Was it the 2 actresses choice to leave the show or did the producers/writers write them out? And in the case of McFadden, come back to show.
A question about Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden
- Thread starter Tracy Trek
- Start date
I read that both requested to leave. Denise left because she wanted to film movies. Gates left, according to what I read, because she was upset that Beverly and Jean-Luc were not having a romantic relationship, and she wanted her character to have a larger role on the program. Both eventually wanted to come back and were allowed to do so. It was easier for Gates because her character was still alive.
Alternatively, I recall reading in a Star Trek magazine that Gene wanted to focus on Worf and I think budget was also stated as an issue, so he chose Worf.
Then we have the story Marina told in that interview we talked about recently:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=274286
Then we have the story Marina told in that interview we talked about recently:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=274286
^ I think it was verbal harassment. (I won't name the names. It's not that difficult to search out the relevant accusations on Google, anyway.)
The most prevelant explanation (and the one that McFadden herself stands by) is that she was ''let go'', ie. fired. After said person left the series following the second season, Rick Berman, who prefered Crusher to Pulaski anyway, contacted McFadden and invited her back.
The Crosby situation is an interesting one. By all 'official' accounts she asked to leave (breaking her contract in the process) and Gene ''allowed'' her to go. But the manner in which she left, with the character being smited so that the actor/actress can never return, is a common way that TV producers deal with demanding actors. One might argue that Crosby 'jumped' too early, and it's notable that, having watched as The Next Generation went from strength to strength after her departure, she seems to have spent most of the next 15 years petitioning for ways to get herself back onto the series in some capacity, particularly with the character Sela...
The most prevelant explanation (and the one that McFadden herself stands by) is that she was ''let go'', ie. fired. After said person left the series following the second season, Rick Berman, who prefered Crusher to Pulaski anyway, contacted McFadden and invited her back.
The Crosby situation is an interesting one. By all 'official' accounts she asked to leave (breaking her contract in the process) and Gene ''allowed'' her to go. But the manner in which she left, with the character being smited so that the actor/actress can never return, is a common way that TV producers deal with demanding actors. One might argue that Crosby 'jumped' too early, and it's notable that, having watched as The Next Generation went from strength to strength after her departure, she seems to have spent most of the next 15 years petitioning for ways to get herself back onto the series in some capacity, particularly with the character Sela...
My recollection is that McFadden blames herself for her firing. These days she takes the line that she was going around in the first season making suggestions about things outside her purview, in much the same way that you would do when you're part of a theatre troupe on stage, which is her natural enviroment, and where everybody chips in with ideas to make the show better. But, when she applied that thinking to a TV production, she found herself being told ''You're an actor, not a director, so just shut up, hit your marks and say your lines''. She made a very powerful enemy in the early days, and nowadays she humbly submits that it was her own inexperience in television that got her fired back then.
Undoubtedly when she was invited back in season three, she came to it with a great degree more understanding of how the 'system' works (and, as time went on, she probably discovered herself being given more and more of the kind of clout to suggest things that she'd mistakenly assumed she'd had right at the beginning).
I'm not sure about the exactly circumstances, but I do know Muldaur herself declined a regular cast credit, because she felt she didn't want to step on the toes of any of the established regulars. Ironically, her getting a special seperate credit on every episode probably achieved the very outcome that she had wanted to avoid... by all accounts the only one of the main cast who took a shine to her was Michael Dorn.
Undoubtedly when she was invited back in season three, she came to it with a great degree more understanding of how the 'system' works (and, as time went on, she probably discovered herself being given more and more of the kind of clout to suggest things that she'd mistakenly assumed she'd had right at the beginning).
Terok Nor said:
I'm not sure about the exactly circumstances, but I do know Muldaur herself declined a regular cast credit, because she felt she didn't want to step on the toes of any of the established regulars. Ironically, her getting a special seperate credit on every episode probably achieved the very outcome that she had wanted to avoid... by all accounts the only one of the main cast who took a shine to her was Michael Dorn.
Ah, that's a shame. I'm glad Crusher came back but I wouldn't have minded Pulaski showing up once or twice. Now I know why that never happened
Initials MH
That's all I'm giving you
She apparently on the other hand had no problem being paid more than the majority of the series regulars, other than Stewart. Helps to be a personal friend of Roddenberry.
Asking to be released from a contract, in of itself, isn't breaking a contract. Crosby went about it in the proper fashion, requesting a release from her employers.
In my opinion she is right and has been right to petition to bring back Sela. The character line was never properly tied up, left more than enough potential to work with, and had the Nemesis script been shitcanned like it shoud have and completely re-plotted and re-written, the the film with a Romulan plot would have worked her in very nicely.
That final film should have done what the final TOS cast film did: leave on a hopeful note with the Romulans, properly move on some characters, and leave a window for the potential for another or some spin-off movie (they should have struck while the iron was hot and done a Captain Sulu film -- missed oppritunity).
I still think the Yar character had really nowhere to go (at least nowhere insteresting, had the Data/Yar story continued, in that respect), but Sela did. Yet what did we get? A crap shove in of Wesley (compeltely ignoring where the character had went), which was thankfully deleted. A fartless fart with Riker and Troi. And Michael Dorn running around trying to sell us on a Captain Worf movie. Barclay got more development in a fucking spin-off series for crying out loud; a later-series secondary character. O'Brien, too! Beverly might as well not have even been in the films -- she got more development in an alternate timeline.
It's not difficult to see why Crosby asked to leave. She got only one Yar centric episode and it was a racist piece of crap. Apart from that all she did was hump Data once and stand in the background. The most interesting thing she did besides Data was die at the hands of a plastic bag covered in shit.
It's never been confirmed, but it seems to me, from observation of the episodes, that the eleventh hour addition of Worf to the cast (so late that he wasn't even in the early photocalls) unbalanced everything. It seems like, despite him hating Bob Justman's idea for a 'Klingon Marine', Roddenberry or the writers took Dorn's performance to heart, and you can actually see through the first half of the season more and more episodes giving him roles that should by rights have been handled by Security Officer Yar. Once you know to look out for it, the whole thing becomes faintly ridiculous, culminating in the ultimate bitch-slap in Roddenberry's own ''Hide & Q'', where Q relegates Yar to a simpering hands off role in the penalty box before she can even lay a finger on him; meanwhile Worf gets to stay on the planet and tackle the Vicious Animal Things(tm) in hand-to-hand combat. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this was the very moment where Crosby finally said, ''Screw this, I'm outta here''.
I hadn't really considered the idea that Worf's character progression over the first season was subtly undermining Tasha's, but when you step back and look at it as a whole, yeah. On the other hand, hindsight is 20/20 and Dorn was a far better actor, and Worf being an alien character gave the writers all sorts of avenues for storytelling.
That said, I've got to disagree with tharp. Crosby was the weakest link in that cast, and her excellent performance in "Yesterday's Enterprise" aside, I've never had a burning desire to see Crosby return to do more TNG. Sela was an overrated character, and as bad as Nemesis was, putting her in it would not have improved it.
That said, I've got to disagree with tharp. Crosby was the weakest link in that cast, and her excellent performance in "Yesterday's Enterprise" aside, I've never had a burning desire to see Crosby return to do more TNG. Sela was an overrated character, and as bad as Nemesis was, putting her in it would not have improved it.
Muldaur was a much more experienced and established actress (and it shows in season two). Because of this, she likely commanded a much higher rate than the other regulars. That has nothing to do with being a personal friend to Roddenberry.
Further, Muldaur's agent probably negotiated a better deal and credit for her because of this.
I remember reading somewhere how Diana Muldaur's character on another show was written off in a screw-you-kinda way by the writers by having her character enter an elevator to find no elevator and only an elevator shaft. I think there is a hilarious clip of it on youtube... here it is
and here is Muldaur talking about it
I always like Dr. Pulaski, but I thought it was odd why Dr. Crusher left the show to run Starfleet Medical. And I was quite glad she came back
and here is Muldaur talking about it
I always like Dr. Pulaski, but I thought it was odd why Dr. Crusher left the show to run Starfleet Medical. And I was quite glad she came back
Ironically, Crushers lack of development in the films may come down to Patrick Stewart pushing for romantic interests for Picard. Earlier drafts of Insurrection probably would have given her borderline third billing, and Lily gets lines that should go to her in First Contact.
