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Crusher, Dr. Beverly (Gates McFadden)

Chief Medical officer aboard the Enterprise-D under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard. Crusher was born Beverly Howard in 2324, and graduated from medical school in 2350. She was at the Arvida III colony, and helped her grandmother, Felicia Howard ("Sub Rosa" TNG) care for the survivors of that terrible tragedy. Although her grandmother was not a physician, she taught Beverly much about the medicinal uses of herbs and roots to help care for the sick and wounded after regular medical supplies had been exhausted ("The Arsenal of Freedom" TNG).

Beverly was introduced to her future husband, Jack Crusher, by their mutual friend Walter Keel ("Conspiracy" TNG). She married Jack in 2348 and the two of them had a child, Wesley Crusher, the following year. Crusher did her internship on planet Delos IV under the tutelage of Dr. Dalen Quaice in 2352 ("Remember Me" TNG). Following her husbands death in 2354, Beverly continued her medical career, attaining position of CMO aboard the Enterprise-D in 2364 ("Encounter at Farpoint" TNG). Crusher left the Enterprise-D in 2365 to accept a position as head of Starfleet Medical, but returned to the ship a year later and was reunited with her son ("Evolution" TNG). In 2366, Crusher became romantically interested in a man from planet Zalkon whom she named John Doe ("Transfigurations" TNG). The following year, she became involved with a Trill named Ambassador Odan. Although the two were very much in love, Beverly found it difficult to accept her lover inhabiting a different body ("The Host" TNG).

Beverly was quite an accomplished dancer. Her colleagues named her "The Dancing Doctor", a nickname she disliked, so aboard the Enterprise-D she did her best to avoid demonstrating her skills. Nevertheless, the fact that she had won first place in a dance competition in St. Louis was part of her Starfleet record, so Data asked her to help him learn to dance for the wedding of Miles O'Brien and Keiko Ishikawa in 2367 ("Data's Day" TNG). Beverly also had a strong interest in amateur theatrics, and was director of a small successful theater company aboard the Enterprise-D. Among the productions performed by her company were Cyrano de Bergerac ("The N'th Degree" TNG). Several months later her troupe performed Gilbert and Sullivans, The Pirates of Penzance ("Disaster" TNG). Crusher wrote a play for her troupe, called Something for Breakfast ("A Fistful of Data's" TNG). Another play written by crusher was entitled, Frame of Mind ("Frame of Mind" TNG).

_{Beverly's maiden name, Howard, is from her biographical computer screen in "Conundrum" (TNG), named for Star Trek: The Next Generation producer Merri Howard, although the name has not been firmly established in dialog. Gates McFadden left Star Trek cast in the second season, during which the chief medical officer was played by Dianna Muldaur as Dr. Katherine Pulaski (which is why Crusher left the ship to become head of Starfleet Medical during that year). McFadden and Crusher returned to the Enterprise-D during the third and subsequent seasons. Beverly Crusher first appeared in "Encounter at Farpoint" (TNG).}

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