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Beverly Crusher
Cmdr. Beverly Crusher, M.D.
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Home planet	Luna
Affiliation	Starfleet
Posting	USS Enterprise-D chief medical officer Starfleet Medical Celtris III special operations USS Enterprise-E chief medical officer
Rank	Commander
Portrayed by	Gates McFadden
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Doctor Beverly Crusher (born Beverly Howard), played by actress Gates McFadden, was a character on the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show and subsequent films. She was a regular character in the show for all but the second of its seven seasons.

During the character's absence in the second season, the character of Dr. Katherine Pulaski was added to the series.

Dr. Crusher is the chief medical officer on board the USS Enterprise-D and its successor, the USS Enterprise-E. She held the rank of Commander. She was the head of Starfleet Medical from 2365 to 2366.

She has one son, Wesley, by her late husband, Jack Crusher.

She is very intelligent, passionate, and caring; she is introverted, reserved, and quiet; she has a very strong will and a sense of justice and will stand up for the underdog, even if that sometimes means going against her training as a Starfleet officer. She is often found playing devil's advocate in the senior staff meetings, though she always does so with class and sensitivity, taking the feelings and views of others into consideration.

Casting

Gates McFadden was reluctant to accept the role of Dr. Crusher because of her commitment to appear in the play The Matchmaker at the La Jolla Playhouse.^[1] During the second season, McFadden had a scheduling conflict while doing stage work,^{[citation needed]} so the Crusher character was written out of the show (but not killed off) for the second season and replaced by Diana Muldaur with a new female doctor character. There is much debate if this is the true version of events - there are reports of conflicts with members of the production crew as well as McFadden's dissatisfaction with the character's development. Patrick Stewart was very puzzled by McFadden's departure from the show and played a large part in bringing about her return. ^[1] McFadden returned to the show in the third season, with her character being reassigned to the Enterprise. In the story of the show, the explanation was that her character "was off heading up Starfleet Medical for the year."^[1]

Scholarly reception

In Sexual Generations: Star Trek: The Next Generation and Gender (University of Illinois Press, 1999), Robin Roberts notes that this character "is shaped more by her femininity than by her medical, scientific training."

Character information

Beverly Crusher was born (very prematurely) Beverly Howard in Copernicus City, Luna (Earth's moon). Following the death of her (never married) parents when she was very young she lived with her grandmother, Felisa Howard on Arvada III, a colony planet until a great moon collision caused the planet to flood, forcing its evacuation. Resourceful Felisa, with her granddaughter's aid, used herbs, grasses, tree chemicals, and roots as medicines when synthetic medicines ran out for the injured.

It was her grandmother's career as a healer and Beverly's own caring and sensitivity that largely sparked Beverly's lifelong interest in medicine and healing the sick and wounded. The Arvada III disaster solidified Beverly's decision to be a doctor.

After Arvada III was evacuated, Beverly and Felisa then settled on Caldos II where Beverly finished growing up and entered the Academy.

After graduating from Starfleet Academy's medical school, Beverly married Lieutenant Jack Crusher, who served under Captain Jean-Luc Picard on the USS Stargazer. The two had one son, Wesley Crusher. They had a very happy marriage until Jack was killed in an accident on board the Stargazer in 2354 when Wesley was five years old.

That death was very traumatic for Beverly and it took her several years to recover from Jack's death. However, she continued her career as a doctor and continued being a good mother to her little son, Wesley.

Wesley accompanied his mother on board the USS Enterprise before leaving to enroll at Starfleet Academy.

On board the ship Dr. Crusher is good friends with all of the senior staff. She plays poker each week with them and also runs the on board theatre troupe, being a skilled actress and director. Beverly is also a good dancer, having won trophies for her performances in the past, but she tries to keep this a secret, as she is shy and does not want to be known by an earlier nickname of 'the dancing doctor'.

Beverly and the Enterprise captain, Jean-Luc Picard, used to know each other when Jack was alive, but after Jack's death, they fell out of touch, so it is the first time they see each other when the series starts, as Picard was good friends with Jack Crusher. Picard has been in love with her for some time, but shielded his feelings very well from perceptive Beverly, so she had no idea of his infatuation with her.

It is evident she returns his feelings for the first time during the show's run. As the series progresses, the two become closer, starting with the first season episode "The Naked Now". Their relationship is further developed in "Attached," when the two are linked telepathically. This leads them to discover that they do have feelings for each other. They decide somewhat hesitantly not to pursue these feelings, to save potentially harming their close friendship and sensitive Beverly is fearful of rushing into another relationship. However, now that they have both acknowledged them, it seems likely that the issue will be addressed at some point in the characters' futures.

In "All Good Things..." it is revealed that in an alternate future, Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard have been married but subsequently split up - still evidently having feelings for each other when they meet up. Little information is given about the circumstances of their marriage or divorce. In the present, during the episode, the two share a kiss. However that timeline, as well as that version of the future, is destroyed when Picard changes the past.

As of 2381, as depicted in the "Star Trek: Destiny" novels, Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard do get married, and are currently expecting a child.

Character future

In an alternate future during The Next Generation series, Dr. Crusher is depicted as captain of the USS Pasteur.

The future of most of the main characters remains a mystery, however in the bonus deleted scenes of Star Trek Nemesis, and part of the story (but cut due to the film's sheer time) it is revealed that she is leaving the Enterprise E to become head of Starfleet Medical again (as she had obtained this position in her absence during Star Trek TNG's Season 2). It is then furthermore revealed in the non-canon post-Nemesis novels that she remains at Starfleet medical for two years and then once again rejoins Captain Picard on the Enterprise E as Chief Medical Officer.

The non-canon novel Death in Winter (by Michael Jan Friedman) has Crusher starting a romantic relationship with Picard after he rescues her when she becomes trapped on a planet under Romulan control. Later, in Christopher L. Bennett's Greater than the Sum (also a non-canon novel), the two are married and expecting their first child.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Star Trek: The Next Generation

• Official biography at StarTrek.com
• Beverly Crusher article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki

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