The Underrated Star Trek Cult Hero Who Said No to Deep Space Nine and Voyager—Then Disappeared 32 Years Ago

If you ever wondered what happened to Ro Laren after she peaced out of Starfleet on The Next Generation, here’s the short version: she vanished for almost three decades, popped back up in Picard for one killer episode, and in between her exit and return, she almost changed the shape of an entire Star Trek spinoff. No exaggeration.

The Bajoran who almost anchored Deep Space Nine

The original plan for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was not exactly what we ended up getting. Behind the scenes, the producers were sketching out a station-based series set after the brutal Cardassian occupation of Bajor, with Starfleet helping rebuild a traumatized world. They wanted to carry over familiar faces from TNG, including Chief O'Brien (which did happen) and Ro Laren (which very much did not).

Michelle Forbes turned the role down. That decision happened while TNG Season 5 was still on the air, and it forced a big creative pivot: the team built a new character, Major Kira Nerys, as the Bajoran resistance fighter and first officer opposite Commander Benjamin Sisko. Kira became foundational to DS9, but that slot was originally meant for Ro. That is a wild alternate-history fork in the road for the franchise.

Ro’s last TNG mission and why she walked away

Forbes still popped back up on TNG after the DS9 plan changed — a fun detour in Season 6’s “Rascals” — and then got a proper sendoff on May 16, 1994, in Season 7’s “Preemptive Strike.” That episode was TNG’s big Maquis story: Picard put Ro through advanced tactical training and sent her undercover to infiltrate the Maquis. She understood their cause a little too well, broke Picard’s heart, and defected for good.

Producers later tried to fold her into Star Trek: Voyager as part of the Maquis ensemble. Forbes passed again. In the oral history book “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years,” folks close to the show say she wanted to focus on films. She did land some notable gigs — “Kalifornia” got her a Saturn Award nomination — and she stayed away from Trek for a very long time. Fans largely assumed Ro had died somewhere in the chaos that followed.

The comeback: Picard Season 3

Cut to March 16, 2023. Picard Season 3’s “Imposters” brings Ro back in a way that immediately matters: the USS Intrepid shows up to arrest Picard and Riker, and its commanding officer is one Commander Ro Laren. In the years since TNG, Ro had been imprisoned, then brought back into the fold via Starfleet Intelligence. She suspects a Changeling conspiracy has wormed its way into Starfleet command itself, and she needs Picard’s help.

We finally get the face-to-face reckoning those two deserved. They bury the hatchet, and Ro presses her Bajoran earring into Picard’s hand — not just a keepsake, but a data cache packed with intel on the infiltrators. Moments later, she discovers a bomb planted on her shuttle, makes a split-second call, and rams it into the Intrepid to cripple the ship and stall the conspiracy. It’s a sacrifice that buys our heroes time and gives Ro one last, unmistakably Ro exit.

For a character who disappeared for almost 29 years, that is one heck of a curtain call.

The quick timeline

• TNG Season 5 (early 90s): DS9 planning starts with Ro intended as a key carryover; Forbes declines, Major Kira is created.
• Nov 1992: TNG Season 6 episode “Rascals” features a Ro guest spot.
• May 16, 1994: TNG Season 7’s “Preemptive Strike” sends Ro undercover; she defects to the Maquis and exits the franchise.
• Mid-90s: Forbes turns down a Voyager role tied to the Maquis.
• 1990s–2020s: Forbes focuses on film and other work (including “Kalifornia,” which nets a Saturn nomination), stays away from Star Trek.
• March 16, 2023: Picard Season 3’s “Imposters” brings Ro back as a Starfleet Intelligence commander; she reconciles with Picard, passes him her earring data device, and dies sabotaging the Intrepid to slow the Changeling plot.

What changed, and what we got instead

If Forbes had signed on to DS9, the station’s Bajoran first officer would have been Ro, not Kira — and the show’s tone and arcs might have tilted in very different directions. Instead, we got Kira, one of Trek’s strongest characters, and Ro’s story froze in place for decades before Picard finally gave her both closure and purpose.

Three decades on from that 1994 goodbye, the legacy is weirdly perfect: Ro Laren didn’t end up headlining a series, but she still altered the course of one, and then returned just long enough to matter all over again.