by GrahamKennedy » Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:21 am
My problem with Pulaski wasn't that she was racist so much - McCoy was racist as hell towards Spock, after all, and he never took flak for it. Where Pulaski and McCoy differed was that McCoy was right - Spock did have emotions, and his suppression of them left him a lonely, isolated person. We the audience didn't mind McCoy's rants because we felt the same thing - the desire to see Spock break free of the constraints he put on himself.
Pulaski was a mirror image of this - she didn't criticise Data for not expressing his human side, she poo-pooed the idea that he could possibly have one, and dismissed any attempt of his to explore it. Where McCoy wanted to build Spock up to something he and we thought would be better, Pulaski wanted to tear Data down and debase him. It made her come across as a cold, nasty person.
Give a man a fire, and you keep him warm for a day. SET a man on fire, and you will keep him warm for the rest of his life...