Posted in: CBS, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: Denise Crosby, paramount, Sela, star trek, Star Trek Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Tasha Yar

Star Trek: Picard S03 Will Include Tasha Yar, Denise Crosby Confirms

Looks like a full-on Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion might be closer to reality as Denise Crosby teased the return of her original character Lt. Natasha "Tasha" Yar, at Star Trek Las Vegas 2022. She was the original security chief on the U.S.S. Enterprise D in the show's first season. Sadly, her character would meet an abrupt death in the episode "Skin of Evil," with Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) taking over as the new security chief. With her demise, Crosby left the show but ended up returning in a guest capacity reprising her role in a few episodes and also playing her daughter, Romulan Commander Sela, appearing in a total of 31 episodes throughout the Paramount series' seven-season run.

Crosby made the announcement that we'll see Yar's return in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard for Paramount+, but remained coy in what capacity. "You'll see Tasha Yar, but I'm not going to tell you how." This confirms what executive producer Terry Matalas said about a "nod." There's obviously various ways that this can be interpreted since the way actors returned to certain roles in recent years given current CG technology. The actor could technically reprise the role as is as an alternate timeline version of Yar as she did in the TNG episodes "Yesterday's Enterprise" and "All Good Things…" As with Mark Hamill and the current Star Wars Disney+ TV series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, CG was used to de-age the actor with a body double stand-in, and voice cloning technology also available to make the actor sound younger too. While the de-aging route might seem unlikely with the whole Enterprise-D crew, the Holodeck also isn't out of the question. The cheapest route would be archival footage.

TNG's Wil Wheaton reprised his role as Wesley Crusher in the season two finale "Farewell," but his status is unknown for season three. Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden (Crusher), LeVar Burton (LaForge), Brent Spiner, and Dorn are all confirmed to return with holdovers Jeri Ryan (Seven) and Michelle Hurd (Raffi). Frakes and Sirtis already reprised their respective roles as Riker and Troi in season one, while Spiner played multiple roles throughout, including Data (in season one). Star Trek: Picard season three premieres on Paramount+ in 2023.

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