What was the plan with Diana Muldaur?

[JesterFace]

Diana Muldaur took over for Gates McFadden in season 2.
However, she wasn't in the opening credits and appeared as a guest star in the beginning of an episode.
As far as I know she wasn't planning to stay for many seasons, right.... Or was she?
If people involded on the show knew she was just stopping by, what might have been the plan to do after she left?

Apparently Gates had some problems with Maurice Hurley and that's why she left.
They were able to resolve their differences and she came back.
Might that have been the plan all along?
Diana fills in until Gates and Maurice get along?

 

[Maurice]

Without seeing her contract it's impossible to say. But billing is negotiated, and unless she signed a contract to commit to the show it's unlikely they would have given her opening title billing.

 

[somebuddyX]

Diana Muldaur took over for Gates McFadden in season 2.
However, she wasn't in the opening credits and appeared as a guest star in the beginning of an episode.
As far as I know she wasn't planning to stay for many seasons, right.... Or was she?
If people involded on the show knew she was just stopping by, what might have been the plan to do after she left?

Apparently Gates had some problems with Maurice Hurley and that's why she left.
They were able to resolve their differences and she came back.
Might that have been the plan all along?
Diana fills in until Gates and Maurice get along?

No, Hurley was an asshole. Gates only came back because he'd left. Diana Muldaur says she was happy on TNG and simply left to do L.A Law tv series which she enjoyed more.
The Fifty Year Mission pg 152.

 

[Maurice]

I believe she also said she wanted to do a McCloud reunuion telefilm and the TNG producers wouldn't accommodate her so she went and did it anyway.

 

[Orphalesion]

Well Pulaski was going to be temporary from the very start, after all, sooner or later she had to go back to the Dungeon Dimensions, ascend the Gorgon Throne and claim her birthright as Queen of the Space Harpies.
That's not the sort of thing you can keep putting off forever.

In seriousness, in hindsight it looks like Pulaski was meant to be a temporal replacement (mainly due to the "special guest star" credit Muldaur received) and I honestly think if Dr.Crusher hadn't returned they would have created a third new doctor rather than keeping Pulaski.
But maybe it only looks that way in hindsight, from what I've read Muldaur was enthusiastic about taking a part in the new Star Trek show, but she was also the one who requested the "special guest star" billing.

 

[Oddish]

That's actually a good question. It's known that Gates had been sacked, so clearly they were looking for a permanent replacement, but Muldaur wasn't included in the credits the way you'd expect. Might have had something to do with contract issues. Was Muldaur in every S2 episode?

 

[PCz911]

No, Hurley was an asshole. Gates only came back because he'd left. Diana Muldaur says she was happy on TNG and simply left to do L.A Law tv series which she enjoyed more.
The Fifty Year Mission pg 152.

My memory is faulty… I thought Muldaur said she wasn’t happy on the show.

I did have a chance to meet her at one of the cons during the era. She was charming and delightful. We had a few cocktails in the lobby bar and , funny enough, none of the attendees noticed who she was!

 

[Orphalesion]

That's actually a good question. It's known that Gates had been sacked, so clearly they were looking for a permanent replacement, but Muldaur wasn't included in the credits the way you'd expect. Might have had something to do with contract issues. Was Muldaur in every S2 episode?

Maybe the show runners, Muldaur, or both weren't sure whether they wanted Pulaski to be a permanent character, so they went for a "special guest star" credit for one season to give her a trial run?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Another thing to consider is that Mulder maybe wanted a more prominent credit, much like Jonathan Harris on LiS. With "special guest start", she got billing at the top of the first act rather than being buried in the opening credits.

I recall reading that Pulaski might've been planned to be a one-season off. And Tracey Torme wanted her replacement to be someone who couldn't lie... might've been Selar he was pushing for.

But take this with a grain of salt... as it's from my memory of reading old interviews.

 

[Oddish]

My memory is faulty… I thought Muldaur said she wasn’t happy on the show.

I heard the same. She felt that as a late arrival, she wasn't really fitting in. That might have changed in time, if she'd gotten it.

 

[Orphalesion]

Honestly I could have lived with Selar as TNG's doctor for the rest of the series, she apparently made enough of an impression on me that I honestly thought that she was in more episodes (like 4 or so?)
But I figure that ship had sailed once they cast the same actress Was cast as K'helyr.

 

[Qonundrum]

My memory is faulty… I thought Muldaur said she wasn’t happy on the show.

I did have a chance to meet her at one of the cons during the era. She was charming and delightful. We had a few cocktails in the lobby bar and , funny enough, none of the attendees noticed who she was!

I recall reading (or hearing?) that she took the job seriously whereas the other actors were too jokey for her liking... I adore her dedication, but have to admit some of the outtakes with the crew doing silly things were rather enjoyable to watch. The one with Stewart donning a hat and dancing, or otherwise making a goofy face... and I'm pretty sure Dorn was having a field day trying to think of "I do not play with toys" in what is the most hilarious moments ever:

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1:04 (he remains in character and surely knowing everyone would fall over laughing... In a long day's work of filming, the occasional flub has surely got to be cathartic... either way, it's funny. )


Given her comparative frequency in Trek lore, it's amazing she was not recognized.

 

[JesterFace]

Was Muldaur in every S2 episode?

She was in all season 2 episodes except 'The Outrageous Okona' and 'Q Who'. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Orphalesion]

I recall reading (or hearing?) that she took the job seriously whereas the other actors were too jokey for her liking... I adore her dedication, but have to admit some of the outtakes with the crew doing silly things were rather enjoyable to watch. The one with Stewart donning a hat and dancing, or otherwise making a goofy face... and I'm pretty sure Dorn was having a field day trying to think of "I do not play with toys" in what is the most hilarious moments ever:

I guess an atmosphere like that in a taxing workplace like a television studio is just something a person either likes or not, so if Muldaur was the odd one out in that preference then she probably wasn't a good fit for that particular cast and show.
I can very much understand that she might have felt annoyed if, for example, she might have wanted to just get through her last scene for the day (or was waiting to film it) and wanted to get home, and her colleagues added to the working time by joking around.
Though i can also imagine that if she and the character had stayed on they might have found some form of compromise.

 

[shapeshifter]

My memory is faulty… I thought Muldaur said she wasn’t happy on the show.

And mine recalls the producers claiming in some rag at the time that: She just wasn't working out as hoped.

 

[at Quark's]

I heard the same. She felt that as a late arrival, she wasn't really fitting in. That might have changed in time, if she'd gotten it.

Quite possibly. 7 of 9 (VOY) only arrived in S4 and she felt like a real crew member in no time. But that's possibly also only true in retrospect. Suppose she had been brought in for just a year (like Pulaski), and left at the end of the year, how would we have remembered her?

 

[Orphalesion]

Seven of Nine was one of the best written characters in Berman Trek and was one of the most popular characters from her introduction on.
Pulaski...wasn't. Really her characterization was muddled in some ways and her planned "vitriolic friendship" with Data never worked out and was quickly and unceremoniously dropped, both because in the 80s it wasn't as "cool" anymore to make fun of somebody (or rather attack them) for being different as it was in the 60s and because Data was too much of a sweet sunshine child to hit back.

And even so apparently, from what I've heard from interviews with Jeri Ryan, Kate Mulgrew was hostile towards her and blamed her for Jennifer Lien being booted off the show.

 

[at Quark's]

I honestly don't agree that 7 was particularly well-written as a character. Conceptually she was mostly a tired and visionless reshuffling of earlier seen elements, as far as I'm concerned. That the character became a success was, I think, mostly thanks to the actress. (and I'm not referring to her looks though that also helped, but her acting talent, which made episodes with sometimes frankly mediocre scripts still quite watchable).

And I agree that Pulaski's angle with Data didn't work out, and it fortunately was dropped. Then again, she was the only one not sucking up to Picard and I think writers could have made more of that.

 

[Orphalesion]

I could have actually lived with Pulaski staying on as the doctor for the rest of the series if they had used her like Guinan; whenever the CMO is needed and/or they have an idea for her, and the actress is available, use her, but she's not one of the main cast who shows up in every episode.This would have also allowed Muldaur to pursue the other projects she apparently wanted to pursue.
And with her off the main cast they could have introduced a Ro Laren-like character to the main cast in Season 3, maybe as pilot.

 

[Oddish]

Pulaski wasn't the best thing that happened to TNG, but she was the better of the two doctors.