Lt. Tasha Yar died in ‘Skin Of Evil,’ the twenty-second episode of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the season ended after three more episodes. Any character hardly got killed in the history of Star Trek. Thus, fans got concerned over Why Did Tasha Yar Leave Star Trek.
Tasha, played by Denise Crosby, worked for the United Federation of Planets under Starfleet. She appeared for the first time in ‘Encounter At First Point,’ the pilot episode released in 1987. She was one of the most powerful females in the history of Star Trek.
‘Skin Of Evil’ was not Tasha’s last episode. She got killed in it but reappeared as herself in ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ and ‘All Good Things…,’ the third and the final episodes of the third season. The idea was to show her alive in an alternate timeline where the events occurred before that of the pilot episode.
Tasha’s parents died in her childhood, and she alone had to raise her younger sister, Ishara, while staying in Turkana IV’s Federation Colony filled with crime. She got out of there and joined Starfleet. Captain Jean-Luc Picard hired her to look after the empire’s security after looking at her dedication to work.
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Why Did Tasha Yar Leave Star Trek?
Tasha Yar went to investigate the site where the shuttlecraft held hostage by the wicked Armus had crashed. Meanwhile, USS Enterprise-D was busy rescuing Counselor Deanna Troi. Armus ended up killing Tasha while proving his powers.
Tasha was impatient, proud of her work, and fearless. She kept learning from her mistakes and got respected by Worf for her courage. Denise Crosby kept denying the rumors related to her exit from the show before the release of the pilot episode. However, she really left the show afterward.
Denise found no character development. She loved the character but not the restrictions put on the role. Denise had much to give but could not because Tasha was one of the supporting characters, not the leading one. She was just stage dressing.
Thus, Denise wanted to leave, and the creator Gene Roddenberry granted her wish by killing the character. Denise was an ambitious actress in her thirties, the age that acts as a milestone for several female actresses in Hollywood. She stepped out to find and prove herself in the industry.
Some viewers noticed that the Star Trek franchise started working on the supporting character development from the third season. So, the first season proved to be a bit restrictive for Denise. Her arrival (not reappearance) in the third season could help her prove her abilities.
Tasha’s death closed the doors of an easy return for Denise in the show. The episode she died in was poorly written and directed, while the other actors did not seem to be caring about her death. Similarly, Tasha’s sacrifice turned pointless further. Denise, however, returned as Sela, Tasha’s daughter, in the third season.
How Did Tasha’s Fans React
Keith DeCandido, the Star Trek writer, said that Tasha’s loss was unfortunate and pointless. Tasha was not a great character in the beginning. So were Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Frakes, and Michael Dorn. All characters improved with progress in the series, while the same rule applies to Tasha.
Meanwhile, Keith also mentioned that Tasha’s departure was still better than a few characters that died soon after their introduction. Tasha at least stayed for two seasons. The reviewers were not happy with the way Tasha got killed. Similarly, her fans took it negatively as the character could improve in upcoming seasons.
Two more characters, James T. Kirk and Spock, died in Star Trek, and Tasha’s departure was as notable as theirs, according to Gary Westfahl, an American author and scholar of science fiction.
The fifteenth-best character in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ was Tasha Yar, according to IndieWire, a film industry and review website, in 2017. Meanwhile, Tasha’s fans were not sure about her sexuality. Finally, she turned out to be androgynous and possessed feminine and masculine features.
Tasha died as a hero, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Her death in ‘Skin Of Evil’ was at the twenty-first rank in SFX Magazine’s ‘Naff Sci-Fi Deaths.’
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