Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue our series on the best of TNG with a look at the best moments of Darrell's favorite main character, Dr. Katherine Pulaski.
Dr. Pulaski comes in to season 2 as a result of the show writers being unhappy with how Dr. Crusher's character had failed to develop enough in season 1. Pulaski was initially written to be a bit of an homage to Doctor McCoy from TOS, although her brash style and crankiness did not really fit well with the completely revised cast in TNG.
Over the course of season 2, we see Pulaski go from completely bigoted views about artificial life forms like Data to someone who learns to care for her crewmate Data. One of the shining examples of her misunderstanding of Commander Data comes in her first episode where she can't understand his interaction with other crew members.
QUOTE (from The Child, S2):
When not being a royal pain for all non-human life forms on board in her first few episodes, the new Doctor espouses her view for old world medicine sometimes being the best option. Again, this fits in with her overall molding after the prior character of Dr. McCoy.
QUOTE (from Contagion, S2):
One of the turning points with Data comes in the episode Unnatural Selection, in which Data stays with Pulaski for a long period of time when she is infected during the crisis at the Darwin Station. Her respect for him grows in this and other episodes and she ends up being one of Data's biggest backers when she and Picard guide Data through challenging world champion Kolrami to a couple of games of stratagema in the episode Peak Performance.
QUOTE (from Peak Performance, S2):
"Pulaski - Alright Data, enough of this. How long are you going to sit sulking like Achilles in his tent?
Data - I am running diagnostics.
Pulaski - You may be able to sell Troi that story, but not me. And you may be able to sell Troi that story, but not me.
Data - I am concerned about giving the Captain faulty advice.
Pulaski - I wish I had never convinced you to play that game."
Thus, while the show writers and actress Diana Muldaur mutually decided to part ways following season 2, her biggest contribution was helping in the fast tracking of Data's character development, which hit several key notes in season 2 including Measure of a Man and the aforementioned Peak Performance. She is also memorable in her fascination with Worf and Klingon culture, and her challenging of Captain Picard on multiple occasions. So while Darrell and many others may rightfully dislike this copycat character, she served some purposes and held us over until the writers bought back Dr. Crusher and successfully developed her character in seasons 3-7.
Diana Muldaur was the only regular cast member of a post-TOS Trek to have appeared on TOS, as she guested on a couple of episodes Return to Tomorrow and Is There in Truth No Beauty. She retired from acting in 1993 but was best known for her role on L.A. Law following her short stint on TNG.
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