Doctor by doctor : Star Trek : The Next Generation’s Dr. Beverley Crusher

Abstract

As a medical doctor, I have embarked on a review of the doctors in the various Star Trek series. I have previously considered Dr. Pulaski (2013) and Drs. Boyce and Piper (2014) and now turn to Gates McFadden’s character, generalist Dr. Beverly Crusher, from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94) and subsequent films. This series, set in the twenty-fourth century (2364-70 a.d.), approximately a century after the original series in the ST universe timeline, was created twenty-one years after the original series and comprised 178 episodes spanning seven seasons. Crusher, the Chief Medical Officer of the starships Enterprise D and E, was a regular in all but the second of the seven seasons of the show. She was born in Copernicus City, on the moon, in 2324 (Landau, “Conundrum”), and has distant ancestors hailing back to Scotland (Beaumont, “The High Ground”). Her parents died when she was a young child and physician grandmother, Felisa Howard, raised her on a colony planet (Frakes, “Sub Rosa”). This colony was involved in a planetary impact with a large astronomical body which caused severe flooding with many casualties. When medicines ran out, Felisa, with Beverley’s aid, resorted to herbs, roots, grasses, and other natural products for treatments. This awakened Beverley’s interest in medicine, and after graduating at the top of her class from medical school, Beverly married and had one son. Her husband died when their son was 5 years old.