10 Star Trek Characters Who MUST Return
4. Dr Pulaski
Dr. Katherine Pulaski received a raw deal on the Next Generation. While Diana Muldaur did state in interviews that the plan was only ever to do one year, it still felt as though she was only ever a stopgap character, waiting for the next doctor to arrive (or previous one to return). With that, it was hard to truly warm to her. Constantly misnaming Data did nothing to help either.
And yet, with more than thirty years having passed since her last appearance, and her name only being used once afterward, it feels wrong for a main character to be discarded so callously. There was an opportunity in Picard's first season to address this. Rather than having the never-before-seen doctor of the USS Stargazer appear to give Jean-Luc his news, it would have stroked nostalgia to have Pulaski be the one to deliver the diagnosis.
Pulaski and Crusher have also never met on-screen. With the confirmation of Gates McFadden's return for the third season, it is possible, though unlikely, that these two characters could end comparing war stories from their time on the Enterprise-D. It may be a pipe dream, but Muldaur is one of the few main actors of a Star Trek series to depart, and never be heard of again.