Would "Ethics" Work If It's Pulaski?

[Mojochi]

I've no clue at all, if at any time in its development the Ethics episode was intended to be a reappearance of Kate Pulaski. I find it hard to believe, given the known feelings of the players & production team, that they'd be looking to have her back, or that she'd want to, but it's possible, I suppose.

I do know that I, like other fans, would've very much liked an episode like that, which could not only reprise her, but find a way to have both doctors at odds on an issue, struggling over their differing ideals & sensibilities, which were quite starkly polar opposites IMHO

However, I can't see it having been Kate Pulaski showing up, as written in the Ethics script, because Dr. Toby Russell, is far more unethical in her practice than Pulaski ever was. In fact, the only time I can ever recall Pulaski being remotely reckless was in Unnatural Selection... With her own safety, never a patient's.

The case with Russell was far clearer an ethical violation, that would've been out of character for Pulaski, especially since she was actively pushing unverified research, & then carrying out some on another patient. It seemed like a deliberate choice to show someone that Bev could be proven right over. Were it to have been a conflict between Crusher & Pulaski, I wouldn't have liked that angle at all. Pulaski isn't that questionable IMHO.

I'd have much preferred a situation where Pulaski is more like Picard in the episode, understanding of Worf's cultural observances & Bev (like in the episode) has problems with it. She really goes too far here, in pushing her opinions IMHO. Frankly, both her & Troi apply a professionally questionable amount of pressure on him, over his beliefs. It would've been interesting to see Pulaski there, with an alternative, which they both think is too dangerous to be ethical, but that Worf wishes to choose, & Pulaski is conversely willing to perform, even though it's risky, simply because he wants to, & she respects his ways

Kate did seem to be uniquely appreciative of Worf's beliefs, during her time aboard, & seeing that factor into this situation would shine a very different light on how Bev is acting. (which kind of gets bypassed) A much more ambiguous story that narrative would be.

 

[AntonyF]

I assume this was triggered by my comment earlier.

I think it could have worked. They wouldn't have had to run it exactly as they did. I think they wouldn't have made Pulaski look so reckless.

But I think you're on the right lines there.

Beverly is a bit more bleeding heart, and in her view being paralysed but alive is fine in her optimistic world view. Pulaski is probably more sympathetic to other cultures and their beliefs and can take the view that it's not their position to impose their beliefs on the patient.

There were through lines that correlate with this. Pulaski willing to do the tea ceremony with Worf. Beverly upset with Worf that he wouldn't donate blood to a Romulan as she's not ideological and just thinks a life should be saved.

Also Pulaski has shown herself to be a bit more experimental. She offered to restore Geordi's vision for one, saying she'd done procedures elsewhere. And she has the memory wiping thing.

The combination of Pulaksi's ability to be perhaps a bit more experimental, combined with her buying into patients' belief systems more than Beverly, could have been the crux of it.

And of course the interesting angle is they both care about Worf.

 

[Mojochi]

I assume this was triggered by my comment earlier.

I think it could have worked. They wouldn't have had to run it exactly as they did. I think they wouldn't have made Pulaski look so reckless.

But I think you're on the right lines there.

Beverly is a bit more bleeding heart, and in her view being paralysed but alive is fine in her optimistic world view. Pulaski is probably more sympathetic to other cultures and their beliefs and can take the view that it's not their position to impose their beliefs on the patient.

There were through lines that correlate with this. Pulaski willing to do the tea ceremony with Worf. Beverly upset with Worf that he wouldn't donate blood to a Romulan as she's not ideological and just thinks a life should be saved.

Also Pulaski has shown herself to be a bit more experimental. She offered to restore Geordi's vision for one, saying she'd done procedures elsewhere. And she has the memory wiping thing.

The combination of Pulaksi's ability to be perhaps a bit more experimental, combined with her buying into patients' belief systems more than Beverly, could have been the crux of it.

And of course the interesting angle is they both care about Worf.

Yeah, I didn't want to derail the All Good Things Thread, with a whole different conversation

Anyhow, I've had other issues with Bev too. I Borg, Chain of Command (with Jellico) The Perfect Mate. She lets her opinions get in the way a lot, & sometimes that's forgivable, but in matters of patient care, the patient has final say... & I just don't know if she gets that here. It would've been neat for her to get called out on it more imho

I do agree Pulaski seemed more experimental, or at least more so at the cutting edge of research than Beverly. Her being the only one to handle Picard's transplant is another example. Frankly, Beverly seems more like an administrator, head of Starfleet Medical, Captain or the finale's Pasteur, etc... Kate seemed more like a trailblazer in groundbreaking medicine. To see those two types of personalities clash is good drama, especially when the lines on ethics are more ambiguous than we got here.

We also never really get any resolution on the fact that Picard seemed to go much harder on Pulaski than he ever did Crusher... which ultimately is a little iffy. All this would've been cool stuff to reprise & explore

 

[AntonyF]

Yeah I agree with all that. I put some of it down to writers having her as Wesley's mother. I just watched Unnatural Selection and it was nice that Kate could just do the story. If that were Beverly you'd have to have Wesley worried, Picard having to console Wesley, Wesley maybe having a chat with Beverly and saying goodbye etc.

When Beverly comes back her first bits of dialog are about Wesley.

 

[Mojochi]

Yeah I agree with all that. I put some of it down to writers having her as Wesley's mother

Picard had a soft spot for Bev too, me thinks... Best friends wife & all that came with that history

But he seemed especially cranky about Pulaski all the time too, for no reason I can identify, beyond that she wasn't the model officer. I mean.... since when does he like model officers? Look around that ship. There's oddballs & mavericks all over it. lol

 

[Q'OrnamentalDeqor]

Nope. Didn't care for either doctor in that episode and swapping the Snidley-Whiplash caricature-of-the-week with Pulaski wouldn't help in the slightest, which seems to the story's favor that they opted for a completely different character. The episode is so high on itself with Crusher's sculpted soapbox that it would be just as hokey, and with other gems like 'I Borg" that put Beverly in a bizarre light... yes, real research takes time. Yes, to use an analogy you might want to put out the fire before it burns down the entire damn town along with the next four or five in the process. No, making Bev so up-nosed with one-liner wonders such as "real research takes time" as if the audience of the time didn't understand that already was as just as hokey as having the guest doctor written increasingly like a cartoon and all for the sole goal to make Beverly look good and notice I've not mentioned the overly hyped-up redundant organ nonsense that's more at home in 1800s fantasy literature than 20th century-anything, never mind "back-up synaptic functions"*. As the old saying goes, "like son like parent" as a lot of this fluff was done to make Wesley look good by dumbing down everyone and everything else in season 1... ...and speaking of soapboxes, I'm now climbing down off of mine .

* sheesh, may as well make the Klingons even tuff'r than the Borg, sigh...

 

[Q'OrnamentalDeqor]

Picard had a soft spot for Bev too, me thinks... Best friends wife & all that came with that history

Based on "The Naked Now" it wasn't that soft?

But he seemed especially cranky about Pulaski all the time too, for no reason I can identify, beyond that she wasn't the model officer. I mean.... since when does he like model officers? Look around that ship. There's oddballs & mavericks all over it. lol

+1

 

[SatrianiRules]

Pulaski was always a dick head...to Data....

 

[Mojochi]

Pulaski was always a dick head...to Data....

Initially... not always. By the time Peak Performance comes around, I think she's finally in his corner. I suspect she'd have become one of his strongest advocates, as time had gone on. IMHO his behavior in Pen Pals might've finally won her over, into thinking he's not just a robotic automaton

 

[AntonyF]

Pulaski was always a dick head...to Data....

This is the Mandella effect happening in the Star Trek community.

She was never a dick. She was never mean. There is no evidence of this.

She had some curiosities about him, but she treated him with respect. Even in the first episode with him she apologises, you wouldn't do that to someone you're a dick to. People ignore how she supported him by going on holodeck jaunts with him and as Mojochi said she had his corner in Pen Pals and supported him in Peak Performance.

People also ignore when the rest of the crew are mean to Data. For example:

• Where Silence Has Lease Picard straight up accuses Data of being wrong; "Mister Data, you must mean it's empty of matter. There's always some energy form at work."
• Troi in Schizoid Man just laughs in his face when he attempts a beard and runs out of the room. Imagine if she got one of her new bun looks and he laughed at her, how that'd go down.
• Riker nearly has him designated property in The Measure of a Man. "Oh he had to" people will cry, but he didn't have to be quite that brutal.
• And don't even start me on Beverly being humourless in Generations to the point where Data is so 'upset' that he puts an emotion chip in his head and the consequences of that.

 

[Mojochi]

She was never a dick. She was never mean. There is no evidence of this.

To be fair, "It does know how to do these things, doesn't it?" Is pretty ignorant & rude. She does ask forgiveness about it, but she also remarks that she's studied his service record. So, she knows who this guy is, 3rd in command, 20 years in Starfleet, actually a living being, etc... She should know to behave better than questioning not only his personhood, but even his competence.

He volunteers to stand by Troi during her child's birth & Pulaski outright shoots him down as too inhuman, even though Troi disagrees & he serves well enough. She mocks him over the correct pronunciation of his name, as if only a person with a bruised ego should mind... All that in just the 1st two episodes, virtually every interaction with him is a slight of some kind.

Then, the 3rd episode is an entire debacle cooked up solely because she doesn't respect his ingenuity at all. Geordi may have been at fault for creating Moriarty, but Pulaski pushed him into it, to play games trying to disprove Data's sentience. These are unkind ways to treat someone.

Like I'd said above though, she grows out of it over time, but her initial treatment is pretty unfair, biased, close minded, & in a way bigoted. Had she stuck around, I suspect we'd have gotten a full mea culpa from her over that first impression.

• Where Silence Has Lease Picard straight up accuses Data of being wrong; "Mister Data, you must mean it's empty of matter. There's always some energy form at work."

He wasn't doing it in an overly rude way IMHO. It was just him not understanding Data, & trying to frame it so he doesn't look stupid himself lol

• Troi in Schizoid Man just laughs in his face when he attempts a beard and runs out of the room. Imagine if she got one of her new bun looks and he laughed at her, how that'd go down.

Honestly, that's not specific to Data. Troi can be kind of childish in general, case in point, giving Riker a going over because of his Angel One attire. Deliberately requesting trombone songs she knows he's going to mess up, etc...

• Riker nearly has him designated property in The Measure of a Man. "Oh he had to" people will cry, but he didn't have to be quite that brutal.

This is reaching IMHO. We all know that if Riker doesn't take the assignment, (and give it a genuine best attempt) Data gets automatically ruled against. Riker being as effective as possible was not only his job, it was specifically called out in advance, that he's being watched, to see if he deliberately underperforms. His commitment was already in question & performing with drive was a necessity

• And don't even start me on Beverly being humourless in Generations to the point where Data is so 'upset' that he puts an emotion chip in his head and the consequences of that.

Beverly wasn't being any less humorless about being dunked than Worf was. It was everybody else being a bit hypocritical about it, as if it wasn't as funny as what they'd done to Worf, when objectively it was IMHO.

Ultimately, even though I'm shooting down your examples a bit here, your point is valid, that over the entire course of their relationships, each of them, (even in other situations) have slighted Data, were rude to him, underestimated him, didn't give him his due, etc... However, the important aspect is that those were over years of knowing him & otherwise supporting, accepting & befriending him. (The same as would happen to each of them with one another too)

Whereas, in Pulaski's case, it's a matter of 1st impressions, all her transgressions hit up front, and comprised a major portion of every early interaction with Data (at least until she'd been around a while, & got to know him) That's what tainted the audience perception of her, that it was consistent, right out of the gate, & didn't subside for a fair number of episodes. Then, she got pulled before what seemed like a prolonged arc, about her finally accepting him, was completed.