10 Times Star Trek Broke The Fourth Wall

Despite all its strengths, one of the enduring failures of The Next Generation was the squandered potential of Lieutenant Tasha Yar. Despite a promising start as a strong feminist role model, as well as a troubled back story unusual for Star Trek at the time, no episodes truly gave the character room to grow.

Feeling like she was in a rut, actress Denise Crosby made the decision to leave in the first season, being unceremoniously bumped off in the wildly divisive Skin of Evil. Although the anti-climatic tussle with the angry space goop would be Yar’s final appearance, the shooting schedule actually meant that Crosby’s final filmed scenes in season one would instead be from the earlier episode ‘Symbiosis’.

The episode, like many in Star Trek’s canon, deals with the ethical quandaries of The Prime Directive, as Picard struggles to decide his course of action over one civilisation addicting another to a drug by passing it off as a treatment for a fictional plague. In a final scene, Picard subverts the Directive by allowing the drug to be shipped but not repairing the freighter carrying it, thus breaking the cycle of addiction.

Although about 40 yards in the background, this would prove to be Crosby’s last scene during her time on Star Trek, and she takes the opportunity to give the camera, and her fans, a quick wave over Captain Picard’s shoulder. Although alternate realities and cloning would allow Yar to return in one form or another, for now this fourth wall break was a cheeky little send off to a truly under-appreciated character