February 14, 2024 • 16 mins
This week, Anthony flies solo and discusses the character of Dr. Katherine Pulaski from Season 2 of Star Trek The Next Generation. He defends her character as relatable and argues that she brought a diverse perspective to the show that ultimately culminated in significant personal growth, making her character arc rewarding for the viewer. Tune in for another interesting science fiction discussion, as Anthony tries to persuade the haters that Dr. Pulaski is a worthy character in Star Trek canon.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Anthony (00:17):
Welcome everybody to another episode of Father and
Son's Guide to the Galaxy.
I'm your host, Anthony, and mypartner in crime, my best bud,
my son, Ethan, is not going tobe able to join us today.
He is super busy right now withsome school stuff,
extracurricular stuff andhomework and academic stuff.
(00:39):
And he's just got his scheduletotally full right now.
So I'm going to fly solo today.
And we may do this from time totime when one of us isn't
available.
But we'll likely be back nextweek with both of us doing the
show.
So today we're going to get intoa controversial issue with
regard to Star Trek The NextGeneration.
(01:02):
This issue is divisive.
It's, it brings out strongopinions and I'm going to tackle
it, and that is to say that I amgoing to defend Dr.
Katherine Pulaski, who was thedoctor on board the Enterprise D
(01:27):
during the second season of StarTrek The Next Generation.
So Dr.
Pulaski, just by way ofbackground, if you aren't super
familiar with The NextGeneration, she was played by an
actress named Diana Mulder.
And she actually had appeared intwo episodes of Star Trek, the
(01:49):
original series, playing twodifferent characters.
So she, She wasn't a totalnewbie to Star Trek.
She had some some experiencewith Star Trek before she joined
the cast of The Next Generationin Season 2.
As we all know, the Doctorthat's most beloved aboard the
(02:12):
Enterprise during the NextGeneration series is Dr.
Beverly Crusher, played by thegreat Gates McFadden.
And apparently There was ashowrunner, a writer, or
somebody that didn't really getalong with Gates McFadden during
the first season.
And she was somewhat critical ofthe way they were writing her
(02:34):
character at the time, andwanted them to kind of change
some things.
And they didn't like that, andso Her contract was not renewed
after the first season of TheNext Generation, which was a
disappointment, I think, to alot of fans at the time.
Now, I was really young at thetime, so I don't necessarily
(02:54):
remember that but from what I'veread fans weren't Real happy
with the fact that Dr.
Crusher wasn't coming back.
And they replaced Dr.
Crusher's character with thecharacter of Dr.
Catherine Pulaski.
And introduced her at thebeginning of the second season.
(03:15):
And as I mentioned, she's oftenconsidered a divisive character
among the Star Trek fanbase.
But, I would submit that Dr.
Pulaski brings a valuable andunique perspective to Star Trek
The Next Generation during thatsecond season.
And her character contributed toits depth and diversity.
(03:41):
So, let me stipulate before I goany further.
The Dr.
Crusher is the best doctor forStar Trek, the next generation.
I'm super glad that she cameback in season three and
continued on with the series.
Her character is incrediblyimportant for multiple reasons,
(04:02):
which we won't get into today.
So I will stipulate that Dr.
Crusher is the preferred doctoraboard the Enterprise D, but, I
want to see if I can open someminds and maybe convince you
that Dr.
Pulaski's character isn't as badas some people perceive it to
(04:23):
be.
So, First of all, Dr.
Pulaski is a highly skilled andexperienced medical doctor,
right?
Just like Dr.
Crusher.
And she's able to demonstrateher medical expertise in
critical situations, which iswhat's demanded of the chief
medical officer aboard astarship.
And she has the ability to maketough calls in emergencies, and
(04:48):
showcases her competence anddedication.
To her duty as a medical doctorand as a member of Starfleet.
She also is a complex character.
Her character has some depth andsometimes in Star Trek, the
characters can come across as alittle one dimensional at times,
(05:12):
right?
But.
Dr.
Pulaski is very much not thatway.
She has flaws, and I wouldsuggest that her complexities
make her relatable to theaudience.
The biggest storyline thatseason that kind of illustrated
(05:33):
this part of Dr.
Pulaski's character is herskepticism towards data and, and
some of the other crew membersand her, her unwillingness at
the beginning to accept thatdata was a sentient being,
right?
(05:53):
She considered him just anAndroid, a robot.
But, she struggled with thatbecause the rest of the crew
obviously treated Data just likeanybody else on the crew.
And considered him a, a realperson, a real being, so to
speak.
And so, this skepticism that Dr.
(06:18):
Pulaski has, I think, adds alayer of realism to her
character.
And as the season progresses,you see her character evolve
with regard to what she thinksabout data.
She eventually recognizes thathe has value and that he's
(06:42):
competent, and then finallycomes around to recognizing that
Data is, to some extent, asentient being.
And she doesn't treat him verynicely at the beginning, but
towards the end of the seasonshe does seem to accept him as a
full, member of the crew of theEnterprise.
(07:06):
She's also kind of quirky.
She had like this transporterphobia, which I think was a nod
to Dr.
Leonard McCoy from the originalseries and I just think her
character was kind ofinteresting.
Again, I'm not suggesting thatshe Should have continued on
(07:26):
throughout the rest of theseries as the Chief Medical
Officer.
I'm grateful that they broughtGates McFadden back and
continued the story with Dr.
Crusher's character.
But I do think Dr.
Pulaski's character wasinteresting to some degree.
Dr.
Pulaski's Personality alsocontrasts with Dr.
(07:48):
Crusher's.
Dr.
Crusher's more of a nurturer.
She's more of an empatheticcharacter.
And Dr.
Pulaski was not.
She was fairly set in her ways.
She wasn't necessarily openminded at the beginning, at
least with regard to data.
And so that contrast, I think,was good for the show because it
(08:17):
showcases, you know, differentapproaches to medicine on board
a starship, leadership, and justadded a little bit of variety to
the show.
So, I also think, that shedoesn't get enough credit for
being strong willed andindependent.
(08:41):
She kind of brings a dynamicpresence to the series.
She doesn't shy away fromvoicing her opinions, even if
they go against the grain, whichis crucial for intellectual
diversity and conflictresolution on The Enterprise,
right?
You don't want a bunch of yesmen on board a starship.
(09:03):
You want people who can fall inline when it's required and
follow orders, but you also wantthe best and the brightest on
the ship to be able to sharetheir Opinions, their
perspectives, their analyses,and Dr.
Pulaski did that.
I think she offered quite a bitof helpful insight throughout
(09:27):
season two.
And I think we should give hercredit for that.
She also you know, had, as Imentioned, this, this initial
prejudice towards data and Herjourney towards understanding
and respecting who Data wasmirrors real world issues.
(09:50):
Issues of acceptance andtolerance and bias.
And so I think there's a lot wecan learn from her character.
And she grew in the process, andthat's something that I think
all of us are striving to do.
And so, I think that'sadmirable.
I, I think it's a good qualitythat she was willing to open her
(10:14):
mind and change her opinion onthat issue.
She had the capacity to be amentor figure you know, offered
her wisdom or experiencebringing her own different
perspective to the crew.
And she sort of embodies theStar Trek ethos of exploration
(10:35):
and learning.
Her character development Fromskepticism to acceptance and
understanding mirrors thefranchise's kind of overarching
theme of exploring the unknown,whether that's space or
technology or interpersonalrelationships, and learning and
growing throughout that process.
(10:57):
So, Again, I think she brings alot to the table in terms of an
interesting character on theshow.
One thing to kind of keep inmind too is this was the second
season of the show.
If you've watched the firstseason, you know that the first
season was a little rough,right?
(11:18):
There were, there were some goodmoments interspersed throughout
season one, but by and largeThey had a lot of work to do to
get the show to what iteventually became in season two.
I think they're still Kind offiguring things out right there.
They're kind of trying to figureout how these characters are
(11:40):
going to Interact with oneanother and what the
relationships are going to beWhat the dynamic on the ship is
going to be?
And so, Dr.
Pulaski's character, to theextent that Her character wasn't
a great character and again, Isubmit that she was a good
(12:00):
character, but to the extentthat you think she maybe wasn't
a good character, there may besome fault that Lies with the
writers of the show for that forany deficits in her character or
character development.
So that's just something to keepin mind because they were still
in the very early days of thenext generation when they
(12:26):
introduced Dr.
Pulaski.
So, just to kind of summarize, Iwould argue that Dr.
Pulaski's character deserves are evaluation.
I think her depth, herprofessional acumen and just
kind of the dynamic that shebrings to the cast enriched the
(12:47):
narrative.
Tapestry of Star Trek The NextGeneration.
She exemplifies the seriescommitment to showcasing
diversity showcasing complexcharacters, and, you know,
navigating the challenges ofinterpersonal relationships in
outer space.
You know, traveling throughoutthe galaxy together.
(13:09):
So All in all, I like Dr.
Pulaski.
I, I liked her character.
I thought she added a lot to theshow and I think that maybe she
doesn't deserve all the hatethat she gets.
So, that's my Defense of Dr.
Pulaski.
If we wanted to do a deep diveinto the character, we could
(13:31):
spend a lot more time on thisand go episode by episode, but
I'm not going to do that.
But I just thought this would bean interesting topic to talk
about today since my, my co hostEthan isn't here with me.
He hasn't watched as much of TheNext Generation as I have yet.
He'll get to it eventually.
(13:51):
And so this is a topic I thoughtI could share my thoughts on
without necessarily requiringhis perspective on it.
Unfortunately, for the actress,Diana Muldaur.
She apparently didn't get alongwith the rest of the cast.
(14:14):
Patrick Stewart talks about thisa little bit in his memoir and
he says she was kind of removedfrom the rest of the cast and
just didn't.
Didn't connect with them, and bythe end of the season, it was
pretty clear that she wasn'tgoing to be a good fit for the
show.
(14:35):
And so, I'm also grateful forthat, even though I, Don't
necessarily, you know, like theidea that she wasn't maybe
getting along with the rest ofthe cast.
But because of that, she endedup 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
(14:58):
misunderstanding, I love Dr.
Crusher, and I'm glad that shecame back, and she, in my mind,
is the chief medical officer ofthe Enterprise during the Next
Generation era.
So, yeah, That's my argument,and if you disagree that's
(15:19):
totally fine.
We can respectfully agree todisagree on this, but just give
it some thought.
Reconsider.
Whether Dr.
Pulaski's character adds valueto the next generation in season
two.
I, I think it does if you'relooking at it objectively.
All right.
Well, that's all I've got fortoday.
This will be a little bitshorter episode.
(15:41):
So I appreciate everybody tuningin.
We will be back next week mostlikely with but the both of us
and look forward to continuingto make content and talking
about science fiction and StarTrek and all that, please follow
us on social media.
If you haven't done so alreadyour social media handles are in
(16:02):
the show description.
You can also email us if youhave questions or ideas or of
topics or, or themes that youwould like us to.
Talk about on the show.
We'd love to get feedback fromyou.
And again, we just thankeverybody that's listening to
the show.
Please share the show with yourfriends and family and invite
them to listen as well.
(16:23):
We, we want to continue to growour listener base.
We're having a lot of fun doingthis and we hope to continue
doing it for some time.
All right.
With that said, have a greatweek.
Welcome everybody to another episode of Father and
Son's Guide to the Galaxy.
I'm your host, Anthony, and mypartner in crime, my best bud,
my son, Ethan, is not going tobe able to join us today.
He is super busy right now withsome school stuff,
extracurricular stuff andhomework and academic stuff.
(00:39):
And he's just got his scheduletotally full right now.
So I'm going to fly solo today.
And we may do this from time totime when one of us isn't
available.
But we'll likely be back nextweek with both of us doing the
show.
So today we're going to get intoa controversial issue with
regard to Star Trek The NextGeneration.
(01:02):
This issue is divisive.
It's, it brings out strongopinions and I'm going to tackle
it, and that is to say that I amgoing to defend Dr.
Katherine Pulaski, who was thedoctor on board the Enterprise D
(01:27):
during the second season of StarTrek The Next Generation.
So Dr.
Pulaski, just by way ofbackground, if you aren't super
familiar with The NextGeneration, she was played by an
actress named Diana Mulder.
And she actually had appeared intwo episodes of Star Trek, the
(01:49):
original series, playing twodifferent characters.
So she, She wasn't a totalnewbie to Star Trek.
She had some some experiencewith Star Trek before she joined
the cast of The Next Generationin Season 2.
As we all know, the Doctorthat's most beloved aboard the
(02:12):
Enterprise during the NextGeneration series is Dr.
Beverly Crusher, played by thegreat Gates McFadden.
And apparently There was ashowrunner, a writer, or
somebody that didn't really getalong with Gates McFadden during
the first season.
And she was somewhat critical ofthe way they were writing her
(02:34):
character at the time, andwanted them to kind of change
some things.
And they didn't like that, andso Her contract was not renewed
after the first season of TheNext Generation, which was a
disappointment, I think, to alot of fans at the time.
Now, I was really young at thetime, so I don't necessarily
(02:54):
remember that but from what I'veread fans weren't Real happy
with the fact that Dr.
Crusher wasn't coming back.
And they replaced Dr.
Crusher's character with thecharacter of Dr.
Catherine Pulaski.
And introduced her at thebeginning of the second season.
(03:15):
And as I mentioned, she's oftenconsidered a divisive character
among the Star Trek fanbase.
But, I would submit that Dr.
Pulaski brings a valuable andunique perspective to Star Trek
The Next Generation during thatsecond season.
And her character contributed toits depth and diversity.
(03:41):
So, let me stipulate before I goany further.
The Dr.
Crusher is the best doctor forStar Trek, the next generation.
I'm super glad that she cameback in season three and
continued on with the series.
Her character is incrediblyimportant for multiple reasons,
(04:02):
which we won't get into today.
So I will stipulate that Dr.
Crusher is the preferred doctoraboard the Enterprise D, but, I
want to see if I can open someminds and maybe convince you
that Dr.
Pulaski's character isn't as badas some people perceive it to
(04:23):
be.
So, First of all, Dr.
Pulaski is a highly skilled andexperienced medical doctor,
right?
Just like Dr.
Crusher.
And she's able to demonstrateher medical expertise in
critical situations, which iswhat's demanded of the chief
medical officer aboard astarship.
And she has the ability to maketough calls in emergencies, and
(04:48):
showcases her competence anddedication.
To her duty as a medical doctorand as a member of Starfleet.
She also is a complex character.
Her character has some depth andsometimes in Star Trek, the
characters can come across as alittle one dimensional at times,
(05:12):
right?
But.
Dr.
Pulaski is very much not thatway.
She has flaws, and I wouldsuggest that her complexities
make her relatable to theaudience.
The biggest storyline thatseason that kind of illustrated
(05:33):
this part of Dr.
Pulaski's character is herskepticism towards data and, and
some of the other crew membersand her, her unwillingness at
the beginning to accept thatdata was a sentient being,
right?
(05:53):
She considered him just anAndroid, a robot.
But, she struggled with thatbecause the rest of the crew
obviously treated Data just likeanybody else on the crew.
And considered him a, a realperson, a real being, so to
speak.
And so, this skepticism that Dr.
(06:18):
Pulaski has, I think, adds alayer of realism to her
character.
And as the season progresses,you see her character evolve
with regard to what she thinksabout data.
She eventually recognizes thathe has value and that he's
(06:42):
competent, and then finallycomes around to recognizing that
Data is, to some extent, asentient being.
And she doesn't treat him verynicely at the beginning, but
towards the end of the seasonshe does seem to accept him as a
full, member of the crew of theEnterprise.
(07:06):
She's also kind of quirky.
She had like this transporterphobia, which I think was a nod
to Dr.
Leonard McCoy from the originalseries and I just think her
character was kind ofinteresting.
Again, I'm not suggesting thatshe Should have continued on
(07:26):
throughout the rest of theseries as the Chief Medical
Officer.
I'm grateful that they broughtGates McFadden back and
continued the story with Dr.
Crusher's character.
But I do think Dr.
Pulaski's character wasinteresting to some degree.
Dr.
Pulaski's Personality alsocontrasts with Dr.
(07:48):
Crusher's.
Dr.
Crusher's more of a nurturer.
She's more of an empatheticcharacter.
And Dr.
Pulaski was not.
She was fairly set in her ways.
She wasn't necessarily openminded at the beginning, at
least with regard to data.
And so that contrast, I think,was good for the show because it
(08:17):
showcases, you know, differentapproaches to medicine on board
a starship, leadership, and justadded a little bit of variety to
the show.
So, I also think, that shedoesn't get enough credit for
being strong willed andindependent.
(08:41):
She kind of brings a dynamicpresence to the series.
She doesn't shy away fromvoicing her opinions, even if
they go against the grain, whichis crucial for intellectual
diversity and conflictresolution on The Enterprise,
right?
You don't want a bunch of yesmen on board a starship.
(09:03):
You want people who can fall inline when it's required and
follow orders, but you also wantthe best and the brightest on
the ship to be able to sharetheir Opinions, their
perspectives, their analyses,and Dr.
Pulaski did that.
I think she offered quite a bitof helpful insight throughout
(09:27):
season two.
And I think we should give hercredit for that.
She also you know, had, as Imentioned, this, this initial
prejudice towards data and Herjourney towards understanding
and respecting who Data wasmirrors real world issues.
(09:50):
Issues of acceptance andtolerance and bias.
And so I think there's a lot wecan learn from her character.
And she grew in the process, andthat's something that I think
all of us are striving to do.
And so, I think that'sadmirable.
I, I think it's a good qualitythat she was willing to open her
(10:14):
mind and change her opinion onthat issue.
She had the capacity to be amentor figure you know, offered
her wisdom or experiencebringing her own different
perspective to the crew.
And she sort of embodies theStar Trek ethos of exploration
(10:35):
and learning.
Her character development Fromskepticism to acceptance and
understanding mirrors thefranchise's kind of overarching
theme of exploring the unknown,whether that's space or
technology or interpersonalrelationships, and learning and
growing throughout that process.
(10:57):
So, Again, I think she brings alot to the table in terms of an
interesting character on theshow.
One thing to kind of keep inmind too is this was the second
season of the show.
If you've watched the firstseason, you know that the first
season was a little rough,right?
(11:18):
There were, there were some goodmoments interspersed throughout
season one, but by and largeThey had a lot of work to do to
get the show to what iteventually became in season two.
I think they're still Kind offiguring things out right there.
They're kind of trying to figureout how these characters are
(11:40):
going to Interact with oneanother and what the
relationships are going to beWhat the dynamic on the ship is
going to be?
And so, Dr.
Pulaski's character, to theextent that Her character wasn't
a great character and again, Isubmit that she was a good
(12:00):
character, but to the extentthat you think she maybe wasn't
a good character, there may besome fault that Lies with the
writers of the show for that forany deficits in her character or
character development.
So that's just something to keepin mind because they were still
in the very early days of thenext generation when they
(12:26):
introduced Dr.
Pulaski.
So, just to kind of summarize, Iwould argue that Dr.
Pulaski's character deserves are evaluation.
I think her depth, herprofessional acumen and just
kind of the dynamic that shebrings to the cast enriched the
(12:47):
narrative.
Tapestry of Star Trek The NextGeneration.
She exemplifies the seriescommitment to showcasing
diversity showcasing complexcharacters, and, you know,
navigating the challenges ofinterpersonal relationships in
outer space.
You know, traveling throughoutthe galaxy together.
(13:09):
So All in all, I like Dr.
Pulaski.
I, I liked her character.
I thought she added a lot to theshow and I think that maybe she
doesn't deserve all the hatethat she gets.
So, that's my Defense of Dr.
Pulaski.
If we wanted to do a deep diveinto the character, we could
(13:31):
spend a lot more time on thisand go episode by episode, but
I'm not going to do that.
But I just thought this would bean interesting topic to talk
about today since my, my co hostEthan isn't here with me.
He hasn't watched as much of TheNext Generation as I have yet.
He'll get to it eventually.
(13:51):
And so this is a topic I thoughtI could share my thoughts on
without necessarily requiringhis perspective on it.
Unfortunately, for the actress,Diana Muldaur.
She apparently didn't get alongwith the rest of the cast.
(14:14):
Patrick Stewart talks about thisa little bit in his memoir and
he says she was kind of removedfrom the rest of the cast and
just didn't.
Didn't connect with them, and bythe end of the season, it was
pretty clear that she wasn'tgoing to be a good fit for the
show.
(14:35):
And so, I'm also grateful forthat, even though I, Don't
necessarily, you know, like theidea that she wasn't maybe
getting along with the rest ofthe cast.
But because of that, she endedup 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
(14:58):
misunderstanding, I love Dr.
Crusher, and I'm glad that shecame back, and she, in my mind,
is the chief medical officer ofthe Enterprise during the Next
Generation era.
So, yeah, That's my argument,and if you disagree that's
(15:19):
totally fine.
We can respectfully agree todisagree on this, but just give
it some thought.
Reconsider.
Whether Dr.
Pulaski's character adds valueto the next generation in season
two.
I, I think it does if you'relooking at it objectively.
All right.
Well, that's all I've got fortoday.
This will be a little bitshorter episode.
(15:41):
So I appreciate everybody tuningin.
We will be back next week mostlikely with but the both of us
and look forward to continuingto make content and talking
about science fiction and StarTrek and all that, please follow
us on social media.
If you haven't done so alreadyour social media handles are in
(16:02):
the show description.
You can also email us if youhave questions or ideas or of
topics or, or themes that youwould like us to.
Talk about on the show.
We'd love to get feedback fromyou.
And again, we just thankeverybody that's listening to
the show.
Please share the show with yourfriends and family and invite
them to listen as well.
(16:23):
We, we want to continue to growour listener base.
We're having a lot of fun doingthis and we hope to continue
doing it for some time.
All right.
With that said, have a greatweek.
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