After First Contact (1997)
"As an actor, you do your job based on the scripts you receive from the writers. You try to see your character in different situations. You try to explore different facets of the character's personality. We actually had the chance to do a lot of that with Crusher by the fact that TNG was on the air long enough that you could see how she'd react in a variety of crisis situations. I had a lot of terrific episodes, episodes where the character was explored and where her relationships with the other members of the crew were delved into in some real depth."
"So, I think there was a tremendous evolution, but I'd have to go back and watch every episode of the series to give you an exact sequence of her growth and delevopment. I know without going that far that there was a through-line to Crusher, and a lot of it had to do with a continual conflict she had over the Prime Directive versus her oath as a doctor. I always loved that conflict, and I thought it was very interesting. She was a mother to Wesley, but we never go to explore that angle as well as we might have."
"Another great side of Crusher's development is that she was put in several situations where there were not humans, but very different creatures and spirits, for her to love. That was interesting for her, and for me, actually, to explore. Crusher, though, never had an overall arc like Data, who became more and more human over the course of the show. Crusher was just a character with a particular job and background and, like the other characters on the show, she was fleshed out more over time."
"I can get a little specific I guess, about episodes that I felt were important for the character. I loved Remember Me, the episode in which I was in an alternate universe. That had a great script. I liked working with Patrick on Attached, which finally got into the Picard/Crusher relationship and had a lot of wonderful moments that I think the fans had waited a long time to see. The Host, where we introduced the Trill as a Star Trek species, was an interesting show. Ethics was a very good show. Of course, I also always enjoyed playing anything that had comic moments in it, and we had a few of those along the way."
"I think Star Trek has always appealed to that sense of wonder. The question people ask is, are we going to fear whatever it is the future holds for or are we going to embrace it ? I think that most Star Trek fans embrace what the future might hold. That's a wonderful thing. It's what I love about the show, and what I love about the fans. The fans are open to the possibility that there might actually be some species out there that's even more interesting than our own, and they believe that maybe we can learn something from them."
"In terms of Beverly Crusher, I really do think that she is a role model for women. They can see that here is a woman who is both a mother and a doctor, who can be in space, be in jeodardy and deal with it well, and who can get along with her fellow crew members. There's never all this backbiting to see who will get ahead of someone else. We've all been working for and toward the common good of humanity. That's quite a nice thing to be involved in, and I'm sure we'll continue to explore it whatever other films we do down the road."
"My involvement with Star Trek has meant so much to me, given me so many oppurtunities. Of course. Absolutely. No question about it. What's exciting right now for me is all the photos that we saw of the surface of Mars. How fantastic was that? I'm ready for some real space travel now. I've grown very interested in space exploration and our space program, and that's definitely been a result of my association with Star Trek. So there's another way in which my life has been bettered by Star Trek. I'm very pleased that Star Trek has been and continues to be a part of my life."
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