Gates McFadden clears up the reasons behind her 2nd season departure from TNG

Gates McFadden clears up the reasons behind her 2nd season departure from TNG

I remember liking Dr. Crusher a lot during the first season, despite the poor writing all around. Then, the producers wrote her off the show. Thus, leaving Wesley Crusher parent less...at 16. I could only imagine the things I would get into parentless during that age. Clearly, they didn't think it through. Plus, the producers were considering getting rid of Troi, because they didn't know how to write for her either. Given all good messy things that happened during the first season, I'm surprised they didn't get rid of half the cast.

This new information does clear up what really happened with the change between Dr. Pulaski and Dr. Crusher. Gates had a particular problem with episode Code of Honor. Code of Honor was the episode that was really racist and bad even for me. She also had some issues with some of the sexist stuff. Some of this can be blamed on Gene Roddenberry. Gene Roddenberry was a problem, but producer Maurice Hurley was also a problem. I'm almost sure Gates is talking about having a big problem with Hurley. Hurley ended up passing away a few years ago.

From Memory Alpha, ((According to Rick Berman, Hurley was the reason behind Gates McFadden's departure from The Next Generation in its second season, as he disliked her acting and "had a bone to pick with her." After he left the show in the third season, McFadden was invited back by Berman. ))

Due to a major shakeup behind the scenes, Maurice ended up leaving the show after the second season. Gates came back during the beginning of the third season. This was also when Roddenberry 's influence started to wane and Berman and Piller started to come into power.

Basically, McFadden was fired because she called out the bad writing on the show. For the most part, she is absolutely right about all the crappy things to happen during that first season and some of the second season. However, Hurley got tired of her and wanted her off the show.

I remember a lot of rumors about McFadden and a certain producer which I won't mention here but were floating around. However also heard rumors that she wanted a movie career and shift it toward making bigger movies such as The Hunt for Red October. Most of her scenes were cut anyway. It appears none of this was true.

Besides I think most of the cast the not get along with the actress that played Dr. Pulaski.