Re: The Saga of Gates McMuffin

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

 Came across this explainer of why Dr. Crusher left the show, then later
 returned:
 
 Gates McFadden revealed

 
Not that there’s any reason to believe anything she said
 

 during a convention appearance that a producer (she
 refused to identify him, but it was eventually revealed to be Maurice
Hurley)
 gave Gene Roddenberry an ultimatum: 'She goes or I go.' It was a choice
 between losing an actor or going up against the studio like he did in the
 '60s, and Roddenberry just wasn't in the condition to do that any more.
 

 
Let’s not forget that McMuffin is a terrible actress not only just with the
words, but with the technical stuff. Watch how often she starts talking
before she hits the communicator badge and they have to put in the beep
noise while she’s just waving her hands in the air. By all accounts, she’s
also a completely wretched human being, as well as a horrible convention
speaker.
 
 

 Incidentally, it wasn't entirely McFadden that caught Hurley's ire. Hurley
was
 brought on by Roddenberry's lawyer, Leonard Maizlish (who was himself
 thoroughly despised by almost everyone involved with the series); Maizlish
had
 no authority at all to hire or fire anyone, but the studio did very little
to
 rein him in, even when Maizlish deliberately violated Writer's Guild rules
by
 re-writing scripts.
 
 As for Hurley, he'd had no previous science fiction experience, was openly
 disdainful of Gene's optimistic view of the future, and clashed regularly
with
 almost everyone. It was a series of contentious arguments with Gene
 Roddenberry himself that led Hurley to leave the show at the end of the
second
 season.
 
 Diana Muldaur's attempt to recreate Spock and McCoy's famous verbal jousting
 by arguing with Data just made Pulaski look prejudiced and mean-spirited, so
 once Hurley was gone, Rick Berman personally invited McFadden back to the
 show.

 
Patrick Stewart takes credit for that, but then there’s no reason to
believe a word he says about anything either.
 
It was terrible that they made Pulaski be mean to Data. Her character could
never recover from that. And then one day the turbo lift wasn’t there, and
she walked into the shaft…