Star Trek The Next Generation
S3E15
· Yesterday's Enterprise

You're Not Supposed to Be Here

In Ten-Forward Guinan delivers a cold, existential revelation: when she reads the alternate timeline Tasha Yar should not exist—her original fate was death, and a death that carried no meaning. The disclosure shatters Tasha's footing, converting confusion into a hard, practical question about purpose. This quiet, intimate scene is a turning point: it rips identity from accident to choice, setting up Tasha's need to refuse an 'empty' death and instead seek a deliberate, consequential sacrifice that will matter to history.

Plot Beats

The narrative micro-steps within this event

2

Tasha confronts Guinan, demanding to know her fate in the alternate timeline, sensing deeper truths in Guinan's reactions.

curiosity to dread ['Ten-Forward bar']

Guinan reveals the shattering truth: Tasha wasn't meant to exist in this timeline and should already be dead—a death without purpose.

dread to resolve ['Ten-Forward bar']

Who Was There

Characters present in this moment

2
Guinan
Ten-Forward bartender
 primary

Calm and solemn outwardly; privately urgent and weighted by the knowledge that this truth forces painful choices on others.

Standing behind the Ten-Forward bar, Guinan meets Tasha's direct questions with calm restraint and delivers a grave, concise revelation that she previously shared with the captain. Her manner is steady, almost clinical in its simplicity, but morally heavy.

Goals in this moment
  • • Convey her intuitive certainty about Tasha's place in the alternate timeline without sensationalism.
  • • Prompt Tasha to reckon with the implications of her existence in this timeline.
  • • Protect the emotional integrity of the crew by being honest while not prescribing Tasha's response.
Active beliefs
  • • Her intuition about timelines is meaningful and morally consequential.
  • • Some truths must be spoken plainly even when they cause pain.
  • • Tasha's continued presence is anomalous and therefore ethically problematic.
Character traits
even-tempered intuitive discreet moral clarity matter-of-fact
Follow Guinan's journey
Tasha Yar
Lieutenant (Chief of Security)
 primary

Startled and unsettled; curiosity hardens into contemplative alarm as she processes the meaning of an 'empty' death and the implication that her life here is anomalous.

Approaches Guinan alone, asks direct questions about her fate, and receives Guinan's revelation; she is outwardly composed at first but becomes visibly shaken as the information reframes her identity and forces immediate inward calculation.

Goals in this moment
  • • Get a truthful answer about what her fate is in the alternate timeline.
  • • Test the reliability of Guinan's intuition and its consequences for her own sense of self.
  • • Begin to determine whether she should accept, resist, or redefine the fate suggested to her.
Active beliefs
  • • Knowing the truth about her fate is necessary to make meaningful choices.
  • • Her presence on the Enterprise must have significance; empty death would be unacceptable.
  • • Guinan's insights are credible enough to warrant immediate personal reassessment.
Character traits
curious direct vulnerable beneath bravado introspective
Follow Tasha Yar's journey

Narrative Connections

How this event relates to others in the story

What this causes 3
Causal

"Guinan's revelation to Tasha about her fate leads directly to Tasha's request to transfer to the Enterprise-C."

Yar's Chosen Sacrifice
S3E15 · Yesterday's Enterprise
Character Continuity medium

"Tasha's resolve after learning her fate leads directly to her transfer to the Enterprise-C."

Tasha's Tactical Resolve
S3E15 · Yesterday's Enterprise
Thematic Parallel

"Tasha's confrontation with her meaningless original death contrasts with her later choice to die meaningfully."

Yar's Chosen Sacrifice
S3E15 · Yesterday's Enterprise

Part of Larger Arcs

Tasha Yar's confrontation with a predestined death: learning (from Guinan) that she 'does not belong' in this timeline and deciding whether to accept fatal destiny or reclaim agency by making her death meaningful.

Key Dialogue

"GUINAN: We weren't meant to know each other at all. Or that's what I sense when I look at you."
"GUINAN: You're not supposed to be here, Tasha."
"GUINAN: No. But I know that it was an empty death. A death without purpose."