Back in the old days when STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION was still in its first run, one of the more notable episodes was "Redemption: Part II", wherein Denise Crosby returned not as Tasha Yar, but as Sela, Tasha Yar's own daughter. When, in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", the Enterprise-C returned to its original timeline from the alternate-the-Federation-is-getting-its-ass-whupped-timeline created when Enterprise-C was kicked into the future, the not-killed-by-black-porridge-monster Tasha Yar of that alternate-future returned with it, surviving the Enterprise-C's final battle but being captured by the Romulans, eventually bearing a child, Sela, by a sympathetic captor. The alternate-Tasha was captured and executed after trying to escape with her young daughter. Sela was raised as a Romulan, and became an enemy of the Federation. (Are you with me so far?)
This was when I was still trying to sell movie scripts after having sold my own episode, "Clues", to ST:TNG. But I still pitched story ideas to ST:TNG several times before the Toxic Boss From Hell threw a spanner into my writing gears (that unpleasant story told here), so when I cleaned out my office recently, a file folder of some of those story ideas came to light. One of them was intended as a direct follow-up to the mystery of Sela. I think subsequent episodes made my story idea obsolete before I had a chance to make the actual pitch. But I thought it was a pretty good idea, so I present it here for the edification of the masses and, y'know, History!
"However Improbable"
(Picard tries to solve the mystery of Sela, the impossible daughter of Tasha Yar.)
With Sela, Picard faces the greatest puzzle of his career. If this woman is actually Tasha's daughter, how could she be?
There may be one way to find out: In the records of the original Enterprise is a description of a 'machine', the "Guardian of Forever", which reputedly can provide access to all of time and all possible times. It is the nearest thing to omniscient that the Federation has yet found.
The Enterprise heads to the Guardian's planet. After Kirk & Company had returned from their adventure years earlier, the Guardian had, apparently, shut itself down. It had resisted all efforts at activation and analysis since then. An unmanned station had been left there, to warn of any activity or the approach of any ship,
Picard's efforts to rouse the Guardian are to no avail. Then -- surprise! -- Sela comes on the scene. Seeking to regain face after the debacle of the Klingon civil war, and noting that the Enterprise was heading towards a planet the Federation appeared to hav deliberately concealed information on, she had cloaked her ship and followed the Enterprise.
It is the presence of Sela that activates the Guardian. She is a chronic anomaly, the result of events that could not have occurred in the natural course of destiny.
The arrival of Sela and her guards, the sudden activity of the Guardian, all cause a pitched conflict. The end result of which is that Picard, Data, and Sela go thru the Guardian's portal.
And end up... on the Romulan home planet, twenty-six years before, shortly before the altrnate-Tasha's doomed escape attempt.
Which is great from Sela's point of view: She's got twenty-six years of advance information she can give the Romulans.
Picard and data subdue Sela, disguise themselves, and enter the Romulan capitol in search of... answers.
Eventually they reach the alternate-Tasha. And learn this is not the Tasha they knew, but one from a universe where the Federation had been fighting a losing war against both the Romulans and Klingons.
But the arrival of Picard and data gives Tasha back the hope she had lost, the hope that she might someday return to Federation space, even one differing from her own
Tasha insists on meeting the grown Sela. She is shocked to see what her daughter has grown to become. It increases her resolve to escape her captivity, and to take her young daughter with her.
The story can go two ways from here:
VERSION A: Sela is also affected by th meeting. She had previously nown her mother only thru her four-year-old's memories. Now she sees Tasha with an adult's intelligence and reasoning. And she sees a woman loyal to her people, loyal to her child. A woman that Sela has to respect.
And when, during the escape attempt, the caper is blown and capture is imminent, Sela knocks out Tasha, swaps clothing, and takes her place. When Sela-as-Tasha is executed, that triggers a return of the portal to return Picard, Data, and Tasha to their proper place.
Which means that only Picard and data return to the Enterprise they know. The alternate-Tasha has been returned to her own universe, to a fate unknown.
VERSION B: But despite Picard's efforts to persuade Tasha to a different course, to change history, Tasha is still betrayed by the young Sela, caught, and executed.
Returning to their own time, Picard is not only wracked by his own guilt, but Sela now considers him doubly responsible for her mother's death. She departs, an even worse enemy than before.
Well, there you go. I like to think that this pitch actually got bought, produced and broadcast, in some alternate timeline.
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