Muldaur is known for playing "dignified, sophisticated characters". Consequently, for the second season of "", Gene Roddenberry was already familiar with Muldaur from her second-season appearance in the Classic Trek's "Return to Tomorrow", and later in a third-season appearance in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?". He subsequently cast her in his 1973 TV movie "Planet Earth". For Season 2 of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", Roddenberry chose her specifically to replace the outgoing Gates McFadden, who was let go on the insistence of one of the show's first season producers. Muldaur was cast to play the role of Dr. Pulaski, the new chief medical officer. "We needed someone with a little more of an edge," Rick Berman explained of the choice. "Kate's a strong, confident woman with an edge who can hold her own with Captain Picard. Their relationship is not all that unlike the one between Kirk and McCoy ... although from the onset we had no intention of trying to duplicate the original team."