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A fun piece of trivia, culled from Larry Nemecek’s valuable sourcebook”The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion“: Tasha Yar’s character in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was originally conceived as a Latino character named Lieutenant Macha Hernandez, intended to be the tactical officer aboard the Enterprise-D. Lieutenant Hernandez is was largely inspired by the military grunt character Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) from James Cameron’s “Aliens,” a film that was also new at the time for the role, but was quickly rejected when it was revealed that he was not not Latina After some further development, Hernandez was changed to Tanya, then Natasha, after the casting started a security chief.
A wide range of actresses auditioned for the role of Tasha, including Rosalind Chao, Marina Sirtis, Julia Nickson and Bunty Bailey, who was the woman in the music video “Take On Me”. For a moment, Chao was the frontrunner for the role, although she would eventually be replaced by Denise Crosby, a rising star in Hollywood at the time, and star of “Eliminators.”
As it happens, Crosby was already on the radar of the showrunners, as she had already auditioned for – and was one of the finalists for – the role of Counselor Deanna Troi, the empathetic psychiatrist of the Enterprise. As Trekkies can now tell you, Marina Sirtis – one of Tasha Yar’s hopefuls – would be cast in the role of the British-sounding Councilor Troi. Sirtis and Crosby essentially traded pieces.
This exchange, it seems, was encouraged by show creator Gene Roddenberry himself. The casting directors were looking for actresses to play Yar and Troi at the same time, wanting to make sure that the two artists did not look alike. Sirtis and Crosby looked good off each other, it seems, but Roddenberry thought they should switch parts.
This was confirmed by Crosby himself in a 2012 interview with StarTrek.com.
Denise Crosby and Marina Sirtis swapped Star Trek roles
The story of the Crosby/Sirtis exchange sent by Roddenberry was made public at least an oral history “Star Trek: The Next Generation” printed in EW in 2007. When speaking to StarTrek.com, Crosby was asked by the interviewer if this was just a widespread rumor, or if it was true. Crosby wasn’t privy to some of the casting details in 1986, but she recalled reading for Councilman Troi … and then being asked to read for Tasha Yar. In Crosby’s words:
“As far as I know, that’s true. We were in a series of auditions at one point and, if I can remember, my agent said, ‘Now they want you to look at this character.’ to change you. We were still auditioning I think we must have gone five different times and somewhere, maybe after the third audition, we finally got to (audition for) Gene Roddenberry, I’m sure Marina got the same call, but my agent said. “Gene Roddenberry likes you a lot, but he wants you to read this role now.” The next time I went, it was for Tasha.”
So it certainly looks like Roddenberry asked Sirtis and Crosby to make the trade. In the EW story, Crosby recalled that Troi was originally written as a “cool, Icelandic blonde. Almost Spock-like.” Sirtis, it should be noted, had dark brown hair, which provided a visual “balance” to the blonde Crosby. It’s a small detail, but small visual differences like hair color can be important to casting directors.
Crosby, of course, would eventually leave the show in its first season.
Trekkies may not see anyone in the roles of “The Next Generation” other than the people who were recently cast, but a little imagination can produce a world where Crosby plays an intense Spock-like Counselor Troi and Marina Sirtis is a aggressive security chief. We are close to that world.
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