Skin of Evil
"Skin of Evil" is the 23rd episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation; it first aired on April 25, 1988, in broadcast syndication.
In this episode, the Enterprise races to rescue Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) from a crashed shuttle, who is being held captive by Armus, an alien life-form (Mart McChesney, voiced by Ron Gans).
In investigating the crash, Lieutenant Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is killed by Armus; Troi is eventually rescued after Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) distracts the alien.
The away team is brought back to the Enterprise but the injuries to Yar are too great for Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) to remedy and they are unable to resuscitate her.
Troi has communicated with Armus and learned that it is a physical manifestation of evil from the bodies of an ancient race, abandoned on Vagra II.
Picard engages Armus in a heated discussion to discover its motive, which is to seek revenge on those that abandoned it on Vagra II.
It was the show's creator Gene Roddenberry who argued in favor of her sudden demise as he felt it was suitable for a security officer.
[5] Yar's memorial scene was filmed twice, the first was with Crosby reciting the lines while looking straight ahead, which was the director's preferred choice.
[2] Guest stars in "Skin of Evil" included Walker Boone as Leland T. Lynch, Brad Zerbst as a nurse and Raymond Forchion as Ben Prieto.
Armus was originally intended to be based on the Mummenschanz theatre group style, but was discarded in favor of a "shroud" type creature.
A test was made using a melting miniature figure of Armus with the intention to play it in reverse, but it didn't provide the required effect.
Michael Westmore and Gerald Quist spent a day sculpting the head, while the construction of the body was outsourced to an external company.
Although the head was designed to enable the clearing of McChesney's airways quickly should there be a problem, no oxygen tank was included in the construction and so he had to hold his breath whilst under the surface of the oil.
He also felt that it was one of Troi's better episodes, but that Armus "fails in every possible way as a villain, and that’s entirely on the backs of the people doing the visual effects and the voice casting.
"[14] IGN reviewer RL Shaffer thought it was a "silly episode, riddled with terrible dialogue, that's only notable because of Tasha Yar's untimely death".
[18] In May 2019, The Hollywood Reporter ranked "Skin of Evil" among the top twenty five episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, highlighting how hard it was for the crew to lose a team member.
