Gates McFadden brought Dr. Beverly Crusher to life on Star Trek: The Next Generation, becoming one of the most iconic women from the franchise. Yet her character is absent from the second season. Star Trek's history of sexism, even as it sought to represent a progressive utopia, led to McFadden being fired following the 1987-1988 first season of the syndicated series. Even stranger, and more important for the story, is that her firing didn't stick, allowing her to return for Season 3.

Beverly Crusher was the first chief medical officer on board Star Trek: The Next Generation's U.S.S. Enterprise, where she held the rank of commander and served as a bridge officer. But Dr. Crusher was also a mother, bringing understanding and emotion to her tasks informed by the process of raising her son, Wesley. That was a very different direction from The Original Series confrontational Dr. McCoy, and helped to set a new tone for The Next Generation.

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But McFadden didn't always find her role as Dr. Crusher easy. She raised concerns about sexist scripts and plot lines that eventually led to her being pushed out. Some identify head writer Maurice Hurley as having a real "bone to pick" with McFadden, creating the tension that led to her departure. Others point to the time and money that went into ensuring the continuity of her hair as a deciding factor.

McFadden's exit after only one season coincided with the death of Denise Crosby's character, Tasha Yar, ensuring the show lost two women leads at the same time. McFadden claimed producers believed the show had "too many women," and refused to write scenes for them together, thus creating a culture in which asking two of them to leave was possible.

Star Trek TNG women

Unlike Yar, however, McFadden's character wasn't killed off. Instead, Dr. Crusher left the Enterprise to serve as head of Starfleet Medical. Diana Muldaur stepped in as the ship's new chief medical officer, Dr. Katherine Pulaski, supplanting Dr. Crusher's warm and motherly med bay with the calculating, McCoy-esque vibe of the second season. But Pulaski never intended on staying on for more than a season, meaning the role was up for grabs again with Season 3.

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During Dr. Crusher's absence, fans were vehement about wanting her to return. A letter-writing campaign demonstrated to Paramount Domestic Television, TNG's producer and distributor, that there was genuine support for McFadden and her character. But it wasn't only the audience that missed Dr. Crusher: Patrick Stewart, who played the series lead Jean-Luc Picard, had been horrified at McFadden's firing, and supported her return.

Coupled with Hurley's departure from the show, the resounding support for McFadden meant that she did rejoin Star Trek for the third season, and remained for the duration. Her return was only obliquely referenced on the show, with mentions about how difficult it was to stay away from Wesley likely factoring in to her decision to return from Starfleet Medical. Regardless of the strength of the in-show reason for Dr. Crusher's return, the behind-the-scenes love for her character and the removal of the problematic writer paved the way for bringing McFadden back and securing the now well-loved cast.

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