Between TOS, TNG, Voyager and Deep Space Nine, I’ve seen 170 episodes of Star Trek since I started watching this franchise last September. Without question TNG’s Skin of Evil is the worst episode I’ve seen. Who Mourns For Adonais? from TOS is the 2nd worst, but that’s The City on the Edge of Forever compared to Skin of Evil.
Skin of Evil has the Enterprise attempting to get Deanna Troi back after her shuttlecraft crashes on a planet solely populated by some whiny sentient puddle holding her hostage. This episode is best known for being where Gene Roddenberry killed off Tasha Yar after Denise Crosby decided to leave the show. Speaking of death, decisions made by Gene Roddenberry during the 1st season of TNG killed any illusion people had of him as this sole creative mastermind behind Star Trek. After this or something as bizarre as Conspiracy, you look back on TOS and realize genre writers like Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson and Theodore Sturegon contributed more to the legacy of Star Trek than Roddenberry.
While some think Denise Crosby was a fool for leaving, I get it. I’ve heard she left because she saw a future where all she’d be asked to do was say “hailing on all frequencies.” The one episode that focuses on Tasha Yar, Code of Honor, depicts black people with as much awareness as the 1920s/1930s adventure serials that birthed Indiana Jones. If that’s the one episode you’re acknowledged, you’d leave too.
It’s now easy to think Denise Crosby fucked up because the show eventually evolved into being the exact opposite of season 1. I recently watched Q Who for the first time where The Borg are introduced. If Denise Crosby was capable of predicting a future where this lackluster series was suddenly capable of imagining a villain as captivating and frightening as The Borg, maybe she’d stay. Even with that surprising quality increase, would they’ve done anything with Tasha Yar? Beverly Crusher was thoughtlessly replaced in season 2. Judging by attire choices, I’m gonna predict TNG’s writers rarely look past Deonna Troi’s cleavage. If I can make some more predictions, I’ll also predict none of the TNG women reach a Major Kira level and never get an episode as memorable as the Dax centered episode Blood Oath.
If there’s any redeeming moment in Skin of Evil, it’s Tasha’s funeral. A recorded farewell is the rare moment when Denise Crosby was called upon to do something. Between Deanna Troi’s bawling along with Picard and Data’s final words, this god awful episode at least sells how devastating Tasha’s death is. That sorta makes up for having to watch Riker glare at an evil puddle for 40 minutes.
For some reason I’m a Tasha Yar fan. It’s hard to understand because it’s not like TNG S1 gave me a reason to be, but when I recently saw a Tasha Yar figurine in my comic book shop I said “ooh!” and immediately grabbed it. I can’t stress this enough, you can’t blame Denise Crosby for leaving. She got more character depth on Red Shoe Diaries than TNG S1.
It's Emilio Amaro's Blog 
A lot of good points made here.
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