The Forgotten Starship Enterprise Doctor
Whatever Happened to Katherine Pulaski?
By Jake Sisko
Federation News Service
Katherine Pulaski isn’t a name you’d commonly know even though she served on Starfleet’s most famous starship — the Enterprise.
Even famed Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard barely mentions the doctor in his recently released autobiography.
Her service as his chief medical officer, however, is a footnote in an illustrious career as one of the Federation’s foremost medical researchers.

Dr. Pulaski served for about a year on the Enterprise NCC-1701-D, the fifth Federation starship to carry the name and the only one designated as the fleet’s pride flagship. Picard didn’t write much on the doctor, stating he reluctantly chose her to replace his then-departing medical officer, Beverly Crusher. After several months on the ship, Pulaski transferred.
In the book, Picard writes Pulaski left because of their tense working relationship, saying the doctor felt unwelcome on the Enterprise. While sipping coffee in the kitchen of her Denver home, she chuckles when reading the passages of the book that address their relationship.
“Oh… we surely didn’t get along,” she scoffs. “Sure we didn’t see eye-to-eye. And we butted heads more often than not. And I felt he didn’t want me there.”
Pulaski states that Picard wasn’t opposed to having his decisions and choices challenged. “He thrived on it. He wanted to hear everyone’s opinions even if it differed from his own,” she added.
For example, she points out, Picard chose Captain William Riker, of the starship Titan, as his first officer. Before his tenure on Picard’s ship, Riker prevented his previous captain from beaming down to a hazardous situation on Altair IV.
Pulaski sits back in her chair, a wry smile on her face, before revealing her theory as to why Picard didn’t get along with her.
“It wasn’t because I was pigheaded or that we argued,” says Pulaski. “The fact of the matter, whether Jean-Luc would ever admit it, is that I wasn’t a red-headed medical officer named Beverly Crusher.”
Picard refused to comment to this publication, stating he stands by what he wrote in his autobiography.
Before the Starship Enterprise
Pulaski was an accomplished medical researcher long before she ever stepped foot on the Enterprise.

Shortly after leaving medical school and before she entered Starfleet, she authored a paper that became the dilithium standard in viral medical research — “Linear Models of Viral Propagation”.
The Federation Center for Disease Control and Prevention (FCDCP) still uses Pulaski’s original models to control and contain outbreaks on hundreds of worlds.
“That one paper authored over 50 years ago has helped us eradicate viral infections on several Federation worlds, including an outbreak of Rigelian Fever on the Rigel colonies,” says Dr. M, a retired Starfleet doctor who now heads up the FCDCP. “It’s aided in reducing infection rates of several communicable, life-threatening diseases across the Federation and Klingon Empire.”
Despite living a retired life in the Colorado Mountains on Earth, Pulaski occasionally consults on deadly viral outbreaks throughout the Federation and their allied worlds. She also collaborates with the Darwin Genetic Research Station, whom she encountered during her days on the Enterprise. However, Pulaski refuses to comment on her work with the station, referring us to Starfleet and the FCDCP.
Both representatives at Starfleet and the FCDCP say, “It’s classified.” So far this publication has yet to obtain records of that research. What is known is that Darwin station has been quarantined for the past 30 years.
Two Enterprising Doctors
Another early career highlight was Pulaski’s time working with Admiral Leonard McCoy, M.D. on a second volume of his Comparative Alien Physiology. McCoy, of course, was the medical officer on the original Federation starship Enterprise under James T. Kirk’s command.
“Len and I had a lot in common,” Pulaski says. “We were a lot alike. We both hated having our atoms scrambled by that infernal transporter. We both believed that computers were tools that helped us but shouldn’t enslave us. Good ol’ human know-how is what we trusted.”
She jokes that their personalities were so similar that fellow researchers referred to her as “female Bones,” playing on McCoy’s old nickname.
One other commonality — both doctors had failed marriages that led them to Starfleet service. Pulaski has been married four times, the first three ended mutually and she remained friends with her previous spouses.
“No man could keep her,” says Kyle Riker, her current husband. “I’ll never know how I landed her. Although it did take about 40 or so years.”
“I couldn’t stay put,” says Pulaski. “I had to keep moving. There was just too much to see and learn.”
So much so that Pulaski eventually set out to create a definitive volume on practical space medicine and exobiology, inspired in part by her work with McCoy.
“A lot of textbooks are on theory, but I wanted to put together something that captured the day-to-day knowledge a starship medical officer has to use,” she says. “A more pragmatic view on space medicine.”
That research started while serving as medical officer on various Starbases and starships, such as the Repulse.

“I adored Kate [Pulaski],” says Richard Taggert, retired captain and former commander of the Repulse, in a subspace interview. “Her acerbic personality could grate if you didn’t really know her. But I welcomed it. I needed it. Sometimes officers are hesitant to stand up to their captains. Not Kate. And that was refreshing.”
An Opportunity
When then-Enterprise Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher took an appointment to head Starfleet Medical, Pulaski immediate requested a transfer. Her reasons: she saw an opportunity to continue her research on a larger scale and she admired Jean-Luc Picard.
Pulaski had studied Picard’s career with interest and tried to serve with him on the Stargazer. But alas, there was no room for another medical officer at the time. Now was her chance.

“Jean-Luc was an explorer through and through. He had a scientifically curious mind and I wanted to serve with a commanding officer like that. I thought it’d make for a great partnership in my own research,” says Pulaski.
But it was more than serving with Picard. “More importantly, here was an opportunity to do frontier research at the farthest edge of explored space.”
Pulaski served once on a science vessel. “In my six months on that ship, the only alien lifeforms we encountered were bacteria living in the icy firmament of some moon orbiting a gas giant,” she says.
Taggart reluctantly granted the transfer. “Oh hell, I didn’t want her to leave. She was the best damn medical officer I ever worked with,” he tells us. “I would’ve given her a shuttle of her own if it meant keeping her.”
“As much as I hated the transporter, having my own shuttle wouldn’t have been enough to keep me,” says Pulaski. “I had to be on the Enterprise.”
Picard Versus Pulaski
The first few days on the Enterprise were fraught with immediate challenges, but mostly from a commanding officer who didn’t want to have anything to do with his new chief surgeon, Pulaski recalls.
“I have to admit, it’s my fault we got off on the wrong foot,” she says.
Minutes after boarding, Pulaski encountered her first medical mystery. The ship’s counselor accosted Pulaski just as she came aboard, claiming an alien consciousness impregnated her.

“I was snared by [Deanna] Troi’s seemingly immaculate conception. She was so distraught, not knowing what to do that I had to help her immediately,” she says. “I was so caught up in the mysterious pregnancy that I forgot to report in.”
“I’d taken Kate to Ten Forward [the ship’s bar/lounge] so I could tell her more about it,” recalls Troi. “Captain Picard came down looking for her, probably thinking his new doctor was a drunkard.”
Pulaski laughs about that meeting today. “He wasn’t too happy finding me there. And it set the tone for our entire working relationship,” she says.
Over the course of her time on the Enterprise, the doctor would challenge Picard’s decisions. “Some would say I was always playing devil’s advocate,” she says. “But I was only interested in making sure he was following the best course of action. And he fought back as good as I gave.”
She mentions how Picard was stubborn when it came to replacing his artificial heart. He didn’t want to undergo the procedure on the Enterprise, she says. He went to a starbase facility instead. However, complications arose during the surgery. Pulaski, who has a great deal of experience with artificial organ replacement surgeries, had to come in at the eleventh hour to save his life.
“He’s ego would sometimes get in the way,” she says. “He didn’t want anyone to see his human flaws.”
Picard omits this story from his autobiography and an editor’s note mentions it instead. To confirm the story, this publication obtained log records that show the replacement heart surgery took place at Starbase 515 on stardate 42779.5. The emergency procedure was completed by Dr. Katherine Pulaski, according to log books.
Other crew members noticed the tense relationship between Picard and Pulaski.
“The captain had cultivated an air of detached godhood,” says author Geordi LaForge, who served as Captain Picard’s chief engineer. “Heck, even though I was senior staff, I was still afraid of him. I just don’t think the captain took kindly to someone who stood toe-to-toe with him on every decision.”

Bringing Out the Best… And Worst
“Kate could certainly push your buttons that you didn’t know you had,” says William Riker, Picard’s former first officer. “She was really good at that. Just ask my dad… he married her.”
“But to be fair,” adds LaForge. “Dr. Pulaski didn’t like it either. They were just too alike.”
“You know what they say, you hate seeing your worst qualities in someone else,” Troi says. “And they certainly brought out the worst and best in each other.”
Commander Michaela Kim is an expert in shipboard dynamics. She often teaches on the subject at Starfleet Academy.
“You want a senior staff to be cohesive. A team,” Kim says. “At the same time, you don’t want them to be of one mind all the time. They should occasionally disagree and challenge each other, especially when it matters the most. Because that’s how they make each other better. And that also results in better outcomes.”
According to her, this allows the CO to see all the options.
“But once the captain makes a final decision, the discussion is over and the crew must follow. Or else you’d have a breakdown in discipline,” she says.
Pulaski admits she took it too far sometimes. “Even after Captain Picard made a decision, I’d still question him. I’d still push,” she says. “And some of those moments I regret [and] wish I’d behaved a little differently.”
In the end, Pulaski requested a transfer opening the door for Beverly Crusher to return. Crusher, now a captain commanding a hospital ship, later married Picard.
“I never met Kate Pulaski,” says Crusher-Picard. “We’d just missed each other when I left the first time and when I returned to the Enterprise.”
She says she was familiar with Pulaski’s work and admired her as a dedicated researcher.
“I don’t think the problems between her and Jean-Luc can be solely pinned on my absence,” she adds. “However, I’m sure it didn’t make it any easier for her.”

Leaving the Enterprise Behind
“It sure as hell wasn’t easy,” says Pulaski. “It sure as hell wasn’t. But it was a good crew and it had a good captain, no matter how pompous he was. And it was my pleasure to serve with them.”
Before she offers her final thoughts on her time on the Enterprise, Pulaski stops to sip her coffee. A smile cracks on the corners of her mouth.
Finally: “And it was an even greater pleasure pulling the stick out of Jean-Luc’s ass.”
Pulaski’s volume on practical space medicine is finished and will be published later this year.
Her time on the Enterprise was brief and she won’t forget it.
“While I may not be remembered in the same breath as Dr. Leonard McCoy or Dr. Beverly Crusher, I was chief medical officer of the Federation flagship. Of the starship Enterprise. How many Starfleet doctors get to say that?”
Jake Sisko (he/his/him) is a frequent contributor to the Federation News Service, having won several awards for his coverage of the Dominion War. He’s authored two short story collections and a novel, Anslem, which is dedicated to his famed father, Starfleet Captain Benjamin Sisko.
Editor’s Note: The Captain Finally Speaks

After Jake Sisko’s article was originally published, retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard sent us the following statement:
“Perhaps I was too harsh in my assessment of Katherine Pulaski in my autobiography. Recalling those days, I only remembered the animosity I felt toward her rather than looking at our time together through an objective lens. Like Katherine, I too regret some of our interactions in those days. I didn’t realize how my own feelings for Beverly could have colored my working relationship with her replacement. In the twilight of our years, I hope it’s not too late for a rapprochement with Katherine.”
Unfortunately, Katherine Pulaski died at her Denver home days after we received Picard’s statement. She was with her fourth and final husband, Kyle Riker, when she passed.
“Kate would’ve loved to see Jean-Luc Picard one last time,” Riker told FNS. “She’d have made a pot of Earl Grey just for him.”
