Sela

[USS Excelsior]

An interesting character no doubt, and I always thought that her being a starship Commander at her age to be a bit of a stretch.

But I thought it would have been more interesting if they had used the alternate Tasha instead as the Romulan Commander instead who turned villian.

 

[Kegek]

USS Excelsior said:
An interesting character no doubt,

On the contrary, I am filled with doubt on that assertion.

Sela was bland, completely un-menacing, and had a backstory that was hopelessly contrived.

and I always thought that her being a starship Commander at her age to be a bit of a stretch.

Not as much as a stretch as being the half-Romulan daughter of time-travelling alternate universe Tasha Yar, Picard's old tactical officer, who just happens to run across Picard as his current tactical officer is using his political clout in the Klingon Civil War against the faction Sela is secretly backing. Yes, interstellar warfare can be charted back to the who's who of the Enterprise tactical/security divisions.

But I thought it would have been more interesting if they had used the alternate Tasha instead as the Romulan Commander instead who turned villian.

But that'd mean old age makeup for Denise Crosby, no ears... and kind of work character assassination on her depiction in "Yesterday's Enterprise", basically the best Yar vehicle.

There's an easier solution: More Tomalak!

 

[Sisu]

Que Sela, Sela.....

 

[Kegek]

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here's what she said to me:

Que Sela, Sela,
A villain you'll be, you'll be
You'll kill me with cries, you see
Que Sela, Sela
A Romulan Commander you'll be.

When I was young, I commanded a fleet
Menaced a bald man, all nice and neat
He asked who I was, all quite discreet
And this was my reply:

Que Sela, Sela,
Yar's daughter alternately,
Plot contrivances hard to see,
Que Sela, Sela
Conspiring with Klingons I'll be.

Now I have dissidents to disown
Their Vulcan arches an eyebrow, quite alone
He asks my name made known
I tell him contemptuously:

Que Sela, Sela,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's ours, you see,
Que Sela, Sela
Conquering Vulcan I'll be.

(Some moron had to steal a perfectly good joke and beat it into the ground. )

 

[Outpost4]

Very clever.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Someone want to rework Louie louie?

 

[D Man]

As a kid, I never once questioned Sela's backstory. I'd seen "Yesterday's Enterprise" but didn't take notice of the "everybody died" line about the ENT-C. Looking at it now, it's a bit odd that Tasha was somehow captured from a battle which had no survivors, but I don't really mind it too much. I still love her reveal and the line about humans showing up in unexpected places at the end of "Redemption," though.

 

[Gkar]

There's an easier solution: More Tomalak!

I couldn't agree more!

 

[D Man]

Tomalak was one of TNG's best characters, it was a real shame he didn't show up more often. Also a shame that the mini-arc they had going with the Romulans in season 3 was basically dropped, and the next time the Romulans really mattered was during Sela's Evil Plan®...where her armada apparently was unable to fly up and over Picard's blockade.

 

[Vanyel]

D Jazzy Man said:
As a kid, I never once questioned Sela's backstory. I'd seen "Yesterday's Enterprise" but didn't take notice of the "everybody died" line about the ENT-C. Looking at it now, it's a bit odd that Tasha was somehow captured from a battle which had no survivors, but I don't really mind it too much. I still love her reveal and the line about humans showing up in unexpected places at the end of "Redemption," though.

The only time it's suggested that everyone on the Enterprise-C died is during the alternate time line of Yesterday's Enterprise. Wesley makes a remark about that cruiser [The Enterprise-C] was destroyed with a loss of all hands. Data corrects him by saying "presumed lost".

Then in Redemption Picard tells Guinan there were rumors of survivors of the Enterprise-C. Later Sela confirms this to be true.

 

[Vanyel]

D Jazzy Man said:
Tomalak was one of TNG's best characters, it was a real shame he didn't show up more often. Also a shame that the mini-arc they had going with the Romulans in season 3 was basically dropped, and the next time the Romulans really mattered was during Sela's Evil Plan®...where her armada apparently was unable to fly up and over Picard's blockade.

Never in the history of Star Trek has one fleet gone around another.

However it could be easy enough to explain. The net's size is never clearly defined. It could have been to big to go around in time. Remember Picard had Gowron attack the Duras fleet hard so that they'd need immediate supplies? If the net was too big it may have taken them too long to go around.

On the other hand once they came close enough to the Enterprise-D her sensors may have been able to detect the movement of a large fleet. It has been implied in several episodes that the cloak was not perfect and that Federation sensors could get a idea of where the cloaked ship was, but not enough to lock weapons.

 

[greenmystik]

Then why not have Sela's fleet fan out and out flank the net...less ships in one area the harder it would be to detect them. IMO the battle tactics displayed in TNG were pretty horrible and one dimensional.

 

[Vanyel]

greenmystik said:
Then why not have Sela's fleet fan out and out flank the net...less ships in one area the harder it would be to detect them. IMO the battle tactics displayed in TNG were pretty horrible and one dimensional.

The battle tactics in ALL of Trek have been 2 dimensional. The attack by the Klingon's on DS9 all came from above or straight on. Voyager, TOS and Enterprise all had the same problem. The ships all fought on the same plane. The only time we see something different is in All Good Things... when the Enterprise-D came up from underneath (the Z axis?) to attack the Klingons.

Back to ignoring the glaring problem in all of Trek.

I'll just stick to the idea that the net was too large to go around in time to help the Duras.

 

[Dorothy_Zbornak]

Kegek said:

USS Excelsior said:
An interesting character no doubt,

On the contrary, I am filled with doubt on that assertion.

Sela was bland, completely un-menacing, and had a backstory that was hopelessly contrived.

and I always thought that her being a starship Commander at her age to be a bit of a stretch.

Not as much as a stretch as being the half-Romulan daughter of time-travelling alternate universe Tasha Yar, Picard's old tactical officer, who just happens to run across Picard as his current tactical officer is using his political clout in the Klingon Civil War against the faction Sela is secretly backing. Yes, interstellar warfare can be charted back to the who's who of the Enterprise tactical/security
divisions.

Especially in the Romulan Empire where racial stock is apparently highly regarded--Bochra's line in "The Enemy" about "defective" children being aborted certainly rings true of this, as was the disregard for the Remans in Nemesis.

And really, Sela was just stupid - how many children look IDENTICAL to their parent?

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

^^^

You must be new to the conventions of television as a whole.

 

[Kegek]

^
Just because it's a convention doesn't make it any less stupid. Zbornak is dead on the money here.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

^^^
I've never had a problem with it. On every single TV show they've done this (and I can't count that high), it's always been a "Cool, same actor".

If they had a different actress, what exactly would that have changed, storywise? More dialogue and exposition.

Besides. It wasn't a vehicle for the character. It was for the actress. I thought it was a welcomed sight. And it allowed for a FANTASTIC line, delivered quite well.

"Like most humans, they have a way of showing up when least expected". I was grinning from ear to ear with that one when I first say it. Worked on every level.

 

[zenophite]

I'm with Kegek and Zbornak on this one. As i posted elsewhere, Sela was just really bad sci-fi soap opera.
The plausibility of her being born in such a society as we might assume the Romulan one to be seems to be quite a stretch.

Besides her hair-do alone was enough to strip paint off walls with the power of ugly.

On the whole, aside from a really cool warbird design, TNG really mishandled the Romulans generally IMO.

 

[MadBaggins]

Reenise Crosbye

The main problem with Sela is that she was played by the worst actress in the history of Trek.

 

[Kegek]

Denise Crosby? Eh, there's probably been worse, but she's not stellar. SHe certainly didn't make a good villain, though.