Star Trek Is Bringing Its Most Controversial Character Back After Killing Them Off

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 5 seconds ago

Over on Red Letter Media, Mike Stoklassa once expressed an interesting theory: that Star Trek: The Original Series was more of a horror show than anything else. After all, exploring those strange new worlds often came at a price, with Red Shirts getting killed left and right by some of the scariest monsters in the entire galaxy. Later iterations of the franchise leaned into the idea of Trek as horror, including turning an entire movie, First Contactinto an Aliens homage. Now, even though no new Trek series is currently in production, the franchise is about to embrace horror like never before.

This week, Bloober Team and the Paramount Games Division announced an exciting new video game called Star Trek: Shadow Frontier. It’s a survival horror game where you take control of a Starfleet officer who crashes onto an alien planet and must safely navigate its frightening and often lethal environment. That officer is Ro Laren, the rebellious Bajoran officer from The Next Generation. Ro actor Michelle Forbes once turned down the chance to star in Deep Space Nine and only returned decades later for a brief appearance in Picard. But now, after more than 30 years since she left TNG, she’s ready to take her rightful place as Star Trek’s latest leading lady.

Ro, Ro, Ro, Your Boat

What do we know about Star Trek: Shadow Frontier? In an interview with IGN, Bloober Team’s Michał Gembicki said that Ro Laren crashes on a planet that serves as “a graveyard for ships,” and she must “figure out what happened there and why is there so much wreckage.” The game is designed as a psychological thriller, and a big part of that has to do with this planet’s biggest secret: namely, there is some kind of entity that has taken control of it!

According to Bloober and Paramount, this is a “distant planet overtaken by a strange consciousness,” and “the more [Ro Laren] uncovers, the deeper she is pulled into a corrupted labyrinth where her memories twist, and the planet threatens to sever her connection to reality.” Figuring out this planet’s deal becomes more personal to her over the course of the game. “Only by solving the mysteries of this strange world can Ro hope to make peace with the demons of her past, boldly going into the heart of darkness like never before.” It’s unknown when this game takes place, but the presence of a TNG-era communicator indicates it may take place before Star Trek: Generations.

Star Trek Meets Resident Evil

Right now, Star Trek is getting a steady influx of new video games, including the recent Star Trek: Voyager–Across the Unknown. While we have no way of knowing if Star Trek: Shadow Frontier will be any good (it doesn’t come out until 2027), fans are already hyped because Michelle Forbes will be reprising her role as Ro Laren, the main character. Ensign Ro was introduced into The Next Generation in Season 5 as an ensign with a rough past and a chip on her shoulder; she left in Season 7 after joining the Maquis, a group she was sent to infiltrate. She popped back up in Picardwhere it was revealed she had rejoined Starfleet.

One reason older fans like myself are hyped to see Michelle Forbes return is that she was originally meant to have a much larger role in the franchise. She helped to popularize the Bajorans on The Next Generationand Star Trek’s producers wanted to bring Ro Laren to Deep Space Nine as a main character. However, Forbes didn’t want to commit over half a decade to one job (and the rest of her life to fan conventions), so she declined the offer. This led to Nana Visitor getting cast as a different Bajoran with a sketchy past and a chip on her shoulder: Major Kira.

Somehow, Ro Returned

For decades, most assumed we’d never see Forbes in Star Trek again. To everyone’s shock, she popped up in Picard as a Starfleet Intelligence officer, one who tried to warn Picard about Changeling infiltration of Starfleet before she was killed by the very shapeshifters she had been investigating. We don’t get much information about how she was rehabilitated and ultimately brought back into Starfleet, but that Picard episode (“Impostor”) establishes that she always felt guilt for leaving Picard and the Enterprise crew. It’s very likely that Star Trek: Shadow Frontier will explore that guilt and possibly contextualize how and why Ro ultimately left the Maquis and returned to the Starfleet fold.

Star Trek: Shadow Frontier is coming out sometime in 2027 and will be released on Windows PC and all major consoles. We’re likely to get more information on this game in the coming months, but it’s already made a splash: the trailer is moody and atmospheric, and many fans are excited to see this sci-fi franchise’s take on survival horror. Mostly, though, we’re hyped to see the return of Michelle Forbes, one of the greatest actors in the franchise. Just what happened to Ro Laren between Next Generation and Picard? There’s only one way to find out, so be sure to set your controllers on stun when this game releases next year!