IRL, Admirals and Generals, especially the higher ranking ones, design their own uniforms and have them tailor-made. At least in the US...
Never really noticed this about dr. Pulaski before ....
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I was in the USArmy and there was a part of the BDU uniform, a wool sweater, worn under the camouflage jacket. The regulations said that you could use the sweaters until they wore out.
1. A friend of mine bought mine for me at a surplus store or took it from his company supply room.
2. Later, that one word out and I bought a replacement one from a surplus store
Maybe Pukaski was in for a long time and was just wearing an older version of the uniform. That's what I always thought.
Just like I had done.
Really? I have never heard of that. (at least not the "design their own uniforms" bit.) Can you give any evidence?
My take on Dr. P was that she was just very strong in her convictions, or a "strong" person in general. The Darwin Station director's response to her shows she was darn good as her job, and she may have had to get there but not taking any BS. She did butt heads with Picard, who was an equally strong person. They both wanted to do what was best for the people in their charge, but they often had different ideas about what that should be.
My take on Beverly's year away and Dr. Pulaski's one year on the Enterprise is that both were on secondment. Beverly's time as Starfleet Medical was a temporary promotion (it seems odd to me that a Commander would suddenly be made the Head of a whole Starfleet Division).
I've always took Crusher being the "Head of Starfleet Medical" to be a running joke the Enterprise officers were pulling on Crusher.
Crusher was more likely assign to Starfleet Medical as a regular doctor.
In the US Marine Corp, even the low ranking enlist have their dress uniforms tailor-made, it makes them look sharper. This goes back a few decades.
Generals and Admirals might have a little lee-way in the exact look and cut of their unifoms (some older officers are getting a bit puggy), but they certainly lack the authority to completely design a uniform from scratch.
A century or two ago might have been a different story.
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As I've noted on previous occassions, it's just about possible that she was at least one of Head of the Starfleet Medical (Academy), Head of Starfleet Medical (Centre San Francisco), or Head of Starfleet Medical (Operations - Sol Sector)*, but I think it's extremely unlikely she was Starfleet's 'chief doctor' (ID'd as the Surgeon General in TOS in keeping with modern practice), who stood properly be a three or four star flag officer.
* Similar to Sisko's temporary posting as 'Chief of Starfleet Security for Earth'.
A family member tells me of a time when he was a young man in the army some decades ago, and a visiting General was wearing this old-fashioned getup that everybody thought was the stupidest thing they ever saw.
Kor
Yeah, a Pulaski return (but not in "Ethics" where it's obvious the backhanded writing is consciously meant to prop up Crusher's soap box by trivializing the guest doc of the week) might have been nice.
She had some McCoyisms, and fans of the time simply loathed her - though I prefer to believe they didn't like her being a source of conflict and projected everything onto the few times she was influenced by McCoy. What's a bigger problem is that the EMH in Voyager is far more often a McCoy clone and the same people didn't whine an iota over the hologram. Picardo is entertaining as all heck but that's not the point.
Like how the makers of mobile phones and Facebook refuse to let their kids use what they want the rest of us to become addicted to?
Initially I disliked Dr. Polaski's (Diane Mulder). By "initial" I mean back in the 80's during the series initial run. Right now I am in the process of re-watching the entire series (currently on "Chains of Command, Pt. 1). This time around, being definitely older but hopefully wiser) my opinion has changed.
Objectively, I would contend she was definitely "brusk", and not just towards the captain but all her crewmates. Also look at her attitude and treatment of Data.
My younger self found her insulting and impertinent. Even though I am speaking of me, I can look back and admit that my impression was subconsciously rooted in sexism. Upon my revisiting her run I found myself really liking her and wishing she had stayed on board. She had grit and was very much self-confident. A self-confidence that rang true as she was after all a renowned surgeon and doctor. I think if Pulaski had been male then her attitude and demeanor would not have been deemed a negative of her character.
I never saw her attitude being that different than the rest of the crew. Crusher would totally order Picard around if a medical situation called for it, and Riker and even Troi weren't afraid to raise issue with his orders imo. For instance in The Chase they're not afraid to tell him they need to get on to the conference instead of investigating his archaeology friend.
I would respectfully suggest you revisit how Dr. Polaski (mis)treated Lt. Cmdr. Data. Her refusal to accept him as a sentient lifeform. To her, he was little more than a toaster with Bluetooth. I would say, based on the episodes and context therein, she was more upfront and direct and assertive. Even when Riker or Troi (or whomever) would speak up to the captain it was a deferential tone. Diane Mulder's portrayal very much had Polaski coming from a place of equality and that they merely had different jobs.
I remember reading long ago that one of Roddenberry's edicts for TNG was there was to be no tension among the primary characters. Perhaps Gene R. felt, over the course of the second season, Polaski was violating the spirit of that? I also, remember the story I heard, at that time was Mulder was only supposed to go one season as McFadden was on a sabbatical in order to do a stage play … was that true?
I think McFadden actually got fired because Maurice Hurley didn't like her. Muldaur ended up not gelling with the rest of the cast and wanted out and Hurley left during season 2, hence why McFadden came back.
The story I heard was that she was somewhat embarassed to be slumming with Trek and was sort of hoping her friends wouldn't recognize her middle name in print.
The sexism point that you brought up is interesting.
At first, I didn't like Pulaski either. Her surliness and crustiness didn't sit well with me. Plus, she reminded me of a teacher that I had in elementary school. I did not have fond memories of that woman.
I hate to admit it, but there may also have been a shallow reason as to why I felt the way that I did about Pulaski. (I am going to use a word that Kirk used to describe Nancy in TOS "The Man Trap" -- "handsome".) When Pulaski appeared in TNG, I couldn't help but think that the new doctor was not a "handsome" addition to the cast, especially compared to Dr. Crusher, which might have been surprising since Diane Muldar was pretty good looking during her time in TOS.
Nowadays, I don't see Pulaski the same way as I once did. I appreciate her brusqueness. I also found it admirable that she did not simply act as a toady towards Picard.
I agree with you that it is conceivable that opinions of Pulaski may have been different, from the outset, had Pulaski been male.
I see what you did there lol
I also agree, that from a production point of view, she was a glaringly obvious attempt to introduce the kind of conflictual element that Bones represented on TOS, & while, at the time, it seemed kind of a cheap gimmick, in hindsight, I'm not bothered by it so much. True, Pulaski was, in a way, a knockoff of Bones, but in a similar way, so too was Data a knockoff of Spock, or Riker a knockoff of Kirk. So maybe Pulaski shouldn't be judged to harshly for that element, as it wasn't the only time they'd harkened back to TOS archetypes, & they were doing new interesting things with them
Admittedly, as a guy, I did find Crusher a more esthetically pleasing presence, which unfortunately worked against my impression of Pulaski, but again, in hindsight, that's not really a mark against her either, as a character, & conversely, her character truthfully represented a much better potential for character growth & interesting dynamics than Crusher ever did.
Honestly, Pulaski IS the better character, but for a lot of other reasons, it just didn't fit. The only real issue I have against her, as a Starfleet officer, & Star Trek character is how wildly inappropriate her prejudice against Data played. It was only a few comments here & there, but because the character was so short-lived, it leaves a legacy of being way more off-putting than I think was the intention.
Sure, I can see now that the plan was to have her start out being ill-prepared to accept an artificial life form, but something tells me they were going to go somewhere profoundly interesting with that, & that by some time later on, she'd maybe have become one of his closest friends & strongest advocates, because she had been so thoroughly enlightened, for our viewing pleasure
Sometimes the most endearing characters start out as wholly unlikable or even antagonistic, like Winchester on MASH or Benjamin Linus on LOST, but they grow & you witness them become better people, or you see the whole of their story fleshed out, such that you identify with them, being the way they are. Those are the more fruitful bonds to build with a character imho
In Captain's Holiday, Pulaski would have simply ordered him to take a vacation, none of the shipwide conspiracy to nudge him to do so.
You'd be pushing it to force recreational time off as a medical priority worthy of pulling rank on the ship's captain imho, simply because he was a little grumpy
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