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If you ask me, and you haven't... (warning, I'm simply being playful with my commentary, so in return feel free to be equally playful of how any of the characters were written - give me some doozies on how you don't like Pulaski!):
McCoy was the first and the edgiest. What's not to like? He even got a love story, which was miraculous given all the on-air lovemaking Kirk did...
Crusher started out as pointless corny cardboard claptrap who was...
...Rightfully replaced by Dr. Pulaski. Now she was a semi-clone of McCoy, but at least she added pizzaz to a very lacking bridge crew (lacking in terms of conflict, though I rather enjoyed the LaForge/Data relationship...). Her bouts with Data were highly enjoyable, and interesting. "Elementary, Dear Data?", a brilliant episode of its own right, features some of the best interplay between the two characters ever witnessed during her tenure. (of course, Ensign Ro eventually came to annoy the crew, but Pulaski wasn't as abrasive... Pulaski had fit in better, but Ro was an outcast so her feeling out of place actually worked... pity Michelle Forbes left...)
But then Pulaski left, Crusher returned, and was as dull as ever. Fortunately Q got to puke fun at her a few times, and eventually Troi commented about how her boobs had started to firm up even though that sort of thing wasn't important in the 24th century, so maybe it was worth her return in the end. I will say this, even with the first season they gave her some history and dealings with Picard from the past. On a positive note, it was nice to see more of this history be revealted as the series progressed. Still, Pulaski was far more entertaining and engaging.
Bashir is as exciting as a watered down "cream of water" soup who had to prattle on once about the no-nos of eugenics and mentioning Khan to even look cool (but didn't). But on the plus side, his favorite holodeck activity was spoofing James Bond in campy adventures featuring Sisko as the mad scientist (I rather loved that early season 4 episode, "Our Man Bashir"...)
The EMH is another semi-ripoff of McCoy, perhaps even more so than Pulaski. But by 1995, Berman and Co. realized they needed such a loveable grouchy type to pit wits against the rest of the comparatively cardboard crew. However, I liked him anyway. The grouchy doctor type worked for Trek in the past, so if it works, why change it?
Phlox, isn't that like phlegm? Okay, that was callous and aimed more at the "Enterprise" series itself. Phlox is okay but a bit bland and waaaaaaaaaaaay too nice in that sacchrine "Brady Bunch" way, but better than Bashir, and only because the producers (Berman, who else?) decided to inform the audience of his species' sex proclivities (and you thought it was weird, here on DU...). He's probably the only doctor who could fathom the concept of "trans-temporal parasites" (of the recent episode "Twilight" where Captain "I get beaten up badly every week" Archer gets ill, Earth explodes due to an attack by the lamest conglomerate ever invented (the "Xindi") complete with their 'Death Star' weapon ripoff, and it turns out that the illness he got, when destroyed because the parasites somehow live in an atemporal state, might mean that Archer would never get sick in the first place ( :eyes: ) and thus the events leading to Earth blowing up would never happen. It's brilliant yet dumb yet brilliant, I'm forced to admit... Except it's another "let's try something radical but then hit a proverbial 'reset button' at the end so it's like it never happened" story. All it does is make me wonder "Why do it then?" And the visual of Earth exploding looked like a early 1980s cartoon animation... and f/x date badly.) Amusingly, the startrek.com website adverts this episode as being a spatial distortion, though the episode and characters spell it out that it is an illness the captain got. If star trek's own authorized site lacks the nerve to say it accurately, what hope has the franchise?
So, there you have it, in a less than condensed version. Drs 1, 3, and 5 are the definitive Star Trekkie doctorial character, in my brash opinion. And they're all odd numbers, clearly bucking the 'even number' myth! :D
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