Star Trek's Writers Made Picard A Career First For Gates McFadden
Actor Gates McFadden has been a part of the "Star Trek" franchise for decades, but "Star Trek: Picard" provided a career first for the performer. While she had fun making friends with her castmates and getting to spend time aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise (or the sets of it, anyways), she felt that her character, Dr. Beverly Crusher, was frequently given short shrift when it came to the writing on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." On "TNG," both Crusher and the ship's counselor, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), were often given very little to do other than exercise in tight-fitting outfits or offer a bit of expertise from their respective fields. "Star Trek: Picard," however, finally gave them both a chance to have some real character growth and show off their acting skills.
Instead of asking McFadden to practice space aerobics or hook up with a ghost again, the writers of "Picard" finally gave her a compelling relationship arc with Jean-Luc Picard that wasn't just "will they/won't they." Instead, she has Jean-Luc's son, Jack Crusher, named after her ex-husband and Picard's former best friend, and we get to see a whole new side of Beverly. That complexity must have felt amazing after all these years, and McFadden told Variety in April 2023 that she owes it all to showrunner Terry Matalas.
'It was terrific'
When asked about what it felt like to finally have a lot of material to work with, Gates McFadden shared with Variety her excitement about getting to grow her character:
"It was the first time ever for me in 'Star Trek.' It felt fabulous. It was terrific. I owe that all to Terry. It was wonderful acting again with Patrick [Stewart]. We've always had a good chemistry on screen. I never dreamt it was ever going to happen, because I didn't assume I was going to go back to do a just a one-off where I'm, you know, opening a knitting shop or something. That I would not have been interested in."
Imagining Beverly Crusher working in a knitting shop is pretty funny because it's the kind of thing she would never do, and it's good that McFadden stood her ground when it came to returning to her character. She was given much more to do on "Picard," including figuring out that a strange space anomaly was actually a giant alien birth, and helping her son reconcile the horrifying knowledge that he's doomed to be a part of some great Borg plan. Even after the actor was reassured that Beverly wouldn't be relegated to some small bit of nonsense, there was still one thing giving McFadden pause: her concerns about how the fandom might react to her keeping Jack a secret from Picard for so many years.
A tough decision
Dr. Crusher's decision to keep Jack's existence a secret from his father was a complicated one, and one that Gates McFadden herself didn't take lightly. When she read the script and met with showrunner Terry Matalas and executive producer Akiva Goldsman, she shared her concerns about the fandom hating her for that choice. She also wanted to ensure that Beverly did it for the right reasons, not out of something petty or ridiculous. In the end, it made sense that she would want to protect Jack from his father's extensive legacy, even though it turned out to be an exercise in futility, since Picard's genetics made keeping him a secret ultimately impossible.
In the end, the fans had a mixed reaction to Beverly's choice, but McFadden felt that it was the correct one for the character, both from a writing standpoint and her own personal beliefs. Beverly wanted the child but knew that Picard absolutely did not want kids, and instead of having an abortion, she chose to simply raise him on her own. I'm thrilled that it all worked out because Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) is a lot of fun to watch, and he could be part of the next generation of "The Next Generation" if Matalas gets to make the "Picard" follow-up, "Star Trek: Legacy." C'mon, Paramount. Make it so.