Line #5 Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E6Legacy


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tng_legacy_hd_267.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The crew enlist the help of Tasha Yar's sister, Ishara Yar. You get the feeling that whoever designed [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Seven Of Nine's outfit]] was watching this?]]
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4	'''Original air date:''' October 29, 1990
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6	In the officer's card game, Data is showing substantial improvement in his poker skills and successfully bluffs Riker in a hand. Riker tries to win his chips back with a card trick, but Data sees right through it. With this thematic foreshadowing accomplished, the officers are called to start the plot.
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8	On a mission to rescue the crew of a severely damaged Federation freighter, the ''Enterprise'' has traveled to Turkana IV, where their deceased former security chief Tasha Yar was born. The freighter explodes, but an escape pod containing two surviving crewmen lands on the planet. But locating the crewmen on the planet will be more difficult than they expect.
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10	The government of the planet has collapsed and devolved into warring factions. The conflict between the two remaining factions, the Alliance and the Coalition, has destroyed all civilization on the surface. All natives now live underground and fight constantly. An away team searching through the tunnels makes contact with a Coalition cadre, who claim to know the location of the missing crewmembers. They away team follows them to their hideout to meet Lane, their leader. Lane states that the Starfleet survivors have been kidnapped by the Alliance and will surely be held for ransom. He offers to help the crew return their missing men purely to stop his rivals from profiting from them.
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12	When the away team returns to the ship to tell Picard about their offer, Lane contacts the ship and introduces them to Ishara Yar, Tasha's sister, who can lead them to the hostages. Although Picard greatly suspects deception, he agrees to Lane's proposal, and Ishara beams aboard. In a meeting to plan their next move, Ishara states that the Alliance is decentralized, so the hostages could be held in one of many locations. Geordi suggests locating a device from the freighter wreckage that can help pinpoint their location. Due to the tracking devices that all Turkanans have implanted, Ishara suggests that she be used as a decoy.
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14	During the mission, Ishara fights bravely and risks her life for the mission, which earns her respect from the crew. She also speaks regularly with Data, and they bond over their shared connection to Tasha. Ishara is still angry at Tasha for abandoning her, but Data speaks highly of Tasha as his friend. Ishara says that she now considers Data her friend and eventually decides to follow in Tasha's footsteps by joining Starfleet.
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16	Ishara has her tracking device removed and gives it to Data as a memento. Once the hostages have been pinpointed, she leads the rescue mission through the Alliance base and locates the room where they're being held. While the rest of the away team grabs the hostages, Ishara goes off alone. Data follows her and discovers that she's in the process of rigging a massive explosion, which will destroy the Alliance's security as a precursor to a massive Coalition invasion. All of her interactions with Data have been a ploy to facilitate this scheme. Data refuses to allow her to continue. With Riker's timely arrival, the two officers incapacitate Ishara and cancel the explosion.
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18	Ishara is brought back to the ship as a prisoner, but Picard decides to simply let her return to the planet. Ishara apologizes to Data for conning him, but claims that he is the closest thing that she's ever had to a friend. Data states only that his feelings cannot be hurt by her betrayal. After she leaves, Data silently contemplates the tracking device that Ishara gave him as a memento.
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20	!! Tropes in this episode include:
21	* BecomingTheMask: To a degree. Ishara mentions that her time with Data was the closest thing to a ''real'' friendship that she ever had, but that didn't stop her from betraying him.
22	* BewareTheNiceOnes: The Coalition's plan is foiled when Data stuns Ishara.
23	* CallBack: Data recalls the circumstances of [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil Tasha's death]], at the hands of "a malevolent entity" as a demonstration of its power.
24	* ADayInTheLimelight: An example of the very rare posthumous variety, since it centers on Tasha Yar, her planet, and her family. Unusually for this type, the character doesn't even appear in flashbacks.
25	* EatingTheEyeCandy: A rather humorously ambiguous example. After donning a form-fitting bodysuit, Ishara stands near Worf's station on the bridge. Worf casts several sidelong glances in her direction as Data states that Tasha's station was nearby. It's not clear whether Worf is simply affected by deja vu over seeing a Yar on the bridge, or whether he's developing a crush on Ishara. It's worth noting that Worf respects Ishara's bravery in combat and also hinted at a similar romantic interest in Tasha herself in her final episode.
26	* HellBentForLeather: The Coalition outfits all have baggy brown leather jackets.
27	* HostageSituation: The ''Enterprise'' is at Turkana because a pair of unfortunate freighter pilots bailed out of an exploding ship right into the colony, where they are promptly abducted.
28	* IDidWhatIHadToDo:
29	** Riker risks his own life to save Ishara.
30	--->'''Picard:''' You took some unnecessary personal risks, Number One.\
31	'''Riker:''' We lost Tasha on an away team under my command. The thought of the same thing happening to her sister--\
32	'''Picard:''' That's an emotional response, Will. We can't afford it.\
33	'''Riker:''' Understood. ''[walks off]''\
34	'''Picard:''' Commander? ''[Riker looks back at him]'' Well done.
35	** Ishara considers herself fully justified for deceiving Data and the other crewmembers, stating that it would be foolish not to take advantage of their presence to gain an advantage over the opposing faction.
36	* ILetGwenStacyDie: Riker still regrets Tasha's death from "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil Skin of Evil]]".
37	* ItsAllMyFault: Though wounded by Ishara's betrayal like everyone else, Picard concedes that they let their memories of Tasha cloud their better judgment.
38	* KarmaHoudini: Ishara doesn't pay for tricking the ''Enterprise'' into removing her tracking implant or for firing a phaser set to kill at Data and Riker. The worst that happens to her is that she feels a bit bad for manipulating Data.
39	* LawEnforcementInc: Both the Coalition and the Alliance were this for a while fifteen years ago, as the old Turkanan government awarded them police powers in a desperate attempt to maintain order. It didn't work; a few months later, the cadres decided that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness they didn't need the government any more]].
40	* LongLostRelative: Ishara to Tasha. She stayed behind on Turkana when Tasha escaped to a better life, and grew up considering Tasha a coward for not sticking it out like she did.
41	* LovingAShadow: The ''Enterprise'' crew wanted to believe that Tasha Yar's sister would share at least ''some'' of the same perspectives and beliefs she had, and this allowed her to trick them.
42	* MsFanservice: For no explicable reason, Ishara dons a form-fitting blue catsuit that emphasizes her excellent figure while hanging around the ship.
43	* MutualDisadvantage: The two factions are at a stalemate because both sides have biometric implants which are immediately registered by the opposing side's security system, ensuring that neither side can sneak up on the other. Ishara gets the crew to remove her implant, as part of her plan to disable the security system and end the stalemate.
44	* NothingPersonal: Ishara claims that befriending Data under false pretenses isn't anything to do with him, it's just a good tactic in her war against the Alliance.
45	* OrbitalBombardment: A non-lethal example, where the ''Enterprise'' uses her phasers to drill a 1.6 kilometer pit into the surface of Turkana IV so they can transport to an otherwise inaccessible location. (You'd think there'd be some legal and/or ethical issues with blasting a pit into a non-aligned, inhabited planet, but nobody raises an objection, nor does either Turkanan cadre react with anger to their planet being shot at.)
46	* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: The two factions are called the Coalition and the Alliance, but they act like rival street gangs.
47	* PowerOfTrust: Discussed during the final scene in response to Ishara tricking them all.
48	-->'''Riker:''' In all trust, there is the possibility of betrayal. I'm not sure you were prepared for that.\
49	'''Data:''' Were you prepared, sir?\
50	'''Riker:''' I don't think anybody ever is.\
51	'''Data:''' Hmm. Then it is better not to trust.\
52	'''Riker:''' Without trust, there's no friendship, no closeness, none of the emotional bonds that make us who we are.\
53	'''Data:''' And yet you put yourself at risk.\
54	'''Riker:''' ''[smiling]'' Every single time.\
55	'''Data:''' Perhaps I am fortunate, sir, to be spared the emotional consequences.\
56	'''Riker:''' Perhaps.
57	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
58	** After the deception is revealed, Picard still agrees to return Ishara to the Coalition. Riker says that he's more charitable than he would've been.
59	** Picard criticizes Riker for letting his emotions get in the way of his leadership when he rescued Ishara. After doing so, however, he still commends Riker on a job well done.
60	* ReplacementGoldfish: Everyone sees Ishara as this to her sister to some extent, enough to go from cynical and suspicious of Turkanians to trusting them as soon as Ishara reveals herself.
61	* ShoutOut: To ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. The final episode of TOS broadcast during the original run was number 79. This is the 80th episode of TNG. As a way to acknowledge this, the opening CaptainsLog states that they are bypassing their scheduled archaeological survey on Camus II. In TOS, the final episode had the crew visiting Camus II due to a distress signal from the archaeological expedition. This episode's title, "Legacy," is also partially a reference to TNG's relationship with TOS.
62	* ThatsAnOrder: Used by Riker when leading their first raid against the alliance. He tells Worf to stay to protect Geordi while Riker himself goes to retrieve Ishara. Worf objects, but Riker steadfastly orders him to stay with Geordi.
63	* TinMan: After telling Riker that he's spared the emotional consequences of a broken trust, Data steps outside the room and the viewer sees that he still has Ishara's crystal implant. He stares at it thoughtfully.
64	* UndergroundCity: The inhabitants of Turkana IV lives underground in a city that extends three km down, since the fighting destroyed the city on the surface.
65	* WeNeedADistraction:
66	** The rescue of the hostages proceeds in two stages. In the first, the away team needs to find and modify the freighter's escape pod so that they can track the hostages by the vital signs that it's monitoring. To draw the Alliance guards away from the pod, Ishara is beamed down into nearby Alliance territory, where her proximity implant sets off the intruder alarms.
67	** During the final confrontation, Riker shouts at Ishara. As she turns to fire on him, it gives Data the opportunity to fire on her.
68	* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Beverly notes that, however much the Coalition leader talks about keeping the "peace," there doesn't seem to be a lot of it around.

Context Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E6Legacy