Up next, it's toodles to
Tasha Yar
off the disliked list. For reasons other that she, along with Boris, could never get Moose and Squirrel.
YES, some season 1 scripts did her injustice, such as in "Justice". And yet, "The Arsenal of Freedom", "All Good Things", "Encounter at Farpoint", and others.
She starts off well enough, jumping into action even if a little impassioned, impetuous, and impulsive (or simply "
hotheaded" as that covers all three conditions in just one word, woohoo!):
There's a scene from "Lonely Among Us", which lets characters being used as cyphers for the kiddies in the audience, read "Hey kids, here's how you do this" as opposed to letting the characters be characters:
This is not an ideal use of Yar given her traits and she of all people would arguably be more inclined to know, but even that is a thousand times better than "Justice"'s gaffe. If only because we get to see Data Sherlock it up.
But, in terms of character, even the largely drek known as "Code of Honor" has a solid scene in which Yar describes the holodeck and how she uses it to improve her own skills as the computer is designed to learn and react. Her fight against Yareena (which is not exactly the most original name given to Yar's opponent!), was pretty good as well. Very 80s, but very passable. It also helps show that TNG is not TOS as all the security folk in TOS die faster than you can say "Bye!"
While brief, she gets to be commanding briefly in "Angel One" by instructing the renegades to come back to the ship with her.
Tasha's briefly in "Too Short a Season" but is competently written, from what I recall.
"11001001" has a lovely interchange with Worf about sporting.
"Home Soil" compensates for the doofusy scripting accorded Yar in some of the previous stories, clearly showing she is quite capable of the needed level of research and not overlooking the most obvious stuff - think "Justice" and wince (
yet again).
"Symbiosis" has "the speech" and, in a blink and you'll miss it moment, waves from the far end of the studio at the end of one scene. But the speech is not the nadir of her time on the show, other scripts are definitely worse with character treatment. And others are better.
"Skin of Evil" - Her death was merely fodder for Armus to show off how easily he could pop 'em all off. Even by 1987, a lead actor being killed off was still quite rare and the cliché was that the one being killed would be in a big and predictable blaze of glory. So, yeah, some credit for originality goes to this.
"Yesterday's Enterprise" - great twist of events to bring her back and is largely given some good stuff, which includes leaving in a blaze... of glory. But here's a standout moment, with great acting:
And, one day, may Yar get revenge:
Who's left:
Hikaru Sulu
Pavel Chekov
Montgomery Scott
Janice Rand
Christine Chapel
Arex
M'Ress
William Riker
Worf
Beverly Crusher
Wesley Crusher
Odo
Julian Bashir
Jake Sisko
Ezri Dax
Kathryn Janeway (the real one)
Chakotay
B'Elanna Torres
Tom Paris
Harry Kim
Tuvok
The Doctor
Neelix
Kes
Jonathan Archer
Trip Tucker
Travis Mayweather
Hoshi Sato
Malcolm Reed
Phlox
Saru
Sylvia Tilly
Paul Stamets
Gabriel Lorca
Mirror Philippa Georgiou
Voq/Ash Tyler
Hugh Culber
Christopher Pike
Cleveland "Book" Booker
D. Nhan
Adira Tal
Jett Reno
Rayner
Agnes Jurati
Soji Asha
Narek
Raffaela “Raffi” Musiker
Cristóbal "Chris" Rios
Elnor
Laris
Adam Soong
Kore Soong
Tallinn
Guinan
Jack Crusher
Beckett Mariner
Brad Boimler
Carol Freeman
Jack Ransom
Shaxs
T'Ana
Dal R'El
Gwyndala
Jankom Pog
Zero
Rok-Tahk
Murf
Drednok
The Diviner
Hologram Janeway
Ascencia
La’an Noonien-Singh
Joseph M’Benga
They nailed it three decades later, too.
