Portrayed by actress Diana Muldaur, Pulaski replaced the character of Commander Beverly Crusher for the second season after Gates McFadden's contract was not renewed.

Towards the end of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, staff members convinced Gene Roddenberry to drop Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher from the show.

[4] In the original Star Trek series, Muldaur played the role of a doctor in two episodes: as Dr. Ann Mulhall in "Return to Tomorrow", and as Dr. Miranda Jones in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?

"[5] Muldaur also worked on the pilot for Planet Earth after getting to know Roddenberry and his wife, Majel Barrett, through their annual Star Trek Christmas parties.

Pulaski joins Data and Lieutenant Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), but is captured by Moriarty who also takes over control of the Enterprise.

Moriarty demands that they find a way to enable him to leave the holodeck, but is persuaded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to release control and be stored within the ship's computer memory until a means can be found to grant his wish.

[12] However, the transporter would later save Pulaski's life in "Unnatural Selection", after she was infected with a disease from the planet Gagarin IV that accelerated her aging process.

[14] In the episode "Pen Pals", Picard orders Pulaski to wipe the memories of a young girl called Sarjenka, whom Data had been corresponding with and helping in violation of the prime directive.

Picard helps resolve the dispute by suggesting the Mariposans allow the Bringloidi, a preindustrial, rural people whose colony was destroyed, to migrate to their world.

Pulaski notes that with time, they will become familiar with the practice once again, and recommends that the Mariposans form large, group marriages with the Bringloidi to create a healthy population.

[19] In the alternative future timeline portrayed in "Endgame", the Star Trek: Voyager finale, Pulaski is said to have worked at the Starfleet Medical facility in San Francisco.

[22][15] Pulaski also appeared alongside Wesley Crusher and Guinan in Michael Jan Friedman's "All Good Things..." (1994), a novelisation of The Next Generation series finale.

[24] Science fiction writer Keith DeCandido described Pulaski as "charming" and noted that this feeling was mirrored on screen by Captain Picard.

[26] The events of "Elementary Dear Data" led film professor Zoran Samardžija to suggest that Pulaski may have been inspired by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche.

"[29] She compares Data's emotionless state to slavery due to the reference in "The Child" to Maya Angelou's 1969 work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.