That's ok with me. No one liked her really. The fan backlash during season 2 was harsh. She abused data. She was cranky on the set and generally disliked by the cast.
Pulaski was ahead of her time, especially in terms of 4th wall and fan reaction. The season clearly shows her growing to accept Data, even defending him. Fans of Dr Crusher didn't like the change.
Muldaur was also more by-the-book behind the scenes and most of the cast were jovial if not jocular. While that led to some hilarious outtakes, Muldaur thought it all to be immature. Maybe some fun should be had, but on screen she's no less or more professional than the rest of the cast.
The comparisons made of McCoy were superficial at best. Even more important, she never did the cornball routine of "I'm a Doctor, not a _____" - you know, what the EMH did seemingly a dozen times every other episode of Voyager because, by then, people wanted a Bones-alike. VOY being a "TNG-Lite" after DS9 being a different beast to TNG (and TOS) to lure back casual viewers and, viola, it's easy to see why they'd do the "I'm a doctor, not a gimmick" shtick. Robert Picardo's on-screen chemistry and pizazz elevates all of that, fortunately, but of Pulaski and EMH, neither is a Bones-alike.
They just disliked that she (as a guest star with a previous Trek background) was paid more per episode in her first season than the leads of the Cast were in S2.
And the fact she was an overtly obvious attempt at a female version of Dr. Leonard (Bones) McCoy - right down to her distrust of the Transporter and her saying: "I'm just an old country doctor" in a couple of episodes didn't endear the character (and I'm only talking about the character she played and nothing about the actress herself who just played and said what was in the scripts) to TOWS fans watching TNG. It was an obvious pandering attempt, and it failed due to the writers more than anything else Diana Muldaur did in playing the character of Katherine Pulaski.
I think it'd make sense for many medical practitioners to be wary of teleportation.
I can't deny her quipping "I'm an old country doctor" is a definite mimicry, one that wasn't needed. Pandering wasn't well-received in 1988 either.
I wish they would have let Diana have more say in the character. Stewart, Spiner, and Dorn definitely had input and got Picard, Data and Worf (and with the bonus of the Klingon lore!) expanded on beautifully as a result of their taking ownership and investing in their characters.
All that said, Pulaski felt more grounded and present in episodes. Season 1 Crusher just hovered in the background and whined. But she came back in season 3, and not just to slap Wes silly in "Sarek" (possibly to make up for how he treated her in "Evolution" and she takes his comment about where she'd been (read: perceived abandonment, even if misplaced) with much grace and tact) and it more or less turned out for the better.
She also needed cue cards because she couldn't remember her lines, which may not have gone over well with other actors.
I recall something along those lines as well. Was it from a book or on-disc documentary?
