Entertainment
How Star Trek’s Strongest Female Character Ruined Dr. Crusher
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Arguably, the strongest female character in Star Trek: The Next Generation was Dr. Beverly Crusher. Not only was she the Chief Medical Officer, but she had the same rank as Commander Riker, the Enterprise’s swaggering first officer. Given the character’s rank, it would have been perfectly plausible for her to hop in the captain’s chair and take command on a relatively regular basis. However, Dr. Crusher actor Gates McFadden recently revealed why this didn’t happen: Star Trek’s producers kept her out of the captain’s chair to make the arrival of Voyager’s Captain Janeway feel more special.
This information comes to us courtesy of Fan Expo Portland, where McFadden got very candid about her time on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She explained that the producers “knew they were going to have a female captain fairly early on.” Finishing her thoughts, she noted that “while I was put sometimes in the captain’s chair, since I had the same rank as [Will Riker], they were careful about how much they wanted to do that, because they were saving that for when Voyager happened.”
The Doctor Is In (The Chair)
The most notable example of Dr. Crusher being put in command happened during the two-part episode, “Descent.” To help search for Commander Data, Picard inexplicably sends himself, his bridge crew, and half the ship to canvas an unknown alien planet, leaving Dr. Crusher in command of the Enterprise. Her command skills are really put to the test, though, when she has to figure out how to defeat a new type of Borg vessel, which (not unlike the old vessels) is more powerful than her ship in every way.
Using a combination of scientific know-how and more than a little plot armor, Dr. Crusher takes the Enterprise into the planet’s sun. After that, she uses the ship’s phasers to trigger a solar eruption that completely destroys the Borg vessel. After seeing the good doctor kicking butt and taking names in the captain’s chair, it’s understandable that fans wanted to see more of Crusher in command.
No Future In Command
According to Gates McFadden, this didn’t happen very much because producers were busy developing Voyager. The timing of that show’s development generally matches McFadden’s account; Dr. Crusher led the Enterprise to victory over the Borg at the beginning of The Next Generation’s seventh season, which is exactly when the powers that be began working on Voyager. Because the producers knew the spinoff would have a female captain, they wanted to make Captain Janeway’s appearance special, effectively downplaying Dr. Crusher’s capabilities at commanding a starship.
Why was it so important for Voyager to have a female captain, though? While Deep Space Nine had proven to be a very successful TNG spinoff, Paramount wanted to create yet another Star Trek television show. Deciding that the new show would take place on a starship (hey, you can only do the space station gimmick once!), the producers faced a unique problem: how to make a new Star Trek show with this familiar setting that didn’t just feel like a lazy copy of The Next Generation.
Star Trek Leans In (At Dr. Crusher’s Expense)
Part of what would ultimately make Voyager unique was its setting: namely, in the largely uncharted Delta Quadrant that the Borg call home. The crew would also be a mixture of Starfleet and Maquis personnel, which would provide (on paper, anyway) the potential for more character conflict than we ever saw on The Next Generation. Mostly, though, what set Voyager apart was that it was led by a female captain, a first for a franchise whose first show infamously claimed that women couldn’t become Starfleet officers.
Sadly, the production of Voyager kept Dr. Crusher sidelined from possible command duties. This is doubly painful because her character was often written very poorly, and she went from drunkenly throwing herself at Picard in Season 1 to boning down with a ghost in Season 7. She was also written out of Season 2 altogether by Maurice Hurley, the worst showrunner The Next Generation ever had.
Gates McFadden ultimately got the last laugh, though: Picard brought her character back for its third and final season, and both Dr. Crusher and her son became pivotal parts of the entire plot. This was arguably an even beefier revival of her vintage character than Kate Mulgrew got by voicing Captain Janeway in Prodigy. Furthermore, Picard even made Crusher an admiral and the new Head of Starfleet Medical, finally giving the dancing doctor her due after more than 35 years of writers holding her back!