| Beverly Crusher |
|
| Starfleet Rank Commander |
| Species Human |
| Planet Earth |
| Affiliation Federation |
| Gender Female |
| Portrayed Gates McFadden |
|
Doctor Beverly Crusher (born Beverly Howard), played by actress Gates McFadden, was a character on the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show and subsequent films. She was a regular character in the show for all but the second of its seven seasons.
During the character's absence in the second season, the character of Dr. Katherine Pulaski was added to the series.
Dr. Crusher is the chief medical officer on board the USS Enterprise-D and its successor, the USS Enterprise-E. She held the rank of Commander. She was the head of Starfleet Medical from 2365 to 2366.
She has one son, Wesley, by her late husband, Jack Crusher.
She is very reserved, quiet, rather shy, intelligent, sensitive, and introverted. Yet she has a very strong will and a sense of justice and will stand up for the underdog.
Casting[]
Gates McFadden was reluctant to accept the role of Dr. Crusher because of her commitment to appear in the play The Matchmaker at the La Jolla Playhouse.[1] During the second season, McFadden had scheduling conflict while doing stage work,[citation needed] so the Crusher character was written out of the show (but not killed off) for the second season and replaced by Diana Muldaur with a new female doctor character. Patrick Stewart was very puzzled by McFadden's departure from the show.[2] McFadden returned to the show in the third season, with her character being reassigned to the Enterprise. In the story of the show, the explanation was that her character "was off heading up Starfleet Medical for the year
Scholarly Reception[]
In Sexual Generations: "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Gender (University of Illinois Press, 1999), Robin Roberts notes that this character "is shaped more by her femininity than by her medical, scientific training
Character Infomation[]
As the series progresses, Dr. Crusher becomes closer to the Enterprise captain, Jean-Luc Picard:
In The Naked Now, all the crew members become intoxicated and act without their usual self-control. Dr. Crusher purposefully confronts Picard and says he's attractive; they share a rather humorous moment in which they flirt and nearly kiss while struggling to contain their emotions. In Attached, when the two are linked telepathically, they discover they do have feelings for each other. They decide not to pursue these feelings, yet realize their feelings may still interfere with their work. In All Good Things... it is revealed that in an alternate future, they have become married, have since split up, but still have feelings for each other. That timeline is subsequently destroyed when Picard changes the past. Reacting to the movie Star Trek: Nemesis, some fans were upset that Dr. Crusher was given only 18% of the screen time. Disappointed fans also stated that the cast of the original Star Trek series had had an ending that was worthy of them (in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country), but that there really were no final scenes of Dr. Crusher in Star Trek: Nemesis, and therefore no worthy goodbye.[citation needed]