Things That Never Happen On Star Trek

[smartcooky]

And so did this...

Skin of Evil

Ah but Tasha Yar came back as herself in one episode (Yesterdays Enterprise) and then as her own daughter in "Redemption". Plus she did play herself, yet again, in "All Good Things!"

I don't think any of that counts within the spirit of the original suggestion.

Yar was dead and her character never came back as that character in that timeline.

At the end of "Yesterdays Enterprise", Guinan was the only character who had any awareness of that there might have even been an alternate time-line. For the rest, the alternate time-line never happened.

The same actor playing Yar's daughter does not count as Yar being resurrected (even though the daughter only existed because of what happened in the alternative time-line of "Yestedays Enterprise"

"All Good Things" was effectively a double episode of flashbacks with some time tampering by Q. I don't think flashbacks count as character resurrection (see Wilbur Smith's "The Sunbird" for an outstanding example of using flashbacks in storytelling)

[DD Brock]

Yeah, but if any character should have stayed dead at all costs in ANY timeline, it was Tasha Yar. You'd think Q could have had the decency to erase her very existence at least...

[nomuse]

Oh, I don't mind so much her having been alive. But gods save us from anything as tepid and cloying as that funeral scene! I'd rather watch the Voyager episode where they turned into salamanders than sit through that again.

[ka9q]

I know I'm dating myself, but the only true Star Trek is the original series...

And in that series, almost every major character died (or we were led to believe died) only to be resurrected by some deus-ex-machina contrivance. As I recall:

Captain Kirk: Amok Time, Return to Tomorrow, The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web (arguably)
Spock: Return to Tomorrow (and the 2nd movie, of course)
Dr McCoy: Shore Leave
Scotty: The Changeling
Chekov: Spectre of the Gun
Yeoman Rand: Charlie X

[Echnaton]

I know I'm dating myself, but the only true Star Trek is the original series...

I am a full believer in the greater Star Trek universe and firmly reject then notion of one true Star Trek.

I've pondered whether the Tasha Yar Problem was with the producers who didn't know how to make the character work or Denise Crosby not being a very versatile actress.  The role of Yar didn't play to Crosby's strengths, such as the were that were.  Crosby was far better suited to be a hard, conniving and back stabling Romulan than the should be cynical cop who instead has a heart of gold.   The show in which Yar died was just as meaningless her death, leading me toward the answer that the producers hadn't figured out the character.

[Count Zero]

I remember Denise Crosby saying (about her funeral speech), "If I'd gotten more scripts like that I would have stayed."

My problem with Tasha Yar was that I could not believe for one femto-second that someone with that many hang-ups, that raw and that insecure would have been tapped to be a department head / Tactical Officer / Security Chief on a major ship like Enterprise.  Interestingly, when I saw her in "Yesterday's Enterprise", she was every bit the seasoned, competent, cool professional that I would expect to find in that position, and yet still dramatically interesting.

I agree that the [parade of] writers in the first season had no idea what to do with the character.*  Deanna Troi and Wesley Crusher were also conspicuous victims of this problem.


*Incidentally, the Tasha-character was originally named Macha Hernandez, and was a blatant clone of Jeanette Goldstein's character, Vasquez from "Aliens".

[Echnaton]

Even in Yesterdays Enterprise, Yar still led with her heart.  Only by that time the producers had figured her and the rest of the show out enough to make it believable.  I watched Redemption last night, I still think the hard cynical Romulan role was Crosby's best appearance.   My recollection watching the documentaries Trekkies was that she carried the bemused and almost cynical demeanor off very well.  I find that Crosby didn't do the action character that "lead with the heart" very convincingly.  She was miscast for Yar and they seem to have stuck by the plan for the character instead of developing Yar to Crosby's strengths.  If they had let Yar be more like Warf, rule dependent and honor bound who let the vagaries of the heart slip out only with hesitation, Crosby would have been far more convincing. 

[DD Brock]

I remember Denise Crosby saying (about her funeral speech), "If I'd gotten more scripts like that I would have stayed."

My problem with Tasha Yar was that I could not believe for one femto-second that someone with that many hang-ups, that raw and that insecure would have been tapped to be a department head / Tactical Officer / Security Chief on a major ship like Enterprise.  Interestingly, when I saw her in "Yesterday's Enterprise", she was every bit the seasoned, competent, cool professional that I would expect to find in that position, and yet still dramatically interesting.

I agree that the [parade of] writers in the first season had no idea what to do with the character.*  Deanna Troi and Wesley Crusher were also conspicuous victims of this problem.


*Incidentally, the Tasha-character was originally named Macha Hernandez, and was a blatant clone of Jeanette Goldstein's character, Vasquez from "Aliens".

As I recall, originally Marina Sirtis auditioned for the Hernandez role and Crosby read for the proto-Troi character. I think it was Rodenberry that decided to switch their roles and re-write the characters accordingly.  I can only imagine the train wreck that would have been Denise Crosby as the ship's counselor. Not certain Sirtis would have been any better as the Security Chief, either.

[smartcooky]

*Incidentally, the Tasha-character was originally named Macha Hernandez, and was a blatant clone of Jeanette Goldstein's character, Vasquez from "Aliens".

And IMO, Jeanette "I only need to know one thing: where - they- are!" Goldstein would have been far better suited to the role, however, if I was choosing and actress to play the Yar role now, or perhaps 10 years ago, I think Katee Sackhoff (re-imagined Starbuck in BSG) would be my choice.

[nomuse]

Ah, that would have been a fun dynamic. If they could have pulled it off. Seems like the only Trek that recognized that darker impulses were sometimes necessary; Kirk finding strength in his evil twin, et al, or that hard choices could be necessary, was TOS.

Worf seemed established in the role of someone who would always put the practical (often brutally) response on the table, but they NERF'd that twice; second by putting him in conflict with his own impulses too often reluctant to use his warrior training, but first and foremost by having his response clearly wrong almost every time he gave it.

So instead of having someone who could ague logically and passionately that putting up the shields before an ship with unknown intentions closed to firing range, we got this sort of exchange:

WORF: We should ready phasers!

REST OF CREW: It's a hologram, you clown!

[Count Zero]

Worf seemed established in the role of someone who would always put the practical (often brutally) response on the table, but they NERF'd that twice; second by putting him in conflict with his own impulses too often reluctant to use his warrior training, but first and foremost by having his response clearly wrong almost every time he gave it.

So instead of having someone who could ague logically and passionately that putting up the shields before an ship with unknown intentions closed to firing range, we got this sort of exchange:

WORF: We should ready phasers!

REST OF CREW: It's a hologram, you clown!

Here's 15 painful minutes of that:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edflm7Hh3hs

[Andromeda]

Seems like the only Trek that recognized that darker impulses were sometimes necessary; Kirk finding strength in his evil twin, et al, or that hard choices could be necessary, was TOS.

You're forgetting DS9's "In The Pale Moonlight".  An outstanding episode with a stunning performance by Avery Brooks.

[Bryanpoprobson]

William Shatner steals Space Shuttle to search for reborn Leonard Nimoy

http://newsthump.com/2015/02/28/william-shatner-steals-space-shuttle-to-search-for-reborn-leonard-nimoy/

[ka9q]

Yeah, like that's never happened before.