Natasha Yar Lieutenant Natasha Yar , better known as Tasha , was a Human Starfleet officer born on Turkana IV , and former security chief on the . Tasha Yar was killed not even a year into the " Enterprise " s mission . She was fondly remembered by the " Enterprise " crew , and an alternate version of Tasha indirectly played a very important role in Romulan politics . ( , , ) Early life and career . Tasha was born in 2337 on the failed colony world of Turkana IV . Her sister , Ishara , was born five years later . Both of their parents were killed shortly following Ishara ' s birth , after which they were looked after for a few months by " " some people " " who later abandoned them , leaving Tasha to care for herself and her sister . ( ) Tasha had to avoid rape gangs and terrible violence just to scavenge for the bare necessities of life , such as food . One of the few bright spots in her life was finding a cat , which she attempted to protect while being chased by a rape gang . ( ) Drug use was also commonplace . Tasha apparently resorted to drugs as an escape at some point , but later remembered that they were of more harm to her than good . ( ) Although Ishara decided to remain on the planet and eventually joined the Coalition , Tasha managed to find a way off Turkana IV in 2352 by the age of fifteen . Ishara and Tasha never saw one another again . Tasha began to attend Starfleet Academy soon after her escape and credited Starfleet with saving her from her previous life . ( ) She joined security because of the lawless environment in which she grew up . ( ) In 2363 , while conducting a rescue mission , Yar rescued a colonist after traversing a Carnelian minefield . Captain Jean - Luc Picard ' s ship at the time was also present . Picard was so impressed with her bravery that he recruited Yar for duty on the " Enterprise " , as Yar ' s current commanding officer owed him a favor . ( ) The " Enterprise " - D . Yar piloted Picard to the " Enterprise " - D in the shuttlecraft " " for his first visit to the ship . She set out to Farpoint Station from Earth Station McKinley with most of the crew . ( ) " En route " , the " Enterprise " was intercepted and detained by the Q entity . Tasha wanted to fight him , but Picard refused her suggestion because of the tremendous power of the Q . While the senior staff was taken to the 21st century courtroom and put on trial by Q , Yar could no longer resist the urge to tell Q he was wrong for accusing humanity of " savage , childlike behavior . " She was placed into a sort of deep freeze by Q as punishment , but was later revived . Later , Yar took part in several away team s which investigated Farpoint Station and the living station ' s mate , which returned to seek vengeance against the Bandi for imprisoning the other creature . ( ) While the " Enterprise " was negotiating at the world of Ligon II for vaccine needed on Styris IV , the Ligonian leader Lutan became impressed with Tasha ' s martial arts skills and her physical beauty . As a show of defiance and boldness in line with the Ligon Code of Honor , he kidnapped her and brought her to his planet . Picard needed to negotiate both for her safe return and for the vaccine . However , Lutan was determined to have Yar as his First One , the ceremonial title of his wife . The current First One , Yareena , challenged Lutan ' s decision , requiring Yar to participate in a fight to the death with Yareena . In order to satisfy the needs of the culture and return to the " Enterprise " , Tasha fought and killed Yareena . Fortunately , samples of the poison used on Yar ' s weapon was returned to the " Enterprise " by Data , allowing Doctor Beverly Crusher to develop an antidote and revive Yareena once they were brought to the " Enterprise " . Yareena stripped Lutan of his title and offered him to Tasha , but she refused , stating that there would be " complications " . ( ) When the " Enterprise " was transported beyond the known universe by the Traveler , to a place where matter and thought were not distinct , Yar hallucinated that she had returned to Turkana IV and was being chased by the rape gangs . ( ) Because of the matriarchal nature of the society on Angel I , Yar took informal command of the away team while Commander William T . Riker negotiated for the release of survivors from the freighter " Odin " . When Riker put on one of the sexualized outfits worn by men on the planet , she and Deanna had a good laugh at the first officer ' s expense . ( ) Tasha was killed in late 2364 on the planet Vagra II . She was part of an away team sent to rescue Deanna Troi and Ben Prieto , who had crashed there aboard a shuttle . Their rescue was impeded by a lifeform known as Armus . When Yar tried to walk around Armus to get to the shuttle crew , Armus attacked and killed her without warning , simply as a display of his power . Dr . Crusher tried to revive her but she was too badly injured , as the life had been " drained " from her . The officially recorded cause of death was heavy synaptic damage . A service was held for Tasha in the holodeck following the rescue of the crew from the surface , where a holographic message from Tasha was played . Tasha always believed her death would happen quickly and while on duty , and that was the way she wanted it . ( ) Personal interests . Yar was an expert in aikido , a form of martial arts , and regularly used several holodeck training programs . ( ) She was also a parrises squares player . ( ) Three days before her death , Yar was scheduled to participate in a martial arts competition with science officer Swenson and Lieutenant Minnerly . She was favored in the ship ' s pool . ( ) Personal relationships . Family . Tasha rarely spoke of her family because of the chaotic nature of her childhood , though both her sister Ishara and her alternate - timeline half - Romulan daughter Sela visited the " Enterprise " . Tasha barely remembered her father and called herself an orphan like Worf . During her recorded funeral speech on the holodeck in 2364 , she addressed Jean - Luc Picard and told him that he would be the person in the universe she would call a father figure . ( ) Her medical records indicated she had never been pregnant . ( ) Friendships . Yar saw Captain Picard as an informal father figure . She found support in Picard when she was confined to a " penalty box " as part of a deadly game run by Q during the " Enterprise " s second encounter . She had been placed there as punishment for challenging Q , and would have been consigned to oblivion if another officer had been sent to the penalty box . Tasha was frustrated and upset by the situation and began to cry . Picard said she was permitted the feelings and that they were in no way a show of weakness . ( ) Tasha was often uncomfortable in expressing her femininity , and for that reason sometimes sought the help of Deanna Troi . While under the influence of a polywater intoxication in 2364 , Yar entered Troi ' s quarters and tried on several articles of her clothing . ( ) Yar was also very good friends with Worf , who , as a Klingon warrior , greatly admired her physical combat skills . Together , they took part in a parrises squares tournament against the Starbase 74 maintenance crew in 2364 . ( ) Worf also placed a wager on Yar ' s victory in the martial arts competition which she was to have participated before her death . Yar was touched by this gesture . In the holographic message she prepared in the event of her death , Yar spent a brief moment addressing each of her friends . She called Will Riker " the best , " and was grateful for his trust , encouragement , and humor . She said Deanna proved to her that she could be feminine without losing anything . Yar saw a kindred spirit in Worf , as they were both warriors and orphans who found a place in this family . Tasha admired Beverly Crusher ' s fierce and unstoppable devotion , and from her learned to strive for excellence no matter what the personal cost . She regretted that she would be unable to see Wesley Crusher grow to become an exceptional young man . Yar was thankful for Geordi La Forge ' s friendship and support in times of despair . She assured Data that his way of viewing the universe from the perspective of a child made him the most human of the entire group . Tasha said she considered Picard to be like a father , but she was unable to tell for sure because she had never had a father . However , she felt he had the " heart of an explorer and the soul of a poet " and that if she could pick one person to be like , it would be him . She concluded by saying that death was not a goodbye since she would always live on in their memories . After the service , Data was confused , thinking he had missed the point of her funeral because his thoughts were not for Yar , but for himself and how her presence would be missed . However , Picard assured him that he understood perfectly . ( ) The pain of Tasha ' s death was recalled several times by the " Enterprise " crew , such as when Marla Aster died ( ) and when Data was believed killed in a shuttle accident in late 2366 . ( ) Riker used Tasha ' s death as an example of how he felt the ritual Klingon suicide was a cowardly escape when Worf considered it following a paralysis in 2368 . ( ) When the " Enterprise " went to Turkana IV in 2367 to rescue the crew of the " Arcos " , Ishara helped the crew rescue the survivors from the Turkana IV Alliance forces . She expressed a desire to leave and join Starfleet like her sister , which charmed the crew into trusting her and perhaps seeing more of Tasha in Ishara . Her interest in leaving Turkana was later determined to be mostly a deception in order to use the rescue mission to cripple the Alliance . ( ) Romance . Yar was at least slightly attracted to Data and had sex with him while under the influence of polywater intoxication . She later told him that the incident " never happened " . ( ) Data still felt a special connection to Tasha and later mentioned that he and Tasha were intimate . He kept a holographic image of Tasha to remember her . When Data ' s rights as a sentient being were called into question , his romantic encounter with Tasha was a strong influence for Judge Phillipa Louvois to rule that Data was in fact a sentient lifeform , as Data admitted that she was ' special ' to him even when he had no emotions to influence his thoughts on personal relationships . ( ) La Forge and Wesley Crusher found the holoimage when they visited Data ' s quarters after his apparent death in 2366 . ( ) Yar also had random romantic encounters with several " Enterprise " crewmembers while affected by the polywater intoxication . Geordi La Forge originally passed on the intoxication to Tasha , and he expressed lustful feelings towards her . ( ) La Forge also told Yar that she was more beautiful than he imagined once he was briefly granted normal sight by Commander Riker , bestowed with the powers of the Q Continuum . ( ) Alternate realities and timelines . In an alternate timeline created by the ' s transit from 2344 to 2366 through a temporal rift , Tasha had not been killed at Vagra II , and continued to serve as tactical officer aboard the " Enterprise " - D during a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire . Tasha had joined the " Enterprise " - D crew immediately upon graduating from Starfleet Academy in 2362 . In 2366 , the " Enterprise " - D encountered the " Enterprise " - C as it emerged from the temporal rift , after the " Enterprise " - C had nearly been destroyed in a Romulan attack on the Klingon outpost at Narendra III . During the course of making repairs to the " Enterprise " - C , Tasha became close to a crew member from that ship , Lieutenant Richard Castillo , and the two of them developed romantic feelings for one another . She later became aware , through Guinan , that in the other timeline she had died a meaningless death . When the " Enterprise " - C ' s captain , Rachel Garrett , was killed in a Klingon attack , Tasha requested permission from Captain Picard to transfer to the " Enterprise " - C and accompany it back through the rift in an attempt to restore the timeline , explaining that she wanted her death to count for something . Captain Picard granted her request . Although Castillo , who had assumed command of the " Enterprise " - C , was initially reluctant to accept Tasha on an apparent suicide mission , he relented and assigned her to the tactical position . Entering the rift just as three Klingon Birds - of - Prey began attacking both " Enterprise " s , the " Enterprise " - C successfully returned to its own time , where it played an instrumental role in guaranteeing peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire , restoring the flow of history . ( ) While the " Enterprise " - C was destroyed , several crewmembers survived and were taken prisoner by the Romulans , Tasha among them . According to Sela , after being interrogated , all of the survivors were to be executed , but a Romulan general became enamored of Tasha and offered to spare the lives of the prisoners if she became his consort , a condition to which Tasha agreed . One year later she gave birth to a daughter , Sela . When Sela was four years old , Tasha took her and attempted to escape , but sensing that her mother was taking her away from her home and her father , Sela cried out , and Tasha was discovered and subsequently executed . These events were completely unknown to Starfleet until 2368 , when the " Enterprise " - D encountered Sela , by then a commander in the Romulan military , during her attempt to covertly support the Duras sisters in taking control of the Klingon Empire . ( ) Another alternate version of Yar was seen by Captain Picard in the anti - time past . This timeline diverged during the shuttle trip to the " Enterprise " back in 2364 . Picard was somewhat disoriented during his initial shifts from the other two time periods , and was distracted at seeing Yar again . He also mistakenly gave orders about ship security to Worf . Yar went along with Picard ' s unusual orders to proceed to Farpoint Station in lieu of investigating a temporal anomaly in the Romulan Neutral Zone , and again when Picard decided to go to the anomaly after all . When Picard made the decision to enter the anomaly and create a static warp shell , Yar , along with the rest of the bridge crew , momentarily hesitated . However , Picard was able to convince the crew of the importance of the task and Tasha struggled to keep the antimatter containment field maintained until the past " Enterprise " was destroyed . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Tasha Yar was played by Denise Crosby during the first season of . Crosby was a part of the " Next Generation " regular cast from to , although she was listed in the main credits for the remainder of the first season . Also , was filmed after , meaning that episode was technically Crosby ' s final as a regular cast member . In a scene near the end of " Symbiosis " , Crosby can be seen waving at the camera , waving goodbye to all of her fans . The wave is only visible for a few seconds ( 40 : 26 - 40 : 30 ) , as Captain Picard and Dr . Crusher are exiting the cargo bay , but can easily be seen on DVD with frame - by - frame advancement . Yar was the first regular character to depart a " Star Trek " series while in production and also the first to be killed off without being resurrected . Crosby returned for guest spots as Yar in and , and can be seen in holographic form in and . The character also appears in stock footage during treatment Riker receives in , and during a personality test Data undergoes in . Due to an editing gaff , Crosby ' s shoulder and left arm also appear in the episode , set after her character ' s death in " Skin of Evil " . The character of Yar was indirectly inspired by Jenette Goldstein ' s space marine character Vasquez from the motion picture . ( " " ) Gene Roddenberry and Robert Justman watched " Aliens " during the early stages of preparation for the series , and Roddenberry expressed his wish to create a character named " Macha " based on Vasquez . Recalled David Gerrold , " " After " Aliens " , Gene would say about Jenette Goldstein , ' That woman created a whole new style of feminine beauty . We should have something like that in " Star Trek " . ' So we started off with a character named Macha Hernandez , who eventually became Tasha Yar . That sparked an idea for Gene . " " Justman was also inspired by Goldstein . He later remembered thinking , " " If we could get her , she could be a member of the " Enterprise " s onboard Marine or MP contingent . This would enable her to serve in a military capacity within our landing parties . Her feistiness , coupled with her earthy physicality , could create interesting opportunities for drama . " " ( " " , p . 57 ) The casting call for Natasha Yar , later reprinted in the " " , stated the following : " " LT . Macha Hernandez – 26 year old woman of unspecified Latin descent who serves as the starship ' s security chief . She is described as having a new quality of conditioned - body - beauty , a fire in her eyes and muscularly well developed and very female body , but keeping in mind that much of her strength comes from attitude . Macha has an almost obsessive devotion to protecting the ship and its crew and treats Capt . Picard and Number One as if they were saints . " " The revised Writers ' Bible for " The Next Generation " ( p . 10 ) described Yar as : " " The starship security chief , Tasha , who performs that same function both aboard ship and on away missions . Born at a ' failed ' Earth colony of renegades and other violent undesirables , she escaped to Earth in her teens and discovered Starfleet , which she still ' worships ' today as the complete opposite of all the ugliness she once knew . " " Among the performers who were considered for the role of Tasha Yar were Lianne Langland , Julia Nickson , Rosalind Chao , Leah Ayers , and Bunty Bailey . Nickson and Chao were well liked for the part . ( " " , p . 97 ) By , Chao seemed to be a favorite candidate . Originally , Marina Sirtis auditioned for this role , while Denise Crosby read for Deanna Troi . Gene Roddenberry decided that each would be better as the other ' s character , and Macha ' s description was altered to reflect Crosby ' s blonde looks . First , the character ' s name was changed to " Tanya " , then to " Tasha Yar " , based on a Ukrainian ravine named , where massacres took place during a Nazi Germany campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II . ( " " , p . 15 ) Denise Crosby once commented , " " They originally envisioned Tasha as more butch [ . . . ] What I liked about Tasha is she ' s strong physically and direct and is comfortable with who she is . I envisioned Tasha as what I brought to it . I sort of like the quality that she could be attractive and sexy and still be able to kick the shit out of anyone . " " The actress also reckoned that her experience of growing up as the granddaughter of famous Hollywood celebrity Bing Crosby , since that " wasn ' t exactly normal or typical , " helped her " understand Tasha ' s imbalance and insecurities . " ( " " , pp . 97 - 98 ) Yar is the only main character besides Troi to wear a " skant " version of the Starfleet uniform , which she does in the last scene of " Encounter at Farpoint " ; Yar is behind the tactical console , but the skant is just visible . A line in Max Grodénchik ' s " Rom ' s Song " suggests that Quark should be " kill [ ed ] . . . off like Tasha Yar , " so that Rom could inherit his bar . Apocrypha . According to the " " , Tasha Yar was born on Hokma V . The alternate - timeline Tasha Yar appears ( voiced again by Denise Crosby ) in the " Star Trek Online " mission " Temporal Ambassador " . The mission reveals that the " Enterprise " - D ' s battle with the Klingons in caused the " Enterprise " - C to emerge from the temporal rift in the Azure Nebula in 2409 , rather than Narendra III in 2344 . The alternate timeline remains , and the Federation has fallen to the Klingon Empire , which in turn has fallen to the Dominion . The " Enterprise " and her crew are captured by the Tholian Assembly and held aboard a base in the Azure Nebula , where the player must help them escape and reach the temporal rift so they can return to 2344 . She later returns , though posthumously , in " Survivor " . There , it ' s revealed that the alternate - timeline Tasha Yar was never actually killed , instead left on a Tal Shiar prison colony along with the other " Enterprise " - C crewmembers . Through various datapads left by Yar , the player , along with Sela and Agent , learns that the crew fended for themselves after the Tal Shiar abandoned the colony due to the destruction of Romulus and Remus by the Hobus Supernova . The crew would die one by one , either by the creatures on the planet or by temporal anomalies caused by the alternate universe version of Admiral T ' Nae ; s existence . Yar would be the last to die , wishing for the crew to be remembered somehow .