Who likes Dr Pulaski?

In Season 2 of The Next Generation, Gates McFadden took a year out to have a baby and was replaced with Diana Muldaur who had previously played 'Bimbo of the Week' twice in The Original Series. I don't ever remember being a great fan of Dr Pulaski, not particularly because I was attached to Dr Crusher, but there was nothing likeable about Pulaski for a teenager. I simply saw her as a cantankerous ageing broad with a chip on her shoulder. I'm on my umpteenth re-watch of TNG and I'm currently in mid Season 2. This time around I actually saw her as dry, and quite amusing, possibly because our age gap has decreased since the last time I watched her. Whilst looking through her IMDb, I came across a quote from the actress which put me on the offensive once again, she said....

"A lot of people ask me why I did Star Trek for a year and I said, "because it sounded wonderful and  creative, fun and children's theatre." It wasn't any of those things... that was a mistake of mine."

The implication that Star Trek is neither wonderful or creative is annoying enough but 'children's theatre'?  Perhaps the brightly coloured pyjama uniforms gave her this 'Teletubbies in Space' analogy, either way, I do not agree with her assessment. She does go on to say some wonderful things about Gene Roddenberry and his imagination so redeems herself a little. I suppose we just have to keep in mind that doing Star Trek was just a job for some actors and we can't expect them to love it as much as we do. Having said that, guess who is at the London Film Comic Con signing autographs and doing talks this year? Well, at 75 year old, she's actually welcome to £15 of my money for her squiggle.  It could supplement her pension.

Diana Muldaur wearing well at 75?

The actress interviews for TNG Blue Ray

Muldaur recently did an interview for the New Blue Ray Box sets of The Next Generation and as you might expect, she sings the praises of the show and its crew, in fact, she came across quite lovely and I look forward to meeting her later in the year.

My final thoughts on this character are as follows:

1. She is just like a female Dr McCoy
2. She is the only officer that talks down to the Captain and gets away with it
3. She wears a Skant variation and is the only officer that is allowed to wear trousers underneath
4. If she had stayed with the series, Worf would have been her greatest 'bounce off' character