tasha yar in star trek

Natasha Yar

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Lieutenant Natasha Yar , better known as Tasha , was a Human Starfleet officer born on Turkana IV , and former security chief on the USS Enterprise -D . Tasha Yar was killed not even a year into the Enterprise 's mission. She was fondly remembered by the Enterprise crew, and an alternate version of Tasha indirectly played a very important role in Romulan politics. ( TNG : " The Naked Now ", " Legacy ", " Skin Of Evil ", " The Bonding ", " Yesterday's Enterprise ", " Redemption II ", " Unification II ")

• 1.1 Origins
• 2.1 Academy and early assignments
• 2.2 The Enterprise -D
• 2.3 Second life
• 3 Personal interests
• 4 Alternate timelines and realities
• 5.2 Friendships
• 5.3 Romance
• 6.1 Appearances
• 6.2 Background information
• 6.3.1 Novels
• 6.3.2 Video games
• 6.4 External links

Early history [ ]

Origins [ ].

Tasha relives her escape

Tasha was born in 2337 on the failed Federation colony world of Turkana IV . Her sister, Ishara , was born five years later . Both of their parents were killed shortly after Ishara's birth, after which they were looked after for a few months by " some people " who later disappeared, leaving Tasha to care for herself and her sister. ( TNG : " Legacy ") Tasha had to avoid rape gangs and terrible violence just to scavenge for the bare necessities of life, such as food . One of the few bright spots in her life was finding a cat , which she attempted to protect while being chased by a rape gang. ( TNG : " Where No One Has Gone Before ") Narcotic use was also commonplace. Tasha apparently resorted to drugs as an escape at some point, but later remembered that they were of more harm to her than good. ( TNG : " Symbiosis ")

Although Ishara decided to remain on the planet and eventually joined the Turkana IV Coalition , Tasha managed to find a way off Turkana IV in 2352 by the age of fifteen. Ishara and Tasha never saw one another again. ( TNG : " Encounter at Farpoint ", " Legacy ")

Starfleet career [ ]

Academy and early assignments [ ].

Tasha began to attend Starfleet Academy soon after her escape and credited Starfleet with saving her from her previous life. ( TNG : " Encounter at Farpoint ", " Legacy ") She joined Security because of the lawless environment in which she grew up. ( TNG : " Code of Honor ")

In 2363 , while conducting a rescue mission, Yar rescued a colonist after traversing a Carnelian minefield . Captain Jean-Luc Picard 's ship at the time was also present. Picard was so impressed with her bravery that he requested Yar be assigned to the Enterprise , as Yar's current ship's captain owed him a favor. ( TNG : " Legacy ")

The Enterprise -D [ ]

Yar pilots Picard

In 2364 , Yar piloted Picard to the Enterprise -D in the shuttlecraft Galileo for his first visit to the ship. She set out to Farpoint Station from Earth Station McKinley with most of the crew. ( TNG : " All Good Things... ")

En route, the Enterprise was intercepted and detained by the entity known as Q . Tasha wanted to fight him, but Picard refused her suggestion because of the tremendous power of Q. While the senior staff was taken to the 21st century courtroom and put on trial by Q, Yar could no longer resist the urge to tell Q he was wrong for accusing humanity of "savage, childlike behavior." She was placed into a sort of deep freeze by Q as punishment, but was later revived.

Later, Yar took part in several away teams which investigated Farpoint Station and the living station's mate, which returned to seek vengeance against the Bandi for imprisoning the other creature. ( TNG : " Encounter at Farpoint ")

Picard's encounter with anti-time past Yar

In the anti-time past experienced by Captain Picard, this timeline diverged during the shuttle trip to the Enterprise . Picard was somewhat disoriented during his initial shifts from the other two time periods and was distracted at seeing Yar again. He later mistakenly gave orders about ship security to Worf , leaving Yar to point out that she was the security chief, " unless you're planning to make a change. " Yar continued to go along with Picard's unusual orders to proceed to Farpoint Station in lieu of investigating a temporal anomaly in the Romulan Neutral Zone , and again when Picard decided to go to the anomaly after all.

When Picard made the decision to enter the anomaly and create a static warp shell , Yar requested if the captain could give the crew some sort of explanation. When Picard explained that he could not, Yar pointed out that they had "obeyed every order, no matter how farfetched it might have seemed. But if we're to risk the safety of the ship and crew I think we have to ask you for an explanation." Picard explained that he understood her concerns and convinced the crew of the importance of the task, telling them that " all I can say is that although we have only been together for a short time, I know that you are the finest crew in the fleet, and I would trust each of you with my life. So, I am asking you for a leap of faith, and to trust me. " After entering the anomaly, Tasha struggled to keep the warp containment system maintained until the past Enterprise was destroyed. ( TNG : " All Good Things... ")

Yar fighting Yareena on Ligon II

While the Enterprise was negotiating at the world of Ligon II for a vaccine needed on Styris IV , the Ligonian leader Lutan became impressed with Tasha's martial arts skills and her physical beauty. As a show of defiance and boldness in line with the Ligon Code of Honor , he kidnapped her and brought her to his planet. Picard needed to negotiate both for her safe return and for the vaccine. However, Lutan was determined to have Yar as his First One , the ceremonial title of his wife. The current First One, Yareena , challenged Lutan's decision, requiring Yar to participate in a fight to the death with Yareena. In order to satisfy the needs of the culture and return to the Enterprise , Tasha fought and killed Yareena. Fortunately, samples of the poison used on Yar's weapon was returned to the Enterprise by Data , allowing Doctor Beverly Crusher to develop an antidote and revive Yareena once they were brought to the Enterprise . Yareena stripped Lutan of his title and offered him to Tasha, but she refused, stating that there would be "complications". ( TNG : " Code of Honor ")

When the Enterprise was transported beyond the known universe by the Traveler , to a place where matter and thought were not distinct, Yar hallucinated that she had returned to Turkana IV and was being chased by the rape gangs. ( TNG : " Where No One Has Gone Before ")

Yar, together with Worf, fire phasers on Mordan IV

Because of the matriarchal nature of the society on Angel I , Yar took informal command of the away team while Commander William T. Riker negotiated for the release of survivors from the freighter Odin . When Riker put on one of the sexualized outfits worn by men on the planet, she and Deanna had a good laugh at the first officer's expense. ( TNG : " Angel One ")

The death of Tasha Yar

Tasha was killed in late 2364 on the planet Vagra II . She was part of an away team sent to rescue Deanna Troi and Ben Prieto , who had crashed there aboard a shuttle . Their rescue was impeded by a lifeform known as Armus . When Yar tried to walk around Armus to get to the shuttle crew, Armus attacked and killed her without warning, simply as a display of his power. Dr. Crusher tried to revive her but she was too badly injured, as the life had been "drained" from her. The officially recorded cause of death was heavy synaptic damage.

A service was held for Tasha in the holodeck following the rescue of the crew from the surface, where a holographic message from Tasha was played. Tasha always believed her death would happen quickly and while on duty, and that was the way she wanted it. ( TNG : " Skin Of Evil ")

Second life [ ]

Sela, the daughter of Tasha Yar from an alternate timeline.

While the Enterprise -C was destroyed, several crewmembers survived and were taken prisoner by the Romulans, Tasha among them.

After being interrogated, all of the survivors were to be executed , but a Romulan general became enamored of Tasha and offered to spare the lives of the prisoners if she became his consort, a condition to which Tasha agreed. One year later , she gave birth to a daughter, Sela . In 2349 , when Sela was four years old, Tasha took her and attempted to escape, but sensing that her mother was taking her away from her home and her father, Sela cried out, and Tasha was discovered and subsequently executed.

Those series of events were completely unknown to Starfleet until 2368 , when the Enterprise -D encountered Sela, by then a commander in the Romulan military , during her attempt to covertly support the Duras sisters in taking control of the Klingon Empire. ( TNG : " Redemption II ")

Personal interests [ ]

Yar was an expert in aikido , a form of martial arts , and regularly used several holodeck training programs. ( TNG : " Code of Honor ") She was also a parrises squares player. ( TNG : " 11001001 ") At the time of her death, Yar was scheduled to participate in a martial arts competition with Science Officer Swenson and Lieutenant Minnerly , which was to take place three days later. She was favored in the ship's pool . ( TNG : " Skin Of Evil ")

Alternate timelines and realities [ ]

In an alternate timeline created by the USS Enterprise -C 's transit from 2344 to 2366 through a temporal rift , Tasha had not been killed at Vagra II, and continued to serve as tactical officer aboard the Enterprise -D during a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire . Tasha had joined the Enterprise -D crew immediately upon graduating from Starfleet Academy in 2362 .

Tasha in an alternate timeline.

In 2366, the Enterprise -D encountered the Enterprise -C as it emerged from the temporal rift, after the Enterprise -C had nearly been destroyed in a Romulan attack on the Klingon outpost at Narendra III . During the course of making repairs to the Enterprise -C, Tasha became close to a crewmember from that ship, Lieutenant Richard Castillo , and the two of them developed romantic feelings for one another. She later became aware, through Guinan , that in the other timeline she had died a meaningless death. When the Enterprise -C's captain, Rachel Garrett , was killed in a Klingon attack, Tasha requested permission from Captain Picard to transfer to the Enterprise -C and accompany it back through the rift in an attempt to restore the timeline, explaining that she wanted her death to count for something. Captain Picard granted her request. Although Castillo, who had assumed command of the Enterprise -C, was initially reluctant to accept Tasha on an apparent suicide mission , he relented and assigned her to the tactical position. Entering the rift just as three Klingon Birds-of-Prey began attacking both Enterprise s, the Enterprise -C successfully returned to its own time, where it played an instrumental role in guaranteeing peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, restoring the flow of history. ( TNG : " Yesterday's Enterprise ")

Tasha Yar's name on a report in an alternate timeline.

In an alternate timeline created by Q where Earth had become the Confederation of Earth , Natasha Yar was an officer in the Confederation Corps and was the field officer fighting the Andorian Rebellion . ( PIC : " Penance ")

Personal relationships [ ]

Tasha rarely spoke of her family because of the chaotic nature of her childhood, though both her sister Ishara and her alternate timeline half- Romulan daughter Sela visited the Enterprise . ( TNG : " Legacy ", " Redemption II ")

Tasha barely remembered her father and called herself an orphan like Worf. During her recorded funeral speech on the holodeck in 2364 , she addressed Jean-Luc Picard and told him that he would be the person in the universe she would call a father figure . ( TNG : " Skin Of Evil ")

Her medical records indicated she had never been pregnant . ( TNG : " Redemption II ")

Friendships [ ]

Yar saw Captain Picard as an informal father figure. She found support in Picard when she was confined to a " penalty box " as part of a deadly game run by Q during the Enterprise 's second encounter. She had been placed there as punishment for challenging Q, and would have been consigned to oblivion if another officer had been sent to the penalty box. Tasha was frustrated and upset by the situation and began to cry. Picard said she was permitted the feelings and that they were in no way a show of weakness. ( TNG : " Hide And Q ")

Tasha was often uncomfortable in expressing her femininity, and for that reason sometimes sought the help of Deanna Troi. While under the influence of a polywater intoxication in 2364 , Yar entered Troi's quarters and tried on several articles of her clothing. ( TNG : " The Naked Now ")

Yar was also very good friends with Worf, who, as a Klingon warrior, greatly admired her physical combat skills. Together, they took part in a parrises squares tournament against the Starbase 74 maintenance crew in 2364 . ( TNG : " 11001001 ") Worf also placed a wager on Yar's victory in the martial arts competition which she was to have participated before her death. Yar was touched by this gesture.

Yar's holographic recording

In the holographic message she prepared in the event of her death, Yar spent a brief moment addressing each of her friends. She called Will Riker "the best," and was grateful for his trust, encouragement, and humor. She said Deanna proved to her that she could be feminine without losing anything. Yar saw a kindred spirit in Worf, as they were both warriors and orphans who found a place in this family. Tasha admired Beverly Crusher's fierce and unstoppable devotion, and from her learned to strive for excellence no matter what the personal cost. She regretted that she would be unable to see Wesley Crusher grow to become an exceptional young man. Yar was thankful for Geordi La Forge 's friendship and support in times of despair. She assured Data that his way of viewing the universe from the perspective of a child made him the most human of the entire group. Tasha said she considered Picard to be like a father, but she was unable to tell for sure because she had never had a father. However, she felt he had the "heart of an explorer and the soul of a poet" and that if she could pick one person to be like, it would be him. She concluded by saying that death was not a goodbye since she would always live on in their memories. After the service, Data was confused, thinking he had missed the point of her funeral because his thoughts were not for Yar, but for himself and how her presence would be missed. However, Picard assured him that he understood perfectly. ( TNG : " Skin Of Evil ")

The pain of Tasha's death was recalled several times by the Enterprise crew, such as when Marla Aster died ( TNG : " The Bonding ") and when Data was believed killed in a shuttle accident in late 2366 . ( TNG : " The Most Toys ") Riker used Tasha's death as an example of how he felt the ritual Klingon suicide was a cowardly escape when Worf considered it following an accident that left him paralyzed in 2368 . ( TNG : " Ethics ")

When the Enterprise went to Turkana IV in 2367 to rescue the crew of the Arcos , Ishara helped the crew rescue the survivors from the Turkana IV Alliance forces. She expressed a desire to leave and join Starfleet like her sister, which charmed the crew into trusting her and perhaps seeing more of Tasha in Ishara. Her interest in leaving Turkana was later determined to be mostly a deception in order to use the rescue mission to cripple the Alliance. ( TNG : " Legacy ")

Romance [ ]

Tasha and Data

Yar was at least slightly attracted to Data and had sex with him while under the influence of polywater intoxication. She later told him that the incident "never happened". ( TNG : " The Naked Now ") Data still felt a special connection to Tasha and later mentioned that he and Tasha were intimate. He kept a holocube with a holographic image of Tasha to remember her. When Data's rights as a sentient being were called into question, his romantic encounter with Tasha was a strong influence for Judge Phillipa Louvois to rule that Data was in fact a sentient lifeform , as Data admitted that she was 'special' to him even when he had no emotions to influence his thoughts on personal relationships. ( TNG : " The Measure Of A Man ") La Forge and Wesley Crusher found the holoimage when they visited Data's quarters after his apparent death in 2366 . ( TNG : " The Most Toys ") The same holocube with her image was stored in Data's memories kept within Daystrom Android M-5-10 . When Data and Lore virtually fought over control of the android body, Data handed over the holocube of Tasha during his ruse of surrendering to Lore. ( PIC : " Surrender ")

Yar also had random romantic encounters with several Enterprise crewmembers while affected by the polywater intoxication . Geordi La Forge originally passed on the intoxication to Tasha, and he expressed lustful feelings towards her. ( TNG : " The Naked Now ") La Forge also told Yar that she was more beautiful than he imagined once he was briefly granted normal sight by Commander Riker, bestowed with the powers of the Q Continuum . ( TNG : " Hide And Q ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• " Encounter at Farpoint "
• " The Naked Now "
• " Code of Honor "
• " Where No One Has Gone Before "
• " The Last Outpost "
• " Lonely Among Us "
• " Justice "
• " The Battle "
• " Hide And Q "
• " Too Short A Season "
• " The Big Goodbye "
• " Datalore "
• " Angel One "
• " 11001001 "
• " Home Soil "
• " When The Bough Breaks "
• " Coming of Age "
• " Heart of Glory "
• " The Arsenal of Freedom "
• " Symbiosis "
• " Skin Of Evil "
• " The Schizoid Man " (image)
• " The Measure Of A Man " (hologram)
• " Shades of Gray " (archive footage)
• " Yesterday's Enterprise "
• " The Most Toys " (hologram)
• " All Good Things... "
• PIC : " Surrender " (hologram)

Background information [ ]

Crosby seen waving "goodbye"

Tasha Yar was played by Denise Crosby during the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Crosby was a part of the Next Generation regular cast from "Encounter at Farpoint" to "Skin Of Evil", although she was listed in the main credits for the remainder of the first season. "Symbiosis" was filmed after "Skin Of Evil", meaning that episode was technically Crosby's final as a regular cast member. In a scene near the end of "Symbiosis", Crosby can be seen waving at the camera, waving goodbye to all of her fans. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 56)) The wave is only visible for a few seconds (40:26 - 40:30), as Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher are exiting the cargo bay but can easily be seen on DVD with frame-by-frame advancement.

Crosby's arm and shoulder in "We'll Always Have Paris"

Yar was the first regular character to depart a Star Trek series while in production and also the first to be killed off without being resurrected. Crosby returned for guest spots as Yar in " Yesterday's Enterprise " and " All Good Things... " and can be seen in holographic form in " The Measure Of A Man ", " The Most Toys ", and PIC : " Surrender ". The character also appears in flashback stock footage during treatment Riker receives in " Shades of Gray ", and during a personality test Data undergoes in " The Schizoid Man ". Due to an editing gaffe, Crosby's shoulder and left arm also appear in the episode " We'll Always Have Paris ", set after her character's death in "Skin Of Evil".

The character of Yar was indirectly inspired by Jenette Goldstein 's space marine character Vasquez from the motion picture Aliens . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 15)) Gene Roddenberry and Robert H. Justman watched Aliens during the early stages of preparation for the series, and Roddenberry expressed his wish to create a character named "Macha" based on Vasquez. [1] Recalled David Gerrold , " After Aliens , Gene would say about Jenette Goldstein, 'That woman created a whole new style of feminine beauty. We should have something like that in Star Trek .' So we started off with a character named Macha Hernandez, who eventually became Tasha Yar. That sparked an idea for Gene. " Justman was also inspired by Goldstein. He later remembered thinking, " If we could get her, she could be a member of the Enterprise 's onboard Marine or MP contingent. This would enable her to serve in a military capacity within our landing parties. Her feistiness, coupled with her earthy physicality, could create interesting opportunities for drama. " ( The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years , p. 57)

The 10 December 1986 casting call for Natasha Yar, later reprinted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 13), stated the following:

" LT. Macha Hernandez – 26 year old woman of unspecified Latin descent who serves as the starship's security chief. She is described as having a new quality of conditioned-body-beauty, a fire in her eyes and muscularly well developed and very female body, but keeping in mind that much of her strength comes from attitude. Macha has an almost obsessive devotion to protecting the ship and its crew and treats Capt. Picard and Number One as if they were saints. "

The revised 23 March 1987 Writers' Bible for The Next Generation (p. 10) described Yar as:

" The starship security chief, Tasha, who performs that same function both aboard ship and on away missions. Born at a 'failed' Earth colony of renegades and other violent undesirables, she escaped to Earth in her teens and discovered Starfleet, which she still 'worships' today as the complete opposite of all the ugliness she once knew. "

Among the performers who were considered for the role of Tasha Yar were Lianne Langland , Julia Nickson , Rosalind Chao , Leah Ayers , and Bunty Bailey . [2] Nickson and Chao were well liked for the part. ( The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years , p. 97) By 13 April 1987 , Chao seemed to be a favorite candidate. [3]

Originally, Marina Sirtis auditioned for this role, while Denise Crosby read for Deanna Troi. Gene Roddenberry decided that each would be better as the other's character, and Macha's description was altered to reflect Crosby's blonde looks. First, the character's name was changed to "Tanya", then to "Tasha Yar", based on a Ukrainian ravine named Babi Yar , where massacres took place during a Nazi Germany campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 15))

Denise Crosby once commented, " They originally envisioned Tasha as more butch [...] What I liked about Tasha is she's strong physically and direct and is comfortable with who she is. I envisioned Tasha as what I brought to it. I sort of like the quality that she could be attractive and sexy and still be able to kick the shit out of anyone. " The actress also reckoned that her experience of growing up as the granddaughter of famous Hollywood celebrity Bing Crosby , since that "wasn't exactly normal or typical," helped her "understand Tasha's imbalance and insecurities." ( The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years , pp. 97-98)

Yar's "skant" uniform

Yar is the only main character besides Troi to wear a "skant" version of the Starfleet uniform, which she does in the last scene of "Encounter at Farpoint"; Yar is behind the tactical console, but the skant is just visible.

A line in Max Grodénchik 's " Rom's Song " suggests that Quark should be "kill[ed]... off like Tasha Yar," so that Rom could inherit his bar .

Apocrypha [ ]

According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation First Year Sourcebook , Tasha Yar was born on Hokma V.

The novel The Buried Age looks at the events that inspired Picard to offer Tasha Yar a post in his new command.

The novel Q-Squared depicts the schemes of Trelane causing three alternate timelines to essentially 'crash' together; the prime reality, a variation on the timeline depicted in "Yesterday's Enterprise", and a timeline set in a different version of "Encounter at Farpoint" where (among other differences) Tasha is involved with a version of Data who is a "human-oid" (basically an organic body with a positronic brain). At one point, the prime Worf is fleeing humans from the "Yesterday's Enterprise" timeline and encounters the Tasha Yar of the third reality, convincing her to trust him by mentioning her sister Ishara, although he claims that Tasha is still alive in his time and that he is just her assistant chief of security to avoid any more awkward questions.

Video games [ ]

In the video game Star Trek: Starship Creator , Yar was assigned to the USS Bellerophon as a junior security officer in 2359 following her graduation from the Academy.

The alternate timeline Tasha Yar appears (voiced again by Denise Crosby) in the Star Trek Online mission "Temporal Ambassador". The mission reveals that the Enterprise -D's battle with the Klingons in " Yesterday's Enterprise " caused the Enterprise -C to emerge from the temporal rift in the Azure Nebula in 2409, rather than Narendra III in 2344. The alternate timeline remains, and the Federation has fallen to the Klingon Empire, which in turn has fallen to the Dominion . The Enterprise and her crew are captured by the Tholian Assembly and held aboard a base in the Azure Nebula, where the player must help them escape and reach the temporal rift so they can return to 2344.

She later returns, though posthumously, in "Survivor". There, it's revealed that the alternate timeline Tasha Yar was never actually killed, instead left on a Tal Shiar prison colony along with the other Enterprise -C crewmembers. Through various datapads left by Yar, the player, along with Sela and Agent Daniels , learns that the crew fended for themselves after the Tal Shiar abandoned the colony following the destruction of Romulus and Remus by the Hobus Supernova. The crew would die one by one, either killed by the creatures on the planet or by temporal anomalies caused by the existence of an alternate Admiral T'Nae. Yar would be the last to die, wishing for the crew to be remembered somehow. T'Nae buried her and was eventually rescued and reintegrated with her prime counterpart, while Sela agreed to be put under arrest on the condition Starfleet help her learn more about Tasha.

External links [ ]

• Natasha Yar at StarTrek.com
• Natasha Yar at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Natasha Yar at the Star Trek Online Wiki
• Tasha Yar at Wikipedia
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

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Interview: Denise Crosby On ‘Trekkies’ At 25 And Looking Back At ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’

| May 23, 2022 | By: Anthony Pascale 25 comments so far

Denise Crosby played Tasha Yar in the first season of  Star Trek: The Next Generation. After leaving as a series regular, Crosby returned to the show periodically to play Yar and her Romulan descendent Sela. Then in 1997 she collaborated with director Roger Nygard on Trekkies , acting as narrator and co-producer on the trailblazing documentary that took a serious look at the phenomenon of Star Trek fandom. The film was a hit, spawning a sequel ( Trekkies 2 ) in 2004.

This week, Shout! Factory is releasing the 25th anniversary edition of Trekkies, restored on HD for Blu-ray and VOD. TrekMovie spoke to Crosby about Trekkies 25 years later, how fandom has (and hasn’t) changed, and how she feels about that TNG reunion on Star Trek: Picard .

25 years later do you see Trekkies as a historical account of fandom in the 1990s, or something that is still relevant today?

I think it’s more relevant than ever. When we initially made the film 25 years ago, these doors were just opening up. There wasn’t an onslaught of DC and Marvel movies. Comic Cons weren’t as huge as they are now. We hit it just when things were starting to open up and change. So I think it’s a great piece of representation for the beginnings of what we kind of take for granted right now.

In a new Blu-ray special feature, you and Roger talk about how you didn’t know anything about making a documentary before you started. How did Trekkies benefit from that naivete, and now with the benefit of experience and hindsight, what would you have done differently?

Well, ignorance is bliss sometimes and you’re very creative in what you’re doing. We first started out with a convention that I was invited to locally here in LA at the Airport Hilton. And by chance, almost all of the original Star Trek cast was going to be there because it was a benefit for the Motion Picture Actors Fund. So fortunately, in one shot we could get all of those interviews. A lot of luck fell into our laps. And Roger Nygard, the director, had never made a documentary before, but he certainly knew his way behind a camera. So we were just sort of making things up as we went along and letting our instincts guide us. We didn’t have the luxury of shooting a lot of footage so we were careful with what we were shooting. But we were looking at it right away and we started to see a pattern, a story unfold. And so it kind of revealed itself to us as we went along. I don’t know that I would do anything differently. We had such a great time making the film. I was lucky enough to have the trust of people and fans and my fellow actors to allow me to kind of jump in there with them.

How do you feel about concerns the doc could be making fun of Star Trek fans?

It was not the intention to make fun of anyone; quite the opposite. What gave me the idea to do this was that I had been going to conventions for about eight or nine years by that point and I was struck by the depth of what this show meant in people’s lives, but also the relationships and friendships and charitable intentions and the social messages and social justice that people got involved in. And that was all gleaned from this kind of inherent utopian vision of the future. And they were trying to emulate this in their lives. So when I would watch the media try to talk about Star Trek fans and Trekkies, it was always with a sort of note of derision. It was very easy for the newscasters on the 11 o’clock news to say, “Oh, everybody get your Spock ears out and join us in Pasadena for a Star Trek convention.” And they kind of snicker, having never gone themselves to any convention, by the way. So I knew that there was so much more to this. And the only way to really capture what I was seeing was to turn the cameras on the fans themselves and let the public in on who these people are and what it’s like at a convention.

That being said, you’re also making a film. So you’re going to seek out people who really bring an exciting sort of story out. You want the general population, but you want stars in this genre to kind of stand out. And so that’s what we did. The other thing we did along the way is we conferred a lot with Richard Arnold, who was Gene Roddenberry’s right-hand man and a historian for all things Star Trek. And we ran footage and ideas by him to get his view on how this or that would be perceived. Like, “Would this be offensive to anyone?” He was our kind of guide.

Klingon fans in Trekkies (Shout! Factory)

You are still connected to the fandom and still going to cons. So what do you see as the biggest changes and what’s the same since what we saw in Trekkies ?

There’s certainly a lot more product. There is so much more Trek! There are three or four or five more series on now at the same time. There are so much more people watching. But what I’ve always loved is the generational sharing. It’s one of the few shows where many different ages can watch together and glean something from it. But the kind of experience you have going to a convention hasn’t really changed that much. People want to come and get their pictures taken or talk to you a little bit about the show. My favorite thing is always hearing from young women that are now adults, who were watching the character I played and really, something like a light bulb went off in their heads: “These things are possible for me… I can be a strong individual and succeed as a woman!” And that’s really pretty spectacular. Or they’ve gone into science. Like I’m going next weekend to the first Space Prize that’s being given. It’s a nonprofit foundation to encourage women and girls in high school to pursue careers in science and technology, engineering, arts, and math.

Being part of the launch of TNG you saw some of the first divisions between fans of the old and the new. Do you think things are the same today or has it become even more divisive?

You have to remember when we first were filming and we hadn’t aired any episodes yet, we had a lot of hostility aimed towards us. People for who this was their sacred cow. This show of Star Trek and Kirk and Spock and they just said this is not going to go over well. “You cannot do a next generation! This is this is sacrilegious!” And we, of course, as actors were just kind of scratching our heads. We have no idea what this was about or why this was so intense to people. So there’s always going to be that kind of argumentative kind of thing going on. Some people don’t like what J.J. Abrams did, other people love what he did. Some people are going to think Trekkies is making fun of the fans, other people go, “My god, we’re so grateful you did this movie.” It’s kind of inherent in what it is.

Have you kept up with the new shows? Like there is an animated comedy bringing back a lot of classic characters.

Just a little bit. I don’t follow it fully enough. I know that some people reached out to me with Lower Decks and they were talking about Armus and brought him back and people were really thrilled about that to get some righteous justice with him. I’ll check in with a couple of the actors if I can catch it. I love so many of the actors on the new shows that I’ve known personally and worked with, like Sonequa [Martin-Green]. I worked with her on The Walking Dead so when I was up in Toronto I came to visit the set. But there is so much, I couldn’t possibly watch it all.

You must have heard the news that they’re bringing your TNG co-stars back for the next season of Picard ?

I did hear that, yes. Because people keep asking me if they’re going to have Sela back. But there are no plans for that. Certainly, if they ask, I’ll definitely do it, but I’ve never been asked.

Unfortunately, the season has been shot and that is the last season.

Oh, okay. Well then, that ship has sailed. I don’t really follow it, though. I have never seen Picard . I don’t watch much of it, to be honest.

Leonard Nimoy in Trekkies (Shout! Factory)

I know you have talked about how you were miserable and that’s why you left TNG, so I understand if you don’t want to talk about it again. But now seeing this reunion, do you ever look back and wonder if you could have done something differently to make it work, maybe talk to Gene [Roddenberry]…  

I did talk to Gene. And he said it’s never going to change. He said the show is going to focus on Picard, Data, and the first officer. “That’s what it did in The Original Series , and that’s what I want to do for this one.” He said, “I don’t want you to leave, but I get why you would want to leave.” It’s never going to be about the other characters. Once in a while, you’ll get a storyline. But TV was changing very much so in the ‘80s. When you had big casts, you had multiple storylines. Hill Street Blues was sort of the first kind of benchmark for that. And again, in the ’80s I was in drama school and nobody was aspiring to be on a TV show. You have to frame it in not this day and age. Now, television has the best storylines going on and great series, but in the ‘80s, television was where you went to because you couldn’t get a movie, or you couldn’t get a Broadway play.

So you have to really put it in context. The last thing I wanted was to stand around for seven years in that same position in that same suit going “Aye aye, Captain.” Right? It’s not what I went to drama school for, and that’s not what I dreamed of doing. I think you got to take your shot, whether it works or not, but owe it to yourself to do it. And what nobody could foresee, was that in the middle of the second or third season, Gene passed away and Michael Piller came on board and pretty much changed things around.

Right, now everyone gets an episode or two a season…

Yeah, or gets a storyline. I certainly didn’t want to be the star of Star Trek: The Next Generation , but I wanted to have some sort of meat on the bone there.

Are you saying that if Michael Piller was running the show, you wouldn’t have left?

Oh, you can’t, who knows? I don’t know. I think it changed though when he came on board. So, I don’t know. For me, it was the right decision to do. Because I feel like I’ve continued. It’s like I never really left. I came back in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” I came back as another character entirely. I made Trekkies , I made Trekkies 2 . So I kind of got the best of both worlds, really.

Speaking of Trekkies 2 , can we expect an upcoming anniversary release of that in HD and Blu-ray from Shout! Factory?

Oh, let’s hope so. That would be wonderful! They’ve been so great and so supportive. We finally got to do what we had been waiting to do. We want the film back out on all the platforms and streaming and this beautiful new version. And I certainly would be very happy to have that happen.

And now for the obligatory Trekkies 3 question… Any chance that is going to happen?

[Laughs] Roger and I have some ideas and we would love to do it. We would certainly bring it into the present day. And there’s a lot still to cover. And we would check in on some our superheroes from the first one. So, fingers crossed, you will see that.

Do you have an angle on what you might focus on?

Again, we would let the fans you drive that. I’m curious about what you asked me about which was: What are the differences now? And kind of measure it against our own experience and our own film from 25 years ago, I’d also like to go to some places we haven’t been to like in Asia and India see what kind of Trek presence is there. And, again, I would like to revisit some of the people who stand out in the first movie.

Denise Crosby in Trekkies (Shout! Factory)

Trekkies returns on Tuesday in HD

Trekkies: 25th Anniversary Edition will be released in HD on Blu-ray and Video on Demand on Tuesday, May 24th. The 25h anniversary edition is based on a new 4K scan restoration. The Blu-ray includes a new documentary featurette, “A Trek Back,” with the film’s narrator Denise Crosby and director Roger Nygard.

Trekkies features interviews with hundreds of fans, along with a number of notable Star Trek veterans including James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, Brent Spiner, and George Takei.

The Blu-ray can be ordered for $18.98 at ShoutFactory.com , or for $16.09 at Amazon.  Starting Tuesday can buy a digital version for $16.99 or rent it for $4.99 via iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your digital media. It is expected to be eventually be released for streaming, but no date or details are available.

Find more news on Star Trek documentaries .

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I like Denise Crosby. She’s always been a straight shooter.

I used to know Daryl Frazetti, the cat guy. He taught a lot of sci-fi classes. He…it might have been one thing or another with him, but I had some horrible experiences with him. Screamed at me in a car in LA, abandoned me in Pasadena, and at another event, Roger Nygard had to PAY for my bus ride back because Daryl had a mental breakdown and refused to drive back with me. The last straw was when he threatened my ex’a cats while we were away, because he was pissed off we didn’t take him to comic con.

I did get to meet Roger and Larry Nemechek through him, and went to a few Warp 11 shows. I guess that’s a plus. If you watch the bluray for season 3 of TOS, a panel I did with him is on the special features.

Brent Spiner has had multiple versions of Soong ancestors…time for a Yar ancestor on Strange New Worlds? (“Set fan service to maximum” :-)

i wouldn’t be surprised. One of the fan series, New Voyages I think it was had Crosby as an ancestor of Yar on the Enterprise several years back.

I pre-ordered this when it was released. Marvelous movie.

I hope Crosby is lying and Tasha shows up in season three of “Picard.” I couldn’t care less that it wouldn’t make any sense for her to do so; making sense is not this show’s bag anyways.

Perhaps Sela was told her mother was executed, to cover up for the embarrassing fact that Tasha actually escaped!

please please please i love this… romulans are supposed to be the biggest liars, right?

Except Tasha would be about twenty years older.

I think Sela said she *saw* her mother executed, no? Or was that just in a novel?

I’m not exactly clamouring for Tasha Yar to return but that she would have aged 20 more years than her colleagues isn’t really an issue for me given that humans are supposed to live to a 130+ In the 24th/25th century. Personally I thought that they should have had a bigger than real time gap between Star Trek Nemesis and Star Trek Picard to account for the actors looking so much older.

Honestly season one made the most sense to bring Sela back. It would’ve been great if she was the one that was looking for the Synths. Or maybe give her a redemption arc and we see her helping Picard in the end. Lots of potential there.

And while I believe Crosby that she’s not in season 3, these guys have been pretty good at lying! ;)

Had to shake my head that Denise said that they relied on Richard Arnold’s advice.

That alone might make a big difference between the first two documentaries and an update.

I don’t know who could fill a similar consultant role now. It’s problematic because everyone who might be helpful also has their own slant on what should be, what’s sensitive or how it “really” was – just as Arnold did.

With three decades of conventions behind her, Denise herself may be discounting her own experience and expertise about the fandom regardless of whether she’s watched the newer series.

Richard Arnold was a mean-spirited little man who abused his tiny bit of authority and did a lot of damage to the Star Trek franchise, claiming all of it was in Gene’s name when the reality was that Gene was very sick and Richard was making (bad) decisions unilaterally. I worked at Paramount at the time, and a lot of people couldn’t stand him, but Gene protected him for whatever reason. He liked to parade himself as some sort of Trek historian, but he wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable as he liked to pretend, and he had it out for the licensed writers for some inexplicable reason. Once Gene was gone, Richard was fired and none of us were upset about it. I was sorry he died because deaths are sad, but if truth be told none of us missed his presence at Paramount . There was a lot of bad blood and damage that had to be fixed after he was no longer in a position to create it.

Thanks for sharing Lorna Dune.

I have heard the same in the early 90s from others with connections to TNG production back in the early seasons.

There’s a firm sense that he contributed to the miasma of stress and misery that surrounded preproduction and licensing.

So, there’s a sad irony that Denise Crosby, who suffered in her own way from constrained horizons in thinking about her role as Yar, relied on his advice and judgment.

That’s exactly it, yes.

“He liked to parade himself as some sort of Trek historian, but he wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable as he liked to pretend” Wow, lol

Lorna gets around. He was there at the creation of TNG it seems like and just recently he said he was in talks with the showrunners of Disco about season 5. I’m envious.

I’m not working on Disco. :) But I did work at Paramount in the early ’90s.

Lorna makes up a lot of stuff.

This is a general comment not directed at anyone in particular

I’m always weary about anonymous posters on the internet “sharing their resumes.” It’s such a convenient way to back up their POV’s and you have no way to verify it. And if the person doing that also has a history of being rude to others, I get even more skeptical regarding their claimed “resumes.”

Trekkies for sure was making fun of some of the fans, but it was awesome. Be proud of who you are. Some people take it too far for my taste, but I love them for it and I loved Trekkies.

I found some of her answers slightly disingenuous—mainly continuing to maintain that she did the right thing by leaving TNG when you just know, you just KNOW, she spent the rest of her career regretting it. There’s nothing wrong with admitting the truth. We’re all winging it through life and sometimes we make choices we end up regretting. I sometimes think it would have been cool to see how they’d have developed her character. Not that many of the show’s characters really developed that much mind you.

I don’t think it’s disingenuous for her to say that she made the best decision with the information she had and the context of the time, but might have made a different decision had she foresight about how things would change.

Let’s be concrete here. All three female main cast members strongly considered quitting at the end of the first season: Crosby, McFadden and Sirtis. Two out of three did leave. This tells us a lot about the experience all the women on the cast were having and the messages that Roddenberry and the other EPs were giving them about the prospect for meaningful roles.

Unlike Dr. Crusher who had a son remaining on the ship, Yar was killed off and written out in a way that precludes any return. She was also given what fans considered a “meaningless death” more in keeping with a TOS red shirt than a main cast bridge officer.

If all the facts don’t add up to an environment that was not positive of female actors and characters, I don’t know what more you need.

I don’t think that she does regret it. She did a recent interview with the Treksperts Briefing Room podcast and seemed very at peace with her choice. If you look at her filmography she has had a very rich career in television and film post-TNG that she might not have developed otherwise. She also got to remain in the Trek family with the classic episode Yesterday’s Enterprise and the resulting Sela character.

Jeepers, I’m old.

I always hoped that there would be a TREKKIES 3.

Star Trek: The Next Generation — Why Denise Crosby's Tasha Yar Left After Season 1

Star Trek: The Next Generation featured Denise Crosby's Tasha Yar as one of its core characters, but the actress left the series after Season 1.

Quick Links

The history of tasha yar on star trek, why denise crosby left the role of tasha yar.

• Lt. Natasha Yar's death in Star Trek: The Next Generation was a surprise and a sign of the show's struggles in its first season.
• Denise Crosby left the show because she felt her character had limited room to grow.
• Yar's death brought depth and nuance to the series and left a lasting impression on her crewmates.

When Star Trek: The Next Generation began airing on first-run syndication in 1987, it was a rarity for the franchise to permanently kill off any leading characters. So it came as a huge surprise when Lt. Natasha Yar met her untimely death in Season 1, Episode 23, "Skin of Evil," in which the USS Enterprise-D attempted to rescue Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) from a crashed shuttlecraft held hostage by an evil entity called Armus. In a demonstration of his power, Armus killed Yar while she was investigating the crash site. Yar's death weighed heavily on the crew, who gathered shortly afterward and held a memorial service for the fallen Chief of Security in the ship's holodeck. Lt. Worf stepped up to become the Enterprise's Security Chief, a position he held for the remainder of the series' run.

The arbitrary nature of the character's passing came as a shock to fans and remains perhaps the biggest sign of the way The Next Generation struggled during its inaugural season. It also raises the question of why actress Denise Crosby left after the first of many TNG seasons and why her eventual return was strictly limited. After all, Gates McFadden left the series after Season 1 as well, only to return in Season 3 and become a key protagonist in the series' now-classic later seasons. McFadden's character, Dr. Beverly Crusher, wasn't killed the way Yar was. Simply put, Crosby left because she didn't feel the character had sufficient room to grow, though the details are a little more nuanced than that.

Updated by Robert Vaux on December 30, 2023: The article has been expanded with more details about Crosby's post- Star Trek career, as well as the impact her departure had on the in-universe narrative of Star Trek: The Next Generation . In addition, it has been reformatted to fit with current CBR guidelines.

Star Trek's Patrick Stewart Recalls Lashing Out at Next Generation Co-Stars

Tasha Yar served on the USS Enterprise-D as Chief of Security. She had a traumatic childhood growing up in the crime-ridden Federation colony on the planet Turkana IV, and when her parents died, she was forced to care for herself and her younger sister, Ishara. Eventually, she escaped the colony and enrolled in Starfleet, majoring in Security and impressing Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart), who recruited her to serve on the Enterprise. She took pride in her job, but she was also impatient, impulsive, and unafraid of throwing herself right into danger, especially if it meant protecting her fellow crew. While this sometimes led her to step out of line, she tried to learn from her mistakes. Yar was well respected by the crew, particularly Worf (Michael Dorn) , who admired her courage and warrior-like mentality. His status as her successor can be viewed as an effort to honor her legacy.

Yar's death in "Skin of Evil" came at the end of a very difficult inaugural season, marred by poor scripts and an overall lack of purpose. Things improved dramatically in the second season, and The Next Generation hit its stride in Season 3, going on to become one of the best and most beloved entries in the entire franchise. That makes Crosby's departure stand out all the more, as well as helping explain why the actor may have felt dissatisfied with the work. At the time, the show simply didn't look very promising, and while that eventually changed, she had no way of knowing that when she left. Yar's death became a reflection of Season 1's difficulties — a potentially strong character stuck in neutral while the series looked for a stronger sense of purpose.

The Star Wars Franchise Is In Its 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' Era

Crosby claimed that she left the series because she was unhappy with the role, even though she loved the character of Tasha Yar. " I wanted to leave the show ," she explained in an interview with StarTrek.com . " Although it was Gene's idea to have the character die. He thought it would be so shocking. I was struggling with not being able to do much with the character. I had all these ideas and couldn't do them. I was just stage dressing. I chose to leave instead of just being satisfied with that ." The actor continued to work steadily for decades after her departure from the series, largely in genre television whose audiences would likely know her best as Tasha. That included one-shot appearances in the likes of T he X-Files , The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. , Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman , Dexter , Castle , and Creepshow . She earned praise for a three-episode stint straddling Seasons 4 and 5 of The Walking Dead as the leader of a human community that had turned to cannibalism, as well as an extended appearance on the hit series Ray Donovan in the mid-2010s. Her most prominent role on the big screen was probably Rachel Creed, the female lead in the original adaptation of Stephen King's Pet Sematary , which she made shortly after her departure from The Next Generation . The film has aged well and remains one of the more underrated versions of the horror author's work.

While Crosby never regretted her decision to leave the show, she'd return to the Star Trek universe to play an alternate version of her character in Season 3's "Yesterday's Enterprise." She also played Yar's half-Romulan daughter, Sela , who'd appear throughout the series to cause trouble for Picard and the crew — most notably in aiding the House of Duras in their attempts to plunge the Klingon Empire into a civil war. There would later be an indirect reference to Tasha Yar in Star Trek: Picard Season 3. She made a final appearance in the role during a flashback sequence in the series finale, Season 7, Episode 25-26, "All Good Things..." They helped punctuate her earlier concerns about the character's direction, as well as showing the kind of potential in Yar that was largely going to waste. Yet, ultimately, her reasons for leaving were probably the right ones. The Next Generation had a bumper crop of strong characters, all competing for attention amid a very crowded schedule. And with her successor, Worf, acting as a gateway to the Klingons, one of Star Trek 's most important species saw proper development with the screen time he was given. Had Crosby remained, her character would have likely developed into a more interesting figure the same way the other protagonists did, and yet that would have come at an untold cost to some of the series' other groundbreaking developments.

As it stands, Yar becomes a haunting figure for her surviving crewmates, reminding them of the dangers they face as members of Starfleet and adding depth to such moments as Data's loss of virginity at her hands and Picard's startled response to her in "All Good Things..." The character's death brought depth and nuance to the series in ways that wouldn't have happened had she remained aboard. She was noticeably absent during Season 3 of Picard , which served as a reunion for the rest of the Next Generation crew. While it would have been difficult to restore Yar to life — especially for such an arbitrary reason — it still felt like they were one crew member down, very much as it did during the series itself. It's a testament to Crosby's talent and presence in the role that she could leave such an impression behind.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is now streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

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• Series & Movies

Published Sep 30, 2019

EXCERPT: 'Pour One Out''s Liquid Tribute to Tasha Yar

The new book of 'Cocktail Odes to T.V.'s Most Dearly Departed' pays a gin-laced homage to the fallen lieutenant.

Morrow Gift HarperCollins

For one intrepid explorer, space really was the final frontier. . . twice.

Escaping a violence-filled childhood on the lawless colony planet Turkana IV, Tasha Yar became enamored with Starfleet’s mission of universal goodwill. It wasn’t long before she was living her best life among the stars as a lieutenant and the chief security officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D , helping to thwart alien nemeses, taking the lead on vital away missions, getting intimate with the android Data, and impressing Lieutenant Worf with her badass martial arts skills—until the end of season 1, when she was randomly killed by a lame slime monster, a death that her fellow crewmembers (and TV critics) viewed as senseless. Luckily, she returned two seasons later in an alternate timeline, where, in a send-off much more befitting her character, she traveled back in time with the Enterprise-C to heroically stop an eventual war between the Klingons and the Federation. (She went on to be impregnated and murdered by Romulans, but hey, space happens!)

Most Trekkies were understandably miffed at the show’s initial treatment of Tasha, but it would be tough to find anyone in the galaxy to complain about the Star Daisy. Just as reaching the stars has been a human goal since the beginning of time, variations of this refreshingly dry forefather of the sidecar have been served since the first cocktails appeared on bar menus in the early nineteenth century. So whenever you’re feeling down about your tactical officer always getting the short end of the futuristic stick, just teleport to your local watering hole for a different kind of subtly strong blond-hued beauty that’ll still be sipped long after we conquer warp speed.

TASHA YAR – Star Daisy

3/4 ounce Laird’s Applejack or comparable apple brandy

3 /4 ounce gin

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

3/4 ounce orange curaçao

2 bar spoons club soda

1 lemon twist, for garnish

Combine the applejack, gin, lemon juice, and curaçao in an ice-filled shaker. Shake vigorously and strain into a stemmed cocktail glass. Top with the club soda. Garnish with the lemon twist.

From POUR ONE OUT by Chris Vola, available October 1, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Chris Vola. Reprinted by permission of Morrow Gift. Buy your copy here .

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Star Trek: Picard - Denise Crosby's Tasha Yar Return Explained

"Star Trek: Picard" brought back a whole host of characters for its final season. In a couple of cases — that of Data (Brent Spiner) and of Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) — a bit of fancy footwork had to be applied as both shuffle off the mortal coil on their home shows. In Tasha's case, she doesn't return as a clone or even a flesh-and-blood version of herself — but as a hologram kept by Data to remind him of her, one that he first created back on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as a memorial to his fallen comrade, who dies during "The Skin of Evil" in Season 1. The footage in "Picard" appears to be recycled from this appearance. 

While "Star Trek" fans are likely quite disappointed that Denise Crosby didn't appear in the program, she had previously hinted that Tasha would make an appearance on Picard, saying during an appearance at the 56-Year Mission Star Trek convention in 2022, she said "Oh. I don't want to give away too much. But I'm going to tell you that you will see Tasha Yar, but I'm not going to tell you how. You've got to watch" (per TrekMovie ).

While she still hasn't stepped into Tasha's shoes since the character was unceremoniously killed off, Crosby has reappeared in the franchise in several fascinating ways. After all, she — and variations and relations of Tasha — have already returned to the program in previous iterations. 

Tasha Yar has lived many different lives across many different realities

This isn't the first time the "Star Trek" world has reexplored what might have happened to Tasha Yar under different circumstances. During Season 5's "Redemption II," Denise Crosby returns to the show to play Tasha's lookalike daughter, Sela. It's revealed that in the universe from which Sela emanates, Tasha was taken prisoner with fellow members of the Enterprise-C when it crash-landed. The leader of the Romulan soldiers who takes the crew hostage grows enamored with Tasha; she agrees to become his concubine in exchange for the release of her comrades. But when Tasha tries to escape with a four-year-old Sela, the child cries out, and Tasha is discovered, captured, and executed. Sela grows up to be a Romulan military commander, and the Enterprise-C's unstuck-in-time crew soon becomes entangled in a battle for supremacy between the Romulans and Klingon empires.

In a third timeline, established during Season 3's "Yesterday's Enterprise," a change made to the flow of the timestream results in Tasha's survival. When she learns from Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) that she died a meaningless death in his timeline, she becomes determined to change that fate. The end result is her attaining a meaningful death — one which closes a breach in time forever more.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's 'Skin of Evil' Explained

This controversial episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation's first season helped forge the series' reputation.

Quick Links

What happens in 'skin of evil', how does 'skin of evil' end, the reputation of 'skin of evil' and its impact on the star trek franchise.

“Skin of Evil” remains one of the most shocking and controversial episodes in the long-running saga of Star Trek . More often than not, the different eras of the franchise have taken a while to find their space legs, and that’s particularly true of the first live-action sequel to The Original Series . Star Trek: The Next Generation may have presented a more enlightened Federation of the 24th century than its 1960s predecessor, but its first year was notoriously troubled.

The show suffered from a revolving door of writers, with many falling out with Star Trek ’s creator Gene Roddenberry, who kept a tight grip on the series' direction. Roddenberry rewrote 15 episodes of the first year’s run, which also included some blatant remakes of The Original Series episodes. The result was a dysfunctional environment that found actors like Denise Crosby, who played Security Chief Tasha Yar, unhappy with their character development. Crosby’s decision to end her contract during The Next Generation’s first year resulted in the events of the 23rd episode of the first season. The repercussions of “Skin of Evil" would be felt for a long time.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Show’s Production

“Skin of Evil” finds the crew of the Enterprise-D attempting an unusual rescue mission. When a shuttlecraft transporting Counselor Deanna Troi and Lieutenant Ben Prieto mysteriously crashes on the deserted planet Vagra II, the Enterprise crew is blocked from beaming up their missing personnel. An away team comprising Data, Dr Crusher, and Lieutenant Tasha Yar, led by Commander Riker, discovers why: A sentient ‘oil slick’ that calls itself Armus is using its impressive powers, including psychokinesis and teleportation, to block access to the crashed shuttlecraft.

Picard frowns at Riker’s description of Armus as “Trouble,” but the Enterprise’s first officer is soon proved right. When Yar attempts to cross to the craft, Armus lashes out, apparently killing her instantly. Despite Crusher’s best efforts on board the Enterprise, the ship’s security chief is pronounced dead.

Star Trek Fans Explain Why The Next Generation Cast Should Never Return

The remainder of the episode is split between somber scenes aboard the Enterprise and return trips to the planet as the crew desperately tries to rescue their hostage shipmates without any further loss of life. While taunting Troi, who’s conscious aboard the crashed craft, Armus reveals itself as a single-minded, rage-filled creature driven by loneliness and emptiness. As the counselor discerns that it’s the rejected side product of an alien culture that managed to separate and maroon their “dark and vile” side, the enterprise notices power fluctuations in the shield Armus has projected around the craft.

The game of oily cat and Starfleet mouse continues, including some haunting visuals when Riker is sucked into the creature and held captive. It ends when Picard beams down to confront the creature, and Armus reveals its goal is to leave the planet to rejoin those who abandoned it. Picard bargains a meeting with Troi, confirming his suspicions that the creature’s powers diminish as its rage grows. He then taunts it into a fury that weakens its shield enough for the Enterprise to beam up everyone safely . Armus, the skin of evil, is left raging on the surface as Picard orders the remote destruction of the shuttle so there’s no chance it can ever leave its prison planet.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's Most Boring Episode

Despite declaring Vagra II off-limits and ensuring Armus cannot escape, Picard admits that "the damage has been done." The senior crew steps into a blue-skied paradise aboard one of the ship’s holodecks, where the captain conducts a short and emotional memorial to his lost Security Chief. In a farewell unlike any Star Trek fan had seen before, Picard hands over to a holographic recording of Tasha Yar.

In a moving speech, she praises each of the assembled crewmembers for their contributions to her life, explaining that she had expected to die quickly and on duty. It’s a lovely narrative move that makes good use of the innovation of the holodeck, although it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny unless Yar regularly re-recorded it during her year aboard the Enterprise-D.

Where it succeeds is putting an emphasis on the crew she’s left behind, with “no goodbyes, just good memories.” That’s summed up in the final lines of the episode when Data queries why his thoughts are not with Tasha but how empty he will feel without her presence. Picard simply confirms that the android’s “got it’.”

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best Data Episodes

Unsurprisingly, “Skin of Evil” was instantly controversial, and its bad reputation has persisted for 30 years. Star Trek supremo Gene Roddenberry intended Yar’s blunt and senseless death to show the dangers facing security officers. However, the general response was that the result was that Yar’s death just felt pointless. It’s even worse that it fails to add any real threat to the villain Armus, who, despite some ingenious physical effects, is barely remembered beyond being a relatively shapeless dark blob.

The decision to kill Yar was prompted by Crosby’s disappointment with the character’s development over the season. However, it was fitting that the show’s eulogy turned attention to the surviving crew. With Worf’s immediate promotion to Acting Chief of Security, taking point behind the command chairs, the core crew started to resemble the one the show became famous for.

Geordi La Forge would become Chief Engineer in the second year, and Yar’s departure allowed secondary characters like Chief Miles O’Brien to become more prominent. It was this restructured team that helped propel the series’ massive success. However, Tasha Yar’s death also provided the show’s creators an opportunity they couldn’t resist, leading to one of The Next Generation ’s classic episodes.

Star Trek: The Next Generations 'Cause and Effect' Explained

In the third season’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise, ” the USS Enterprise-D’s crew is amazed to see the long-destroyed USS Enterprise-C emerge from a spacetime rift. However, the ship’s arrival in 2366 immediately transforms the 24th-century timeline. Picard now commands a warship in a fleet locked in a devastating war with the Klingons, with a crew including a survived Tasha Yar as tactical officer. Only the El-Aurian bartender Guinan senses something is wrong and that Yar shouldn’t be there — a neat touch, as Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan was a female character introduced to fill the gap left by the departure of Denise Crosby.

“Yesterday’s Enterprise” is regarded as one of Star Trek ’s greatest time travel episodes , featuring a solid meditation on fate and choice. Picard must wrestle with the decision to restore a timeline he doesn’t remember by sending the crew of the Enterprise-C back to its death, including volunteer Tasha Yar, who realizes she doesn’t quite belong. However, this great episode was also a clever way for Crosby to retain a role in the franchise.

Star Trek: The USS Enterprise's Best Commanding Officers, Ranked

Future seasons brought the actress back as the villain Sela, the half-Romulan daughter of Yar, born from the paradox of her mother being sent back in time to 2344 and captured before the destruction of the Enterprise-C. Sela’s vengeful masterplan as a Romulan commander was the backbone of the Season 4 cliffhanger two-parter “Redemption,” and she would later become a primary antagonist in Star Trek: Online .

For a little-loved episode, overshadowed by a significant but poorly received death, “Skin of Evil” had major repercussions for Star Trek: The Next Generation . Yar never gained the chance to enjoy the celebrity of her crewmates, but her death was more than the repeat of Spock’s legendary death five years before in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . This was the first time Star Trek permanently killed a regular character, and thanks to the show’s time-twisting potential, her tragic journey didn’t stop there. The Security Chief is one of very few Star Trek characters with the tragic distinction of dying twice.

Star Trek is a space exploration franchise originally created by Gene Roddenberry. The series has spanned shows like The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Voyager. More recently, developer Scopely came out with Star Trek Fleet Command, a mobile title where you get to be captain of your own ship.

Star Trek: 5 Deaths That Rocked The Franchise's Foundation

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Episode aired Oct 27, 1990

The crew of the Enterprise enters into orbit around the home planet of their former crewmate, Tasha Yar, where they encounter her sister. The crew of the Enterprise enters into orbit around the home planet of their former crewmate, Tasha Yar, where they encounter her sister. The crew of the Enterprise enters into orbit around the home planet of their former crewmate, Tasha Yar, where they encounter her sister.

• Robert Scheerer
• Gene Roddenberry
• Joe Menosky
• Ronald D. Moore
• Patrick Stewart
• Jonathan Frakes
• LeVar Burton
• 17 User reviews
• 9 Critic reviews

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard

• Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker

• Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge

• Lieutenant Worf

• Doctor Beverly Crusher

• Counselor Deanna Troi

• Lieutenant Commander Data

• Ensign Wesley Crusher
• (credit only)

• Chief Miles O'Brien

• Coalition Man #1
• Crewman Martinez
• (uncredited)

• Arcos pilot

• Ensign Russell

• Alliance Member

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Captain Picard's log entry states that they are bypassing their scheduled archaeological survey of Camus II. Camus II is the planet visited by Enterprise in the 79th (and final) episode of Star Trek (1966) , " Turnabout Intruder (1969) ." "Legacy" is Star Trek: The Next Generation's 80th episode.
• Goofs When Dr. Crusher takes a DNA sample from Ishara, she says the test to see if Ishara is related to Tasha will take a few hours. However, other instances of DNA being analysed had nearly instantaneous results.

[last lines]

Commander William T. Riker : In all trust, there is the possibility of betrayal. I'm not sure you were... prepared for that.

Lt. Commander Data : Were you prepared, sir?

Commander William T. Riker : I don't think anybody ever is.

Lt. Commander Data : Hm... Then it is better not to trust?

Commander William T. Riker : Without trust, there's no friendship, no closeness. None of the emotional bonds that make us who we are.

Lt. Commander Data : And yet you put yourself at risk.

Commander William T. Riker : Every single time.

Lt. Commander Data : Perhaps I am fortunate, sir, to be spared the emotional consequences.

Commander William T. Riker : Perhaps.

• Connections References Battleship Potemkin (1925)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews 17

• zombiemockingbird
• Apr 4, 2023
• October 27, 1990 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 45 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The Legacy Of Armus, Star Trek's Cheapest, Scariest, Most Controversial Villain

In the first-season "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Skin of Evil" (April 28, 1988), the shuttlecraft carrying Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) crashes on a seemingly uninhabited alien world called Vagra II. The Enterprise goes to rescue her, but finds that Troi's crashed shuttle is being guarded by a mysterious living puddle of black tar. The tar shapeshifts into a vaguely human form and calls itself Armus (Mart McChesney, voice by Ron Gans), the only inhabitant of this world. Armus is seethingly cruel and takes pleasure in the death and suffering of the people it encounters. It refuses to let Troi go, wanting to torment the Enterprise crew members who have beamed down to gather her. 

In one of the most notorious moments in "Star Trek" history, Lieutenant Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) attempts to walk around Armus, and it zaps her with a mysterious psychic blast. Yar is thrown several feet through the air, severely injured. She is beamed back on board and almost immediately pronounced dead. Yar's quick and incidental death is one of the series' more abrupt and shocking scenes. 

Yar was given a touching funeral scene at the end of the episode, but many Trekkies, even to this day, feel that Yar's death was jarring and lacked respect. She was merely murdered by a monster-of-the-week. A monster, incidentally, that wouldn't return to the series until the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "The Spy Humongous" (September 16, 2021).

Armus, many also feel, looked absurd. The creature looks more or less like a garbage bag covered in maple syrup. As it so happens, as explained in the 1993 book "Star Trek: The Next Generation: Make-Up FX Journal," the "tar" used to visually realize Armus was made of Metamucil mixed with black printer's ink.

What is Armus made of?

The origin of Armus is mythical in a Jack Kirby sort of way. The "tar" is the physical manifestation of all the negative emotions and psychic impulses of a long-forgotten species of unnamed "Titans" who used advanced technology to literally rid themselves of hate. The Titans then left their world and abandoned their sticky, tar-like hatred. Over the years — centuries? millennia? — Armus evolved from that hate into an intelligent being. Armus is, like Changelings, a living liquid and has no internal organs or skeleton. It can move around and alter its density at will, and also clearly possesses advanced, terrifying psychic powers. Its powers also involved a far-reaching psychic field, which was why the Enterprise couldn't beam Troi to safety.

Armus isn't harmed by phasers, and, at one point, sucks Commander Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ) into its body. While inside, Riker is seemingly reduced to a liquid state wherein he is savagely tortured. Armus then reconstitutes Riker and spits him back onto the desert floor of Vagra II. At a convention attended by this author, Frakes admitted that he actually had to climb into a pool of ink-black Metamucil, an unpleasant experience to say the least. This story, however, was contradicted by the "FX Journal" which stated that Frakes' stuntman was used for the submersion scene. 

As a being of pure anger, Armus didn't behave entirely logically. It had been alone on Vagra II for God knows how long, waiting for torture victims to stumble into its path. When victims did appear, however, Armus did everything in its power to frighten them and scare them off. It longed for company, but only required that company in order to alienate them. In short, Armus was your average Twitter user. 

The existential loneliness of Armus

At the end of "Skin of Evil," Captain Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) was able to mock and distract Armus long enough to beam Troi (and the shuttle pilot) back onboard the Enterprise and flee. Picard knew at that point that Armus, more than anything, required people nearby in order to sate its fathomless bloodlust. Troi realized this as well, stating out loud to Armus that it was, more than anything, unutterably lonely.

The latex costumes for Armus had to be used multiple times over the course of a four-day shoot, and the Metamucil mixture broke down the rubbers in their materials. Actor McChesney was lowered into the pool of glop multiple times during filming (sans oxygen tanks), and his suits developed huge rips. He eventually had to do scenes with his back exposed. The headpiece, curiously, remained intact.

McChesney passed away in 1999 of complications related to AIDS. He was an AIDS activist for years prior. Gans, meanwhile, was a longtime voice acting veteran, having appeared in multiple B-movies since the 1950s and played Eeyore in "The House on Pooh Corner." He passed away in 2010 at the age of 78. 

Perhaps with a bigger budget and more time to film, Armus would have emerged as a greater, more ancient threat. The idea of a being consisting of an entire species' negative emotions could have felt enormous and antediluvian. Like an ancient, bitter god lashing out against his long-dead creators, Armus resented existence. The character possesses an existential element that "Star Trek" didn't have the time to delve into properly; imagine a Sartre-like treatise on existential nausea! On a 1988 TV budget, however, Armus was slight, even silly. 

Indeed, on "Lower Decks," the characters deigned to mock the character to his face. 

A big bag of crap

At the end of "The Spy Humongous," the four main characters — a team of less-than-professional ensigns — lucked into possession of a widget called a submanifold casting stone that allowed them to communicate with any being in the galaxy instantaneously. Because the ensigns knew about Armus and his plight, they decided to contact it and mock it. "Lower Decks" is set several decades after the events of "Skin of Evil," and it seems that Armus has remained alone on Vagra II that entire time. Ensign Mariner (Tawney Newsome) yelled out to Armus and said he looked like a big bag of crap. Armus yelled back in rage, unable to see its bullies. "I am a skin of evil!" it yelled. Armus then tripped on a rock. Not even within "Trek" canon is Armus particularly respected.

In other "Lower Decks" episodes, Armus was dismissed flippantly. A drunken character once yelled out "Tasha, no! The garbage bag is behind you!" Ouch.

According to a 1998 issue of Star Trek: Communicator Magazine , Armus was named after Burton Armus, a writer on "Next Generation." Enterprising Trekkies will likely be able to find early concept art of Armus and find that the character was meant to be far larger and more impressive.  One design , by Rick Sternbach, had Armus looking like a bat-winged creature straight out of "Prometheus," while another , by Andrew Probert, saw it as an enormous screaming face of anguish. 

It's not official canon, but in Dean Wesley Smith's 2004 short story collection "Strange New Worlds VII," Armus eventually escaped Vagra II using pieces of the crashed shuttle ... in the year 26,862. It traveled to the planet of the Guardian of Forever (!) and was killed by an army of hortas (!!). R.I.P. Armus.

Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Tasha Yar

8. freaky fridays.

Gene felt, and these are his words, that I was too much like Grace Kelly, and that Troi should be this exotic, otherworldly creature, and I was just this kind of American golden girl.

Jack Kiely is a writer with a PhD in French and almost certainly an unhealthy obsession with Star Trek.

• Lieutenants
• Tactical & Security Officers
• U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-C)
• Season Seven: New Romulus

Natasha Yar

• VisualEditor
• View history

Natasha Yar (or Tasha Yar ) was the Human tactical and security officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise -D until her death in 2364 .

• 1 Alternate timeline
• 2 Missions involved
• 5 External links

Alternate timeline [ | ]

In an alternate timeline Tasha Yar was tactical and security officer on the Enterprise -D until 2366, when she joined the crew of the time-traveling U.S.S. Enterprise -C before it returned to the year 2344 - before the alternate timeline was created. In the subsequent Battle of Narendra III , the ship was destroyed and Tasha was taken prisoner by the Romulans . She became the consort of a Romulan General and one year later gave birth to a daughter: Sela . In 2349, Tasha attempted to escape from Romulus , but four-year-old Sela cried out, causing her mother to be caught and executed.

Missions involved [ | ]

Notes [ | ]

• Tasha Yar is voiced by Denise Crosby , the same actress who played the character in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Gallery [ | ]

Denise Crosby recording lines for Star Trek Online at Cryptic Studios in 2012.

After 40 years in captivity.

On Sela's 50th birthday.

Toward the end of her life.

Final resting place.

External links [ | ]

• Natasha Yar at Memory Alpha , the Star Trek Wiki.
• 1 Playable starship
• 3 Infinity Prize Pack - T6 Ship

The Aunt Of Star Trek: TNG's Tasha Yar Actress Once Romanced DS9's Quark

The aunt of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Denise Crosby once had a brief romance with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's Quark (Armin Shimerman). Denise Crosby played Lt. Tasha Yar in TNG , whose family continued to pop up in the show even after she was killed by Armus. Tasha's sister, Ishara Yar (Beth Toussaint), used the crew of the USS Enterprise-D to help her launch an invasion of the Turkana IV Alliance's territory in TNG season 4, episode 6, "Legacy". Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5 introduced Sela (Denise Crosby) Tasha Yar's half-Romulan daughter from an alternate timeline, who became a recurring villain on the show.

Tasha Yar's extended family appearing on Star Trek: The Next Generation was reflective of Denise Crosby's own family links to the wider Star Trek universe. Denise Crosby was the granddaughter of popular crooner and actor Bing Crosby, named after her father, and Bing's son, Dennis Crosby. Embarrassed by a high-profile child support case between Dennis Crosby and Denise's mother, Marilyn Miller Scott, Bing Crosby reportedly never met his granddaughter . Amid this court battle, Bing Crosby's second wife, Kathryn, gave birth to her second child, Denise's aunt and future Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star , Mary Crosby.

Star Trek: TNG's Most Hated Episode Still Traumatizes Denise Crosby

Star trek: tng's denise crosby's aunt played quark's love interest in ds9.

Denise Crosby's aunt Mary played Professor Natima Lang in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 18, "Profit and Loss" . Mary Crosby was a prolific TV guest star in the early 1990s, appearing in shows such as Murder, She Wrote and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman before being cast as Natima in DS9 . A specialist in political ethics, Natima was a prominent member of the Cardassian dissident movement, who wanted to overthrow their government's military rulers. Natima Lang was a character who brought out Quark's romantic and heroic side, something that DS9 writer and producer Ira Steven Behr disapproved of :

" I felt we didn't need another tough, sexy, swashbuckling character on the show. We had enough of those." - Ira Steven Behr, The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion

Mary Crosby is best known for playing Kristin Shepard in the iconic soap opera Dallas between 1979 and 1981 . Kristin Shepard was the character who famously shot J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) in the soap, with the reveal becoming one of the highest-rated episodes of any TV drama. In an interesting parallel between her character in Dallas and her character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Mary Crosby also shoots Quark in "Profit and Loss", albeit accidentally. It's a fun nod to Mary Crosby's best-known TV role.

Denise Crosby's Other Star Trek Family Links

Mary Crosby isn't the only member of Denise Crosby's extended family to appear in the wider Star Trek universe. Denise Crosby's brother, Paul, is married to actress and stunt performer, Spice Williams, who has made many appearances in the Star Trek franchise . Spice Williams-Crosby played Vixis in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , the first officer on Klaa's Klingon bird of prey. As a stunt performer, Spice Williams-Crosby doubled for Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine on episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.

Denise Crosby is also a distant relation of Family Guy creator and Star Trek: Enterprise guest star, Seth MacFarlane . Ancestry details of Seth MacFarlane reveal that he was a descendant of William Brewster, an ancestor of Bing Crosby. This means that Denise Crosby and Seth MacFarlane are distant cousins, a detail which must have pleased the noted Star Trek fan. In 2011, Seth MacFarlane revealed his desire to reboot the franchise on TV, a dream he never got to realize. However, his sci-fi comedy drama The Orville is the next best thing, a loving homage to Star Trek: The Next Generation that features many of its alumni.

All episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.

• Entertainment

Star Trek: Alle Parallel-Universen und Zeitlinien im Überblick

Im "Star Trek"-Franchise gibt es verschiedene Parallel-Universen und alternative Zeitlinien. Wir stellen euch alle vor, die bisher in den Serien vorgestellt wurden.

« Zurück zur ersten Seite

Die Xindi zerstören die Erde

Die Xindi fürchten, dass die Menschen sie im 26. Jahrhundert ausrotten werden. Sie entscheiden also, zu handeln. Im Vorfeld verdammen sie die Erde, sodass die überlebenden Menschen auf Ceti Alpha V im Exil leben müssen (, der Ort, auf dem auch Khan sein Exil vor "Star Trek II: Der Zorn des Khan" verbrachte). Die restliche Galaxie empfindet es als zu riskant, einzugreifen und überlässt die Menschheit ihrem Schicksal.

Erst durch eine Zeitreise und eine Richtigstellung der Ereignisse kann diese temporäre Zeitlinie wieder rückgängig gemacht werden, sodass die Prime-Zeitlinie wieder intakt ist. Diese Ereignisse sehen wir in der dritten " Star Trek: Enterprise "-Staffel, in der Folge "Dämmerung".

Die alte Enterprise

Eine weitere temporäre Zeitlinie. Eigentlich wurde die USS Enterprise-C unter dem Kommando von Captain Rachel Garrett (Tricia O'Neil) im Jahr 2344 im Kampf gegen die Romulaner zerstört. Dies geschah, um einen Klingonischen Außenposten zu schützen. Das Opfer der Enterprise imponierte den Klingonen, es herrschte Frieden zwischen ihnen und der Föderation.

In der " Raumschiff Enterprise - Das nächste Jahrhundert "-Folge "Die alte Enterprise" rutscht die Enterprise-C jedoch in ein Zeitportal und gelangt ins Jahr 2366. Sobald die Enterprise-C ankommt, ändert sich an Bord von Picards (Patrick Stewart) Enterprise-D einiges. Es wird düsterer, die Uniformen sind militärischer und Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), die eigentlich tot ist, ist wieder an Bord der Brücke.

Picard verrät Garrett, dass der klingonische Außenposten damals zerstört wurde und die Klingonen die Föderation dafür verantwortlich machen. Es herrscht Krieg und es sieht nicht gut aus für die Föderation. Erst Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) merkt, dass etwas mit der Zeitlinie nicht stimmt. Sie informiert Picard.

Schweren Herzens muss Picard Garrett und ihre Crew zurück in die Vergangenheit in den sicheren Tod schicken, um die Zeitlinie zu reparieren. Auch Tasha Yar muss sich dem Fakt stellen, dass sie sterben wird. Sie geht mit Captain Garrett, um ihrem "zweiten Tod" mehr Sinn zu geben als ihrem ersten.

Worf springt durch die Universen

In der "Raumschiff Enterprise - Das nächste Jahrhundert"-Folge "Parallelen" kehrt Worf von einem Kampfturnier zurück, bei dem er gewonnen hat. An Bord der Enterprise bemerkt er dann plötzlich, dass sich Dinge verändern. Die Persönlichkeiten seiner Crew-Mitglieder wandeln sich. Was geht hier vor?

Worf bemerkt auch, dass er beim Turnier plötzlich nur auf Platz 2 gelandet ist, dann sogar gar nicht teilgenommen hat. Er stellt fest, dass er durch verschiedene Zeitlinien springt, die parallel zu seiner existieren. Dabei kommt es sogar dazu, dass einige parallele Zeitlinien konvergieren.

Eine der bemerkenswertesten Zeitlinien ist die, in der Picard beim Kampf gegen die Borg gefallen ist. Riker ist Captain der Enterprise und Worf ist mit Deanna Troi verheiratet. Nun setzt er alles daran, wieder in sein Universum zurückzugelangen.

Star Trek: Discovery

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Screen Rant

15 biggest star trek plot holes & loose ends that can be solved by comics.

IDW's new Star Trek comics have explored many of the franchise's abandoned plot lines, and here are 15 more begging for follow-up.

• IDW's Star Trek comics can resolve forgotten plot lines, like Agnes Jurati's post-Picard fate, to create an epic, cohesive story.
• Armus, from TNG 's "Skin of Evil," could be explored further in IDW's comics, delving into his origin and potential tie-in to the god war.
• The First Federation, alien Cytherians, and other powerful races left behind in the Star Trek universe could find new life and resolution in IDW's comics.

Over the course of its 58-year history, Star Trek has featured numerous alien races and exotic planets. Some of these races, such as the Vulcans or the Borg, became integral to the Star Trek mythos. These races received substantial development throughout the years. Yet for every race or planet that would become foundational, many more were just forgotten about.

The Star Trek franchise is littered with loose ends and dangling plot lines. Recently, one of Trek’s biggest mysteries, the parasitic aliens from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation , returned to the pages of Defiant. IDW’s new line of Trek comics has synthesized a number of franchise loose ends together, creating an epic, and cohesive, story. There are many more such plot lines in the Star Trek universe, and IDW’s comics are the perfect place to resolve them. Unconstrained by a visual effects budget, these stories could get the resolution they deserve.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 3 Ending Explained

15 the borg queen was going to be a major player in the star trek universe…until she wasn’t, idw’s star trek comics could actually show what agnes jurati has been doing.

Agnes Jurati, played by Allison Pill, was a key character in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard , but her most intriguing storyline was left out to pasture. After winning a war of wits with a Borg Queen in season two, Jurati becomes a new type of Queen. More benevolent than her predecessors, she and her forces appeared out of the blue, petitioning the Federation for membership.

These Borg were also monitoring something that could potentially be a threat. This highly intriguing premise was promptly discarded in favor of a Next Generation reunion in Picard’s final season. While a future spin-off show could address this issue, IDW’s Star Trek comics would be ideal to continue the story. The vague threat Agnes is protecting the Federation from could be displayed in all its cosmic glory, as could her new Borg .

Star Trek: Picard

After starring in Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons and various other Star Trek projects, Patrick Stewart is back as Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek: Picard focuses on a retired Picard who is living on his family vineyard as he struggles to cope with the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. But before too long, Picard is pulled back into the action.

14 Armus Had an Intriguing Origin, But Was Left Behind on a Desolate Planet

The comics could tie armus into its franchise-spanning "god war".

Armus made one major appearance on-screen, but between his mind-blowing origin and murdering Tasha Yar, he made it count. In one episode, Armus boasted to the crew of the Enterprise that he was a cast-off from a “race of Titans.” These mysterious Titans distilled their evil and destructive urges, and it created Armus. A holographic form of Armus appeared in the recent Holo-Ween miniseries, but IDW’s new line of Star Trek comics would be perfect to follow-up on Armus and his origin.

The new Trek comics have explored humanity’s relationship with their gods. Armus, and the Titans that made him, could become major players in the ongoing god war that is rocking the franchise. The Titans could return for Armus, and find themselves in Kahless’ cross-hairs.

Armus was named after Burton Armus, a producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation .

13 The Mystery of Darwin Station’s Illegal Activities Are Perfect For the Comics

Darwin station flaunted the federation’s rules, and idw can reveal how they got away with it.

Genetic engineering of any kind is illegal in the Federation, but Darwin Station did it anyway, and the comics could solve lingering mysteries surrounding it. There is a “real world” reason why: the writers had not thought up the embargo on genetic engineering. The ban was revealed later in Deep Space Nine’s run, making it a retcon. However, the comics could provide a great “in-universe” rationale for the Darwin Station's actions.

Even before the ban was revealed, Trek already had a dicey relationship with the topic. The warlord Khan was the product of genetic engineering, for instance. IDW’s Star Trek comics could show how Darwin Station skirted around not only the law, but the ethics of what they were doing. Star Trek: Defiant has worked in the franchise’s gray areas, making it perfect to continue Darwin Station's story.

The Federation's ban on genetic engineering was first mentioned in the Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir...I Presume."

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse

12 The Kelvan Empire Was More Powerful Than The Federation (But Haven't Been Seen in 50+ Years)

The kelvans’ unique appearance is absolutely perfect for a comics return.

The Kelvans are the perfect Star Trek loose end for IDW to address. Hailing from the distant Andromeda Galaxy, the Kelvans came to ours on a mission of colonization. Of course, Kirk and company convinced the Kelvans of the error of their ways. Kirk gave the Kelvans their own planet, and then they were promptly forgotten. The Kelvans had technology able to traverse the gaps between galaxies, something the Federation still does not have as of the 32nd century.

The comics could showcase the Kelvans’ highly advanced ships, but even more importantly, the Kelvans seen on-screen were not their real form. Their true forms are highly Lovecraftian in nature, which could provide a challenge to even today’s FX budgets , but the comics would have no such issues, and could show the Kelvans in all their horrifying glory.

11 The First Federation Had Massive Starships, and Massive Potential

The enigmatic first federation of star trek history is perfect for comics.

In the recent “Glass and Bone” story running through the flagship Star Trek title, artist Marcus To brought the Tzenkethi and their gigantic warships to stunning life.

The First Federation is one of Star Trek’s biggest mysteries, in more ways than one, and IDW’s comics could develop them even further. In their sole appearance, the First Federation possessed massive, globe-like starships that made the Enterprise look insignificant. Despite their episode ending with the promise of a cultural exchange, the First Federation was never seen again.

The First Federation’s enormous ships might prove daunting to a visual effects team. However, in the recent “Glass and Bone” story running through the flagship Star Trek title, artist Marcus To brought the Tzenkethi and their gigantic warships to stunning life . The First Federation appears far more peaceful than the Tzenkethi, meaning their ships will look very different , giving the comics an opportunity to explore an entirely new design aesthetic .

Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Original Series follows the exploits of the crew of the USS Enterprise on a five-year mission to explore uncharted space.

10 Star Trek Characters Who Own Their Own Starship

10 the cytherians could've tipped the balance of power in the alpha quadrant, they can still return to play an important role in the oustanding "god war".

Introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s fourth season, the Cytherians send probes out into the galaxy. One such probe found Lieutenant Barclay, and greatly increased his intelligence . Barclay then hijacks the ship, taking it to the Cytherians' homeworld. The Cytherians were an immensely powerful race who only sought cultural exchange, but they were soon forgotten. With their great power and intellect, any information imparted by the Cytherians would have huge ramifications across the quadrant, but no canonical media has ever followed up on it.

With classic (and powerful) races such as the T’Kon and the Organians making their return in IDW’s Star Trek comics, the Cytherians could make an entry into the god war as well.

Some fans have speculated the Cytherian seen in "The Nth Degree" may be connected to the god-like entity from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

9 Where Did the Tin Man Go? The Comics Can Finally Solve The Mystery

Tin man was one of the most unique life forms ever seen in star trek.

The Star Trek universe is full of diverse types of lifeforms, and Tin Man might rank as one of the most memorable. The size of a small starship, “Tin Man,” as he came to be called, was a space-faring organism of great power. In his episode, both the Federation and the Romulans fought for control over him, but he proved to be more than a match for them.

In the same episode, Tin Man bonds with a troubled Betazoid. Data witnesses the whole thing happening, and refuses to describe it to Picard, heightening the mystery of Tin Man. While Tin Man may not be a Star Trek god in the same sense as Q and the Organians , he is still quite powerful and could easily become a target for Kahless and his crusade against the gods.

8 “Time Squared” Set Up an Eerie Mystery, But Never Delivered

The star trek comics can reveal the mystery of the episode's 'time trap'.

“Time Squared” set up an intriguing mystery, but even the episode itself failed to deliver on the set-up. In it, the crew of the Enterprise discover a shuttlepod containing a copy of Captain Picard from six hours in the future. The crew discover that a calamity will befall the ship then. Shortly thereafter, they find themselves caught in some sort of vortex.

While a tense and enjoyable episode, “Time Squared” never revealed who was behind the time trap and the future Picard. IDW’s Star Trek comics would be the perfect forum to explore the implications of “Time Squared” further. The time trap the crew encountered could easily be worked into the god war storyline.

Q was originally intended to be behind the events of "Time Squared," but Gene Roddenberry nixed the idea.

7 The Preservers Are Important to the History of the Star Trek Universe

The preservers explain a key franchise mystery.

Introduced in Star Trek’s third season, the Preservers were one of the franchise’s attempts to explain why so many aliens encountered on the show were humanoid. The Preservers traveled the cosmos, abducting people from their home planets and settling them on another. The Preservers themselves never appeared on-screen, only remnants of their advanced technology .

Their motivations are unknown, as is their final fate. IDW’s line of Star Trek comics have shown races far more advanced than the Federation, such as the T’Kon Empire and the Shapers of Sardakesh . In both cases, the comics gave a true glimpse of these entities’ amazing powers, and they far outstrip anything the Federation is capable of. The Preservers should get this treatment as well, as is befitting such an important Star Trek race.

Every Star Trek Movie Comic Book Adaptation, Ranked

6 doctor moriarty’s missing years: we need to know what happened, how did moriarty end up working for the shadowy section 31.

One of the best Star Trek villains, the holographic Doctor Moriarty’s missing years deserve to be explored in the comics. In the episode “Ship in a Bottle,” airing during Star Trek: The Next Generation’s sixth season, Moriarty was trapped in a mobile memory cube. It was made to appear that he was exploring the galaxy with the love of his life. Moriarty seemed to have a happy ending.

However, in Picard season three, he is seen working as a security program in a Section 31 facility. No explanation was given as to how Moriarty ended up there, or if he even had any choice in the matter. Last year’s Star Trek Annual featured a group of rogue holograms, and the story beautifully touched on their right to exist. Moriarty’s return in the comics could touch on similar themes.

Professor Moriarty was played by actor Daniel Davis in all three of the character's appearances.

5 The Franchise’s Worst Episode Can Be Redeemed By The Return of Lazarus

Lazarus’ episode seeded several mysteries that idw can finally pay off.

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise met Lazarus early in the five-year mission, but only the bare minimum was revealed about him, and the comics would be perfect to continue his story. Lazarus claimed to be fighting an evil entity from another dimension–albeit one that looked like him. Lazarus was also a being of great power: his appearances nearly destroyed the galaxy.

However, Lazarus was forgotten by the following episode, which, thanks to its incoherence and go-nowhere plot lines, is regarded as one of the franchise’s worst. IDW’s Star Trek comics are perfect for bringing Lazarus back. The evil entity Lazarus was fighting, whatever it may really look like, could be brought to life in the comics.

4 Worf’s Brother Kurn is One of Star Trek’s Most Tragic Characters

The comics can rectify a massive wrong in worf's family legacy.

Worf and his family drama have been front and center in IDW’s line of Star Trek comics, and they should keep this trend going by bringing back his brother Kurn. Kurn, once a high ranking member of the Klingon Defense Force, had his memory wiped later in Deep Space Nine. At that time, the peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingos was null and void. In the aftermath, Worf was dishonored and this shame carried to his brother –hence the mind wipe.

Worf’s son, Alexander returned during Day of Blood , forcing Worf to confront the fact he was a less than stellar father. Like Alexander, Kurn did nothing wrong but had to pay because of Worf’s actions. Kurn’s return, and the ensuing drama, could make for compelling stories.

3 The Aftermath of Voyager’s Return Was Never Explored On-Screen

What happened to all the technology voyager brought back.

When the starship Voyager returns home after seven years in the Delta Quadrant, it brought with it vast stores of information and technology. Voyager brings back powerful new weapons to fight the Borg, such as the transphasic torpedo . However, no on-screen Star Trek has explored what happened to the awesome technology in the wake of Voyager’s return.

Indeed, it seems some of Voyager’s innovations have been swept under the rug. Several Voyager characters have returned in IDW’s Star Trek comics. This allows for their stories to continue. For example, Harry Kim, Voyager’s Operations Officer, has grown up as an officer, and may have even joined Section 31. IDW has a golden opportunity to develop Voyager’s characters even further by revealing their lives post-return.

Star Trek Voyager

Led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager follows the crew as they embark through truly uncharted areas of space, with new species, friends, foes, and mysteries to solve as they wrestle with the politics of a crew in a situation they've never faced before.

2 The Whale Probe Nearly Destroyed Earth (and The Federation)

It took off to another part of the galaxy…and was never seen again.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is one of the most popular films in the franchise–and the source of one of its biggest dropped plot lines. The movie’s mysterious “whale” probe, named because the only creature that could communicate with it was whales, nearly destroyed Earth . It caused a great deal of environmental damage, but Kirk and company were able to save the day by depositing two 20th century whales in the ocean.

The two whales convinced the probe to stop whatever it was doing, and return home. The probe was an object of unbelievable power, able to render all technology useless. Where it went after Star Trek IV is unknown, but it would make a great addition to the god war storyline currently unfolding in IDW’s comics.

The Whale Probe was added to the opening credits for Season Four of Star Trek: Lower Decks .

1 The Aliens from “Schism” Need to Follow The “Conspiracy” Aliens Back to the Star Trek Universe

The “schism” aliens are still one of the franchise’s most terrifying, and mysterious.

The sixth season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Schisms,” ostensibly a story of alien abduction set in the 24th century, was one of the franchise’s most unnerving episodes . A race of mysterious, vaguely humanoid aliens from somewhere in subspace begin abducting Enterprise crew members and performing experiments on them. The aliens were depicted as just that: aliens.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry hated "Conspiracy," on the grounds that it painted Starfleet in a bad light.

In many ways, the aliens from “Schism” are like the parasites from “Conspiracy.” In both episodes, the Enterprise was under siege by terrifying aliens. Both episodes also end on an ambiguous note, with the implication that these species could return, and destroy us, at any moment. IDW’s Star Trek comics brought the “Conspiracy” aliens back, and made them more terrifying than ever–and there is no doubt they could do the same with the subspace dwellers from “Schism.”