I remember a scene I had to do at my audition, which really showed you what the character could have been, what I thought Tasha was going to be. It was an extraordinary scene, and it was a shame that it never appeared in any of our shows. I don’t really know why it didn’t.
Denise Crosby, quoted in Starlog Magazine in September 1995 about the kind of scene she wished had been written more for Tasha Yar.
It was a scene in which Tasha had real problems on the ship. She idolized Captain Picard. He represented a father figure to her, and he embodied all of the perfect patriarchal power and together male things that she never had in her life. Because she endowed him with such power, she had problems dealing with him. He scared her and she felt very insecure around him, even though she deserved to be in her position.
She’s sent to Troi, who was really acting as shipboard shrink in this scene. They try to get to what Tasha’s problem was about. Troi, out of the blue, asks Tasha, ‘When was the last time you had sex?’ Tasha says, ‘What?’ and Troi asks it again.
Tasha asks how that applies to the problem. Troi says, ‘No, no, no. You’ve got to have some time off for yourself.’ Basically, Troi told Tasha, ‘Go and get laid for a few days, then come back and tell me how you feel.’
It was an extraordinary scene. Marina and I used to talk about that all the time. Where the hell was the scene? Why didn’t we ever get to do it? It allowed the two of us to interact, which we rarely ever did in my 20-something shows. Marina and I never had more than a few lines to say to each other. That would have been a very insightful scene.
What do you guys think? I would’ve loved to have Tasha talk to Troi more – about her insecurities or really anything, but I probably would’ve been critical of the scene as described above maybe reinforcing the stereotype that women who are stressed “just need to get laid”. That said, having the advice coming from Troi would’ve made a difference, and it would’ve been cool to see Trek doing a better job saying women should be able to seek sexual pleasure without being punished for it the next day.
