Star Trek, known for being the most popular science fiction series that had its journey in 1966 is still as popular and relevant in the present time with many of its spin-offs being released each year. The first series Star Trek: The Original Series ended with 3 seasons, may be short-lived but it has opened the gate to a new science fiction genre in the world.

After the original series, various succeeding series took over the concept of the original series, which have never lost their relevance even till now. Its mysterious discoveries about the unknown universe and the captivating finding and its adventure are full of awe for all of us because the universe is filled with mysteries and we all never get bored of being curious about what’s more in it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Tasha Yar

After the original series, it got its first sequel Star Trek: The Next Generation popularly known as TNG, in the year 1987. This series ran from 1987 to 1994 with a total of 7 seasons. The series is more about the exploration and adventures of the USS Enterprise- D starship crew members and a vision aimed at a more hopeful future for humankind.

The series was well viewed and hence became a popular science fiction category among the viewers. But there is one thing that is still many questions about the series, is the death of Tasha Yar’s character, just in the first season of the series. Tasha Yar, a Star Trek character in the series, was one of the leading characters shown at the beginning of the series.

Natasha or Tasha Yar first appeared in the episode Encounter At Farpoint of the first season played by Denise Crosby. She is the chief of the starship USS Enterprise-D and is positioned as the lieutenant.

She is pictured as a strong-willed woman with a strong desire to explore and discover, unfortunately at the end of the series, her character was killed in the episode Skin Of Evil. This was a shock for everyone and her unseen death mostly received negative reviews from the viewers as she was considered an important star trek cast in the series.

Why was Tasha Yar Killed Off?

But our main question is why did the series kill off the character? Why did Tasha Yar leave Star Trek? Let’s know the truth behind the killing of the Star Trek cast.

It is said that Tasha’s character was inspired by the character Vasquez from the Aliens science fiction movies of 1986.

During the auditioning of the various cast of the series, Rosalind was given the role of Tasha. And Crosby auditioned for the main role of Deanna Troi but lost the role to Marina Sirtis. And later Crosby got to play Tasha and Chao played Keiko O’Brien in the series. And Crosby was chosen for Tasha Yar and Chao played Keiko O’Brien in the series.

So what happened when everything was decided? Crosby who played Tasha Yar was not happy with her character for not being able to have any new development. She wanted to be released from the contract and producer Gene Roddenberry accepted her request hence this is how Yar left TNG.

In an interview with the StarTrek staff in 2013, Crosby was asked if she was happy with her decision of leaving the TNG she said,

“Yes. For me, I was miserable, I couldn’t wait to get off that show. I was dying. This was not an overnight decision.”

Further, she added that she was grateful to have made that many episodes, then she continued “But I didn’t want to spend the next six years going “Aye, Aye, captain,” and standing there, in the same uniform, in the same position on the bridge.”

But even though she left the series in the first season after her death, she was not yet totally gone from the TNG. Crosby as Tasha again reappeared in the later seasons of the series in Yesterday’s Enterprise, which took place in a different timeline where she is still alive and later she was captured by the Romulans and became the consort of the Romulan general and daughter Sela was born.

Then in another episode, Crosby again appeared as adult Sela in the Redemption part 1 and 2, and later in the Unification part 2, the episodes explained more of Tasha Yar’s half Romulan daughter sale’s life with the Romulans.

Then she again played her role in the episode All Good Things…of the series. The episode takes us to the early time, before the episode Encounter At Farpoint, where most of the crew were yet to be part of Enterprise- D and Yar was working under Picard as a senior member.

So, this is how Tasha Yar who was dead in the first season of the series appeared again several times throughout the TNG series, revealing to us more hidden mysteries surrounding the character.