What was the plan with Diana Muldaur?

[Trekker09]

Do you have a link to the interview, it sounds very interesting, I'd love to read it!

Not sure if this is the interview you had in mind, but I enjoyed this --
https://www.startrek.com/article/catching-up-with-diana-muldaur-part-1
There's also a Part II.
Amazed at how "Is there in truth no beauty" was filmed.
Did not know her birthday is the same day as Roddenberry and Frakes.
The story about her Star Trek cruise was also new to me.

 

[Mister Spock]

One thing about Patrick Stewart is that he seems to be perfectly happy to play crap roles in crap movies. Literally, in the case of "The Emoji Movie". But he was also Sean Connery lite in "Robin Hood: Men in Tights", and the Hans Gruber equivalent in the teenybopper Die Hard clone "Masterminds". And I think he was a talking book in some Macaulay Culkin movie when he was a thing*. I get the sense that Stewart can just say to himself "this is absolute crap, so I'm going to have fun with it".

Connery and Stewart are examples of a certain breed of actor who came from poor, working class backgrounds. That they never lost their work ethic, and knew that job offers could dry up at any minute - a paycheck was still a paycheck.

It's a bit like Michael Caine's response to questions about Jaws: The Revenge: "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific"

 

[Oddish]

Connery and Stewart are examples of a certain breed of actor who came from poor, working class backgrounds. That they never lost their work ethic, and knew that job offers could dry up at any minute - a paycheck was still a paycheck.

It's a bit like Michael Caine's response to questions about Jaws: The Revenge: "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific"

I think Mr. Caine had the same work ethic himself, considering that he seriously brought his acting A-game to "The Muppet Christmas Carol". Which I still watch yearly.

 

[golddragon71]

I wonder if Nurse Ogawa would have become Doctor Ogawa if Gates McFadden/Beverly Crusher hadn't returned.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I wonder if Nurse Ogawa would have become Doctor Ogawa if Gates McFadden/Beverly Crusher hadn't returned.

Although we saw something akin to this in having “Doctor Ogawa” in one of the timelines in Parallels, or how we had Chapel getting her MD between TOS and TMP, doctors are NOT (for want of a better term) “promoted nurses.” They related but separate fields of study and practice, and you don’t get made a doctor by doing enough nursing over time. Ogawa wouldn’t be made a doctor just because she put in so much time as a nurse.

 

[ananta]

Nurse Ogawa, I must admit I’d totally forgotten that character existed. She didn’t appear until the fourth season though and didn’t really become recurring until maybe the fifth or sixth? We’d already been introduced to Dr Selar, however, so if Suzi Plakson had been interested, I think she’d have made a great addition to the cast. She had screen presence and made a very small role so memorable she kept getting callbacks or mentions for the remainder of the series.

 

[Oddish]

Ogawa was a regular through the 7th season, when she made lieutenant (in "Lower Decks"), got married, and got pregnant. Not sure if she was in any of the movies.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

She was in both Generations and First Contact, but her appearances were basically blink and you’ll miss them - I think Ogawa’s only real line in Generations was in a deleted scene of Sickbay being evacuated to the recovery vessels, while she can be seen evacuating Sickbay with Crusher and the medical staff in First Contact.

 

[Oddish]

I don't think Crusher got all that much screen time in either movie. At least Troi had that memorable "you're blended, all right" scene.

 

[Finn]

Although we saw something akin to this in having “Doctor Ogawa” in one of the timelines in Parallels, or how we had Chapel getting her MD between TOS and TMP, doctors are NOT (for want of a better term) “promoted nurses.” They related but separate fields of study and practice, and you don’t get made a doctor by doing enough nursing over time. Ogawa wouldn’t be made a doctor just because she put in so much time as a nurse.

Becoming a Doctor while being a nurse might be the norm by the 23rd Century.

Chapel, and Ogawa (assuming she was never a nurse to beign with) in that reality may have taken some kind of doctor classes/school that may have become commonplace in the 23rd and 24th centuries, kinda like officer or command school in the military.

The ways of attaining a certain profession, that had existed for centuries, usually change over time.

 

[Oddish]

I think that medical assistants are more likely to take that career path. An example would be (in one timeline) Simon Tarses, who (after being suspended for falsifying his application) served in Starfleet as an enlisted med tech for awhile, then went to the Academy's medical school and became a doctor.

 

[Finn]

All of that is possible. The pathways to a given profession change over time. Folks probably don't become teachers in the 24th century the way today's teachers do.

 

[TayJG]

Diana Muldaur took over for Gates McFadden in season 2.
However, she wasn't in the opening credits and appeared as a guest star in the beginning of an episode.
As far as I know she wasn't planning to stay for many seasons, right.... Or was she?
If people involded on the show knew she was just stopping by, what might have been the plan to do after she left?

Apparently Gates had some problems with Maurice Hurley and that's why she left.
They were able to resolve their differences and she came back.
Might that have been the plan all along?
Diana fills in until Gates and Maurice get along?

To my understanding, yes Hurley didn't like Gates. However, due to Patrick Stewart and the fans, and maybe even the whole cast they brought Gates back. I think this was done after Hurley quit (?)

I think Muldaur got a really bad deal because she didn't even want to be there either. To my understanding, Gates had to be persuaded to come back. My understanding of the first two seasons was that it was a train wreck with the writers and directors.

 

[TayJG]

Pulaski wasn't the best thing that happened to TNG, but she was the better of the two doctors.

Definitely not. Too absurd to be called ridiculous.

 

[plynch]

That’s rude.

 

[TayJG]

That’s rude.

So it's not possible for anything to be too absurd to be called ridiculous? What if I said Voyager and Enterprise were both better series than TNG?

 

[golddragon71]

Although we saw something akin to this in having “Doctor Ogawa” in one of the timelines in Parallels, or how we had Chapel getting her MD between TOS and TMP, doctors are NOT (for want of a better term) “promoted nurses.” They related but separate fields of study and practice, and you don’t get made a doctor by doing enough nursing over time. Ogawa wouldn’t be made a doctor just because she put in so much time as a nurse.

Well I phrased that wrong. What Imeant was
If Diana Muldaur had left the series and if Gates McFadden had not come back either,
Would the character Alyssa Ogawa been introduced as Doctor Ogawa instead of Nurse Ogawa.
I mean the only reason the character had to be introduced as “nurse” Ogawa is because Crusher did return.
On the other hand, the Enterprise had both McCoy and Doctor M’Benga so Ogawa could have been introduced as a second or third shift doctor anyway.

 

[ananta]

Well I phrased that wrong. What Imeant was
If Diana Muldaur had left the series and if Gates McFadden had not come back either,
Would the character Alyssa Ogawa been introduced as Doctor Ogawa instead of Nurse Ogawa.
I mean the only reason the character had to be introduced as “nurse” Ogawa is because Crusher did return.
On the other hand, the Enterprise had both McCoy and Doctor M’Benga so Ogawa could have been introduced as a second or third shift doctor anyway.

I would doubt it. Ogawa wasn’t really much of a character. Her single personality trait was “nice”—which isn’t bad, because you want your nurses to be nice after all, but she didn’t exactly set the screen alight.

Mind you, Beverly didn’t exactly have much more to her personality. She could be nice but impassioned. That’s two traits. I kind of liked her complicated relationship with Picard though. For two thirds of the series, Beverly seemed to want to get into a more than professional relationship with Jean-Luc (how many times did we get “Jean-Luc, there’s something I need to tell you…”). Then, by the seventh season, when he finally raises the possibility, she shoots him down. I’m not sure what that says about her personality? Maybe she’s more complex than I give her credit for.

 

[valkyrie013]

Maybe we would have a revolving door Head Doc, like the first season with Chief Engineers. I mean, Yes Crusher had some lines, but most could have been said by any medical person. Sure there have been a handful of episodes with Crusher in the lead, but maybe like Season 3 could have been an audition of Head Docs and whoever won would have gotten picked up by season 4.

I didn't like her character to much growing up, and subsequent rewatches haven't really changed my mind. Just seemed like an oddity in the crew. Now, if she was it from season 1, then it would be different, but it didn't go that way.

Or do like it seems SNW is doing with the Engineer, new one each season. ( Still looking forward to Carol Kane!!)

 

[Oddish]

Maybe we would have a revolving door Head Doc, like the first season with Chief Engineers.

I got the sense that it didn't really work with engineers, hence the decision to promote Geordi.