Winn always made my skin crawl!
Come on, Pulaski wasn’t that bad. She even had a decent character arc to become likeable. Winn though… yeah we hate her.
Are you saying Winn didn’t have character arc?
She had the biggest arc in startrek and it was masterfully acted…
Yeah, but there was that little moment in between where you almost felt sorry for her, before the ultimate “nah, she is still piece of shit…”
I have nothing against her actress. She played wonderfully. I really loved to hate her character. This overzealous and overtly jealous priest.
When Louise Fletcher, who played Kai Winn, won the Oscar for the equally-horrific and hateable Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, she started her acceptance speech like this:
Well, it looks like you all hated me so much that you’ve given me this award for it, and I’m loving every minute of it. And all I can say is I’ve loved being hated by you.
Clearly she enjoyed playing evil people and is very good at it. And, like most actors who get regularly cast as evil, she’s apparently a sweetheart in real life.
The Elders tell me Pulaski was supposed to be “unlikable” but in a gruff, McCoy dammit-i’m-a-doctor kind of way.
But the fact that that wasn’t possible to do (and wouldn’t have worked if it was) apparently didn’t stop them from trying.
The sophomore slump hits everybody.
I think they were trying to build a Pulaski-Data relationship that mirrored the McCoy-Spock relationship, where McCoy would say something shockingly racist like calling Spock a green-blooded hobgoblin, but then Spock would insult him right back and it was all in good fun so it was “okay.” The problem was that Data wasn’t able to give as good as he got, so it came across as Pulaski bullying the sweet autistic kid, which did not work as well as McCoy-Spock.
She even had a decent character arc to become likeable.
Her whole arc was supposed to explore the idea of a kind-of rational and legitimate hatred, then see where it led.
spoiler
Time and again, her bigotry caused new injury to herself and to others. But then this was held in contrast to Ed Mercer’s persistent failed efforts to extend an olive branch to rival alien races who were unable to divest of their own bigotries.
That’s what made the latest season of Orville so fucking good.
spoiler
The whole season is about trying to build a coalition between the liberal Planetary Union and the fascist Chak’tal and ultra-conservative Moclan. But, in the end, their commitment to their own moral compass paves a way for an unexpected alliance with the Kaylon that yields far more fruit than any kind of strategic military compromise with the corrupt governments of the Chak’tal or Moclan.
It wasn’t just that she became likeable. Its that the guiding principles of the Planetary Union usher the crew towards a better galaxy, even when that path isn’t immediately clear from the outset.
While I like your analysis, the comment you’re responding to was referring to Pulaski’s arc, not Charlie’s.
Come on now, I don’t want to get in an argument with a dumbass, but the Beverley character had some fine moments.
I’ll give you ghost sex, and collapsing universes, but she was pleasant. Really she was there for to give Picard more emotional dynamism.
Pulaski was kinda baller though, I liked her. She had opinions and wasn’t afraid to express them. Even better she would reevaluate them upon have more data. I have a 3D printer named after her. I print my with my favorite plastic on it, TPU.
Yeah, but you’re supposed to dislike Winn, she’s the villain. Her acting was perfect for the role.
Personally I absolutely love Winn … because I hate her character so much.
As soon as I see her in an episode I know I’m gonna enjoy it because she’ll leave a lasting memory for me as to why I dislike her so much. Louise Fletcher is such a beautiful actress because she makes you forget you’re watching a TV show and makes you absolutely want to step into an air lock and blast yourself out into the vacuum of space just to leave her presence.
Good villains make you want to crawl in through the screen and punch them, and boy is Kai Winn a punchable character.
Ironically, I have never wanted to punch Q, but Sisko punched him and never Winn.
I always got the impression that everything Q did was simply irritating. Winn made decisions that actively risked people’s lives because she was looking for career advancement. She was actually a threat.
Also they kind of knew that Q wouldn’t actually allow anyone to get hurt because he probably wasn’t allowed to.
Wait, people would seriously put her as ‘most annoying’ on TNG or DS9? Next to Wesley and Winn?!
People hated Wesley more than they hated Pulaski.
It wasn’t the actor’s fault, he was given absolutely nothing to work with. Every time I’ve seen him in anything subsequently he’s been a likable character and a good actor.
I really don’t know why his character was on the show the writers clearly didn’t have anything for him to do.
Hmm, it’s been a while since something reminded me of alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die
