Plot Synopsis: The Enterprise takes on Ensign Ro Laren to help track down Bajoran terrorists who attacked a Federation colony.
Plot A and B Analysis: The teaser opens with Picard being manhandled and lectured to by a barber, then he’s saved by a distress signal from a nearby planet. Turns out a new race, the Bajora, claim responsibility for the destroying the Federation colony on it. Plot A is about Ensign Ro and her establishment as a new recurring character, B is about the colony and the Bajoran/Cardassian plot. Turns out the Bajorans are like the Quarians from Mass Effect: their homeworld was annexed 40 years ago by the Cardassians, they were forced to leave and are now scattered around the quadrant. Admiral Kennelly tasks Picard with stopping the Bajoran terrorists at any cost, and assigns a Bajoran Ensign, Ro Laren–whom he had to get out of prison–to help with his assignment. Ro’s got attitude but she ends up being pretty useful. First she directs the crew to someone who finds Orta (the terrorist leader), then she uncovers the twist: the Bajorans didn’t actually attack the colony. Thanks to Guinan taking Ro under her wing and getting her to trust Picard, he’s able to flush out a Cardassian plot and expose an admiral’s collusion. It’s proceeds at a steady pace that has some intrigue and a moderately satisfying conclusion.
Favorite Scenes: The final scene is probably my favorite, with Picard and Ro outfoxing the Cardassians and the admiral. Michelle Forbes is reasonably fun to watch, and her scene describing the last time she saw her father was good as well–in fact the whole scene with Ro telling Picard what the mission was actually about was good. The scenes with Ro and Guinan were also good, where Guinan explains how Picard once saved her bacon. Some say Time’s Arrow covered this, but I don’t agree. Supposedly the Star Trek: Stargazer novel Oblivion addresses all this, but I haven’t read it. A pivotal scene is when Guinan comes to Ro’s quarters:
Ro: I’m in trouble. There’s more going on here than anybody on this ship realizes. It’s more than I know how to deal with. And I really don’t know who to trust anymore.
Guinan: Including yourself?
Ro: Especially myself.
Guinan:. You know, a very long time ago I got into some serious trouble too. And I mean serious. And I’d probably still be there if I hadn’t trusted one man.
*New scene* Picard: Come.
Use of Cast/Characters: Picard’s job seems to be giving Ro a chance to be of use, while Riker and everyone else can’t stand her and want her off the ship. Then of course he lays down the smack on the admiral. Seems like whenever admirals are on the show they’re up to no good! Riker’s job seems to be actively disliking Ro. Data, Worf, Geordi, Beverly and Deanna all have a few lines but they don’t amount to much. Easy paycheck for the actors I guess, and it was kinda funny to watch Ro reject Troi and Beverly. Guinan plays an active role, and in fact indirectly saves the entire mission by befriending Ro. Keeve and Orta both are just ok. Cliff Potts as admiral Kennelly does a serviceable job but nothing special. Ken Thorley as the barber Mot was great, he was authentic and fun. Michelle Forbes is the real story, and by the end of the episode I liked her a lot. In fact I’ve always thought that she was the ideal person to fill the Conn slot on the bridge after Wesley left.
Blu Ray Version: At around the 10:40 mark the original footage of the Enterprise slowing out of warp couldn’t be found so they used a new-and-improved CGI version of the Enterprise to do it. It looks terrific.
Nitpicks: At 24:50 Worf doubts Orta is telling the truth and Ro responds, “he has no reason to lie.” I think a better response would have been, why take responsibility for it earlier and deny it now? The Cardassians are still wearing that ugly-looking armor they had back on The Wounded. At least the helmets are gone. Also, Riker doesn’t want Ro wearing her Bajoran earring thing, but Worf gets to wear his baldric and Troi doesn’t have to wear a uniform at all! Maybe he’s just being a jerk because she has a reputation as a problem child. We also never find out what really happened on that away mission that put Ro in prison in the first place. I think exploring that could have been worth an entire episode later on.
Overall Impression: This episode was about establishing a new character for the show, and in my opinion it was very much a success. Having Guinan accept her and then Picard meant the audience would too and I wish she was in every subsequent episode, not just a total of 8. The plot of the episode itself is familiar–another dirty admiral makes a mess the Enterprise has to clean up–but it wasn’t quite as satisfying as I remember. This is not an easy episode to rate for me, but it’s somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars. I think I’ll settle on 3 out of 5 stars and call it good.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: This is actually the third episode featuring the barbershop, the other two being Data’s Day and The Host. This is the very first time we meet the Bajorans, who will be front and center for the entire run of DS9. It’s interesting to note that both the Cardassians and the Bajorans were both original TNG creations–throw in the stable wormhole from The Price and you have it all! The producers liked Michelle so much when she appeared in Half a Life they offered her the recurring part here. Later they would offer her the role that eventually went to Nana Visitor on DS9, but Michelle did not want a 6-year contract. It’s a shame, because Michelle is just flat-out a better actress than Nana, I’ve always thought it would have been an improvement. Plus, as a 16-yr old, I thought she was really hot. Michelle shares a quick story about accepting the part:
I received a script with this woman Ro in it. It was such a good story it really took my heart and I thought I knew exactly who she was. The only thing I was worried about when the producers asked me to come back was, are they going to homogenize her, because if they’re going to it would be such a shame. It is really sad when there are only a few strong women on television, when there are so many in real life. What has happened in the past, the networks or whomever get scared of it and start homogenizing and trying to make women less of a threat. With Ro, I never saw her as being stronger than anyone else, but perhaps I was a bit more outspoken.
Is it just me, or have you also sort of thought of the Bajorans as space Jews? Think about it: the Federation represents modern democracy, the Klingons are the Samurai, the Romulans are the Roman Empire…seems like the Bajorans are the Jews, especially the homeless ones in the 40’s, which would make the Cardassians the Nazis.
Missable/Unmissable? It’s not an outstanding episode, but if you’re interested in Star Trek continuity this is an important one. The Cardassians are seen again, the Bajorans are introduced, Michelle Forbes is introduced….it’s not totally unmissable, but I’d watch it. The next one I wouldn’t.