10 Star Trek Characters Who Don't Deserve The Hate

Diana Muldaur's Dr. Katherine Pulaski suffered from when she arrived. The character was introduced to replace the recently fired Gates McFadden and from the beginning, some poor choices were made about how the character should be portrayed. 

Here was an attempt to recapture the banter that audiences had seen between James Kirk and Leonard McCoy, as Pulaski was a little gruffer than her predecessor. The biggest issue, in this writer's opinion, was the lack of pre-amble. She simply didn't have the relationship already established to butt heads with her colleagues in the way that she did.

However, that aspect of her legacy has overtaken the rest of The Next Generation's second season. She is not only a capable doctor, but she is a highly engaging character. Her turns in both Contagion and Pen Pals, while often all too brief, show someone who knows what they are doing and what they're about, while Unnatural Selection (dodgy space science aside) gives her a chance to truly shine. 

Though she often appears in 'Hated' lists, Dr. Pulaski did exactly what was asked of her, while shouldering the weight of replacing a popular character. The true shame is that she has never made another appearance in Star Trek after the dire Shades Of Gray.