Never really noticed this about dr. Pulaski before ....

There is some validity in that, though. In leadership, your mood DOES affect those under your command. Bad moods can be quite infectious.

I'm sure Picard, being a captain for so long, wouldn't have let it get to the point where it visibly started to affect his officers or his job.

But a CMO doesn't really have the luxury of wishful thinking in that regard. I think it would have heen a correct decision if it were to come down to the CMO ordering Picard to go on vacation.

 

The CMO really only has the authority to relieve the captain if he is unfit for duty, as in compromised or in some way incapable of performing. It's not a blank check to allow them authority to order him in any way whatsoever. It's not a "doctor card" they can freely play

It is really pushing it to say that a bad mood makes him unfit. It may not be the healthiest way for him to live, & as his doctor, they have an obligation to encourage the healthiest way of living, but that's it

For example, it IS within Pulaski's purview to insist on the artificial heart replacement, as his doctor. THAT'S a real risk, if the one he has could be faulty. However, it's never an order, or an ultimatum that he is unfit to command until he gets it. She is not relieving him, nor ordering him away from his post. She's waited until it's a good time to push him about it... as his doctor, not as someone with authority over him

She has no authority over him, until it's deemed necessary to remove him from his post

 

What about McCoy's report on Kirk about him being below efficient level in "SHORE LEAVE", when Spock was reading it to Kirk? Kirk said himself that the crewman's right to not relax ends when it can affect the safety of the ship, which is why Kirk ordered that person to shore leave... before Spock said the report was on Kirk.

So in a way, yes, it is valid. Stretching it a bit, yes, but I can see it as valid.

 

No one had the authority to order him to take leave though. It's necessary, sure. They used a creative way to get the point across, yes, but it was still a "Nudge" initiative to convince him, just like Picard in Captain's Holiday. In order for someone like the XO or CMO to do anything more authoritative in making the captain step down, there must be a legitimate basis for calling them unfit, as in an active danger to the ship, crew & mission. "Below efficient" doesn't really fit that bill.

Like I said. Picard wasn't even directly ordered to get his bloody heart replacement. No one is ordering him to take a vacation. They can only insist

 

This is from Samaritan Snare:

The way I read it, Picard doesn't interpret this as a direct order, and I can also believe Pulaski doesn't imply it to be a direct order (yet). But she is reminding him that the can order him to, if he keeps resisting. At least, that's how I interpret the scene.

Of course, it's always possible that she's simply mistaken here, that she really can't order him in this case ...

 

The error in your supposition is that you are using today's standards. Remember that the 24th century quasi-military Starfleet is a different bird altogether, and the CMO, with no previous experience, can be placed in command of Starfleet's flagship during battle with the Borg on a moments notice therefore the precedent for the ridiculous has already been established. That's also why, I think, the Federation is always represented as being on the losing side in future wars and alternate timelines.

 

Crusher herself explicitly said that " I'd need a medical log citing clear evidence of incapacity"

Voyager's EMH said he has the ability "If, in my medical opinion, your judgment has been impaired", and pointed to "Starfleet Medical Regulation 1-21, Section A"

Not sure where you think that Crusher had no experience in Descent. You may be confusing her with Wesley, or Troi, or McCoy, or Bashir, none of whom were qualified.

 

One who values friendship will come to a friend as a friend first, only pulling rank when there is no other option.

 

“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.”

 

I don't understand always wanting all the characters to be painfully nice and polite all the time. It's nice that so many fans feel for this or that character, being spoken to or treated harshly... like Data when Pulaski was dismissive of him, or the 20th century people in Neutral Zone. People have trouble understanding each other all the time though, and if all the main characters are always fair, never misjudge, never are unfair, then they turn into cookie cutter, lightweight, empty people. The challenge is to show basically very decent people still managing to find differences to grapple with and reconcile.
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So Pulaski has an understandable bias toward organic life over synthetic life, as a part of her being a doctor. Don't worry about Data, he can survive it! It's more interesting to have such conflicts. Pulaski starts to learn almost immediately that Data is a being with value.

 

It's been a while since I saw that episode, but wasn't there even something at the end of it to leave the hint that the erasure didn't totally work?

 

I think it's easier to forgive a character who isn't human for those kinds of traits. I never liked Pulaski, but mostly because of her early treatment of Data rather than anything else. Also, despite the humour he brought, McCoy was one of my least favourite TOS characters (along with Chekhov).

 

Interesting point about McCoy. I never really found him likable either, but I could see how Kirk would like him. I too have friends like that, who others might find abrasive & not consider likable. What matters about McCoy isn't that he's more likeable than Pulaski. It's that he fit in better. He belonged. She didn't. She had the unfortunate condition of having been added after the fact, whereas McCoy came in with Kirk. He was already established as having a set place amongst the social dynamic

Taking a character of that tone & trying to shoehorn them into the social circle doesn't work as well imho. Kind of like Jayne on Firefly. You accept him more readily, because he's already there. There's no opportunity to question how or why he'd be there or what his place is in the social setting. He must in some way belong, & we can explore the backstory of that maybe, but the character never has the scrutiny of a Pulaski

 

Of course, the same could have been done with Pulaski. McCoy jumps into TOS after Piper exits stage left - but we immediately learn the new doctor is an old friend of Kirk's. So he has in a way always been there, even though nothing forces us to pretend Piper never was.

Pulaski is introduced with the exact opposite and very explicit tack: she's the clearly established adversarial outsider, yet one who immediately proves her worth.

(Jayne is that, too, but we only learn the backstory a few episodes in, at least depending on our choice of viewing order.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

Meh, Piper was only around for a pilot episode, which hardly anyone ever really saw. Once Kirk's crew is in place, so too is McCoy, set with a longstanding rapport. There's really no good way to establish that with Pulaski, while still maintaining the McCoy-esque attitude.

Beverly had been established for an entire season. Her son was even still aboard. There was no introducing a new doc, who everyone already had a close rapport with, while still having her be brash & opinionated, imho. Besides, I think the point of having Pulaski was to introduce some conflict among the characters, that they probably already felt the lack of. So the conflictual dynamic was the character's selling point, for the writers anyhow. They probably just didn't figure how off it would sit, to the audience. It didn't help that the cast never took to it either

 

Introducing a "brash and opinionated" character would be a problem in its own right. But introducing a character late in the game and still having her be part of the family is a separate issue, and easily done. Just observe it happen as Season 2 opens...

...Along with Ten-Forward, run by that old friend of Picard's who is known to everybody aboard, apparently having been part of the furniture since time immemorial.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Oh... you certainly can introduce characters later on & have it work. It's done all the time. It just doesn't often happen for characters who are conflictual/adversarial, where the other characters end up liking them, let alone the audience. The only example I can think of is MASH's Winchester, MASH being a comedy helps lubricate that dynamic some. Plus it helps that the character he replaced wasn't much beloved in the character dynamic either.

The best & maybe only way to have the other characters & audience like a brash character, as part of their social group, is for them to have been woven into the dynamic from the get go, thus presenting it as a longstanding norm. It's their acceptance of a thorny character that helps us accept them. If they end up having to take on the thorny character without that, it never feels pleasant enough to accept as a norm

 

She's McCoy without the underlying warmth and humanity. People didn't love Bones because he was a jerk - they loved him because underneath that prickly exterior he was a compassionate and sympathetic man who would give his all to help people.

Pulaski never had the "Shut up, Spock, we're rescuing you!" scenes from Immunity Syndrom or the scene in the Empath where McCoy sedates Spock so that he himself will be the next one tortured. Those types of scenes are essential if you want to make these types of characters likeable.

Another difference is that Pulaski seemed extremely confident in her abilities and in her judgement, while McCoy occasionally had doubts about things. It helps humanize him.

Diana Muldaur is great, but I think the writers and TPTB did her a disservice with how her character was handled.

 

Actually I saw an interview where she explained that she was a bit embarrased to take "that Star Trek job" and thats why she chose to be known as "Gates" and after TNG became successfull it stuck for all of her other acting roles.