By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
It took Star Trek: The Next Generation a couple of rough years to really find its space legs, and the show went through many changes along the way. One temporary change was replacing Dr. Crusher with Dr. Pulaski in Season 2 before bringing Crusher back for Season 3. Many have often wondered why Pulaski herself got replaced after the second season, but the explanation is quite straightforward: simply put, she pissed off far too much of the Star Trek fandom.
Dr. Pulaski Enters Star Trek
The Next Generation was a bit more like The Original Series back in the day, and the new doctor character represented the producer’s desire to channel the early adventures of Captain Kirk. That’s why Pulaski was played by Diana Muldaur, someone who acted alongside William Shatner in the original Star Trek series. Her character was also loosely modeled after Dr. McCoy, which is why she hates using the transporter and has a cantankerous attitude towards Data, the android who serves as TNG’s version of Mr. Spock.
However, there was a major Pulaski problem from the beginning: while Star Trek: The Original Series thrived on occasional conflict amid the crew, The Next Generation was a show where everyone more or less got along. When this new doctor was brought in, though, she immediately began butting heads with Captain Picard. She also had such an antipathy towards Data based on him being an android that fans accused her of racism, a label which never really went away.
In retrospect, it’s easy to see why Pulaski’s character was dreamed up by Star Trek: The Next Generation producers. Her being a stern, gender-swapped clone of Dr. McCoy helped her instantly stand out from the softhearted and nurturing mother figure of Beverly Crusher. Plus, having her butt heads with other characters introduced conflict in the show, something Gene Roddenberry had forbidden and which had made the writing of season 1 really suffer. And the fact that Muldaur starred in The Original Series meant that she could win over older fans still on the fence about the new spinoff show.
Pulaski Was Not A Fan Favorite
That all sounded good on paper, but after a season of trying to make Pulaski happen, the Star Trek writers and producers threw in the towel. Producer Rick Berman later admitted that her character “never quite worked…Doctor Pulaski just never really quite solidified.” Accordingly, the show didn’t invite Muldaur back, though she wasn’t disappointed because she felt the new spinoff focused too much on technology and too little on character-building.
One of the big reasons that Pulaski didn’t come back to the new spinoff was the Star Trek fandom, many of whom launched a passionate letter-writing campaign to bring Gates McFadden’s Dr. Crusher back to the show. They were joined by Patrick Stewart, who was equally passionate in his personal campaign to bring his old colleague back. The combined pressure of the fans and TNG’s captain was enough to cause Berman to personally invite McFadden back, and the rest is television history.
Dr. Pulaski had many interesting qualities that made her a fascinating character, but she never really gelled well with the chill vibe of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Fortunately, she was replaced by Gates McFadden, a killer actor whose character only got more prominent and popular as time went on. Eventually, Dr. Crusher was a central character in the final season of Picard, and that seriously satisfying plot would likely never have happened if not for the intense fan campaign to ditch Diana Muldaur and bring Gates McFadden back to the Enterprise where she belonged.
