Skin of Evil

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Star Trek: TNG episode
"Skin of Evil"
Episode no.	23
Prod. code	122
Airdate	April 25, 1988
Writer(s)	Joseph Stefano
Director	Joseph L. Scanlan
Guest star(s)	Mart McChesney
Year	2364
Stardate	41601.3
Episode chronology
Previous	"Symbiosis"
Next	"We'll Always Have Paris"

"Skin of Evil" is a first-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, first broadcast April 25, 1988. It is episode #23, production #122, teleplay written by Joseph Stefano, based on a story by Joseph Stefano and Hannah Louise Shearer, and directed by Joseph L. Scanlan. This episode marks the death of Lt. Tasha Yar.

Overview: A vile tar-like creature interferes with a rescue mission and holds Deanna Troi hostage.

[edit] Plot

On stardate 41601.3, the USS Enterprise is drifting through the Zed Lapis system while engineering conducts a realignment of the dilithium crystals, putting the ship without warp power for a while. In the meantime, they await Deanna Troi's return from a psychology conference. Soon, the ship receives a distress call from Deanna's shuttle craft with its last known position near the uninhabited planet Vagra II. Captain Picard orders a risky warp to the planet. Upon arrival, they locate the shuttle. Commander Riker leads an away team to the surface, beaming down with Lieutenant Tasha Yar, Lt. Commander Data, and Dr. Crusher.

The away team locates the shuttle half-buried in the terrain and move toward it, but they quickly find a pool of black slime blocking them. Attempts to go around the slime cause it to slither into their path. Data is unable to get conclusive readings from the slime, but determines it to be an intelligent life form. Suddenly, the center of the mass rises from the muck and takes a roughly humanoid shape. It speaks and identifies itself as Armus.

Riker explains they have come to rescue the survivors of the crash. Tasha warns Armus not to interfere with their rescue; in response, Armus flicks a ball of slime at her and she falls to the ground. Riker and Data fire their phasers at the creature, but it absorbs the beams. The away team hurriedly beams back to the ship, and Tasha is rushed to sickbay. Dr. Crusher tries to bring her back to life as Picard and Lieutenant Worf rush to the ward. Worf holds back his emotions when Dr. Crusher announces Tasha is dead.

Back on the planet, Armus slithers over the shuttle. Inside, Deanna lies in pain with her pilot slumped unconscious over the control panel. Armus tells her that her friends have abandoned her and laughs, saying he has killed one of them for no good reason. Back on the ship, the senior officers are furious that Armus killed Tasha without provocation. Picard promotes Worf to acting Chief of Security to fill Tasha's position.

Data speculates that Armus is capable of creating energy fields that disrupt communications and transport attempts. He warns they won't be able to rescue Troi and her pilot unless Armus allows it. Riker believes Armus wants something, saying that as he could have killed them all, but didn't and he must be keeping Deanna alive for a reason.

Riker takes a team back down, this time La Forge comes along hoping his VISOR can see something the tricorders missed. Armus is surprised they came back believing Troi must be special to them. She says they care equally for one another, but Armus senses deeper love for another in particular: Commander Riker. Deanna knows Armus is envious and asks if it is because the "others" never came back for him. She strikes a nerve in Armus, who rocks the shuttle in fury. On the Enterprise, Worf is monitoring the situation and reports there is a fluctuation in the energy field. It's nearly low enough to allow Troi and the pilot to beam out. Before he can react, the field strengthens again.

Dr. Crusher begs Armus to let her help the injured shuttle crew and Armus tells her to say "please". She does so, and he lets her pass for asking nicely, but when the whole team tries to pass, he changes his mind. Armus flicks his hand and pulls Geordi's VISOR from his eyes. It lands on the ground and the blind officer desperately searches for it as Armus plays a game of "keep away".

Armus disappears back into his puddle of tar and slinks back to the shuttle. He tells Deanna he enjoys tormenting her friends, but she says she feels pity for him. Armus explains he is the discarded skin of a creature whose beauty dazzled all who looked upon it.

Armus slithers back to the away team and creates a force that pulls Riker into the tar. Back on the ship, Worf indicates there is another energy fluctuation, which took a dip when Armus consumed Riker. It seems that when Armus is provoked, the field is weakened.

Picard decides to head down and confront Armus himself. The entity is pleased to meet their leader and takes control of Data, who draws his phaser and points it at Picard's head. Armus says Data will be his "instrument of death" and forces him to point the phaser at Dr. Crusher. Tired of games, Picard tells Armus they will no longer amuse him even if it means the death of Riker and the others in the shuttle. Armus finally belches up Riker who is unconscious and covered with slime. With Riker freed, Picard has the rest of his team beamed back to the ship.

Picard stays behind and demands Armus allow him to see Deanna. Armus permits it and teleports Picard into the shuttle with a gesture of his hand. Picard calls Worf telling him to stand by and beam Deanna, her pilot and himself up simultaneously as soon as the field weakens again.

Armus teleports Picard back and Picard asks the entity how long it has been alone on this planet. Armus explains he was abandoned by a race of titans. They perfected a way of bringing all their evil and negative emotion to the surface and formed a second skin that is dank and vile. They were able to rid themselves of it, and it had coalesced into the form it has now.

Armus tells Picard that humans are weak and that he can kill them with a flick of his hand. He demands that Picard help him escape this planet, but Picard refuses. Armus shouts in anger, at which point Worf, high in orbit, sees a dip in Armus' energy field and beams Deanna and her pilot back to the ship. Before Armus can respond, Picard is beamed away and Armus screams in anguish at having been abandoned once again.

Safe aboard the Enterprise, Picard has Worf destroy the wreckage of the shuttle with a torpedo to ensure that Armus has no means of escape. He has Vagra II quarantined off limits, then prepares for the funeral of Tasha Yar. The senior officers assemble on the holodeck, where Picard plays a hologram of Tasha's will. She appears and addresses everyone with a personal message and bids "au revoir" to her friends.

[edit] Production

The oily liquid of Armus was made of Metamucil and printer's ink. (When Riker was sucked into Armus, Jonathan Frakes was in fact submerged in the pool, and during a break in filming while Frakes was lying on the beach, covered in the sludge, LeVar Burton approached him stating "Frakes, I never would have done that!"^{[citation needed]})

Denise Crosby has stated that had there been more scenes like the one at the beginning of the episode between her and Worf, she may have considered staying on the show.^{[citation needed]}

Although Tasha Yar dies in this episode, Denise Crosby's name remains on the opening credits for the remainder of the season, and it also marks Wesley Crusher's final appearance for this season.