Dr. Crusher was annoying more often than not, and I didn’t like her name from the outset (A doctor? Named Crusher? Really?), although the episode where she and Picard are psionically linked while on the run from the bad guys had its moments. And I liked it when Q turned her into a barking dog.
You must have access to the Anglican prayer book of 2370, then, to know that that’s incorrect! I’d like to borrow it, if I may.
Which is interesting as Picard presents the rulers with a "gift’ of a horse statue, which costs him nothing and the Federation what- a few million volts from the replicators?
Material possessions mean little when produced by the push of a button.
I saw that one not too long ago, and was laughing at how over-the-top it was. I especially was amazed that no one reeled in the actor that was playing the dad. His cartoonish reaction to drinking Romulan ale almost derailed the whole thing.
And let’s not forget about “The Neutral Zone”, featuring Leon Rippy, the unfrozen country boy with the most gosh-darn aw-shucks good ol’ Southern boy stereotypes imaginable. Some actual lines:
"Let’s see if the Braves are on. How do you turn on this here TEE-vee?
“Not to worry, Old Watosh will scuffle along th’ best way he can!”
"Duty calls, hey, I understand. Why don’t you come back later on an’ you and me’ll find us a couple o’ low-mileage pit woofies and help 'em build a memory? "
“Naw… nothin’ that fancy – just some folks, some suds, and some sounds. Hell it ain’t nothin’ but somethin’ to do. Whatd’ya think? Heck – it’s the same dance, just a different tune. You think anyone 'round here’s got a guitar I could borrow?”
“And besides, these old boys don’t need us to tell them where the bear sits. These folks don’t need us swimming in their soup, so why don’t you just relax and let them do their jobs?”
I will defend Pulaski. It seemed to me quite reasonable that somebody would meet Data and think “it” rather than “he.” And she obviously warmed to him during her tour on the Enterprise. In the war games episode, she both is the one encouraging him to metaphorically smack around the arrogant consultant fellow, and the one most distressed by his failure-induced depression, acknowledging guiltily that she had created the problem. And in the pen pals episode, she goes out of her way to reassure Data that he’s done the right thing by saving the little alien girl specifically and her world in general. There was actual character growth there.
If you’re going to go there, let me defend her by saying she hasn’t been the same since the time she played host to an alien supermind, but some of her behavior can be forgiven because she’s really blind and is faking sightedness through tech.
There was an episode called “The Perfect Mate” with Famke Janssen playing something called an “empathic metamorph,” who is someone who changes her personality to perfectly suit whomever she is with. As a result, everybody likes her, and men are always falling for her. She is supposed to marry some kind of prince so that their two planets can stop the war they are fighting. Crusher is adamant that this amounts to sex trafficking and insists that Picard get involved.
Finally she meets with the woman herself and the woman tells her something to the effect that she is doing this willingly, even eagerly, if it means it will stop the war. I kept thinking, Doctor, I appreciate your concern, but isn’t the end of a horrible, bloody war something a doctor should be in favor of? I also thought that the good doctor, who knows a thing or two about alien species, keeps thinking of this woman as a human, when her metamorphic nature might mean that she has different motivations from humans, and that Crusher ought to know better.
Check out the Irish horror-comedy, “Grabbers”. Here’s the Netflix description:
“Residents of an Irish island must get very drunk to survive attacks by alien monsters who can’t tolerate a high blood alcohol level in their victims.”
Well, in all fairness…could Beverly help it if she just didn’t swing that way? It didn’t mean she was homophobic…it meant she was straight and just not into women.
I have nothing to add, only truth to support and reiterate. Crusher drove me freaking nuts. The liberal BS drove me crazy too. At least Troi later found her place and the writers learned how to make some use of her beyond the Season 1 “I sense deception” mode. Crusher on the other hand remained in impractical bleeding heart with no grasp on the reality of whatever situation they were in.
I remember when Q turned her momentarily into a barking dog. So apropos.
I went nuts in the episode with Hugh the Borg, when they were discussing ways of using him to destroy the Borg. Crusher while arguing against it, says “There’s been no formal declaration of war”. Yes, Bev, they’ve invaded your territory, destroyed hundreds of ships and slaughtered millions of people, but because the Borg Ambassador never put on his tux and delivered a formal declaration to the UFP council, you can’t fight back against them.
(Actually, I think Picard should have been court-martialed for not sending Hugh back with the virus, but there you go. And Helo should have been tossed out an airlock too.)
Hey, she’s all about open-mindedness and liberality. So I find it seriously hypocritical of her not to boldly go where she’s never been before. Maybe if it had been Dax…
I actually took it as a good thing that they didn’t destroy the Borg. It’s supposed to be the ideals of the Federation to be inclusive, to not just blow people up when you can’t reach an agreement. Anybody can fight, and there’s always someone out there with a bigger gun. But finding a way not to fight (and of course, not be assimilated!) is always better.
How did the Feds defeat the Borg in Best Of Both Worlds? By using the combined talents of everyone in the Federation. They didn’t defeat them with might, they used smarts. Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians - none of them alone could have done it.
In essence, the Federation assimilates other cultures. Take the quote from BoBW: “We wish to improve ourselves. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.” That’s what the Federation does (and in a way, that’s what the USA does. Our “melting pot”.). Just not by force.
So the Federation (as embodied by Picard) choosing not to destroy the Borg is showing maturity. Whether it was the right decision or not lies in the hands of the writers. So far, the Federation still exists, so I’d say it was. At the least, we got Seven of Nine as a result.
