Could they have gotten rid of Tasha Yar without killing her off?
- Thread starter TroiFan4ever
- Start date
And I'm quite sure that she was convinced (well a lot of people were) that the show was going nowhere and she didn't even care that they killed her character. For us Star Trek is the Bible, for her was just another gig.
Can't really fault her. She didn't get that much to do.
If they were spiteful they could have forced her to stay until the end of her contract, they had no obligation to let her go.
And the story why they decided to kill Tasha off makes sense, Star Trek was already famous for killing random officers so in a seemingly random episode one of the main characters getting killed by the monster of the week was a big shock but not unrealistic considering how dangerous their missions were often portrayed as.
That's not evident at all because getting killed off didn't prevent her from returning as the same character and if they had't kille her off they could have never used her again if they didn't want to. It's not like there's an obligation to bring former main cast members back after they leave a show.
No lack of possibilities to bring her back, no. They could have used Yesterday's Enterprise to somehow make her stay even after having repaired the timeline, they could have timetraveled to a point before they met Armus and warn her not to go on that mission, Mirror-Tasha could have wandered over (ok, that's perhaps not exactly the same character), a pattern buffer of her could have been found on a rarely-used transporter, etc., etc., etc.
To cut a long story short, cut to footnote two**, but otherwise:
And thanks to utter **** trashy ******* gaudy *** **** total **** *** scripts, the few she did get a more prominent role in, she's written like a complete dip **** in it. Like "Justice", which is arguably the worst ******* offender of the bunch. "Hey crew, their laws are straightforward, blah blah blah, and they screw like bunnies at the drop of a hat, isn't that great? bring down the kids!!"* Fifteen minutes later, after Wesley uses a baseball bat description as an awful metaphor worthy of a personals ad, he tramples on some flowers in what we think is the least harmful thing to do ever, and Yar states:
"But they listed nothing about punishment."
That's charming and all, but I'm sure these senior-level peeps have to do boring things like asking obvious questions in the event of noticing an oversight an oversight and this issue is arguably not an esoteric one. So you're reading what's transcribed and it mentions the list of offenses, and yet nothing exists about punishment or condign action in turn for those offenses. "Hmmm, must not be an issue. No problems here, okey dokey then!" Um...
Then again, the original draft of "Justice" had a better reason for exploring the prime directive to begin with, before the oversimplification and oversexualized rewrites were put in. All the massage oil should have given the entire twelve-million viewers in the audience a rash requiring penicillin, at least before the superbug strains came about, but this was over thirty years ago...
* Seriously, the transcript says it all - what fun!
CRUSHER: It sounds wonderful for the children. The holodecks are marvellous, of course, but there's nothing like open spaces and fresh air.
TASHA: I've listed my report on their customs and laws, sir. Fairly simple, common sense things.
LAFORGE: They're wild in some ways, actually puritanical in others. Neat as pins, ultra-lawful, and make love at the drop of a hat.
TASHA: Any hat.
PICARD: But the happiest report has its negatives. Let's start with them, Number One.
RIKER: There are none, sir. Not that any of us can find.
(Data then chimes in to counter Riker regarding a
Emphasis added, regarding a more poignant point I'll bramble onto in a moment...
So not only, in the same scene and a mere three lines later, the toying with the NC17-rating becomes emboldened and somehow I don't think the kids are or would want ot be concerned (you know, "cooties" and all), but a couple lines later it ALSO comes across as if Riker was overseeing the Chief of Security as if she's incapable - sheesh, are they all who read the laws** a bunch of dingalings as nobody had even thought of "Okay, that's the law, what happens if someone breaks it? never mind tripping into a flower bed, which we didn't read up on because we were all astonished when seeing Wesley's result." I'm presuming there's a team all sifting through the reports and cross-referencing in their advanced mainframe*** that wouldn't know anything different anyway, but none of these fry cooks on the bridge can ask the most obvious question ever involving the punishment?!!
** It's amazing the entire cast all didn't walk out after this one; the script is pure ******* trashy *** **** ******* lamentable ****-***** dumb *** ****!
*** based on the technobabble, especially by season four, it's probably UNIX-based. Maybe LINUX.
My previous post about Yar's inconsistent character treatment aside, many baddies will simply kill to make a point or to do it out of malice - to be built up as the threat and one larger than usual. It's refreshingly different, ironically, that Yar would just be zapped away and without all the tension and melodrama we're accustomed to. Which isn't to say tension and melodrama are bad, they're not and the best example of them all is too big a spoiler (even for a >40 year-old tv show), but monsters will kill out of simple trifling as well. Nobody was expecting Yar to die since injured main cast people in shows not named "Blake's 7" never die mid-season, and the "Skin of Evil" teaser was alluding Riker to be the one written out.
So, in a way, it wasn't all bad. It was a genuine surprise. It worked. Just not entirely in the way audiences may have been expecting.
Also,
Answering the question in the thread title:
Absolutely, they didn't have to kill her off. There were endless options.
Just a couple possibilities:
1. She decides to switch to the command track, and leaves to return to Starfleet Academy to go to Command School.
2. She decides to return home and help her planet back to its feet. She resigns and joins an outfit like the Fenris Rangers.
Absolutely, they didn't have to kill her off. There were endless options.
Just a couple possibilities:
1. She decides to switch to the command track, and leaves to return to Starfleet Academy to go to Command School.
2. She decides to return home and help her planet back to its feet. She resigns and joins an outfit like the Fenris Rangers.
This is why I was asking the previous poster why they felt Yar's death was badly written.
I probably said this upthread, but when I first viewed this episode I entirely expected Doctor Crusher to revive Yar, or for Armus to undo her death, or some deus ex machina to present itself. I was shocked when they didn't hit the Reset Button.
So, I agree with this, but I'd have used to words pointless & hackishly written, because the episode isn't really all that bad, but her death was just trodded through like a bull in a China shop. No one would ever be so flippant with a main character death now... Mostly.
Could they have done something besides kill her off? Of course, but the question I find more interesting is should they have killed her off? Because under the circumstance, of Crosby being ready to abruptly leave? Maybe yes. Killing her off is pretty cool business, if done right. There's a lot of good stuff can come out of that. Not much did, but that's besides the point lol
There's nothing especially interesting or creative about it. Alien of the week attacks her, & while we'd normally expect that & that person would find a way to be ok by the end, this time she just isn't, & there's really no point to it (Which to that effect, later on in Yesterday's Enterprise, they themselves are calling it meaningless) It reeks of being just thrown together, & on a Star Trek show where we come to expect interesting & creative things, it's flat.
Edit: I mean consider it put up against Sito Jaxa's death, who we only knew for 2 episodes, & it landed like a gut punch. That's some delivery
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Ah. See, I'm in the camp that finds it more poignant because it's meaningless and real, and we do get what I thought was a decent memorial service and Yar's death does factor into later episodes.
Most people who die while performing their duties in Starfleet, at least the ones we're exposed to, don't get even the level of dignity that Yar got.
As an alternate example, Marla Aster's death would have been a throwaway line of dialogue if she didn't have a kid.
Or Pulaski, who falls down a turbolift shaft between S2 and S3 and is never even mentioned again.
Most people who die while performing their duties in Starfleet, at least the ones we're exposed to, don't get even the level of dignity that Yar got.
As an alternate example, Marla Aster's death would have been a throwaway line of dialogue if she didn't have a kid.
Or Pulaski, who falls down a turbolift shaft between S2 and S3 and is never even mentioned again.
I take it "Eliminators" wasn't enough of a hint.
Your feeling it was unnecessary and the quality of the writing have no connection.
Well, I'd argue that if the writing quality were to have been better invested in having there be more of an artist point to her death, then there'd be less of a likelihood of viewers finding it pointless or unnecessary. There's the connection.
I mean even if the "point" of killing her off this way was to demonstrate the sometimes abrupt & arbitrary meaninglessness of death, on its own, (which I'm not sold they were all in on that motive TBH) then they kind of failed to make a compelling or engaging delivery of that as well, IMHO. Its just kind of a "Shit. She's dead. Let's toss in a holodeck service & be done in an end tag" moment.
That they would later try to have it become a more meaningfully impactful event doesn't help the episode in it self, for what it was. It still looks somewhat cheap IMHO.
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That's an eloquently put argument that I could at least get behind.
What I take umbrage with is the oft-repeated canard: 'I didn't like it, therefore bad writing', which is repeated ad infinitum around this board.
Well said, and that's something I try to avoid. There are some episodes I didn't happen to enjoy, but appreciate for their technical merit ("Duet" is an example). There are plenty of legitimately bad ones out there, so I don't need to manufacture more.
