Like Fans, Gates McFadden Was Disappointed How Star Trek Handled Beverly Crusher
It has previously been written in the pages of /Film that Dr. Beverly Crusher, played by actor Gates McFadden on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," rarely got her due. Apart from a scant few episodes where she served as the protagonist, her arc as a character was disappointingly flat, leaving her nowhere to grow and no dramatic struggles to face. The reasons for this are clear: Dr. Crusher had her s*** together. She was adult, mature, capable, and complete. From day one, her personal ethics were well-formed and she was staunchly unwilling to compromise. Writers, it seems, didn't know how to construct stories for someone who was more or less complete from the start, so they often relegated Dr. Crusher to a supporting player in other characters' dramas.
The best ongoing arc Dr. Crusher was granted was her constant near-miss romance with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). The two were clearly attracted to one another, but professional propriety often kept them apart. Each of them had other romances along the way, but many Trekkies figured they would end up together. Also, early in the series, Dr. Crusher talked about her relationship with her teenage son, Wesley, but her parenting of him pretty much ended when he was old enough to ship off to Starfleet Academy. It was rare that Dr. Crusher was permitted to talk about her career, her personal interests, go on vacation, attend medical lectures, or impress her crewmates with a new medical invention.
McFadden herself has expressed her disappointment in the treatment of her character. In a recent interview with Variety, she addressed her character's lack of things to do in the four "Next Generation" feature films, and how little history "Trek" writers felt they could explore with her.
Four movies, no doctor story
By the time David Carson's "Star Trek: Generations" arrived in theaters in 1994, it seemed that Dr. Crusher was poised to explore some of her own history. The final episode of "Next Generation," called "All Good Things...," aired only a few months previous, and Dr. Crusher kissed Captain Picard. In a flash-forward, it was established that Dr. Crusher would marry Picard, divorce him, and become a starship captain. There was so much to explore.
As it happened, the four movies are all about Picard and/or Data. The rest of the ensemble didn't really get big character moments, nor were any of their personal pasts much discussed. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) might have received an upgrade to his eyes, but he never had a moment when he gets to talk about how he came to choose the procedure or how he felt about it. Crusher was ... just a doctor. When asked about this by Variety, Gates McFadden was frustrated. She said:
"So much of the history of the character — you didn't even see it. [...] Jean-Luc Picard could have this brand new love interest every time, and it was as if he and Crusher had nothing between them, or ever did. That was a huge part of the character that was just put away."
McFadden knew she was part of an ensemble, and was happy to fill her role in that regard, but that didn't mean it wasn't galling for her as an actor. She said:
"Well, it's no surprise to hear that [the movies were] very disappointing. It's always tricky when you're the actor. You want your role to be as wonderful as possible. But you're also not stupid, and you're very happy that the franchise is doing well."
Not even a love interest
In "Generations," Picard is swept up by a bizarre spatial phenomenon called the Nexus, which is a thundering energy ribbon that floats freely throughout the galaxy. If any people become caught in it, they are transported into a dream dimension where time has no meaning and their deepest wishes are fulfilled. It was kind of like Heaven. When Picard is inside, he pictures his ideal future as a family man, where he's married to ... some lady. Not Dr. Crusher nor any of the people he had previously known, but some new person. In "Star Trek: First Contact," there is some sexual tension between Picard and the evil Borg Queen, I suppose. In "Star Trek: Insurrection," Picard has a lot of romantic chemistry with Anij (Donna Murphy), and there is no romance in "Star Trek: Nemesis."
Dr. Crusher is left out of this equation. Gates McFadden liked some of the movies, but didn't care for her lack of role in them. She said:
"'First Contact' was just an amazingly written film. My only sadness was that there had to be new female love interests. But then, that's Hollywood. So you just accept it and do the best you can do with what you're given. I mean, that's the job."
By the time we see Dr. Crusher in the third season of "Picard," however, she has finally grown. She is a gun-toting badass who owns her own ship and made a business delivering black-market medicine to non-Federation worlds, all with the help of her adult son. It seems she was eventually granted a story worthy of the character.