Tasha Yar - Story Overview

Story Overview

The back story for the character states that Natasha (Tasha) Yar (Ukrainian: Наташа "Таша" Яр), of Ukrainian descent, was born on Turkana IV, a colony that fell into chaos and eventually severed ties to the United Federation of Planets. Tasha learned to defend herself on the streets and avoid rape gangs. She left Turkana IV at age 15, leaving her younger sister Ishara behind, and later attended Starfleet Academy.

After watching Yar cross a minefield to save a colonist, Jean-Luc Picard requested that she be assigned to his next command. She later became chief of security and chief tactical officer aboard the USS Enterprise-D, some time prior to the beginning of the series.

Armus kills Yar on Vagra II as a demonstration of his power in "Skin of Evil" while Yar is attempting to rescue Deanna Troi. Worf replaces her as chief tactical and security officer.

In "Yesterday's Enterprise", the USS Enterprise-C travels into the future in the midst of defending a Klingon colony from Romulan attack, creating an alternate timeline in which the Federation and Klingon Empire are at war, and in which Yar does not die on Vagra II. Learning from Guinan that she dies a senseless death in the normal timeline, Yar opts to return to the past aboard the Enterprise-C, thus creating another new timeline. She is then taken prisoner along with a few others and ordered to be executed by the Romulan Star Empire. A Romulan General becomes enamored when he sees her, and he strikes a deal in which Tasha would be his consort in exchange for the lives of her fellow survivors. Sela, () her daughter, is born a year later. One night, when Sela is 4 years old, Tasha attempts to escape with her, but Sela cries out and Tasha is then caught and executed. The adult Sela appears in two 2-part episodes of the series (including the Season 4 cliffhanger finale where she is first revealed), and is also played by Denise Crosby.

Yar's final appearance is in scenes that take place in the series's finale, "All Good Things...". Her scenes are mostly what happened in times other than shown in the pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint"; the story diverges from the "normal" time-frame as events in the finale occur.

The audience is made aware of Yar's death on three different occasions. First she is killed by Armus. The second time, Sela informs the crew that Yar was executed after a failed attempt to escape from the Romulans. Then in the series's finale, "All Good Things...", we again see Yar die as the Enterprise is destroyed inside an anomaly.

Tasha and the android Lt. Commander Data have a sexual encounter with each other in the episode "The Naked Now". After this, Data keeps a hologram of Tasha with him, and during the trial regarding his rights in the second season's episode "The Measure of a Man," he publicly admits to the incident with the words "We were intimate."