great Link.

Okay, it's possible for one shape changer already isolated from the Great Link to break away, but multiple shape changers spontaneously departing from it to pursue revenge for... What? Odo changed the entirety of the Great Link by imparting his empathy to it. So, they are trying to destroy the Federation because they don't like having empathy? I'm not getting that as a good motive.

And how many are there? Previously, it was indicated that a handful of shape changers were able to destroy entire civilizations. Yet, they've identified and killed at least 6 between a pair of starships, four on the previous ship, one that Worf snagged and took down. They're throwing lives away. Aren't all shape changer lives valuable to the point where a single loss is a massive cultural tragedy?

This isn't retconning. It's ignorance, arrogance, and lack of understanding of the previous material. The only show that I can think of with comparable disdain for what has come before is Doctor Who.

Just getting back to this thread...

There are just so many plot holes with this story. If these are renegade Changelings, where are Odo and the other Changelings who agreed to the surrender at the end of the Dominion war? And how exactly did these Changelings get to the Alpha Quadrant, when presumably (after the war) everyone would be being screened to make sure they weren't a Changeling?

And yes, sure, Changeling biology could evolve... but in only a few decades???

It's also not really consistent, as you pointed out, for Changelings to be throwing their lives away essentially performing terrorist acts. They would simply use the Jem'Hadar for that. (Actually, that's a good question, where are the Jem'Hadar???)

Lastly ... you're correct that the motivation makes no sense. From the Changelings' perspective, they lost a war, but it's not as if that will have any great effect on them in the Gamma Quadrant. It just meant that they couldn't take over the Alpha Quadrant. In the bigger scheme, which is how the Dominion apparently always viewed them, this is a minor thing.

Add all of this to the other inconsistencies, it's at best sloppy writing, at worst disrespect for the source material as you say.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)