Snub Rosa

"I mean, you'd think so..."

-Jean Luc Picard

Well why the great goddamn isn't Doctor Crusher in season two of Star Trek: Picard? I ask because in an interview with Trekmovie.com--yes, I read Star Trek-related news. Don't try to shame me--anyway, Gates McFadden, the actor who played Crusher, told Trekmovie.com that she's not in the new season and I think that's-huh? Yeah, this one's going to be all about Star Trek, so if that's not your cuppa, that's fine, skip it, I won't be offended. I just need a break from Republicans dismantling our democracy for a few minutes. Which, I mean, someone's going to do something about that, right?

Seriously? Pulaski'd again?

According to McFadden:

"I'm not in the second season. I'm sad that I'm not. Things have changed a lot on different levels. So I have no idea at this point. I'm disappointed because it would have been so much fun to just work with those people. But we'll see. I have no idea. I wish I could tell you."

-Gates McFadden, on her

inexplicable snubbing

Yeah, we're taking the name
Q back, thank you very much

Well so do we. I realize that the writers and the producers behind the series said from the get-go that they didn't want the show to be just more The Next Generation. And that's fine. Tonally it was very different from TNG. But was also a spin-off and relied heavily on elements from and nostalgia for earlier Stars Trek--what? It's like mothers-in-law. And then Patrick Stewart publicly invited Whoopie Goldberg to come back as Guinan, and then the trailer for season two teased the return of Q actor John de Lancie. Q the omnipotent space wizard, not the right-wing shit merchants.

But where's Geordi? Or Worf? Or Doctor Crusher? What I'm saying is let's not pretend that Picard is just some ten episode novel for television-which, first of all, that's dumb. TV shows are not novels. And second of all, it's the fan serve-iest of fans serves.

FADE IN

INT. Space Bar

Seven of Nine materializes dual wielding phaser rifles and starts 

blasting everything that moves super-badass-edly.

-An excerpt from the

script for episode 5 

Yup some great episodes and one
where she had sex with a ghost...which,
you know what? Good for her.

TNG had an ensemble cast and Crusher was at least as important a character as Riker or Troi who did return for season one. Arguably she's more important, at least to Picard. And this is where I get in the nerd weeds, so brace yourself. I know the show is called Picard and not Picard and Pals, but Crusher was there from the beginning. She and Picard had a decades long, close friendship and one that bordered on the romantic. Picard was a father figure to her son Wesley, and she had some great episodes of her own over the series' seven year run. 

Pictured: Mister Data and
four potted plants.

Crusher's omission is an especially bad look for the series, since in the years since TNG's run, we've heard more and more about how the women in the cast were treated. McFadden herself was fired after the first season for asking for more for her character to do. She came back, but only after the producer who fired her had left. Denise Crosby quit before season one ended, and Marina Sirtis spend the first six years in a leotards and asymmetrical cleavage dresses instead of a uniform like everyone else. 

All I'm saying is that Doctor Crusher is a beloved character played by a great actor, so the idea that she'd just go unmentioned and unseen in season two just doesn't sit right. I appreciate them not wanted to just do a retread, but there's like fifty other Trek series coming, and I think I speak for all the fans when I say we'd be 100% fine with one of them being just more TNG. 

Gates McFadden, seen here being the only person 
in this photo not on Star Trek: Picard. Booooooo.

*Snub Rosa? Get it? No? Fine...