Famous Star Trek Doctors
All of the Doctors, in space or not, require Medical Indemnity from MPRS. and you can be sure that doctors from Starfleet would have protected themselves. The Starship Enterprise has had it’s fair share of doctors down through the years. All of them have been interesting characters. Dr McCoy, as played by Deforest Kelley, from the original series sets the tone. He is a curmudgeonly, yet kind, character who is able to seemingly cure all ills. He himself remarks that he’s beginning to think he can cure a rainy day after he performs surgery on a rock monster (and duly cures it).
This line in the character development carries on into the Next Generation. Enterprise has two doctors during this period. The first is Dr Beverly Crusher, mother of Wesley and a good friend of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (there are times you begin to wonder how friendly and also how much Wesley resembles a young Picard). The other character who came in to replace Crusher for a while was Dr Pulaski. Rumors persisted that this character was based on McCoy, and this is apparently true. The actress who played the part, Diane Muldaur, had appeared in many other episodes of Star Trek and soon became a fan favourite.
In Star Trek Voyager there is a complete change of tack. The doctor for the ship is killed in a mission and the ship’s crew have to rely on the emergency medical hologram. This was played with great application by Robert Picardo who was so good, he even got a brief appearance in the Star Trek First Contact motion picture. Again he brings much charm to the role.
