AH but my dear friend, who told a better story?
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name
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Pulaski is such a dick.
One character had several seasons to explore concepts like loyalty to the wrong people, warcrimes, PTSD, regrets. Made the character deep and interesting.
The other character had a handful of episodes to explore prejudice, and stubborn preconceptions, which made the character interesting... But the conflict was essentially resolved after and she only was around for one season.
I sometimes forget Dr Pelauski is even a thing, and then I watch a season two episode and I'm like "oh right!"
It’s the same dynamic as with Walter and Skyler White from Breaking Bad. People love the escapist element of coming along for the ride with a bad guy who is on the war path. They don’t love the character who tries to drag them out of their fantasy and back to reality.
At least Breaking Bad had the decency to make you really regret liking Walter as the show went on. That was its real genius: to lure you into temptation and then riddle you with guilt.
put me in sickbay and give me a choice of Pulaski / crusher / holodoc - Pulaski ever fuckin time.
put me in sickbay and give me a choice of Pulaski / crusher / holodoc - Pulaski ever fuckin time.
IDK, Picard went FAAAAR away to avoid having her replace his heart, and ended up with her anyway.
I'll take my chances with the holodoc
Maybe for most ST fans it is because one of the characters was well-written and the other one was garbage.
she tried to have Data dismantled and she was unlikable about it
POLAski, dint get a fair chance, they just had her for 1 season only. i think shes more competent than beverly, but because mcfadden was doing something behind the scenes to get herself back on the show, and have it center her later on.
May be an unpopular opinion, but I found Pulaski much more interesting than Crusher. Pulaski brought conflict and dynamic into an at that time kinda sterile interpersonal situation among the characters. She could have developed into such a good foil both for Picard and Data. Also, Pulaski already showed an arc as she became friendlier and more open towards Data over the course of the season while Crusher stayed mostly stale for the rest of the show.
Yeah but crusher had better hair
All true.
But Gates McFadden is a stone cold hottie who would go on to bang a fucking ghost.
You don't replace talent like that.
It was the hairstyle they gave Diana Muldaur that made her unapproachable.
I'm pretty sure nobody wanted to watch Pulaski get down with a ghost looking like a 1980's public school teacher.
unzips
looking like a 1980’s public school teacher.
no no... keep going..
100% true. That Spaceballs helmet lookin' perm didn't do her any favors.
The grief of her abrupt departure is the real driving force behind Pulaski rejection.
I actually liked Pulaski. She was basically just a female McCoy. She was a far richer character than Crusher IMHO. Far less likable to be sure.
She just didn't really get enough time to grow and I think they realized she was too much of a Bones-clone
An insanely well written terrorist.
Was he a terrorist? Spy, sure. Torturer, sure. Assassin, yeah. But terrorist?
Also, the important part is that he was exiled to Terok Nor. He wasn't trustworthy, but he was no longer employed as a spy, torturer or assassin when we meet him. By then he was a tailor who was on the lookout for a way to improve his situation using all the tricks he'd learned from his previous life. I think people loved him because he was a believable character with a lot of depth to him.
terrorist is when you do bad thing
Complain about ops title then.
I dunno how to tell ya that queer-coded terrorist is gonna win vs stodgy doctor 9 outta 10 times.
Not surprised a fascistic government would banish a good spy to Terok Nor for being queer.
Wasn't Garrik effectively banished for being on the losing side of an internal power struggle within the Obsidian Order (the Cardassian spy division of the government)?
He was banished because he "betrayed" tain, his mentor and father as well as the head of the cardassian gestapo, in some unspecified way. The people above are just doing the usual, unoriginal take of GARAK GAY because any two smooth talking men without big manly muscles being friends must totally be gay coded. God forbid heterosexual men are allowed to not fit a stereotype.
He was TAINted
He's not hetero though, he wanted to "obviously have sex with Bashir", the actor said so. And he was in love with Ziyal, so quite obviously bi in some way.
Of course this doesn't take anything away from what you say, just a small correction.
That romance plot with Ziyal was so weird and made me really uncomfortable tbh.
Why?
That age gap. And Ziyal was not played older or more mature.
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One oozes charisma, mystery, clearly hates the main villain of the show, and arguably saves the entire Federation by tricking the Romulans to join the war. The other, out of nowhere, replaces a turbo hotty everyone loved and acts like they own the place 80% of the time on screen while expecting way to much credit for simply doing their job.
Gee. I wonder why it's no comparison.
acts like they own the place 80% of the time on screen
I mean, they are chief medical officer
Being a good person doesn't automatically make you an interesting character...
...my child
Oh, you bastard! Got me with this one, what a great character that i cannot stand. Superb acting and writing, all for the worst person on bajor
it's worth throwing out there that one got a whole show to develop and the other got sent to a starship upstate before most people think their show even got good
Were there puppies on the starship? And ponies?
absolutely. if the show had kept Pulaski and developed the character she could have become a beloved member of the main cast. imagine the stories we could have gotten about her and data developing a close friendship over years. her routinely calling picard out like everyone did to him in picard s3. but at that time in tng her personality was as present as picard and that just wasnt allowed.
everyone loves faciest space lizard man because we got years of him and dr twink boyfriend being awesome on screen. his character had room to devlop.
TNG is my Star Trek of choice. It's an extremely unpopular opinion but I liked Dr. Pulaski a lot more than Dr. Crusher. In fact, Crusher is my least favorite main character in TNG. I think the reason people didn't like Dr. Pulaski was that damned hair style they gave her. It made her stiff and unapproachable.
Noo the hair is great. I think Pulaski was better too. It's just that the vast majority of star trek fans identity with data because of reasons and she's not warm off the bat or geared towards the masculine gaze. She's a top notch doctor but before she's been through the particular experiences that lend to a cold but genuinely helpful empathy. Which would have made for some killer character development had she not been replaced.
A review that nobody could hold a candle to. 😏
Everybody loves a good redemption story...
How can you stay mad at a face like that? Also, nobody disrespects my boy, Data.
I think a good part of it was how the character came to be outside of the show.
Also I really hate that the pronounced data as data
Also I really hate that the pronounced data as data
One is his name, the other is not. Bitch.
Funny how quickly we got attached to data, isn't it?
It's almost as if people can handle complex characters!
But no. It can't be. That's a stupid though.
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