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Old 09-29-2021, 04:19 PM
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October 7th, 1991, "Ensign Ro"

No fiver

Let's get this out of the way, there's plenty of good character work, but they tried to establish too much in this episode. It should've been spread out over at least three episodes.

The Episode

MAN [OC]: This is the Bajora. We claim responsibility for the destruction of the Federation colony on Solarion Four. As long as we are without our homeland, no one will be safe in this sector.

Memory Alpha treats "Bajora" as just another name for the Bajorans. Memory Beta says that the Bajora are a particular ethnicity of Bajorans. In context it seems more like these are proto-Maquis. This inconsistency is irksome to me. It's clear that this episode was supposed to be the start of a major storyline featuring the Bajorans and Cardassians, but they still didn't have everything established yet.

Furthermore, this episode does a lousy job establishing the Bajorans. Later they'll say the Bajorans were driven from their homeworld and are now nothing but refugees on random planets, which isn't true in the slightest.

KENNELLY: It's the same old story for the Cardassians. They've had terrorist problems ever since they annexed the Bajoran home world forty years ago.

Annexed? Ha ha. And now they're implying that the Bajora are just members of the Resistance, but that introduces other problems.

KENNELLY: Listen, Jean-Luc, I'm the first to say that the Bajora deserve attention. Chased off their own planet by the Cardassians, forced to wander the galaxy, settling wherever they can find room. It's tragic.

And now the Bajora are the Bajorans who were exiled during the Occupation. make up your mind! These are contradictory statements!

PICARD: Admiral, they've endured generations of sympathy and promises. How can I believe this Orta will be satisfied with more of the same?

In DS9 we'll be told that the Federation didn't interfere with the Occupation because it was an internal matter that didn't affect the Federation. Picard can make the claim that it isn't an internal matter now that the Cardassians have promised to leave Bajoran space. Things have changed. Oh look, another instance of someone not thinking this through!

PICARD: After what happened on Garon Two, she has no business serving on any starship, let alone the flagship, my ship.

She disobeyed direct orders leading to the deaths of eight officers. You can't say that Picard doesn't have a point. Incidentally, in "The Next Phase" Picard says Garon Four, not Garon Two. I hate it when nobody cares about the little details. They couldn't have ADRed one word?

PICARD: Yes, Ensign Laren, please have a seat.
RO: Ensign Ro, sir.
PICARD: I beg your pardon?
RO: The Bajoran custom has the family name first, the individual's second. I am properly addressed as Ensign Ro.

I get it that this has to be established for the viewer, but Picard isn't the one to do it. He spent an extended period of time near Cardassian space on the Stargazer. Furthermore, with the peace treaty there would be reports that explain the name order thing that Picard would have to read. It should've been Riker who made this mistake.

RIKER: Then why did you accept this assignment?
RO: If I may be equally candid? It's better than prison.
RIKER: Better than prison? There are officers who wait years to serve on this ship.

This seems like two completely different situations. Ro isn't a regular crew member, she's a mission specialist. Riker shouldn't be holding her to the same standards as the regular crew, just like they didn't expect Commander Kurn to know everything about how Starfleet works.

Captain's log, supplemental. I read about the achievements of the ancient Bajoran civilisation in my fifth grade reader. They were architects and artists, builders and philosophers when humans were not yet standing erect. Now I see how history has rewarded them.

So why didn't they develop a lot farther than the Federation? They never did explain this. With later DS9 knowledge one could argue that the Prophets advised them to take things slow, but even that is dubious.

KEEVE: Because you are innocent bystanders. You were innocent bystanders for decades as the Cardassians took our homes, as they violated and tortured our people in the most hideous ways imaginable, as we were forced to flee.
PICARD: We were saddened by those events but they occurred within the designated borders of the Cardassian Empire.
KEEVE: And the Federation is pledged not to interfere in the internal affairs of others. How convenient that must be for you, to turn a deaf ear to those who suffer behind a line on a map.

The slavery and stealing of resources isn't even mentioned. You get the feeling that this plotline wasn't quite fully "cooked" before it was shoved onto the screen. As for the Federation ignoring suffering, what else are they to do? If the Federation truly had a Manifest Destiny mentality, that would only introduce more problems, if not continual war. Forget Homo Sapiens Only Club, we're getting into supreme arrogance territory, the stuff Eddington will later accuse the Federation of.

PICARD: Well, I'm not here to debate Federation policy with you, but I can offer you assistance.
KEEVE: Simply because of one terrorist attack? Perhaps I should have known that. We should have attacked the Federation long ago.

It's not because of one terrorist attack, it's because of the new peace treaty with the Cardassians that says that they will eventually leave Bajoran space. Try to keep up, Keeve!

PICARD: Your people have been forced to resettle all over the quadrant.

Really? We won't get evidence of that. The Bajoran refugees will be pretty solidly established to be in the DMZ only. You can even argue that this very planet will later be placed in the DMZ.

PICARD: In an age when their technology should be able to clothe and feed all of them, that they should have to live like this.

Technology is one thing, resources is another. Just because the Bajorans know how to build a replicator doesn't mean that they can build one for every twenty people or whatever.

LAFORGE: (at the bar) I'll tell you one thing. If I find myself on an away team with Ensign Ro, I won't turn my back on her.

I have a problem with Geordi being this prejudiced. From Riker and Worf, sure. But Geordi is supposed to be more understanding than this and more willing to admit that he doesn't have all the facts to make an informed decision.

WORF: Check the transport log.
COLLINS: She beamed down almost six hours ago, sir.

We get the feeling that Ro doesn't have full officer rights, so how could she order a beamdown without an order from a senior officer? The way she talks later she hasn't told anyone about her authorization from Admiral Kennelly yet.

DATA: I am picking up molecular displacement traces. That suggests movement through this area during the last ten hours.

This just introduces further questions! He couldn't say that the dirt was disturbed recently?

ORTA: Your mission was to seek out the Bajoran terrorists who destroyed the Federation settlement on Solarion Four.
PICARD: Yes.
ORTA: As I have informed Ro Laren, it was not the Bajora.

This exchange indicates that Bajora is a subset of Bajoran, but they could explain this better.

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.

This is clearly not a prediction of "Time's Arrow", but you wonder how Guinan's "initial" interactions with Picard really went. Furthermore, after "The Best of Both Worlds" we really deserve more exposition on this topic.

PICARD: Guinan is very selective about whom she calls a friend.

I have trouble with this line, but I can't explain why.

RO: Orta was to end the terrorism against the Federation and return with his people to the camps. In exchange he would get weapons, ships, things that would really make a difference against the Cardassians in the future.

Wouldn't the Cardassians wonder where they got Federation ships? Wouldn't this start another war?

RIKER: Ensign Ro, what's the closest we come to the Cardassian border on our current heading to Valo Three?
RO: Thirteen thousand, four hundred kilometres, sir.

Like SF Debris says, this is practically dancing on the line.
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