Question about Dr. Crusher/Gates McFadden
- Thread starter indycar
- Start date
Michael Dorn talked on the season 2 blu ray about how much he liked and respected Diana Muldaur. I was at a convention in Toronto a couple years ago for a TNG cast reunion and when Gates touched upon the fans playing a role in her return to the show, Marina Sirtis took a swipe at Muldaur's trouble with remembering some of her lines.
Here's an interesting thing, most of the writers on TNG have somewhat hinted at a preference for Pulaski over Crusher and I think had Diana Muldaur wanted to stay for another season Crusher wouldn't have been brought back.
I'm sure they enjoyed writing a character who was a bit more flinty and prone to conflict with the other characters. And they obviously wanted a new version of the Spock/McCoy feud with Pulaski and Data. The trouble was, Data was too guileless to ever return Pulaski's insults in kind, so it just came off as kicking a puppy.
Pulaski did get very vicious. Data was no more than a tricorder. Data was too nice to respond and it fell to LaForge or someone else to defend him. If that was supposed to be a McCoy & Spock redux it was misunderstood and mismanaged and its unsurprising that it wasn't popular. With Spock, he was well able for McCoy and vice versa.
She annoyed Stewart because she needed cue cards at times.
Muldaur wanted out, she was in tears at various points during the season and she apparently made the decision to be done with it when she had to put on the old age make up.
For me, what she delivered on TNG was very strong stuff. I would've been cool with her continuing on.
She annoyed Stewart because she needed cue cards at times.
Muldaur wanted out, she was in tears at various points during the season and she apparently made the decision to be done with it when she had to put on the old age make up.
For me, what she delivered on TNG was very strong stuff. I would've been cool with her continuing on.
Muldaur did a good job but she never had any real chemistry with the group. The writers seemed to only put her at odds with other characters.
Muldaur is a great actress and objectively the character of Pulaski was a better character than Crusher. The problem is she was just so damned unlikeable. Crusher may have been inoffensive and dull but at least she was pleasant. In Crusher's defence, they did try to develop her character in the last 2 seasons with episodes like Suspicions, Descent Part 2, Attached, Sub Rosa and All Good Things. Some better than others....
Sub Rosa was a dreadful episode. For me, McFadden brought home the bacon in Ethics.
I never felt like that was what they were going for. If anything, I always felt that Pulaski was more of an antagonist for Picard -- which was made all the more beautiful by the fact that she had been an admirer of his for some time (at least according to Captain Taggart). They were both strong willed, and it worked... at least for me.
I think the back and forth with Data was par for the course. Pulaski wasn't the first or the last to treat Data like a walking calculator at first, and I'm glad we got the chance to see her opinion soften a bit with time.
Wow.
This I had not heard. I can certainly see that being an epic annoyance. Even kids in a high school play manage to perform without cue cards. That such a thing happened on a production with professional actors is pretty astounding. That's a pity. But she should have known better. It's Star Trek after all. Is there anybody on the cast who managed to escape Westmore's chair?
Agreed 100%
A bit OT, but this question got me thinking. The only one in the regular cast that I can think of that may have gotten away without special makeup was Wil Wheaton. I don't recall any alien disguises or other major makeup being required for Wesley.
This also led me to read WC's Memory-Alpha entry, I think the fact that Wesley was supposed to represent Roddenberry is pretty well known now, but Justman's suggestion of making Wesley a 15 y.o. girl, with similar smarts is a pretty interesting idea. Imagine what having a prominent, strong female character that excels in science and engineering (especially in the 80s) could have done for STEM degrees.
I've never heard this claim before, so I'm curious as to your source for it?
If true, it showed in Pulaski/Worf being the only time I felt she had any real chemistry with another character.
There were three things about Diana Muldaur that reportedly upset Patrick Stewart. One was that yes she had trouble with her lines (mostly the technobabble) and they had to resort to putting cue cards, second was that she was making almost the same amount of money as him, thirdly Diana demanded a more comfortable uniform and got it (Stewart had been campaigning since the first season to get more comfortable uniforms because he was developing back pain from the spandex uniforms...that would finally happen in season 3). TNG Director Paul Lynch once admitted (at a convention I think) that Stewart was very rude to Muldaur, along with other cast members, and she left the set in tears a couple times.
I can't remember where I saw/read this but after Gates McFadden was fired, the original plan was to hire an older English actress to play the new doctor. The original actress they were interested in was Christina Pickles of St. Elsewhere fame. Due to the writer's strike, they lost Pickles to another project and Roddenberry decided to invite Muldaur.
On the season 2 blu ray Melinda Snodgrass says that the original intention for the Pulaski character was to be a foil to Picard but that most of it was combed out of the scripts because Gene didn't want conflict between the characters and as such they never really found the character.
As for Pulaski and Data with the benefit of the blu rays, I like this arc because it reflects part of the season 2 story line of is Data a living being or not. At first Pulaski just sees him as a glorified computer but by the end of the season, you can see she's developed real affection for him. I can understand how originally people didn't like her response to Data, but being able to binge watch the whole season nowadays, the arc plays off way better than I remembered.
Pulaski was a far more interesting character and I would have loved to see how she would have developed, but in all honesty Beverly Crusher probably was a better fit in terms of the overall tone of the show.
Diana Muldaur has always asserted that she knew she would only be on the show for one year. Interestingly there is a interview with Marina Sirtis on a Rod Roddenberry podcast where Sirtis says that during the filming of The Child, Muldaur told her that she was going to do TNG for one year and was doing it as a favor to Gene.
I heard that claim as an anecdote at a convention in the early 90s. It stayed in my mind because I regarded both Stewart and Muldaur to be top veteran actors and I was surprised there was tension between the two. I don't have a published source for it although that she used cue cards is in the Memory Alpha Unnatural Selection entry.
The cue cards stuff doesn't faze me as long as the performance delivered on screen is strong and obviously there's no detectable evidence that she's reading it. And there isn't with her. She performed strongly with the material she was given and given the harsh nature of some of the technobabble I can understand that might just be outside of the range of many otherwise strong actors.
Sirtis gave full credit to Spiner on him learning his lines. Sirtis would relate that the actors sometimes would be practicing their lines right before going on set not having learnt them to the nth degree. Not the case with Spiner. He had all that stuff nailed before he arrived to shoot and was never seen practicing at the last minute. And given the punishing schedule, the perplexing pitter-patter he'd have to deliver and that he was on screen almost all of the time, hats off to him for that.
David Warner got cue cards for Chain of Command as he was a last minute hiring for that role and wasn't able to fully absorb the script. He still gave a grand performance.
David Warner got cue cards for Chain of Command as he was a last minute hiring for that role and wasn't able to fully absorb the script. He still gave a grand performance.
I think it's worth noting that right after she left TNG, Muldaur went over to the series L.A. Law, a very popular and well-regarded series at the time, and got two Emmy nominations as cutthroat lawyer Rosalind Shays (Hmm... A former Trek star winning acclaim for playing a lawyer? Where else have I heard of that? 
).
According to Wikipedia, Muldaur retired from show business shortly after her character was written out of L.A. Law, outside of voice work on Batman: The Animated Series.
). According to Wikipedia, Muldaur retired from show business shortly after her character was written out of L.A. Law, outside of voice work on Batman: The Animated Series.
I think it's worth noting that right after she left TNG, Muldaur went over to the series L.A. Law, a very popular and well-regarded series at the time, and got two Emmy nominations as cutthroat lawyer Rosalind Shays (Hmm... A former Trek star winning acclaim for playing a lawyer? Where else have I heard of that?
According to Wikipedia, Muldaur retired from show business shortly after her character was written out of L.A. Law, outside of voice work on Batman: The Animated Series.
Muldaur has always credited her work on TNG for getting her on L.A. Law. I was a big L.A. Law fan back in the day, and the type of work she got there played much better to her strengths as an actress.
Muldaur never technically retired apparently her husband was diagnosed with cancer and they relocated to her native Martha's Vineyard. He had a long battle with cancer and ultimately passed away in 2012.
I wish TNG would have made reference what happened to Pulaski after season 2. My explanation is that Crusher's promotion to head of Starfleet medical was always temporary and that she was there to help reorganize things after the events of Conspiracy.
Wang, Beltran and Russ were quite open about having their lines taped on their consoles during the Bridge scenes. Make of that what you will.
I didn't mind Pulaski but didn't miss her when she left. I thought it a bit odd that Crusher would go and leave her underage son on a Starship. I know...he was mature and super smart and all that but...I just thought it a bit odd.
I think it's worth noting that right after she left TNG, Muldaur went over to the series L.A. Law, a very popular and well-regarded series at the time, and got two Emmy nominations as cutthroat lawyer Rosalind Shays (Hmm... A former Trek star winning acclaim for playing a lawyer? Where else have I heard of that?
According to Wikipedia, Muldaur retired from show business shortly after her character was written out of L.A. Law, outside of voice work on Batman: The Animated Series.
I wish TNG would have made reference what happened to Pulaski after season 2. My explanation is that Crusher's promotion to head of Starfleet medical was always temporary and that she was there to help reorganize things after the events of Conspiracy.
I remember reading once that Dr. Pulaski fell down a turbolift shaft to her death. I didn't know about her role in LA Law at the time so I didn't realize it was an in-joke
I'd love to remember where I read that.
I remember reading once that Dr. Pulaski fell down a turbolift shaft to her death. I didn't know about her role in LA Law at the time so I didn't realize it was an in-joke
That's funny. Cold, but funny.
