Keeping Tasha
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
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^^this
Had Denise stayed on, it's possible they would have explored and elevated it, but that's pure supposition.
We at least had little vignettes, which worked - especially "Where No One Has Gone Before"), but based on "Legacy" where something felt not-quite-right (I think I remember what the issue was, but just to be sure I'm going to rewatch and write it down this time.
IMHO, all the Data 'attempted romance' stories felt so hokey or misplaced. The only one that I can't fully laugh at is "The Measure of a Man". "The Naked Now" is just asinine. "In Theory" wasn't exactly great, either.
I'm glad they hadn't explored it any more than they had (there are so many other emotions and dramatic potential and if they felt a need, there are plenty of biological beings and archetypes as opposed to what amounts as a walking vibrator that doesn't and can't care) and it looks like the end result would always be the same (upset human, genuinely clueless robot.) The partial parody "The Orville" seemed to do it better, with more focus, structure, and a fantastic plot twist for end goal, regardless if "In Theory" was possible inspiration or not and even regardless if the show was too ambitious to be running THREE continuing sagas in the same season (which would be easier to do if they had 26 episodes per season, not 14 and what we got for all of them they all felt just as rushed, also noting that the Isaac plot twist would have originally been in season 1's finale but thankfully held back so it could be allowed to breathe as well as not feel as hokey as it might have otherwise been. And payoff there was, even if the scripting wasn't consistent between what "extermination of everything biological" meant as the Kaylon were going for raw power, which they had, and also had zero reason to trot out the lame "surrender or die" nonsense... but before I really digress....)
I don’t think it’s just hindsight that the S1 cast is unbalanced, and that someone had to go. It was really the late addition of Worf that was the issue, as he ended up with a non-specific job and took a lot of Tasha’s screen time. Between Worf, Geordi and Wesley, there were three characters fighting over the last free chair on the bridge.
It’s sort of understandable why Tasha suffered most of all - a Klingon was just an inherently more interesting character. But there’s also the unpleasant fact that female characters got almost nothing in the first season, with Deanna missing entirely from a couple of episodes. The writers simply made no effort to make Tasha work.
So there’s a couple of possibilities for this thought experiment: assuming Roddenberry stuck to his guns and insisted on no ‘Klingon Marine’, then Tasha probably survives the season. Maybe she gets her own ‘Heart of Glory’ type breakout episode. Perhaps with Crosby sticking around, they decide to drop Troi instead, and Tasha gets all the “young woman” storylines, like the romance-of-the-week.
But I bet they still would have fired Gates at the end of the season, so Troi probably stays. Maybe they would have brought in a male doctor instead of Diana Muldaur.
Really Tasha is such a blank slate that it’s hard to know how she might have developed. She is a long way from the hard as nails Vasquez clone of Macha Hernandez. She has the thing with Data, and there are a couple of hints with Geordi. She’s got the paternal thing with Picard. “Big sister” for Wesley maybe?
It’s sort of understandable why Tasha suffered most of all - a Klingon was just an inherently more interesting character. But there’s also the unpleasant fact that female characters got almost nothing in the first season, with Deanna missing entirely from a couple of episodes. The writers simply made no effort to make Tasha work.
So there’s a couple of possibilities for this thought experiment: assuming Roddenberry stuck to his guns and insisted on no ‘Klingon Marine’, then Tasha probably survives the season. Maybe she gets her own ‘Heart of Glory’ type breakout episode. Perhaps with Crosby sticking around, they decide to drop Troi instead, and Tasha gets all the “young woman” storylines, like the romance-of-the-week.
But I bet they still would have fired Gates at the end of the season, so Troi probably stays. Maybe they would have brought in a male doctor instead of Diana Muldaur.
Really Tasha is such a blank slate that it’s hard to know how she might have developed. She is a long way from the hard as nails Vasquez clone of Macha Hernandez. She has the thing with Data, and there are a couple of hints with Geordi. She’s got the paternal thing with Picard. “Big sister” for Wesley maybe?
Although the character didn’t always work (“Code of Honor,” the second Q episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” come to mind) there is a warmth in Crosby’s portrayal of the character that is interesting. It suits a sort of “officer-citizen” ethos that’s never really been explored (after all the Enterprise is often sent on disaster relief missions, where a big component of security is establishing a sense of trust and confidence going forward) and isn’t what one usually gets from these sorts of characters (in the broadest of strokes La’an is kind of an update on Yar—female security chief from a failed colony—but at least so far in my SNW viewing she’s a bit of a martinet, which is usually what we get from “tough sci-fi woman officer”).
Great point. Her big introduction scene in EaF is a massively emotional outburst about how great Starfleet is.
In comparison, Troi is pretty standoffish in the early episodes, which goes back to the original plan to have her as a blonde, Scandinavian ice queen.
Google is telling me that retroactively Wesley was 18 in season 1, probably because some one didn't proof their work.
That's only a 9 year age difference with Tasha.
That's only a 9 year age difference with Tasha.
Yeah I assumed for seasons 1-2-3-4 Wesley either was or was turning 15-16-17-18
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