Day #29 of the 30 Day Television Challenge

[shadowkat]

Day #29 of the 30 Day Television Challenge. Getting near the end - which is a good thing, since I'm growing weary of it.

The prompt is ...Character whose introduction improved a television series.

I'm drawing a blank. I know there's something...can I use Buffy again? It's my meme, my rules. I can do whatever I want.

I am going to go with Farscape instead. Chiana - showed up towards the end of S1, and that's when the series suddenly got really good. I'd almost recommend folks starting Farscape, to skip ahead to the Chiana episode.

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Comments

[cactuswatcher]

This will be controversial, but I think Star Trek NG was on the rocks when season 1 ended. Tasha Yar just didn't work as a character. (Fortunately, Denise Crosby wanted out) Dr. Crusher was too much Wesley's mommy, and too little the ship's most responsible medical officer. The attempt to have something romantic go on between her and Pickard just wasn't going to work.

So my pick is Dr. Pulasky who only stayed one season, and who many Trekkies don't like at all. But I think she added a layer of 'professional distance' between herself and the overly chummy crew. She wasn't afraid to look Pickard in the eye, and say what she thought, and had enough personal bearing to make him think about it. That meant that when Dr. Crusher did come back, she was coming back, not as another flunky in the crew, but as someone who deserved to fill the post as Pulasky defined it.

I don't think the show would have gotten a third season without the subtle change in tone her character introduced.

So many folks dislike her that this strange clip of her and Troy was about the best I could find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHV19kBCyqI

[cjlasky7]

Love Diana Muldaur. Miranda Jones in TOS' "Is There No Truth in Beauty?", Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law--just a terrific actress.

Did not like Pulaski.

I think they were going for a Leonard McCoy type, but she had the "crusty doctor" part down without any of DeForest Kelly's charm.

I hated her attitude toward Data; she never seemed to respect his sentience, or what he was trying to achieve by studying humanity.

It didn't help that she was a centerpoint of some of the worst episodes of s2: "Unnatural Selection" and "Icarus Factor" are just all time stinkers--and I just hate that scene where Pulaski and Troi complain about them craaaazy Riker mens. (She didn't really make the better eps of s2 better, either.)

I'll grant you, Beverly didn't fare too well in solo episodes either ("Sub Rosa", anyone?), but she had some great moments one on one with JLP, and "Remember Me" is just a blast.

So....yeah, Team Crusher here.

[shadowkat]

Agree on Pulasky. I found the character more interesting than Crusher (who felt a bit cliche to me, set up as an obvious love interest for Picard - but had zero chemistry with Patrick Stewart.) I found the first season of Trek kind of boring, to be honest.

Pulasky also was in one of my favorite episodes of the series...and by far the best use of the Holodeck - where an AI literary villain, Moriarity, becomes aware and conscious. Mainly because in order to make the program challenging for Data, they had to upgrade the character. Otherwise Data was pretty much playing a lesser computer, as opposed to an AI. The episode also was among the first times that the show examined what made one human or real. There's a great love story between Moriarity and Pulasky. And it's followed up by Ship in a Bottle - where Moriarity tries to escape the holodeck, they let him believe he's escaped into the universe, when in reality he's just escaped to another computer stimulation.

[yourlibrarian]

That's an interesting thought. I don't know how much I agree that the character changes were the centerpoint of an improved show, but I haven't watched ST:TNG in some time.

My first answer to the question though was 7 of 9 in Voyager. She was not only the most interesting character in the series but opened up new storylines.