[T'Tan]

I am just rewatching TNG with my girlfriend as we got quite surprised about the introduction of Katherine Pulaski and her sudden disappearance shortly after. I know this was because of some issues with the actor Gates McFadden, but nevertheless the writing was kind of unsatisfying. I believe there was one or two sentences that Beverly got a new duty station, but when Pulaski disappeared there was nothing. Or did we overlook something?

[Three of Seven]

Can't say it bothered me too much, I didn't like Pulaski, but according to memory alpha, three references were made about her after she left the show, two in TNG and one in Voy.

[T'Tan]

Can't say it bothered me too much, I didn't like Pulaski, but according to memory alpha, three references were made about her after she left the show, two in TNG and one in Voy.

Yes, haven't had a hard time either. But I think they should have explained her leave a little better or at all, respectively.

[Three of Seven]

Yeah, but I think the books might clear it up, though, I can't really read, so can't answer that one! A lot of characters just disappear, never to be heard from again. Didn't happen as much in Star Trek, they usually wrote things in quite well, guess they had an early break that day!

[Sagison Brandt]

I actually liked the [I]idea[I] of Pulaski, but I didn't much care for the execution. I think it was good to bring an outsider's perspective into the family mix, and occasionally have someone question the courses of action and provide that constructive discontent that keeps teams from getting complacent. There was a lot of potential there for drama and character development, but I think the writers were still laboring under the Roddenberry Dictum to not have conflict among the main cast as story points.

[Novalance]

she's made two 'appearances' in the books that i know of, there may be more though, but her biggest is this one
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Trek-D...ne+the+missing

the book also has some interaction between beverly crusher and kate pulaski, i quite enjoyed it

[T'Tan]

she's made two 'appearances' in the books that i know of, there may be more though, but her biggest is this one
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Trek-D...ne+the+missing

the book also has some interaction between beverly crusher and kate pulaski, i quite enjoyed it

Thank you for the recommendation. I'm not really into reading, so I haven't read any Star Trek literature yet. But I want to try in the future.

About the idea of Pulaski I totally agree with you, Sagison.

[Silynn]

Contract disputes with actors are one of those outside factors that sadly influence the overall story.

The only canon that I recall about Pulaski is that she ended up at the Medical facility in San Francisco during a mention in Voyager or something.

But yes, the switching of Crusher-Pulaski-Crusher was kind of strange. Yet, when you always see a new Helmsman on every episode, made me wonder if Rikker or Picard kept eating their helmsmen for lunch.

[Allan Hood]

I am just rewatching TNG with my girlfriend as we got quite surprised about the introduction of Katherine Pulaski and her sudden disappearance shortly after. I know this was because of some issues with the actor Gates McFadden, but nevertheless the writing was kind of unsatisfying. I believe there was one or two sentences that Beverly got a new duty station, but when Pulaski disappeared there was nothing. Or did we overlook something?

This is all I could find...

Dr. Beverly Crusher decided to return to the Enterprise in 2366. Pulaski transferred off the ship sometime prior to Crusher's return. (TNG: "Evolution")

In an alternate timeline, by 2404, Pulaski was working at Starfleet Medical. (VOY: "Endgame")

Despite being a series regular for the year, Muldaur declined to appear in the opening credit sequence, and instead received billing and a "special appearance" credit for each episode in which she appeared. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)

[orri]

For the federation flagship they seem to get a lot of people just jumping on and off. I understand that things outside the show effect the on-screen world but they don't really address it most of the time; at least on DS9 then could do the whole... "it's a trade station!"... "there's a war on!... "they were a changeling all along". In TNG Lots of people just seem to pop on and off the most important ship in the federation.

[aceman67]

For the federation flagship they seem to get a lot of people just jumping on and off.

Growing up around the military, I know that it's not uncommon for assignments to only last 2-3 years before being rotated (Before the age of 16, I moved over 8 times, from one end of Canada to the other), especially on a flagship that performs a lot of specialized missions, turnover would be high and regular. And thats only accounting for specialized staff, not including other midigating factors like Loss of life from combat, accidents etc, or other factors like PTSD from those things. To quote Kirk...

Attachment 6121

In the TNG novels set after Generations, it's mentioned several times that the senior staff of a starship to stay together so long (15 years and two starships by Nemesis) is an oddity and only tolorated because of the deeds the crew has performed.

[Sagison Brandt]

There's a passage in the Autobiography of James T. Kirk where "Kirk" writes about keeping himself surrounded by his own crew for so long. He commented that he had a bridge full of officers who could be starship captains and senior leaders in their own right, but he kept them in his own orbit because of his apprehension at working with anyone else. He seemed to feel a vague guilt about it, making for a very interesting character beat.

For me, I've found that my personal enjoyment of Star Trek improved when I quit applying whatever I knew about real Naval career progression and assignments to the Starfleet model; else I had some cognitive dissonance that got in the way.