TNG's cast was basically a few amazing characters (one of which only stopped sucking in the third season, conveniently when the series itself took off for the most part) and then a bunch of boring people. DS9 and even VOY beat it in this regard, although there is only one Picard.
I'm still not completely sure what the deal was with Gates McFadden leaving the show for one year.
Gates was getting hit on rather inappropriately by one of the original creators, Hurley or something. Name currently escapes me. She felt terribly uncomfortable around him. He was a fat ugly slob with no redeeming qualities; hell, the show only got better with his departure. The only thing he ever did right was insult "Shades of Grey", which if you look on Memory Alpha shows that he called the episode a piece of s***, which is apt enough.
When he left they had McFadden come back and since Pulaski's actress wasn't exactly shaking any boots they let her go. As much as Pulaski could be kind of obnoxious it would have been nice for her to get a sendoff (and for Crusher to have gotten one as well) but it was all early-Trek reboot behind-the-scenes immature drama crap that wouldn't rear its ugly head again until Robert Beltran and Brannon Braga butted stupid-heads on Voyager.
This has been another "JZ knows about Star Trek, here's the proof" presentation.
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"Later..." <Toonami> <4/1/2012> <Never Forget> ~SCP~
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