sassypulaski

The Good Doctor

Kate Pulaski, medical doctor with the rank of Commander, has served with Star Fleet for most of her life as ship's doctor for a number of vessels. She is an energetic, dedicated, stubborn physician with a real and abiding love for what she does. She has served on the Enterprise before, and left the position with fond memories and a great deal of interesting stories.

Her bedside manner is brusque, businesslike and competent, sometimes with a liberal dash of wry good humor. She is a quick decision-maker who sticks to her guns and will see her patients through whatever treatments they require. In fact, this is how she approaches most of her life.

She has a well-developed personal schema of right and wrong that informs everything she does, more so in some cases than the directives of Star Fleet. Prescribing to the adage "better to ask forgiveness than permission", she will often make snap decisions based on her own gut and moral compass, and damn the regulations. Of course, she is also more than willing to own up to her own transgressions and mistakes and will not shy away from or eschew the repercussions of bad decisions.

However, on a personal level if she thinks you are wrong, she will tell you, and if your feelings are hurt or your sensibilities offended, that is your problem. She doesn't hold a grudge and expects you not to, either -- a strategy that, shockingly, works pretty often. She's still on good terms with all three of her ex-husbands.

Pulaski gets a lot of enjoyment from playing devil's advocate. She is often abrasive and uses this to her advantage, knowingly goading others into defending their own positions by falling into argument with her. It's not impossible to argue Pulaski down from a position, but it's damn hard as she often has a rock-solid conviction that she's right. This means that she does cross the line and cause real offense in some cases. She likes the energetic nature of friendly competition and intellectual conflict, but disapproves of displays of bravado, particularly physical ones. Why break bones for foolish reasons?

She is gently skeptical of technology for technology's sake: she hates transporters and prefers shuttlecraft; she required convincing of Data's status as a person; and she is familiar with and occasionally employs grassroots-style healing techniques.

She has her own chicken soup recipe, which she calls (imaginatively) Pulaski's Chicken Soup. Ask her for it sometime; it's delicious and ostensibly good for what ails you.

Want more? Memory Alpha has plenty on our tough lady!