10 Star Trek Characters With The Most Extreme Development

Appearing, thanks to archive footage, in all seven seasons of The Next Generation, as well as every episode of Star Trek: Picard's third season, Dr. Crusher has benefitted from one of the greatest arcs in the franchise - even if it took a long, long time to truly achieve that.

For example, several seasons of The Next Generation drip-fed her story to the audience, and her absence from the entire second season certainly didn't help. Ironically, she was one of the more developed characters in the show's debut year - which is something we don't often say about this iteration of Trek.

Behind-the-scenes issues saw her depart for a year, though she thankfully returned. There was the standard, for that time, ongoing question of will they/won't they? between Crusher and Picard - which thankfully saw a beautiful exploration in the seventh season episode Attached. Her character certainly suffered in the movies, where Gates McFadden was effectively relegated to cameo status.

Star Trek: Picard has not only fixed that but dealt with it head-on - making Crusher's story the main drive of the season. Her twenty-year absence from the lives of her friends is explained fairly quickly - though thankfully even in this, there is a multi-dimensional set of reasons, one that is gratefully received by the audience, and gives McFadden a proper chance to shine.