I left town and moved to the mountains, to the High Sierra Nevada with my husband, and
eh thought that I'd left all this behind, and got a call for this,
and couldn't turn it down it was just too exciting, so here I am.
Pulaski is being played by Diana Muldaur who played twice in the original Star Trek series
and and who I have admired for years.
She is playing the ship's doctor and she will give it the the kind of strength it needs.
We started the second season very late, and we started it without Gates.
Are you alright Sir?
Sir?
End of the first season Hurley became the successor to all of the other writers,
and was going to be coming back as the head writer.
He felt very insistent about a new doctor.
Gates was a little bit high-handed, and you know, uhm maybe being eh a little demanding.
Eh second season I wasn't there because I disagreed with the writer.
I felt that he was writing uhm the character of Crusher,
They didn't appreciate what they had at the time until much much later.
eh I, I, I had said to him,
I said "You know can we just talk about why is it that if I've raised this kid on my own,
and he's, he might be obnoxious about it, but he has saved the ship about 6 times in a row,
I would say definitely anybody eh who's starting out,
their first big gig or whatever the case, to really appreciate where you are and what's
happening because it is, I mean you're extremely fortunate, so.
Enjoy it while you can.
and there have to be some of those genes that are Beverly Crushers.
So why is it EVERYTIME anything with any wisdom is said
it's a maaale character who talks to him?"
If a man's difficult it's artistic temperament.
If a woman's difficult she's a bitch.
Right.
There was nobody I hated in the beginning.
I'm glad that they brought her back.
Uhm you know, I missed Gates the whole time she was gone.
Alright, but let's keep this between you and
me.
Eh you know I knew eh Gates when you were Cheryl, didn't I. He did.
I did.
We've known eachother long before the series.
Yah that's part of the problem, you know.
He needs a doctor.
I found my tricorder, come to my room.
*laughter and woos* *claps* That is what Jean Luc wanted to hear Doctor
Crusher say *laughter and woos* *claps*
But, but uhm to attempt to strike a serious note.
This might be a good time to leave.
I came in with a better salary than most of them so I had a few problems with that as
far as the people that had already been there for a year were concerned, so that was a bit
of a problem eh 'cause I came in right up there.
You mean jealousy, I know.
The return of Beverly Crusher, eh Gates McFadden will be back as the doctor, and for Captain
Picard that means that there's going to be a certain extra frisson on the ship whenever
she and I are together.
But eh I, I do remember the I appealed to uhm I think it was Rick and the writers to
write a romantic encounter for Picard that wasn't referencing a relationship that was
already 25 years old. *laughter*
I think there were people that didn't want me to continue.
It was Patrick who called me, and said would you consider (darling) would you consider
coming back?
I'll speak for myself, you, you, because I was the last one cast it was sort of like,
uhm, uhm kind of the odd man out and that type of thing.
Everybody was very nice, it wasn't like that.
We're all just working, all just working.
Long hours.
Long hours working.
But I think that probably for me the second year was when it started to kind of really
kind of gel.
The year that I was gone.
*Laughter* We we're both gone.
The year that you were gone, yes, that was, It started... that was the year that we really
felt good *Laughter* about what we were doing.
And then it all fell to hell.
And then she comes back, and then NO, eh
I'm Doctor Pulaski Chief Medical Officer.
I understand you perfectly.
But Michael Dorn and I could really create things.
We could really just take off, and fun things happened and the tea ceremony happened,
and uhm I, I as my character I took great delight in, in Worf.
Uhm I loved my things with Worf.
Doctor, I wish to thank you.
but I think that, I think the second season for
me was when you, when you started, when you started going OK, and we as a group, uhm
although we were all headed in that direction eh the first season.
I love Denise.
What do you mean?
I don't know, the, the bond between all of us became so strong during those 7 years,
6 years in your case Gates, but *Laughter* not not really comradely of me to bring that
up, but, but I believe in truth.
I don't want to keep from working at Paramount for the rest of my life, but after Gene died
the, the entire office of his office was cleared out by the next morning at 7:30.
Little things like that.
The studio people who I was working for looked at it as 'Oh this is great, we'll have somebody
on the inside'.
Did you get more money?
Well I'm not telling.