In Defense of Dr. Pulaski from Star Trek The Next Generation

Welcome everybody to another episode of Father and Son's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm your host, Anthony, and my partner in crime, my best bud, my son, Ethan, is not going to be able to join us today. He is super busy right now with some school stuff, extracurricular stuff and homework and academic stuff. And he's just got his schedule totally full right now. So I'm going to fly solo today. And we may do this from time to time when one of us isn't available. But we'll likely be back next week with both of us doing the show. So today we're going to get into a controversial issue with regard to Star Trek The Next Generation. This issue is divisive. It's, it brings out strong opinions and I'm going to tackle it, and that is to say that I am going to defend Dr. Katherine Pulaski, who was the doctor on board the Enterprise D during the second season of Star Trek The Next Generation. So Dr. Pulaski, just by way of background, if you aren't super familiar with The Next Generation, she was played by an actress named Diana Mulder. And she actually had appeared in two episodes of Star Trek, the original series, playing two different characters. So she, She wasn't a total newbie to Star Trek. She had some some experience with Star Trek before she joined the cast of The Next Generation in Season 2. As we all know, the Doctor that's most beloved aboard the Enterprise during the Next Generation series is Dr. Beverly Crusher, played by the great Gates McFadden. And apparently There was a showrunner, a writer, or somebody that didn't really get along with Gates McFadden during the first season. And she was somewhat critical of the way they were writing her character at the time, and wanted them to kind of change some things. And they didn't like that, and so Her contract was not renewed after the first season of The Next Generation, which was a disappointment, I think, to a lot of fans at the time. Now, I was really young at the time, so I don't necessarily remember that but from what I've read fans weren't Real happy with the fact that Dr. Crusher wasn't coming back. And they replaced Dr. Crusher's character with the character of Dr. Catherine Pulaski. And introduced her at the beginning of the second season. And as I mentioned, she's often considered a divisive character among the Star Trek fanbase. But, I would submit that Dr. Pulaski brings a valuable and unique perspective to Star Trek The Next Generation during that second season. And her character contributed to its depth and diversity. So, let me stipulate before I go any further. The Dr. Crusher is the best doctor for Star Trek, the next generation. I'm super glad that she came back in season three and continued on with the series. Her character is incredibly important for multiple reasons, which we won't get into today. So I will stipulate that Dr. Crusher is the preferred doctor aboard the Enterprise D, but, I want to see if I can open some minds and maybe convince you that Dr. Pulaski's character isn't as bad as some people perceive it to be. So, First of all, Dr. Pulaski is a highly skilled and experienced medical doctor, right? Just like Dr. Crusher. And she's able to demonstrate her medical expertise in critical situations, which is what's demanded of the chief medical officer aboard a starship. And she has the ability to make tough calls in emergencies, and showcases her competence and dedication. To her duty as a medical doctor and as a member of Starfleet. She also is a complex character. Her character has some depth and sometimes in Star Trek, the characters can come across as a little one dimensional at times, right? But. Dr. Pulaski is very much not that way. She has flaws, and I would suggest that her complexities make her relatable to the audience. The biggest storyline that season that kind of illustrated this part of Dr. Pulaski's character is her skepticism towards data and, and some of the other crew members and her, her unwillingness at the beginning to accept that data was a sentient being, right? She considered him just an Android, a robot. But, she struggled with that because the rest of the crew obviously treated Data just like anybody else on the crew. And considered him a, a real person, a real being, so to speak. And so, this skepticism that Dr. Pulaski has, I think, adds a layer of realism to her character. And as the season progresses, you see her character evolve with regard to what she thinks about data. She eventually recognizes that he has value and that he's competent, and then finally comes around to recognizing that Data is, to some extent, a sentient being. And she doesn't treat him very nicely at the beginning, but towards the end of the season she does seem to accept him as a full, member of the crew of the Enterprise. She's also kind of quirky. She had like this transporter phobia, which I think was a nod to Dr. Leonard McCoy from the original series and I just think her character was kind of interesting. Again, I'm not suggesting that she Should have continued on throughout the rest of the series as the Chief Medical Officer. I'm grateful that they brought Gates McFadden back and continued the story with Dr. Crusher's character. But I do think Dr. Pulaski's character was interesting to some degree. Dr. Pulaski's Personality also contrasts with Dr. Crusher's. Dr. Crusher's more of a nurturer. She's more of an empathetic character. And Dr. Pulaski was not. She was fairly set in her ways. She wasn't necessarily open minded at the beginning, at least with regard to data. And so that contrast, I think, was good for the show because it showcases, you know, different approaches to medicine on board a starship, leadership, and just added a little bit of variety to the show. So, I also think, that she doesn't get enough credit for being strong willed and independent. She kind of brings a dynamic presence to the series. She doesn't shy away from voicing her opinions, even if they go against the grain, which is crucial for intellectual diversity and conflict resolution on The Enterprise, right? You don't want a bunch of yes men on board a starship. You want people who can fall in line when it's required and follow orders, but you also want the best and the brightest on the ship to be able to share their Opinions, their perspectives, their analyses, and Dr. Pulaski did that. I think she offered quite a bit of helpful insight throughout season two. And I think we should give her credit for that. She also you know, had, as I mentioned, this, this initial prejudice towards data and Her journey towards understanding and respecting who Data was mirrors real world issues. Issues of acceptance and tolerance and bias. And so I think there's a lot we can learn from her character. And she grew in the process, and that's something that I think all of us are striving to do. And so, I think that's admirable. I, I think it's a good quality that she was willing to open her mind and change her opinion on that issue. She had the capacity to be a mentor figure you know, offered her wisdom or experience bringing her own different perspective to the crew. And she sort of embodies the Star Trek ethos of exploration and learning. Her character development From skepticism to acceptance and understanding mirrors the franchise's kind of overarching theme of exploring the unknown, whether that's space or technology or interpersonal relationships, and learning and growing throughout that process. So, Again, I think she brings a lot to the table in terms of an interesting character on the show. One thing to kind of keep in mind too is this was the second season of the show. If you've watched the first season, you know that the first season was a little rough, right? There were, there were some good moments interspersed throughout season one, but by and large They had a lot of work to do to get the show to what it eventually became in season two. I think they're still Kind of figuring things out right there. They're kind of trying to figure out how these characters are going to Interact with one another and what the relationships are going to be What the dynamic on the ship is going to be? And so, Dr. Pulaski's character, to the extent that Her character wasn't a great character and again, I submit that she was a good character, but to the extent that you think she maybe wasn't a good character, there may be some fault that Lies with the writers of the show for that for any deficits in her character or character development. So that's just something to keep in mind because they were still in the very early days of the next generation when they introduced Dr. Pulaski. So, just to kind of summarize, I would argue that Dr. Pulaski's character deserves a re evaluation. I think her depth, her professional acumen and just kind of the dynamic that she brings to the cast enriched the narrative. Tapestry of Star Trek The Next Generation. She exemplifies the series commitment to showcasing diversity showcasing complex characters, and, you know, navigating the challenges of interpersonal relationships in outer space. You know, traveling throughout the galaxy together. So All in all, I like Dr. Pulaski. I, I liked her character. I thought she added a lot to the show and I think that maybe she doesn't deserve all the hate that she gets. So, that's my Defense of Dr. Pulaski. If we wanted to do a deep dive into the character, we could spend a lot more time on this and go episode by episode, but I'm not going to do that. But I just thought this would be an interesting topic to talk about today since my, my co host Ethan isn't here with me. He hasn't watched as much of The Next Generation as I have yet. He'll get to it eventually. And so this is a topic I thought I could share my thoughts on without necessarily requiring his perspective on it. Unfortunately, for the actress, Diana Muldaur. She apparently didn't get along with the rest of the cast. Patrick Stewart talks about this a little bit in his memoir and he says she was kind of removed from the rest of the cast and just didn't. Didn't connect with them, and by the end of the season, it was pretty clear that she wasn't going to be a good fit for the show. And so, I'm also grateful for that, even though I, Don't necessarily, you know, like the idea that she wasn't maybe getting along with the rest of the cast. But because of that, she ended up leaving the show, and that opened the door for Dr. Crusher to come back. And Once again, in case there's, just so there's no misunderstanding, I love Dr. Crusher, and I'm glad that she came back, and she, in my mind, is the chief medical officer of the Enterprise during the Next Generation era. So, yeah, That's my argument, and if you disagree that's totally fine. We can respectfully agree to disagree on this, but just give it some thought. Reconsider. Whether Dr. Pulaski's character adds value to the next generation in season two. I, I think it does if you're looking at it objectively. All right. Well, that's all I've got for today. This will be a little bit shorter episode. So I appreciate everybody tuning in. We will be back next week most likely with but the both of us and look forward to continuing to make content and talking about science fiction and Star Trek and all that, please follow us on social media. If you haven't done so already our social media handles are in the show description. You can also email us if you have questions or ideas or of topics or, or themes that you would like us to. Talk about on the show. We'd love to get feedback from you. And again, we just thank everybody that's listening to the show. Please share the show with your friends and family and invite them to listen as well. We, we want to continue to grow our listener base. We're having a lot of fun doing this and we hope to continue doing it for some time. All right. With that said, have a great week.