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Of all the memorable characters found within the Star Trek universe, there are a handful of them that never sat well with fans. Some characters were created to be liked, but ended up having the complete opposite effect on fans. For The Next Generation in particular, this unexpected backlash against characters was more common than it should have been. Wesley Crusher was supposed to be the lovable young genius, but ended up being an arrogant and annoying know-it-all of a bygone era. Additionaly, Worf's son Alexander is believed by many to be a wasted opportunity of a character. Of all these characters however, there is one that seems to be universally disliked, but rather than from bad writing or dislikable character traits, this dislike came from a plethora of behind-the-scenes shenanigans. This is none of than Dr. Katherine Pulaski, head medical officer aboard the iconic Enterprise D.

While there are a few, minor reasons that Pulaski was disliked as a character, the main reasons lay outside the fictional universe, and are heavily related to the surprisingly awful first season of TNG. During this cursed first season, the character of Dr. Beverly Crusher was introduced. She was a wonderful character who would return in season 3, but at the beginning was terribly underwritten and was given very little to work with. Gates McFadden, the actress who played Beverly, was an amazing actor, but she was deeply unhappy with how she was treated on set. Maurice Hurley, producer at the time and overall puppet for the questionable decisions of creator Gene Roddenberry, took a disliking to her right from the start. While this is hinted to be due to her turning down his advances, nothing has been officially stated about his reasons. He wanted her gone, and he finally got his wish. McFadden was fairly unceremoniously fired just after the season 1 wrap party.

RELATED: Star Trek: The Episode That Changed Dr. Beverly Crusher

The show's crew at the time were very tight, all of them getting on like family, so when they found out about her dismissal they were all deeply hurt and annoyed. They continued with the filming, but were begrudging when Diana Muldaur came along to replace McFadden, introducing Dr. Pulaski at the start of season 2. The in-universe explanation was the Beverly had been promoted and was working with Starfleet back on earth, leaving her young son Wesley on the Enterprise without so much as batting an eyelid.

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So McFadden was gone, and Muldaur was her replacement, which put her in a very uncomfortable position with the rest of the cast. They were all, unintentionally, cold towards her. It didn't help that she was also being paid a lot more than everyone else. It was by no means her fault, and with all things considered, she did a great job and the character was not bad. However, she was fighting an uphill battle, being used as a pawn in the producers game. She was excited to join the team, having played two other characters in The Original Series previously, but the circumstances of her joining put a dampener on her experience.

All the coldness being expressed by the crew was also being felt by the audiences. Not only did they feel the awkwardness between the actors on set, but a lot of them had really liked what they had experienced of Dr. Crusher. Viewers didn’t like the new person coming in and bossing people around, a character trait that would have been great if it wasn’t coming from the new, unwanted face among the main cast. Instead of trying to do something new with her character like they had begun to do with Crusher, the writers were making her out to be a female McCoy from TOS. She was argumentative character who seemed to always be at odds with Picard, a dislike between the two becoming so great at one point he didn't want her to perform a simple operation, despite her being a highly trained medical officer. It made audiences feel that if even Picard could not trust her and did not want her on the Enterprise, why should they?

Feeling this from the rest of the cast and the fan response to her character, Muldaur was put off from returning even in a small way for season 3. This turned out to be a blessing, as with Hurley gone from the production team, McFadden was asked back.

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It was a shame in a lot of ways how everything panned out, because in comparison to Wesley, Dr. Pulaski was a great character. She was rough around the edges, and rubbed people the wrong way, but her character gave the show a fantastic opportunity to evolve her character, and see a tangible change within her over the course of the show. She did things like disrespect the captain, and was downright rude to Data, refusing to truly acknowledge his presence as a living and sentient being. However, this was exactly what the show was lacking. Everyone was understanding and utopian in their views, and really needed a grumpy anti-hero of sorts to stir the pot and create tension among the characters.

What makes things worse is that, while there were some genuine reasons for people not liking Pulaski, a depressingly large portion of haters simply did not like how the young, conventionally attractive Dr. Crusher was replaced by an older woman, a sign of the times for a show made in the late 80s. Despite this, there are a few justifiable reasons for the seemingly universal hate towards Pulaski. But overall it seems unfair to both the character and actress, who never had the opportunity to truly shine like the rest of the cast did, a lot starting out rough but getting better with time.

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