How did viewers respond to the death of Tasha Yar at the time?
- Thread starter Sakonna
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I think it was meant to be a blotch of Armus' oily concentrated evil he left behind.
In the UK it wasn't much of a shock, IIRC Best Of Both Worlds had been shown Stateside before we even got Encounter At Farpoint on TV - in fact I only got to see Season One early as I had rented it on VHS, and someone managed to record Season Two in PAL format that I got to borrow.
Which is why I don't buy it so much. Geordi, Worf, Troi. Lots of the characters were being underutilized. She was no greater example by any stretch. No one is going to come out & say "Hey, she thinks she can do better somewhere else" but that is easily what the situation likely was, & when the show took off, it was time to let everyone know "Hey. I'm still around" I wouldn't call it begging, but it certainly was convenient that suddenly she wanted to be back on board, so to speak
Heck, the whole episode with her sister wouldn't have even been worth doing otherwise. Tasha was imho FAR more useful to the show dead than living lol. It bonded everybody in real way. It gave tangible history that otherwise would've been absent, or needed to be built, & it removed the possibility of the actress, (Who I think isn't very good) from influencing things with her performing, & frankly, it added a new level of drama to Star Trek that hadn't been there in TOS. Heck, it hadn't even been there in the movies, ever since they decided to bring Spock back from the dead. Nope, main cast dying was new ground worth having happen, even if it looked really tossed together. I do wish it have been given a more thoughtful treatment
Nobody said Yar was the only character that was being underdeveloped. People are individuals. Put two people in the same situation and they'll probably react in different ways. Several of the actors were being underutilized, but Crosby was the one who decided to deal with it by walking out. Perhaps Sirtis, an English actress who was fairly new to America, was less confident of her ability to make a career in Hollywood if she left the show. Or perhaps she felt she'd invested more in the role by coming to the US and thus wasn't ready to walk away.
And I'd hardly say Worf and Troi were as underutilized as Tasha. Worf had "Heart of Glory." Troi had "Haven." The only real focus episode Tasha got in season 1 was the one where she died. Before that, what kind of focus did she really get? Getting space-drunk and sleeping with Data. Getting kidnapped by a racial stereotype. Getting stuck in the "penalty box" by Q. She was supposed to be Vasquez from Aliens, strong and fearless, but she kept getting objectified and made vulnerable. More than with any of the others, she was not given the role she was promised.
I kind of giggled. Then giggled a bit more. Then I never stopped. It lead to... bad things. Which also made me giggle. Let's just say it was very gratifying to see Denise Crosby play a cannibal later. 
Code of Honor was her featured episode. Was it crap? Sure. Haven wasn't much better. All the roles had yet to deliver what was promised of them IMHO. It's only the 1st season. Even Data only got 1 featured episode. Outside of Picard, who is the lead, I think they did a fair job of evenly distributing featured time (excepting Wesley who got way more). It's just my opinion, but she bailed too easily
Exactly my point. She was "featured" by being treated like a possession. It didn't really develop her character that much, it just made her a prize to be fought for, even if she was the one doing the fighting. Basically the only things it established about her were that she's a good fighter, that she firmly believed in Starfleet principles, and that she felt flattered to be desired by "such a basic male image" as the man who kidnapped her and planned to force her to marry him (holy crap, people!). And she wasn't really in that much of the episode overall, since a lot of it focused on the other characters trying to free her from captivity.
It was her career, her life, her decision. Nobody else has any right to judge.
Frankly, Troi's arranged marriage story in Haven did just as little to bolster her character imho
While it's her career, as a viewer, I'm entitled to hold opinions about what happens on the show. They're harmless opinions, & not entirely without merit. I think she didn't give the show a proper chance. Plain & simple.
While it's her career, as a viewer, I'm entitled to hold opinions about what happens on the show. They're harmless opinions, & not entirely without merit. I think she didn't give the show a proper chance. Plain & simple.
It certainly gave her more lines. I checked the transcripts, and Tasha had only 33 distinct lines (including groups of several consecutive sentences) in "Code of Honor," while Picard had by far the most distinct lines at 94, followed distantly by Lutan at 46 and then Tasha in third place. In "Haven," Deanna was in a close second place with 55 distinct lines, almost as many as Picard, who had 60. Lwaxana had 42 distinct lines or speeches, one less than Wyatt Miller, but they were much longer than anyone else's, so in word count she's probably in first or second place.
And I would argue that "Haven" did more to develop Troi's character because it introduced her mother, who's a major part of her life and revealed a lot about her personal and cultural background. Tasha didn't get anything comparable until years after her death, in "Legacy." (And in the novel Survivors by Jean Lorrah, which came out 9 months after "Skin of Evil" and ended up being contradicted by "Legacy" and other episodes anyway.)
The point is, there may be factors we don't know about. Maybe it wasn't just about the size of her role. I think her role was underwritten, but we can't know what other professional or personal factors may have influenced her choice.
I'm late to the party. In '88 I first knew that SOMEONE was leaving, and then found out it was Tasha. (How? No idea. Might have been a convention or a magazine. GEnie?) So it was a known thing before the episode aired.
When the episode aired I was surprised and pretty of OK with the fact that she had a sudden death early in the episode. I think "confounding audience expectations" can be done badly and has screwed up a lot of things (Generations!). But here it was done well. And they still had the tearful goodbye at the end.
I do remember thinking that Troi was especially good in this episode and thinking "She must be thinking 'I have to be really great because there are a ton of fans who are wishing it was me!'"
Those are my 30 year old recollections of the episode.
I also remember being really ticked off when Beverly left. Has there ever been a credible story about that?
When the episode aired I was surprised and pretty of OK with the fact that she had a sudden death early in the episode. I think "confounding audience expectations" can be done badly and has screwed up a lot of things (Generations!). But here it was done well. And they still had the tearful goodbye at the end.
I do remember thinking that Troi was especially good in this episode and thinking "She must be thinking 'I have to be really great because there are a ton of fans who are wishing it was me!'"
Those are my 30 year old recollections of the episode.
I also remember being really ticked off when Beverly left. Has there ever been a credible story about that?
At some point I realized the entire series contains only two installments I would describe as Tasha Episodes -- "Code Of Honor" and "Yesterday's Enterprise" -- and I consider them, literally, the single worst and the single best episode of the entire series.
So that's one way her presence was notable! Who else has that little time being showcased, and still manages to be so crucially involved with the series highest highs and lowest lows?
I think the way Rick Berman describes it here is considered the most candid version of events:
https://trekmovie.com/2009/08/26/rick-berman-talks-18-years-of-trek-in-extensive-oral-history/
Basically that Maurice Hurley couldn't stand her (because she was legitimately difficult? because she was a woman with thoughts when she was supposed to just be pretty and shut-up? some mix of the two? hard to say...)
But this memo gives some insight into the political missteps she may have made with the staff (the theory being that the redacted parts are referring to her as Cheryl McFadden)
http://www.missionlogpodcast.com/script-changes-for-cast/
But anyway, then the writer/producers who despised her also left the show, so when Diana Muldaur also did not work out, Berman thought it would be better to rehire Gates instead of getting a third doctor in three years.
(Though it's interesting to contemplate that alternate TNG timeline)
Lol, that's one way looking at it . Unfortunately, I don't consider them either the worst or best. As an episode, Code of Honor, while idiotically insensitive, doesn't reach the depths of poor story telling & production values that Shades of Gray does imho. It's a pretty lame episode, & inadvertently controversial, but not notable other than that. If it weren't for the race issue, no one would even talk about it, because it's forgettable, like many S1 episodes.
Yesterday's Enterprise however, is a very good episode, but nowhere near their best by my reckoning, & where it falls flat imho is right at Crosby's feet, & the writers who were shoehorning her into a really good concept. All that budding romance stuff with Castillo, the awkward stuff with Guinan, & the even the final scene with Picard was a drag on an otherwise good episode
If it was anything other than her feeling the show wasn't worth sticking around for, it would've come out by now. Call it whatever you want, felt underwritten, underutilized, poorly written, misled, thought the show was a lost cause, etc... She left because she thought she had other better options out there, & as far as I'm concerned, I'd say she didn't. Heck, to this day, 30 years later, her IMDB page is still featuring a Tasha Yar profile pic. It's the most noteworthy thing she ever did, & it wasn't enough to keep her around. She bailed too hastily imho.
I can certainly respect any view that holds "Shades Of Grey" as the series low. But I rewatched it recently, and it notched up a little bit for me when I saw I actually enjoyed the first 20 minutes, before the clips start. The Carnivorous Vine Planet is a more impressive set than I remembered, the cast does good work in the framing sequence, there's some nice character work here & there. At the end of the day there's no excusing a clip show and the episode fails, but I was surprised to discover there were these little things I could enjoy in it.
Also true, but setting aside the race issue with "Code Of Honor" just immediately makes me think "other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"
