• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Which Doctor Did You Like Better...Dr. Crusher or Dr. Pulaski?

The supposed romance between Picard & Crusher was never going anywhere, but there wouldn't have been any of that with Pulaski anyway, and so you would've had a stronger, more experienced doctor, and someone that could've been a confidant for Picard, and someone that had a bit more bite to them, and could've stood up to him when he was in the wrong.

Crusher did stand up to him when he was wrong (and even also when she was wrong but understandably so).
 
I'm rewatching TNG season two now and I've finally pinned down something about Pulaski that's always bothered me (aside from the fantastic racism): her line delivery. I don't know if this is how Diana Muldaur actually felt but it sounds as though she either doesn't understand or doesn't care about most of the things she's saying. Sometimes she sounds so stilted it's as if she's reading out loud off cue cards.
 
I have to say I liked Pulaski better. She kicked a$$ (including Data's ) and wasn't afraid to die ("Unnatural Selection").

Whereas Beverly "naturally selected" Wesley.
 
I have to say I liked Pulaski better. She kicked a$$ (including Data's ) and wasn't afraid to die ("Unnatural Selection").

Whereas Beverly "naturally selected" Wesley.

Had not been there (Pulaski), there wouldn't be here (ST Picard: Moriarty, Season 3).

Elementary Dear Data!
 
I wish Pulaski had been the doctor all 7 years; I wish she had been a relation to McCoy; McCoy's appearance in Farpoint should have been to see her off.

I :adore:LOVE:adore: your idea. She could've been a granddaughter or great granddaughter or great great granddaughter of Dr. McCoy. That would've been so cool. It would have definitely explained why she was so much like McCoy. :sigh:Too bad no one on TNG at that time thought of it.
:bolian::borg::cardie::klingon::rommie::vulcan: <---This represents Star Trek aliens who agree with me. A Bolian, Hugh the Borg, Garak, Mr. Worf, one of the young Romulans in the 2-parter Unification and Mr. Spock. LOL.
 
Oh!

It would appear everything and everyone likes Pulaski better.

How unfortunate: C. Gates McFadden vs. Diana C. Muldaur. I love Beverly, but still...

No contest. Pulaski rules. OTE.

(It's been many a years coming)
 
She kicked a$$ (including Data's )
She abused him for being different. She was prejudiced. Being prejudiced is not "kicking ass" Or what else are you talking about?
and wasn't afraid to die ("Unnatural Selection").
I know I'm a bit of a broken record, but Beverly did show that she wasn't afraid to get herself hurt or die either. Her actions in "The High Ground" are the best example.
Whereas Beverly "naturally selected" Wesley.

What is that even supposed to mean? That she gave birth to him?
 
Ok. I'll take you on Orphalesion.

She was prejudiced. Every time she called Data, Daataah (with the unforgivable British accent, Data corrected her and she didn't care). But her prejudice created a way, over 30 years later, for Data/Lore and Moriarty to come back. We'll have to wait and watch where that goes when Picard S3 airs, but I've always loved TNG's version of Moriarty best (more even than Sherlock or House).

I think the problem is this: Data, being such a well rounded and complex character (next only to Spock, if that) poses a central challenge for us hoomans: we either treat him too much as a human (Picard, Measure of a Man) or not enough (Bruce Maddox, same episode). The point that gets lost is that Data isn't human, but, for his sentience, has every claim to every right that humans claim for themselves.

Into this picture, I feel, Pulaski inserts herself magnificently, neither too much to the left nor to the right. She's neither all-understanding Picard nor all-consuming Maddox. She simply asks, if a "computer" can really solve a problem beyond its programming. And thereafter the story unfolds brilliantly.

I think Pulaski, and much later, Picard, struggle with this central question: Data exposes the limits of humans, but are there limits to Data as well? Emotions, friendships, daughters...?

I love Data.
 
Pulaski. She had fire, an arc in her relationship with Data (going from disdain to support), challenged Picard as a character, and grew beyond her origins as a McCoy-clone.

Crusher, on the other hand, was nothing more than Janice Rand with a medical degree, and a character very much in service of two male characters--Wesley and Picard.

Yep. I've come around to that opinion. As a kid, I was probably drawn to the soft motherliness of Crusher. Pulaski embodied a mean vice principal.

Now I imagine Beverly Bland with her pinking shears and granny gowns while Pulaski is hanging out in 10F smoking cigars and pounding a bourbon shot between each flight of craft beer.
 
There's a reason nobody ever thinks or talks about Pulaski. Nothingburger, forgettable character.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top