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Berverly Crusher was replaced by Katherine Pulaski in the second season of Star Trek: TNG to become leader of a medical research faculty. My question is what were the show's 'internal' reasons to replace her? Did the producer doubt the character or wasn't the actress available in that year?

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    One hard fact that we have is that Gates McFadden played Cathy Ryan in the film The Hunt for Red October, which filmed during 1989. However it wasn't a large role, so I don't imagine it occupied her for an entire year.
    – hobbs
    Feb 15, 2017 at 18:10

1 Answer 1

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As explained on the Sci-Fi SE:

Out-of-universe, according to some recent reports, there was some sort of problem between Gates McFadden and producer/writer Maurice Hurley. I've heard this characterized in some places as sexual harassment, but I'm not sure that's based on any actual allegations. Rick Berman did say he was at the center of it, though:

Gates McFadden fired at end of first season because head writer Maurice Hurley "he had a real bone to pick" with Gates and din’t [sic] like her acting, Berman brought Gates back for 3rd season after Hurley left

(That quote is from the summary here.)

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    It would be nice to actually include some links to the 'recent reports'. It looks like the SFF answer doesn't have any either, but it bothers me that there's an unsubstatiated claim of sexual harassment without even mentioning who was involved, who the victim was, etc. Feb 15, 2017 at 17:11
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    Does adding details to an unsubstantiated claim make it better or worse?
    – stannius
    Feb 15, 2017 at 19:00
  • I realise I have difficulties accepting the answer given these allegations. They are interesting and maybe true or not but I cannot judge this so it's hard to decide this by accepting answer.
    – tomka
    Feb 16, 2017 at 9:19
  • Further discussion unrelated to commenting on and improving this answer should be taken to chat please.
    – iandotkelly
    Mar 2, 2018 at 13:54

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