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Was the Katherine Pulaski/Data relationship one of the worse attempts at homage in fiction?

Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
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Oct 25, 2017
93,032
They were trying to duplicate the Bones/Spock relationship, but it came across as pretty abusive. Spock would lowkey be roasting Bones. But he had emotions and understood humans. So he had the tools to deal more or less

Data was still wet behind the processor, so Pulaski hammering about his humanity just felt mean spirited for the sake of being mean .

Didn't help that she was unlikable
 
Quinton

Quinton

Specialist at TheGamer / Reviewer at RPG Site
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Oct 25, 2017
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Midgar, With Love
I'm convinced that 18-year 1987-2005 TV span would never have happened if Maurice Hurley hadn't walked out as showrunner after season 2 of TNG.
 
thediamondage

thediamondage

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Oct 25, 2017
11,236
I haven't rewatched TNG in a while but wasn't there some backstory reveal where she lost her son to robots or something, which is why she hated Data?

She was just a terrible character all around, stuck out like a sore thumb in how she seemed to not interact well with anyone else. Wasn't she always bagging on Wesley too? Man, could you imagine a TNG that didn't get Beverly Crusher back.
 
Garmonbozia

Garmonbozia

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Oct 27, 2017
591
I could see what they were going for, but yeah, It really didn't work. Pulaski just sounded like a bigot most of the time.
 
SeeingeyeDug

SeeingeyeDug

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Oct 28, 2017
3,003
Those seasons were so bad. I didn't realize until the last Red Letter Media Star Trek Season 1 video how much Gene Roddenberry was the problem in the early days as well.
 

Deleted member 24907

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
5,354
Was Pulaski's actress disliked on-set? I know the rest of the TNG cast felt that McFadden's firing was bullshit but idk if she was received cooly on-set, if it just wasn't great casting, if the character was just poorly written, or all of the above.
 
Tavernade

Tavernade

Tavernade
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Sep 18, 2018
8,617
I just straight up don't watch Season One (because it's not great) or Season Two (because where is Crusher).

It feels like a really bizarre thing to try and redo too. I don't think any of the other relationships on the show were trying to emulate TOS that much. I mean, Riker is the new Kirk and what have you, but the other always seemed to be doing their own thing (but, again, I've barely watched those first two seasons, maybe they tried to redo TOS stuff more than I realize).
 
steviestar3

steviestar3

One Winged Slayer
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Jul 3, 2018
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I think Pulaski at least toned the digs at Data down after her first few episodes. I watched the whole series somewhat recently and I didn't outright hate her by the time she got written off the show. But yeah, the intended Bones/Spock parallel they were going for didn't work at all. Spock always had comebacks and sarcastic one liners to bounce off of Bones's teasing, Data was not even capable of defending himself due to his lack of ego or emotions. It just felt like bullying on Pulaski's part.
 
robot

robot

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Oct 27, 2017
2,467
While I think Crusher's character fits into the overall cast better, I never had that much dislike for Pulaski. She does rag on Data a bit too much but I think she shows a lot of fondness for him too, and makes it feel like she's trying to instill human values in him more than the rest of the crew. Everyone wants to contribute to Data's growth but she taking the most active role in that process for a lot of the episodes she's in. Rather than the Spock/Bones relationship with colleagues butting heads Pulasky feels more like a quirky aunt to Data (which probably isn't fair because I think they're approximately equal rank).
 

Firebricks

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Jan 27, 2018
2,127
They leaned too far into Pulaski's "Androids will never replace us humans!" thing that just turned her into sort of a jerk.
 
BlackGoku03

BlackGoku03

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Oct 25, 2017
7,271
Yeah I'm making my way through seasons 1 and 2 on my rewatch. She's annoying and her digs are low effort.
 

Calvinien

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Jul 13, 2019
2,970
steviestar3 said:
I think Pulaski at least toned the digs at Data down after her first few episodes. I watched the whole series somewhat recently and I didn't outright hate her by the time she got written off the show. But yeah, the intended Bones/Spock parallel they were going for didn't work at all. Spock always had comebacks and sarcastic one liners to bounce off of Bones's teasing, Data was not even capable of defending himself due to his lack of ego or emotions. It just felt like bullying on Pulaski's part.
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I liked her better than the spock/bones thing because spock and bones were straight up racist to each other.
Pulaski was like the only charachter who didn't treat Data like a self insert. And she was the one who got him out of his funk in peak performance.
At the start their relationship is prickly, but by the end she's in his corner but still willing to call him out on his crap/ You know what that's called in literally an y other show? Character development.

#pulaskididnothingwrong
 
APOEERA

APOEERA

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,061
Having watched all of TNG last year -- Pulaski wasn't the biggest problem with early seasons TNG. I wasn't a fan of the first season because everyone seem mad at each other throughout the show - Picard was especially a prickly jerk to everyone. Riker was a smug arrogant bastard through the first two seasons. No one was likable and everyone was problematic.

Pulaski didn't worship Picard like the rest of the crew did -- she just did her job and that was it. Problem is, she had too many blind spots about her abilities. Perfect example is "Unnatural Selection," which is probably one of the better early season episodes.

So hers and Data was bad but if you go with the notion that Data's feelings really weren't capable of being hurt due to being an android, it was fine. Although Data did change by the end of the series (to the point I was wondering if he did have emotions or an awareness of relationships and emotions).
 
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