Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

Ensign Ro (1991)

Michelle Forbes: Ensign Ro Laren

Photos 

Quotes 

• Guinan : So you sit alone in crowded rooms staring at your drink.

  [pause] 

  Guinan : I think you enjoy it.

  Ensign Ro Laren : I enjoy it?

  Guinan : Well, you work so hard at torturing yourself, I can only think you must enjoy it.

  Ensign Ro Laren : Who *are* you?

  Guinan : I told you. I'm Guinan. I tend bar and I listen.

  Ensign Ro Laren : Well, you're not like any bartender I've ever met before.

  Guinan : Hm. And you're not like any Starfleet officer I've ever met before. But that sounds like the beginning of a... very interesting friendship.

  Ensign Ro Laren : I don't stay anywhere long enough to make friends.

  Guinan : Too late. You just did.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Yes, Ensign Laren, please sit down.

  Ensign Ro Laren : Ensign Ro, sir.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I beg your pardon?

  Ensign Ro Laren : The Bajoran custom has the family name first, the individual's name second. I am properly addressed as 'Ensign Ro'.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I'm sorry, I didn't know.

  Ensign Ro Laren : No, there's no reason you should. It's an old custom. Most Bajora these days accept the distortion of their names in order to assimilate. I do not.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : In an age when their technology should be able to clothe and feed all of them; that they should live like this.

  Ensign Ro Laren : I couldn't. And I wouldn't. That's one reason I ran away. They're lost, defeated. I will never be.

• Ensign Ro Laren : When I was seven years old, I was given a piece of sugar candy. And I was led by a Cardassian into a room where my father was sitting. And he looked at me with eyes I'd never seen. The Cardassian began to ask him questions. And during the next two hours - as I was forced to watch - my father was tortured until he died. And I remember feeling... so ashamed of him as he begged for mercy. I was ashamed of him for being weak. I was ashamed of being Bajoran. Later I began to understand how misguided those feelings were, and... and yet somehow, they have remained a part of me. I don't want to be ashamed of my heritage any longer, Captain. I serve the Federation. But I am Bajoran. A Starfleet admiral presented me with an opportunity to help my people in their fight against the Cardassians. I had to accept it.

• Guinan : I heard you got grounded.

  Ensign Ro Laren : I really don't feel like talking right now.

  Guinan : Come on, sure you do.

  Ensign Ro Laren : Why is it every time I tell you something, you tell me I mean the exact opposite?

  Guinan : Because you're one of those people who's got their poles reversed.

• Guinan : Am I disturbing you?

  Ensign Ro Laren : Yes.

  Guinan : Good. You look like someone who wants to be disturbed.

• Ensign Ro Laren : Who-who are you?

  Guinan : My name is Guinan. I tend bar, and I listen.

  Ensign Ro Laren : Huh... You heard anything interesting?

  Guinan : Everyone's talking about you.

  Ensign Ro Laren : Heard anything interesting?

  Guinan : M-hm.

  Ensign Ro Laren : Well... it's all true.

  Guinan : I believe truth is in the eye of the beholder.

  Ensign Ro Laren : Isn't that supposed to be... beauty?

  Guinan : Truth, beauty - works for a lot of things.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I'm not here to debate Federation policy. I am prepared to offer assistance...

  Keeve Falor : Simply because of one terrorist attack? Then perhaps I have been wrong. We should have attacked the Federation long ago. What do you think of that, Ro?

  Ensign Ro Laren : I think you are a small man who feels a rush of power in his belly and enjoys it far too much, Keeve. Stop talking and listen.

• Ensign Ro Laren : 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?

  Ensign Ro Laren : Oh... especially myself.

• Ensign Ro Laren : Seems like everybody's just pulling my strings, you know, like I've got no control.

  Guinan : Hm... For people like you and me, who've lost their homes, sometimes that's the way life feels.

• Ensign Ro Laren : Captain, I-I don't know who to trust anymore. But that strange bartender of yours has a way of getting to you, and... and she said that you were her friend.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Then we have one thing in common.

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I think you've got a great deal to learn from Starfleet.

  Ensign Ro Laren : I always thought Starfleet had a lot to learn from me, Captain.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : That's an attitude that I've found common among the best officers I've ever served with.

• Ensign Ro Laren : Captain, I know the routine. You don't have to worry about me. We're stuck with each other. So let's just get this over with as quickly as possible and go our own separate ways, okay?

  [leaves Picard's ready room unasked] 

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Dismissed.

• Ensign Ro Laren : I would go to the camp on the southern continent of Valo II. Find a man named Keeve Falor. He has no diplomatic experience; and he won't ask you to dance.

• Counselor Deanna Troi : [entering Ten Forward with Crusher and sighting Ro]  Do you mind if we join you?

  Ensign Ro Laren : Yes.