Why did Gates McFadden leave for a season?

[Neo]

Does anybody happen to know the reason behind Ms. McFadden's departure for a year? I was always curious about that. I know the character left for some position at Starfleet Medical, but why did the actress leave?

 

[stripe]

Umm

Well according to Gates herself who I was lucky enough to see at a convention a while ago she left because of differences of opinions between her and the producers.

Gates wanted to much say in the Crusher charactor and changed things here and there the producers said no and she left.

end of of story .....NOOOOO...enter Pulaski ..
a nice person and fine actress in her own right but the fans did NOT like her nor did they like the interchange between Pulaski and Picard.
So much so they rallied around and petitioned Paramount studios to have Gates come back as Crusher.

Rick Berman asked Patrick Stewart to call Gates and ask her to come back with a hefty pay increase and a 'little' more leeway into the Crusher persona.
LOL!!! she even gave us a word for word accent and all rendition of how Patrick wooed her back...

So there ya go

 

[little star]

thanks, stripe...

you always seem to have the inside story...



I must admit, I much preferred the Crusher character to Pulaski. Pulaski always seemed so negative & cranky...


little star :star:

 

[Neo]

Thanxs Stripe....

I heard similar but it was that her and Gene Rodenberry did not get on at all...

 

[Maria8475]

Re: thanks, stripe...

Originally posted by little star

I must admit, I much preferred the Crusher character to Pulaski.

little star :star:

umm me too although i wasn't ralling and petioning Paramount.

I never really liked Pulaski at the begining cos of the way she reacted to Data but later one, i was begining to warm to her. Still prefere good old Bev though.

 

[Neo]

Crusher was by far the best doc on tng.... Pulaski was a ver formidable person for Picard.... but crudher had a history with Picard and was somehting i hoped they would explore more.... but loved what they did do

 

[stripe]

Re: thanks, stripe...

Originally posted by little star
you always seem to have the inside story...



I must admit, I much preferred the Crusher character to Pulaski. Pulaski always seemed so negative & cranky...


little star :star:

LOL I get around Little star and I listen and read lots too.
But I agree I much preferred Crusher to Pulaski in the roll of Doctor.

 

[Dave]

I also preferred Crusher to Pulaski, but I wonder if we would have liked Crusher as much if we hadn't had the Pulaski year, and therefore something to compare her with.

Also, the Pulaski year also suffered from some poor stories due to a writers strike, and given better material to work with we might have warmed to Pulaski more.

On the subject of Gates McFadden's departure, Rick Berman is quoted as saying:

There were those who believed at the end of the first season that they didn't like the way the character was developing, vi-a-vis Gate's performance, and managed to convince Mr Roddenberry of that. I was not a fan of that decision.

 

[Sam O'Neill]

i dont av a clue

 

[imported_Data]

I also liked Crusher much better than Pulaski because of how she treated Data. She saw him as a machine more than a person. He may not have been human, but he was quite close to it.

 

[Draco Weyr]

I had heard that, while she did leave do to a 'difference of opinion' between her and the producers, there was also the added fact that one of the producers was sexually harrassing her.

And by the time she got wooed back for season 3, that producer was no longer working for Paramount.