We saw Data still has a fondness for Tasha Yar in Star Trek: Picard.
In a scene that felt more at home in the Never Ending Story than it did in Star Trek, Data was able to defeat Lore with the power of memories. In Picard’s most recent episode, “Surrender”, Data, who’s sharing a brain with Lore, was able to defeat his brother by sharing his memories with him. Seriously, that’s how it happened.
Among the memories was Data’s time as Sherlock, his pet cat, and a hologram of deceased Enterprise-D chief security officer, Natasha Yar. The memory sharing worked, Lore was deleted from existence and now only Data remains. Probably.
It was a silly, but also a touching moment to relieve some of Data’s greatest hits. And while some may wonder why Data has a hologram of Tasha, it actually makes total sense when you realize they had a very…special…bond with one another.
Data and Natasha Yar shared a special encounter during Star Trek: The Next Generation
Going all the way back to season one, episode three of The Next Generation, we see Tasha Yar under the influence of a space-born illness that lowers people’s inhabitations. Can’t make this up. For some reason, this hits Tasha the hardest and she starts dressing rather oddly, almost pasting her hair to the side of her head and wearing revealing clothing.
This illness caused her to then seek out Data, who was….shall we say, fully functional we found out, and apparently “spent the night” with the android. Once things have been resolved, Tasha had Data keep the moment to himself but it clearly is a moment that has stayed with Data.
Even though he technically can’t forget anything, he can clearly prioritize which memories he cherishes the most and even though it was through unconventional circumstances, Data still holds Tasha in high regard. So it makes total sense that he’d include her among his favorite memories.