Spoilers Sela and the implications of Chabon's notes about the Romulans

[Unimatrix Q]

With all of the focus on secrecy and deception as a way of life and artform in romulan culture, Chabon's notes made it more likely for me that if Denise Crosby appears as Sela in one of the future seasons of the show that there might be a reveal that she isn't Tasha's daughter but Natasha Yar herself and what she told Picard in TNG was simply a lie or to speak in star wars lingo something that was only true "from a certain point of view".

Maybe she had a daughter but maybe not.

There were already things in TNG that hinted at this possibility, e.g. that she looks way older than she's supposed to be. Especially for being half romulan and the fact that humans live a lot longer in the 24th century.

And of course the way she looked at Picard and apparently knew so much about him.

https://michaelchabon.medium.com/some-notes-on-romulans-b1c7f30a383f

 

[DEWLine]

And that she might've "gone local"? Fanatically so?

 

[dupersuper]

With all of the focus on secrecy and deception as a way of life and artform in romulan culture, Chabon's notes made it more likely for me that if Denise Crosby appears as Sela in one of the future seasons of the show that there might be a reveal that she isn't Tasha's daughter but Natasha Yar herself and what she told Picard in TNG was simply a lie or to speak in star wars lingo something that was only true "from a certain point of view".

Maybe she had a daughter but maybe not.

There were already things in TNG that hinted at this possibility, e.g. that she looks way older than she's supposed to be. Especially for being half romulan and the fact that humans live a lot longer in the 24th century.

And of course the way she looked at Picard and apparently knew so much about him.

https://michaelchabon.medium.com/some-notes-on-romulans-b1c7f30a383f

Nah. I'm into the expanded universe, and that would completely contradict all her appearances in Star Trek Online, comics, et al.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

And that she might've "gone local"? Fanatically so?

Maybe the Romulans used some kind of advanced tech assisted brainwashing techniques to get her to join or alternatively as the notes hint at, like it is usual in romulan culture, she may have had some unrevealed personal goals that are actually opposite of what the Romulans want and she may have tried to use deception to get into a position where it may have been possible for her to either return to the Federation, sabotage romulan efforts or something else.

 

[The Wormhole]

If Sela were actually Tasha, shouldn't she have been older when we saw her on TNG?

 

[Unimatrix Q]

If Sela were actually Tasha, shouldn't she have been older when we saw her on TNG?

The way Sela looked like in TNG was actually very much like i would expect Tasha to look like after all these years.
Especially if one considers the life expectancy of 24th century humans in Trek.

For being Tasha's daughter, Sela looks way too old imho.

 

[Dukhat]

Sela is not Tasha Yar in disguise. There is no reason why she would give Picard a fake story.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Sela is not Tasha Yar in disguise. There is no reason why she would give Picard a fake story.

Yar already had problems to trust other people, hailing back from her youth on Turkana IV (which might be unchanged or very similar in the "Yesterday's Enterprise" timeline), that most likely actually wouldn't get any better by becoming immersed into romulan culture with their paranoid focus on secrecy and deception. Being forced to hide her true self and her real goals for such a long time might explain these things.

And to make it even more difficult, he's not the Picard she knew from her timeline. So she may not have been able to trust him enough to let him in on her plans, even if they were actually in line with the strategical goals of starfleet or if she simply wanted to return to the Federation.

 

[Dukhat]

We don’t know Alternate Tasha’s backstory. The timeline had already changed when she was a girl, so she might not even have been on Turkana in the war timeline.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Sela is not Tasha Yar in disguise. There is no reason why she would give Picard a fake story.

She's Romulan. That's reason enough.

 

[Quinton]

I'd love to see Sela again. Funnily enough, I'm not even a big fan of the character; I just appreciate what the writers were trying to do back then, and I lament the fact that the last time we (canonically) see her, there's not much resolution to be found.

 

[Dukhat]

She's Romulan. That's reason enough.

Huh? If she’s Tasha Yar in disguise, she’s not Romulan; she’s human.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

She's Romulan. That's reason enough.

She looks like a Romulan, that doesn't necessarily means that she is one. Could be that she was made to appear this way by cosmetic surgery.

Huh? If she’s Tasha Yar in disguise, she’s not Romulan; she’s human.

Yep

 

[The Old Mixer]

Tasha in Disguise (with Spock Ears)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Didn't the Ent-D crew actually take Sela's life readings and confirm that she was (half) Romulan?

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Didn't the Ent-D crew actually take Sela's life readings and confirm that she was (half) Romulan?

Her life signs could be faked and for Troi to be convinced that she believe what she said, it's possible that a memory implant might be an explanation.

Either she herself decided to use it or if she's a brainwashed victim of the Romulans, it may have been her handlers.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

But PIC if anything needs fewer conspiracies and more parsimonious character development. What’s wrong with Sela being exactly who she said she was, but now with much more for Crosby to work with? Suppose she was drummed out of the game after “Unification” and in the 2380s endured the humiliation of being successfully rescued by Picard? Suppose that without her status she faced discrimination and ended up on Turkana IV of all places? Picard has to rely more on personal contacts than before, so La Sirena goes there for a story purpose.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

But PIC if anything needs fewer conspiracies and more parsimonious character development. What’s wrong with Sela being exactly who she said she was, but now with much more for Crosby to work with? Suppose she was drummed out of the game after “Unification” and in the 2380s endured the humiliation of being successfully rescued by Picard? Suppose that without her status she faced discrimination and ended up on Turkana IV of all places? Picard has to rely more on personal contacts than before, so La Sirena goes there for a story purpose.

Interesting ideas. I'd like to see something like that.

But to come back to the identity of Sela. Even when i watched "Redemption" for the first time, back then in the 90s, her being Tasha's daughter didn't make any sense for me. Why does she look so much like i would expect Tasha to look like in her age, after being so long around the Romulans, instead of a twentysomething vulcanoid.

Especially if the makeup artists could do such a great job for Denise as Tasha in "All Good Things"?

 

[Boris Skrbic]

It’s not out of the question that as a minor twist, the famous Star Trek magic surgery was used to make her look as close to Tasha as possible, just to throw off the crew as suggested in “Redemption”. Now she’d look at least somewhat different — there being no real need to replicate her exact original appearance — as we find that together with Ishara, she put her skills to controversial use in helping restore the failed colony. Ishara, of course, wouldn’t exactly have advertised Sela’s involvement, creating an element of surprise when Picard encounters both of them on Turkana.

 

[Yistaan]

It’s not out of the question that as a minor twist, the famous Star Trek magic surgery was used to make her look as close to Tasha as possible

I don't think we're supposed to think in-universe that Sela really looked exactly like Tasha or that say Noonien Soong looked exactly like his son Altan and ancestor Arik. We the audience are aware of this because of the same actors for all parts. But we're supposed to pretend they just look really similar but are still different (the way, say, George W. Bush strongly resembles his father George HW Bush).

It's basically the opposite version of the suspension of disbelief required in the 2009 Kelvin movie where old Spock recognizes Chris Pine and Simon Pegg as looking exactly like the Kirk and Scotty he knew, despite the audience being fully aware that they don't look identical.