'IT does know how to do these things, dosen't it?"

[Therin of Andor]

He may have been a specialist scientist of some kind, who holds a doctorate. Not necessarily a GP or having the broad skills to be a CMO. Wiki describes him as "a Starfleet scientist, specializing in xenology and exobiology".

I never got the feeling from Geordi's examination discussions with Crusher or Pulaski about his eyes that his father was a medical GP who'd already explored all the options.

Although she wore red, wasn't there also "Dr Anne Mulhall" in TOS? Not a GP, but holding a doctorate. So wearing blue wouldn't mean "definitely medical doctor".

 

[Therin of Andor]

Trekker4747 said:
I always heard that Pulaksi/Muldar left becaus TPTB realized that Pulaski wasn't working and rather than have 3 doctors in as many years McFadden was invited back (at the insistance of Stewart.)

Muldaur had chosen not to sign a five year contract, hence her "Special Appearance by..." credit and, therefore, she was within her rights to request not to be available for the first three episodes of Season Three so she could film "The Return of McCloud" reunion telemovie.

Rather than introduce a third CMO, they realized that inviting back Gates McFadden would solve a huge problem rather efficiently - and, at the same time, pacify those fans who were still demanding McFadden's return, but without looking like they were pandering to those demands - and satisfy Stewart, too.

 

[DrTaylor]

I'm not talking about the bridge officers, though. I'm just talking in general. Bruce Maddox had a similar function - explore exactly what Data is. When Data's in a position to defend his humanity or whatever you wanna call that, it makes us think about his humanity and define what exactly we see Data as.

 

[Jon1701]

As others have remarked, Pulaski was only really horrible to Data for the first few episodes. I didnt really like her at the time, and I was glad when she was replaced.

With the benefit of hindsight, she was a much stronger character than Crusher and I could see her and Data becoming much stronger friends over time. Lets face it, s2 (which I think is a good season by the way) was still fairly creaky for everyone. I think Pulaski would grown throughout the series. I think its a shame she left.

Lets be honest, Crusher didnt get that much to do till season 7 when Jeri Taylor had the reins.

 

[Photoman15]

Noname Given said:

Seven Of Five said:
But Pulaski grew to like Data. It was almost like character development!

I liked Pulaski, especially compared to season 1-Crusher but I agree that it was a poor attempt at a Spock/McCoy-type dynamic. She's still a big reason that I like season 2 though.

My main problem with the character (and this was in no way Dianna Muldar's faukt as she had to play what was written) was that she was SUCH an obvious 'Doctor Leonard McCoy' clone right down to the:

"I'm just an old country doctor"

and the

"I don't like to have my molecules scatter across the Galaxy" distrust of the transporter.

Not to mention that is a few of the early Pulaski/Data 'heated' exchanges they lifted some McCoy/Spock lines DIRECTLY from the earlier TOS episodes, and the Spock lines just didn't work for the Data character.

I find it funny that for all the flak later Star Trek spinoffs get for being 'unoriginal'; TNG (and Gene Roddenbery) often get what I see as a free pass on this blatent (and imo unoriginal) female McCoy character rip off.

Plus, I find it really interesting that the ONLY reason the character was shelved, and McFadden brought back was because Muldar had a scheduling conflict that made her unavailable for the first three season three episodes; so the producers fired her and decided to bring McFadden back.

If not for that, we mght have gotten a season or two more of the blatent Leonard McCoy ripoff.

I don't know. I always thought of Pulaski as possibly being Joanna McCoy's daughter.

 

[A beaker full of death]

14thDoctor said:
But really, isn't it odd that Pulaski was the only person on the ship who seemed to regard Data as a machine instead of a person?

She was the only one with any balls.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Noname Given said:


My main problem with the character (and this was in no way Dianna Muldar's faukt as she had to play what was written) was that she was SUCH an obvious 'Doctor Leonard McCoy' clone

Well wasn't that the year of the writer's strike, and they were using recycled scripts from Phase II?

 

[Therin of Andor]

A beaker full of death said:
Well wasn't that the year of the writer's strike, and they were using recycled scripts from Phase II?

Only "The Child", the opening episode for the season, so a few of the Pulaski lines in that, or at least the sentiment behind them, were originally written for McCoy.

"Devil's Due" wasn't used until Season Four.

 

[DrTaylor]

Photoman15 said:

Noname Given said:

Seven Of Five said:
But Pulaski grew to like Data. It was almost like character development!

I liked Pulaski, especially compared to season 1-Crusher but I agree that it was a poor attempt at a Spock/McCoy-type dynamic. She's still a big reason that I like season 2 though.

My main problem with the character (and this was in no way Dianna Muldar's faukt as she had to play what was written) was that she was SUCH an obvious 'Doctor Leonard McCoy' clone right down to the:

"I'm just an old country doctor"

and the

"I don't like to have my molecules scatter across the Galaxy" distrust of the transporter.

Not to mention that is a few of the early Pulaski/Data 'heated' exchanges they lifted some McCoy/Spock lines DIRECTLY from the earlier TOS episodes, and the Spock lines just didn't work for the Data character.

I find it funny that for all the flak later Star Trek spinoffs get for being 'unoriginal'; TNG (and Gene Roddenbery) often get what I see as a free pass on this blatent (and imo unoriginal) female McCoy character rip off.

Plus, I find it really interesting that the ONLY reason the character was shelved, and McFadden brought back was because Muldar had a scheduling conflict that made her unavailable for the first three season three episodes; so the producers fired her and decided to bring McFadden back.

If not for that, we mght have gotten a season or two more of the blatent Leonard McCoy ripoff.

I don't know. I always thought of Pulaski as possibly being Joanna McCoy's daughter.

Never mind that Joanna McCoy was never canon.

 

[The Borg Queen]

DrTaylor said:

Photoman15 said:

Noname Given said:

Seven Of Five said:
But Pulaski grew to like Data. It was almost like character development!

I liked Pulaski, especially compared to season 1-Crusher but I agree that it was a poor attempt at a Spock/McCoy-type dynamic. She's still a big reason that I like season 2 though.

My main problem with the character (and this was in no way Dianna Muldar's faukt as she had to play what was written) was that she was SUCH an obvious 'Doctor Leonard McCoy' clone right down to the:

"I'm just an old country doctor"

and the

"I don't like to have my molecules scatter across the Galaxy" distrust of the transporter.

Not to mention that is a few of the early Pulaski/Data 'heated' exchanges they lifted some McCoy/Spock lines DIRECTLY from the earlier TOS episodes, and the Spock lines just didn't work for the Data character.

I find it funny that for all the flak later Star Trek spinoffs get for being 'unoriginal'; TNG (and Gene Roddenbery) often get what I see as a free pass on this blatent (and imo unoriginal) female McCoy character rip off.

Plus, I find it really interesting that the ONLY reason the character was shelved, and McFadden brought back was because Muldar had a scheduling conflict that made her unavailable for the first three season three episodes; so the producers fired her and decided to bring McFadden back.

If not for that, we mght have gotten a season or two more of the blatent Leonard McCoy ripoff.

I don't know. I always thought of Pulaski as possibly being Joanna McCoy's daughter.

Never mind that Joanna McCoy was never canon.

Neither was Dr. Pulaski's mother.

 

[DrTaylor]

The difference being that we can be reasonably sure that Pulaski had a mother. No canon source says McCoy had a daughter.

 

[Photoman15]

DrTaylor said:
The difference being that we can be reasonably sure that Pulaski had a mother. No canon source says McCoy had a daughter.

And where in my post did I mention that Joanna McCoy was Dr. Leonard McCoy's daughter? You assumed that because....

 

[DrTaylor]

Photoman15 said:

DrTaylor said:
The difference being that we can be reasonably sure that Pulaski had a mother. No canon source says McCoy had a daughter.

And where in my post did I mention that Joanna McCoy was Dr. Leonard McCoy's daughter? You assumed that because....

Thou art evil.