Dr Pulaski

Bobtheman · 04-06-2020 6:17pm #1

I think she gets a bad press. Beverly got away with a lot because she was an attractive young one. Not a great actress though. Quite limited. The actress who played Dr Pulaski was better. She was just badly written.

Johnny Storm · 05-06-2020 9:28am

I eventually got to like her.
It was a bit blatant the way they were trying to emulate the Bones-Spock dynamic with her and Data though.
Diana Muldaur was also in two TOS eps

CIARAN_BOYLE · 05-06-2020 9:35am

Replacement actors never get a fair shake of the stick especially if they are temporary.

Its funny we always forget until we rewatch that season 1 of any show is a growing experience. The actors find the characters and fit into them.

Then we have season 2 where we have an ensemble of actors who know their characters and we know their characters and they fit. Then off to the side this extra who is getting introduced.

I'm sure if we have pulaski for the rest of the show we would have liked her more.

seamus · 05-06-2020 9:54am

Yeah, if she'd been given more time, the edges around the character would have been softened. As above, there was definitely an element of recreating Bones in her. A cantankerous, skeptical traditionalist who saw no problem in directly challenging anyone about anything. Over time she probably would have developed a much closer relationship with Data and a strong respectful bond with Picard, while being a mother figure to the rest of the senior staff.

Also zero chance she'd have screwed the ghost of her grandmother's boyfriend.

ednwireland · 05-06-2020 10:04am

rewatching TNG season 1 on Horror channel you forget how bad it is, tasha yar is dreadful

Inviere · 05-06-2020 11:04am

Pulaski had potential, it was a shame she was dropped for Crusher's return.

AMKC · 05-06-2020 12:45pm

Inviere wrote: »

Pulaski had potential, it was a shame she was dropped for Crusher's return.

I could never warm to warm to her myself. I never liked the way she spoke or acted to Data. Surely in the 24th century working with and around robots would be normal. Maybe if she had of been there longer I might have warmed to her. One idea that they missed out on do and might have worked was to keep Pulaski and bring Dr Crusher back. Have two Doctor but only one would be the Chief Medical Doctor.

Inviere · 05-06-2020 1:57pm

AMKC wrote: »

I could never warm to warm to her myself. I never liked the way she spoke or acted to Data. Surely in the 24th century working with and around robots would be normal. Maybe if she had of been there longer I might have warmed to her. One idea that they missed out on do and might have worked was to keep Pulaski and bring Dr Crusher back. Have two Doctor but only one would be the Chief Medical Doctor.

Yeah as said it was to ape the Bones/Spock relationship, but they didn't quite pull it off and Pulaski came out looking worse for it. I think near the end of S2 she had a more open mind towards Data. She had bags more personality and potential than Crusher did imo

pixelburp · 05-06-2020 5:21pm

I'm too lazy to Google, and I've never seen it clarified: why was Pulaski dropped? Was it just the bad reaction from the shows audience or was it more behind-the-scenes shenanigans that dogged the first 2 seasons?

In principal, Pulaski was a good move to introduce something a little feistier in the crew dynamic, even if it hewed quite close to McCoy's own persona. From what I remember though, Diana Muldaur was a much better actor than Gates McFadden; to be charitable, maybe the latter just had a blander, more dramatically inert character to work with but often she just seemed out of her depth.

CastorTroy · 05-06-2020 6:11pm

As someone who only watched episodes every now and again, I only recently looked up to see why the doctors seemed to keep changing.

Bobtheman · 05-06-2020 7:56pm

She was a better actress. Pulaski. Crusher was pretty bad and couldn't even bring herself to sleep with Picard. After all he did for her !?!

Stark · 05-06-2020 9:55pm

Would have liked to have seen where they would have gone with Pulaski's character alright. Definitely a lot more to work with than with Crusher. I remember how punchable Julian Bashir was in season 1 of DS9 and he grew to be quite a likeable character.

odyssey06 · 05-06-2020 10:11pm

Stark wrote: »

Would have liked to have seen where they would have gone with Pulaski's character alright. Definitely a lot more to work with than with Crusher. I remember how punchable Julian Bashir was in season 1 of DS9 and he grew to be quite a likeable character.

Not sure if there was quite the same potential there... Bashir was supposed to be a wide eyed youth on his first real assignment.
Pulaski was middle aged, should have been a formed character.

Compare say, the popularity of later additions to the crew such as Barclay, Ro Laren & O'Brien... I don't know if Pulaski had that.

nyarlothothep · 06-06-2020 3:12pm

Pulaski was a fox in the TOS days. Beverley was super foxy in season 1 but something changed with her in season 3 onwards.

Stark · 06-06-2020 3:16pm

odyssey06 wrote: »

Not sure if there was quite the same potential there... Bashir was supposed to be a wide eyed youth on his first real assignment.
Pulaski was middle aged, should have been a formed character.

Compare say, the popularity of later additions to the crew such as Barclay, Ro Laren & O'Brien... I don't know if Pulaski had that.

Well early Picard was also quite unlikeable so not sure I buy the "too old to change" argument.

odyssey06 · 06-06-2020 4:18pm

Stark wrote: »

Well early Picard was also quite unlikeable so not sure I buy the "too old to change" argument.

Pulaski was too old to change to the extent Bashir did, for it to be in a believable manner i.e. the character maturing versus previous inadequate or inconsistent character development.
But with more character development her character could have been rounded out - sure.

And I didn't think Picard was unlikeable...
There was a general stiffness in early TNG with the characters - thought it was more a general thing for that season than anything unlikeable in the characters themselves.

GSPfan · 14-06-2020 11:44pm

odyssey06 wrote: »

Not sure if there was quite the same potential there... Bashir was supposed to be a wide eyed youth on his first real assignment.
Pulaski was middle aged, should have been a formed character.

Compare say, the popularity of later additions to the crew such as Barclay, Ro Laren & O'Brien... I don't know if Pulaski had that.

O’Brien was in the first episode of TNG. He’s been there since the beginning.

I recently read that he is second on the list of being in the most Star Trek episodes. Michael Dorn is first with 282 appearances. You’d have to think that won’t be broken with shows only being about 10 episodes per season these days. Don’t think Patrick Stewart is anywhere close to catching Michael Dorn.

odyssey06 · 15-06-2020 7:30am

GSPfan wrote: »

O’Brien was in the first episode of TNG. He’s been there since the beginning.
I recently read that he is second on the list of being in the most Star Trek episodes. Michael Dorn is first with 282 appearances. You’d have to think that won’t be broken with shows only being about 10 episodes per season these days. Don’t think Patrick Stewart is anywhere close to catching Michael Dorn.

They only count from when he got a name... imo... being pedantic about it ðŸ˜‰

Johnny Storm · 15-06-2020 4:33pm

odyssey06 wrote: »

They only count from when he got a name... imo... being pedantic about it &#55357;&#56841;

On the other hand, when they look back at ep 1 in "All Good Things..." it is defo O'Brien.

odyssey06 · 15-06-2020 4:46pm

Johnny Storm wrote: »

On the other hand, when they look back at ep 1 in "All Good Things..." it is defo O'Brien.

In the Star Trek universe, yep it's O'Brien but I think the clock only started ticking on him as a character with the writers in Season 4... when he got a first name and his rank of 'Chief'

IvySlayer · 15-06-2020 5:48pm

Dr Pulaski only had one season but she showed more character development and growth than Crusher in six.

She was abrasive and rude to Data then she eventually respected him and even encouraged him to learn/grow. Even showed concern when Data was sulking in his quarters.

She was unprofessional to Picard initially but soon worked it out.

She had a strong personality, and wouldn't have sex with a candle ghost.

Dr Pulaski

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