10 Star Trek Moments You Never Saw Coming
9. Sela
The death of Tasha Yar could easily have found a place on this list. Denise Crosby, tired of not having enough to do during the first season of the Next Generation, asked Gene Roddenberry to be released from her contract. Tasha was killed off in a move that was as shocking as it was pointless, and that could have been the end of the character forever. Along came Yesterday's Enterprise. This third season episode went a long way toward giving Yar the send-off she deserved, while also giving the audience one of the greatest episodes of the show.
This spelled the second time, presumably, that Yar had been killed off. Surely, that would be the last time that Crosby's face would be seen, barring flashbacks, right? Wrong. Wrong to a level that expertly played on the audiences' expectations. The fourth season of the show ended with the stunning if a little confusing, revelation that Tasha Yar was a Romulan!
Except that she wasn't. When the fifth series began, audiences discovered that the version of Yar that went back in time aboard the Enterprise-C had given birth to a half-Romulan daughter, Sela. This revelation perfectly brought the actor back to the show, while expanding her own story arc, and creating an entirely new character. Definitely not what people had expected as Picard uttered the infamous line:
Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise.