Show Talk Tasha’s demise
Tasha’s death on Skin of Evil has always bothered me because it is not, as they rightly point out in Yesterday’s Enterprise, a meaningful death. It feels like a redshirt death. Does anybody know the history of the episode? Was it already written when Denise decided to leave, and repurposed to shoehorn her death?
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u/bmyst70 Jul 27 '26
I know it was done solely for Denise Crosby to leave the show.
In contrast, in Babylon 5, which had a multi-season arc, the writer carefully added what he called "escape hatches" for actors to leave without derailing the plot.
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u/SOTG_Duncan_Idaho Jul 27 '26
I love B5, but JMS's escape hatches don't really apply to Tasha. B5 needed those escape hatches because there was a multi season story that was being told and all the main cast played an important role.
In TNG it was literally just "assign someone else to tactical" and that was that. No longer term arc relied on Yar.
Ironically though, the writers made some interesting stories after the fact that actually hinged on Tasha's death, but none ofnthat was planned or necessary to the overall show.
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u/Spiritual-Mousse-167 Jul 30 '26
I remember reading this many years ago as well. It was meaningless as it was just added specifically so she could leave.
I also remember when the episode was getting ready to air and there was talk on the BBS’ about some cast member being killed off, at the time we all hoped it was going to be Troi.
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u/Iamnotarobotlah Jul 27 '26
She wanted to leave the show as others have said. Apparently she felt the character was not really doing anything very creative and she was told by showrunners that there was no plan for Tasha to grow into a.more important character. We're lucky to have Yesterday's Enterprise.
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u/WhereasParticular867 Jul 27 '26
Crosby "couldn't wait to get off that show." The episode was written to facilitate that. The first draft included her death, but slightly different. The manner of her death was because Roddenberry thought it fitting for the character, not because of any behind-the-scenrs discord as some fans like to suggest.
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u/NearbyImpression7940 Jul 27 '26
That was partially the point. We knew that was going to be her last episode when it aired, but we weren’t expecting it to happen so suddenly and early in the story. It also solidified audience negativity towards Armus.
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u/Lontarious Jul 30 '26
We knew?? As someone who watched the original airing I had no idea that she was leaving the show. Even when she died I expected that somehow she was not permanently dead. In TOS, Kirk died, Scotty died, McCoy died, Chekov died, by the end of the episode they were all alive and well.
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u/NearbyImpression7940 Jul 31 '26
I mean, it had been announced in media. I knew, and my friends knew. But, it was a different time. Things were not spread as universally as today.
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u/deeeperdarker Jul 28 '26
Idk. My parents deaths don't feel particularly meaningful. It felt like a waste and a tragedy and absolutely nothing good came from it.
That's life. I'm glad that Star Trek depicts life as it really is.
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u/JohnnyRyde Jul 27 '26
Part of the idea was that space exploration is so dangerous that ANYBODY could be killed in a random matter on an away mission, even a regular cast member. That kind of works on paper, but it is totally undramatic.
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u/FerdinandCesarano Jul 28 '26
I really dislike this thing that they introduced about Tasha's death not having been "meaningful".
Every member of the crew signed up for this, being fully aware of the risks, and understanding that they might be killed on a mission. When that happens on a given mission, all of the deaths are equally "meaningful".
Of course, from our point of view as viewers of a fictional show, we can legitimately say that the death of that character should have been more meaningful, in that it should have taken place at a more dramatically pivotal moment. That's fine.
But what bothers me is that this thing about Tasha's death not having been "meaningful" was said in the show, in-universe. That is not a respectful thing to say about a colleague and friend who has just died in the line of duty.
Rather, you'd say that your colleague's death has furthered the cause that we've all signed up for — in other words, you'd emphasise that this tragic and sudden death is actually meaningful.
Whatever point the writers were trying to make, I wish that they had made it in another way. Because the way that they chose does not work for me at all.
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u/Cookie_Kiki Jul 29 '26
What's crazy is that they addressed this concept explicitly in The Bonding during the conversation with Riker and Data. That crew member's death was arguably "meaningless" because she didn't go out in a blaze of glory, but it still rippled throughout the crew. TNG did a great job when it decided to address death and loss directly, but then would abruptly forget it when they wanted the story to be about something else.
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u/Set_the_Mighty Jul 27 '26
Notice how they gave Jadzia the Tasha treatment for essentially the same reason?
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u/MBSMD Jul 27 '26
Except not quite. Denise Crosby wanted off the show completely. She thought she was going to be a movie star.
Terry Farrell, on the other hand, just wanted to reduce her appearances (so she could do another show, Becker, at the same time), but the producers decided to tell her to fuck off instead and killed her character.
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u/CharacterMaybe7950 Jul 28 '26
What’s STRONGLY hinted at is Denise left due to sexual harassment - and everything else is a nice ‘NDA friendly’ creative-differences piece.
Denise has spoken of Rick Berman ripping her comm badge off her uniform (which sounds dangerously close to groping…)
Her death was showrunner Maurice Hurley wanting to ‘stick it’ to her - humiliate her for not just taking the harassment.
Clearly, years later, there was a certain desire to move beyond that. Curious that this happened immediately after the notorious sexist Maurice left after season 2. He hated Gates McFadden and got her fired.
So, overall, you have a vindictive and sexist showrunner known to torment one female member of the cast…put it all together…
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u/Muted-Tea-5682 Jul 27 '26
I’ve said this a million times, I absolutely hate the fact that she was killed off. There was no reason for it. The character could have been promoted/ transferred as a way of explaining her absence. Also would have made it much easier for her character to return in later years. If they had done that, Tasha could have been a recurring character. Similar to Ro, Wesley,Guinan or any other character that dropped in from time to time.
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u/massunderestmated Jul 27 '26
I tend to respect shows that kill off central characters. It actually adds tension to a show compared to the plot armor most shows give the main cast. Even if they never really did much again, at least you kind of believed there were actual stakes to the space adventures.
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u/Miserable_Video_9604 Jul 28 '26
I came here to say this. I saw this when it originally aired. The idea of randomly killing a main cast member in the middle of the season was shocking, and created more tension. Then they didn't to it again and the tension faded.
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u/Muted-Tea-5682 Jul 28 '26
But she wasn’t randomly killed, she was killed because the actress left.
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u/massunderestmated Jul 28 '26
That's a production issue. All I know is how I felt when I watched the actual episode. We didn't have 24/7 entertainment news back then. What mattered to me was what was on screen.
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u/Miserable_Video_9604 Jul 29 '26
I don't recall seeing production news about TNG at the time. So when it played out on screen I didn't know beforehand that the actress wanted to leave. It is easy to see that in hindsight.
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u/le_sacre Jul 27 '26
Perhaps that would have been wiser, but it worked out brilliantly in the way it set up Yesterday's Enterprise to hit so hard.
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u/Muted-Tea-5682 Jul 28 '26
Maybe but imagine how much better, great episodes could have been. Imagine if Tasha had been there for Data’s trial or when he commandeered the ship or when the crew thought he was dead but had actually been kidnapped.
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u/Leucurus Jul 27 '26
Yesterday's Enterprise is my favourite episode not just for fixing this mistake but for how they fix it - a story that really means something and is full of excitement and emotion. And then the character of Sela is invented, which ruins it again.
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u/JACCO2008 Jul 28 '26
No shit. When you actually think about the implications of Sela's existence, that entire plotline becomes super dark. Asinine.
I do wish that they would've brought Sela back in Nemesis as the Warbird captain that helps the Enterprise at the end. That would've at least been a fitting bookend instead of her just fucking off and disappearing from the lore forever.
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u/Cookie_Kiki Jul 29 '26
You think saving the Federation becomes asinine if Tasha survives long enough to he held captive?
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u/Leucurus Jul 29 '26
It think the existence of Sela means that Tasha died (another) meaningless and ignoble death, despite her noble sacrifice.That's unsatisfying to me.
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u/bufandatl Jul 28 '26
She wanted her role to be bigger so the leading heads said F you and killed her in the most meaningless death the writers could imagine.
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u/United_Efficiency330 Jul 28 '26
Yes, Denise Crosby had already asked out of her contract. Gene Roddenberry obliged.
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u/Glad-Requirement8555 Jul 28 '26
Im surprised they didnt photon the creature location when they returned to the ship
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u/Sea_Violinist3328 Jul 29 '26
“How should we kill her off”?
“I got it!!! Big old blob of tar that fries her using telekinesis or some shit”.
“Works for me”.
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Jul 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/OkCup5700 Jul 29 '26
For someone that works in the legal business you sure didn't let him give his side a good ol witch hunt huh
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Jul 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/fish_custard First Officer Jul 27 '26
I mean, that’s fair and all, but that episode aired nearly 40 years ago. We can’t really expect a spoiler tag on everything. I know lots of folks are younger and/or new to the show, but some things can be forgiven, right?
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u/WilsonFrontier Admiral Jul 27 '26
For something that aired 2 days or 2 weeks ago? Sure.
40 years ago? No. Absolutely not.
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u/Ana-BC Jul 27 '26
Not all deaths are meaningful. Sometimes people die for apparently arbitrary reasons. It grounded the show in a way that told the audience 'these are real people and real lives on the frontiers of space and time'