Was there a real reason Lieutenant Yar...

During TNG's second season, I saw Patrick Stewart at a convention. When a fan asked (in a particularly snide way) why Gates McFadden left the show, the audience held its collective breath: this was a particularly touchy topic at the time, because even then the Star Trek office was a little cagey about the reasons behind this cast change. Stewart in particular didn't appreciate being asked this: "She left"--the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees--"because she was not asked to return. And I consider that an impertinent question, young man."

After that, people dropped back to nice, safe questions, like what was it like to work with Whoopi Goldberg.

 

As for Denise Crosby, at the time, she was getting a lot of movie offers, but the TNG production staff wouldn't ive her time off stating "her character was intergral to the show"; yet most episodes hadher standing in the background saying "Hailing frequescys open/closed..."; and she made her displeasure known publically; so GR and Co. were not happy with how she was handling the dispute decided to kill her off, so she couldn't just go off; and then 'beg back on' if it didn't work out.

As for Diana Muldar; she had given up acting, but came out of retirement to do TNG at the personal request of GR. her contract was only for one year with an option to renew; but in the TV off season, she got a film role she tried for; and would have been out 3 - 6 weeks when the cameras needed to roll fopr TNG season 3; and fans had also not had a good response to her character as it was a blatent re-do/ripoff of Leonard 'Bones' McCoy; so the decision was made not to pick up her option, and they brought back Gates McFadden (there had also been a shakeup where one of the Producers who had an issue with her originally, had left the show; so there was no one to oppose her return.

 

This...

 

I never thought Crosby was bad in the first season, just kinda 'meh'. On the other hand, I thought Sela was far too much of a moustache-twirler than a convincing foil for Picard.

I will say, I thought she was pretty good as Alternate Yar in Yesterday's Enterprise. More so than she ever was as Sela (or season 1 Yar).

 

On this, I would have to agree. She really delivered in Y.E.

 

I always thought she was pretty awful as Sela. Which was kind of a shame, as it sort of diminished her return in "Yesterday's Enterprise" in a way.

 

"All of you will die! All of you!"

 

She was but it was better than her Tasha Yar was. I thought that the only time she did really well on TNG was in Yesterday's Enterprise.

 

...sounds a bit similar to what happened with Wil Wheaton.

 

It's pretty common when an actor wriggles out of a contract to go off and "do better things" because they're not satisfied where they are that the character is killed as this pretty much erases any chance to bring that actor back.

Crosby became a prima donna for a moment, thought she could do better elsewhere and wanted out of her contract and went on to have a successful TV and movie career. Only not.

She's been trying to shoe-horn her way back in ever since including voicing books-to-tape, doing the Trekkies documenteries and coming up with the idea of the character of Sela. I grant that TPTB bought her back for YE but that was a one-off situation done for special purposes and it worked out really well. Crosby came up with the idea for Sela and I grant that I liked that idea in the Redemption episodes but thought that was as far as the character really should have went, she was mis-used in the Unification episodes.

 

D.C. Fontana, like David Gerrold, had long departed the TNG offices by then.

It was Tracey Torme, writer of "The Big Goodbye", who lobbied for an alien CMO, whose culture was bound by a strict adherence to honest. In other words, a bedside manner that was direct, truthful and not coddling what so ever.

 

McFadden was fired or left or whatever - they always release some transparently diplomatic reason but a lot more goes on behind the scenes. They did the same to Grace Lee Whitney. It was bonkers to say that the Crusher character wasn't working out, she blatantly was and the fans told them so. Similarly bonkers to say that Rand was interfering with Kirk's love life since he has 'relationships' (and I use the term loosely) with several women during her 12 espisode tenure.

I loved Pulaski but she was a blatant McCoy knock off and TNG didn't need that dynamic. It would have been nice if she had returned as a guest star (same with Rand too) but actresses often seem to get a raw deal.

Yar was a nice idea but poorly executed. If she'd hung on to season 3 she would have seen her character develop more fully but she was too sweet and often only got to say 'hailing frequencies open.'

 

Crosby's appearance in Yesterday's Enterprise is undoubtedly a high note in terms of her performance as Yar. She not only gets to play a dramatic and pivotal role in Enterprise history by going back with the Enterprise-C and resetting the timeline, she gets a romantic entanglement with Castillo. But the contrived appearance of her "daughter" Sela is a low point, as the character was not only unrealistic, but also not very compelling.

There were certainly other ways Yar could have been brought back. For example, at the end of Parallels, Worf's return could have caused another shuttle with Yar to break into our universe from yet another quantum universe. That might seem contrived, but not as contrived as the half-Romulan Sela.

 

I thought that Crosby was fine as Yar during Season 1.
She certainly wasn't any better or worse than any other cast member of TNG to be honest.
It would have been interesting to see her grow more as a character had she stayed on.

To be honest, I actually liked Pulaski as a character.
I found her to be a much more competent doctor than say Crusher.
She was able to successfully remove memories from that little girl in Pen Pals, and offered to Geordi the ability to see without a need for a visor (a treatment that 24th century medical science would probably be able to provide from the get go one way or the other - but I suppose the writers went with certain limitations because they wanted to show diversity on the show).

I found Pulaski's fear of the transporter though completely archaic and annoying though.
That was my only fault with her... but other than that, I thought she was better than Crusher.

As for the real life reasons...
Well, I've read on these boards that the reason for Crosby leaving the show was because she was not satisfied with her role and thought the show wouldn't last beyond the first season.

With McFadden, I read here she was pregnant and had to take a break from the show as a result (which prompted the arrival of Pulaski).
Though as I already mentioned, I thought that Pulaski was a better doctor and was not afraid to express her opinions to the captain either.
A strong character.
Crusher seemed more mellow and somehow weaker.

 

The mention of Parallels got me to thinking. It's really a shame how real world economics, scheduling, and politics have to limit the storytelling possibilities on a TV show. Because were it not for those things, there were many interesting "alternate realities" we could have seen in Parallels that involved departed characters.

We did get to see Wesley return as tactical officer on one of the Enterprises, but we could have also seen a reality in which Yar had lived and was still tactical officer and in which Worf's career had gone in a different direction. We could have seen a reality in which Pulaski was still the CMO as well. The possibilities are endless, and many of them could have been very fun.

 

Wrong.

 

I pretty much agree with everything that you have said here! Sometimes I felt, Yar was a great character but with a slightly more experienced actress (possibly older) could have done her more justice, but having her killed off completely was maybe a mistake, but then it did let Worf take over and become more of a focus!

I also found the Crusher/Picard scenario rather tiresome after a while!

 

Pity the years of drinking (that's what I heard, anyhow) were not good to her.

 

I recall hearing at the time that TPTB were unhappy with Denise Crosby's layout in Playboy magazine not being in keeping with the family image of Star Trek, and that was the reason she was let go. She rationalized at the time that it was what she wanted anyway, and gave the "hailing frequencies" story at cons.

And I recall that Gates McFadden said at cons back then that she was told the show was "going in a different direction" with the character of the doctor. The cast was kind of flat and wooden, and they brought in a crusty old doctor character to try and recapture some of that TOS chemistry, an experiment which failed and McFadden was brought back.

 

I liked Pulaski, too. I found her to have at least 3 times the personality that Crusher had. Ha!