Star Trek Characters That Need To Meet Each Other (Somehow)

This one is, in short, a no-brainer. It’s also incredibly annoying that it has yet to happen, even with the almost total reunion tour that was Star Trek: Picard’s third season. We were even teased with a doctor from Picard’s past in the first season, though he was from the Stargazer. Since the end of The Next Generation’s second season, Pulaski has appeared in name only.

Though there were behind the scenes reasons for Gates McFadden’s departure at the end of the show’s debut year, she returned from the third season onwards. Having at the very least a handover, similar in a way to Jennifer Lien and Jeri Ryan at the beginning of Star Trek: Voyager’s fourth season, would offer the audience two different takes on the one position, while also allowing for a bit of a debrief of Pulaski as well. 

The second season of The Next Generation is often unfairly maligned, thanks in large part to the writers’ strike in '88, resulting in a damp squib of a finale in Shades Of Gray. This has unfortunately led to a bit of a writing off of Pulaski, who only appears throughout that one season. However, while there, she cures rapid aging, invents a mind-wiping technique, takes tea with Professor Moriarty, and became part of a pro-choice movement. It was a busy year. 

Without so much as a by your leave, she is simply gone when the third season begins. As wonderful as it was to have Crusher back again, we know from shows like The Original Series that having two main doctors serving at the one time has happened - McCoy and M’Benga were both serving on the Enterprise in the 2260s. 

While Diana Muldaur has spoken about her time on the show, suggesting that it wasn’t as enjoyable as we might hope, having one meeting between these two doctors would seem to be the perfect cap to the sage of the Enterprise-D.