Which Doctor Did You Like Better...Dr. Crusher or Dr. Pulaski?

Definitely Pulaski--less sweetness, more depth. The character seemed to be an explorer in ways that others didn't.
 
difficult one for me. I liked Pulaski. I thought her character brought a much needed boost to the TNG crew. Not someone who was easy to deal with, was a no nonsense type, dind't back down from her own morals, wasn't afraid to talk back to the Captain. Strong characteristics and good ones for a CMO to have. I didn't like how she treated Data, but then again, she WAS old-school...maybe didn't know how to act or treat an android.

I liked Crusher too...in fact she has grown on me more in later viewings. She would stand up to the Captain and for the 'moral' aspect, but she came across as, I don't know...wimpy in her requests or demands? There was just something about how she voiced her opinions that wasn't quite right to me. Her draw back was Wesley. When they did episodes with her and Wes, she was very passive, not as strong as she needed to be...kinda whiny actually, IMO.

The unfortunate part is that the writers could have integrated the two doctors' characteristics into Crusher, but they lost an opportunity to make her a kinder gentler Pulaski, but still willing to stand up to the Captain when needed.

So still difficult and I would have to say a slight edge to Pulaski, but a very slight edge.
 
i agree Crusher was more attractive (Gates McFadden was about fifty in TNG and she still had a hot body :techman:) but Pulaski owned Crusher character wise.

Gates McFadden was born in 1949. This puts her in the early-40s during TNG's TV run.
 
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Diana Muldaur looked good back in the day.
 
Crusher.

There's only one way I can think of to describe Pulaski.... McCoy-knockoff bitch.

That's how she started in her first episode, and (unlike some others) I honestly don't see how she changed at all throughout the season.

I think Crusher had more personality. She was kind, but she had her limits. She was warm, open, and comforting, but wouldn't take crap from anybody.

That's pretty much as I see it.... perhaps not a "Bitch"

I first thought she was, especially around Data and how she viewed him, but I later saw that she was challenging him as she began to know him, perhaps trying to get him in a logical trap that would expose to him that he's more human then he thinks.

But she was still too much like McCoy.... thought it's a bit of an unfair comparison imo, since She only had like one season to get us to know her character, while Crusher had every other season.

I like Crusher personally.
 
I liked Pulaski much more better. Pulaski had character. Yes, the character was a lot like McCoy, but since I liked McCoy, I had no problem with her. Pulaski was a real salt of the earth type, which I think balanced out Picard's uptight personality.

Crusher was probably my least favorite character on the show. She's just boring. Most of the storylines surrounding her I basically skip. I don't understand why the TNG franchise did not have Picard marrying Crusher in the end? Those two were made for each other. Picard and Crusher were boring together, and did boring things. If these two characters were on 20th/21st Cnetury Earth, they would be hosting charity balls, going to the symphony, and watching Woody Allen movies.
 
I didn't really like either of them, but I definitely prefer Crusher. Even if I could occasionally strangle her for being such a helicopter mom. She's the reason why Wesley was so obnoxious, he had to keep trying to prove himself to the crew when she kept hovering over him and treating him like an 8 year old when he was 14...

Pulaski just gave me the creeps, even though it's a bit hard to define exactly why.
 
Pulaski, definitely. Everyone on board got on her nerves, as well they might. She actually seemed to wake up the whole show; I wish she'd stayed, but even after she left, it was a lot better.
 
Pulaski should have been brought in as a regular chief engineer with Geordi (who was only a Lt) as her deputy. She could have appeared in maybe half the episodes with Geordi taking on the top role when she wasn't around. That way we would have had both excellent characters at the same time while evening up the male/female imbalance left by Yar's departure.
 
Pulaski by far. I'm thinking of how less self-righteous an episode like "Ethics" would have turned out.
 
IMHO the only thing distinctive about Crusher was that she had nice hair. Otherwise she talked in this smooth, pacifiying/patronizing voice that made me all shrieky inside. Give me Pulaski any day.
 
Crusher, I might have grown to like Pulask,i but it is hard to say she only stayed on for one season before McFadden came back.
 
Crusher.

There's only one way I can think of to describe Pulaski.... McCoy-knockoff bitch.

That's how she started in her first episode, and (unlike some others) I honestly don't see how she changed at all throughout the season.

I think Crusher had more personality. She was kind, but she had her limits. She was warm, open, and comforting, but wouldn't take crap from anybody.

This is my stance.

Pulaski had her moments, but I liked Crusher more.
 
I always liked Crusher when I first watched TNG, though in a mild sort of way. Nothing complicated: I think I just thought she was gorgeous and found her nurturing qualities appealing at the time.

That said, I have no trouble seeing why others find her boring, and am mostly bored by her myself when I rewatch TNG episodes on occasion.

I can't say I think Pulaski would have been better for the remaining 5 seasons, though it's true she had a bit more fire and a bit more of an attitude than Crusher.

Making the Doctor character motherly, warm and caring is a bit of an obvious choice, though this is a problem that Trek runs into all the time, i.e. characters being essentially stereotyped by job.
 
I like Dr. Pulaski better than first season Dr. Crusher. For some reason, it doesn't feel like Crusher really gels with the other characters in the first season.
 
Gates' role was never given the respect from producers that could have made her role as Crusher more than the cipher she came across as all too often. Mind you, those harsh boundaries were not set by her but from TPTB, but taking all that on board, she's still more appealing than Pulaski because she manages to infuse her character with something more meaningful than the tight-arsed Goldman-Sachs executive that Pulaski epitomised.

I really like an image of a future which permits an active, meaningful role for a (single) mother of a child.

And I think that Gates (no doubt with the support of her co-actors) dealt with the cards (and scripts) she was given, quite nicely.
 
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