Beverly Crusher


 * For the alternate reality counterpart, see Beverly Crusher (alternate reality).

Beverly Cheryl Crusher MD, was a female Human who was a Starfleet officer who served as chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise-D and USS Enterprise-E for many years from 2364 to the 2380s, under Captain Jean-Luc Picard, with brief stints serving as head of Starfleet Medical in 2365 and 2378. In 2385, Beverly Crusher was promoted to the rank of captain and given command of the USS Pasteur. She maintained her command and rank through at least 2390.

History
Beverly Cheryl Crusher was born (prematurely) as Beverly Cheryl Howard, daughter of Paul and Isabel Howard, on October 13 2324 in Copernicus City on Luna. When Beverly was three (and a half) years old, her parents were killed when their research vessel was destroyed by an Ubarrak warship. From that time she was raised by her grandmother, Felisa Howard, on the small colony world of Arvada III.

In 2339 a disaster exhausted the colony's medical supplies. The elder Howard had learned how to use the local roots and herbs for medicinal purposes during the Arvada III disaster. This sparked Beverly's interest in the medical field. Following the disaster, Beverly and her grandmother moved to Caldos colony, where Felisa worked as a local healer.

Jack Crusher
At the age of 18, Beverly entered Starfleet Medical Academy and toward the end of her medical studies, was introduced to Starfleet officer Jack Crusher of the USS Stargazer by acquaintance Walker Keel. The couple was soon engaged to be married. In 2344, Beverly first met Jack's Captain on the Stargazer, Jean-Luc Picard, at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars.

Jack proposed to Beverly through the use of the gag gift of a book entitled, "How to Advance Your Career Through Marriage". Beverly accepted and the two were married in 2348 in a ceremony performed in San Francisco. Although Jack's assignment to the Stargazer kept the couple apart for long stretches, they corresponded often and got together whenever they could. In late 2348 Jack got an unexpected leave and was able to spend time with his wife, which resulted in Beverly becoming pregnant. She later gave birth to the couple's only child, Wesley, in July of 2349. Because of his deep-space assignment aboard the Stargazer, Jack was unable to return until five days after Wesley was born.

Unfortunately, their marriage was short-lived as Jack was killed trying to detach a damaged warp nacelle from the body of the Stargazer in 2354. Picard personally brought his friend's body home to Earth and Beverly.

Starfleet
Beverly entered Starfleet in 2349 and spent several years Earth-bound at Starfleet Medical. After being on Earth for several years, Beverly interned on Delos IV under the tutelage of Dalen Quaice and his wife. In addition, sometime during her early career in Starfleet she was stationed on Tau Ceti III and the USS Prague. While serving on the Prague, the ship was hit by a tachyon field, which offered her the opportunity to push the boundaries of her medical training. In 2354, Beverly served as assistant CMO onboard Starbase 32, when the base's CO Admiral Jerusalmi came to inform her that Jack had been killed in service. After her husband's death, and in part motivated by her son's well-being, Beverly turned down an offer to serve as CMO of the USS Hammarskjöld and resigned from Starfleet. After leaving Starfleet in 2354, following the death of Jack, Beverly moved to Earth and worked in private practice in St. Louis, before returning to Starfleet in 2360.

In 2360, Beverly assisted Admiral Nyota Uhura of Starfleet Intelligence in a top-secret investigation of the Romulan disease known as the gnawing.

Beverly didn't want to be restricted in rank just because she was a doctor, and worked her way through the ranks during her early Starfleet career. In 2362, Beverly took the bridge officer's test and was promoted to full Commander, allowing her to assume command if the situation called for it. During her tenure aboard the Enterprise, Beverly often commanded the night-shift. Captain Picard again relied on his old confidant's command capabilities during his investigation into the Borg Collective after the Oniaka III massacre. These leadership experiences may have been the prelude to her eventual rise to command. In a possible future, she was in charge of the medical starship USS Pasteur by the 25th century.

Beverly also worked on Khyme's Syndrome, earning herself a Nobel Prize.

Aboard the Enterprise-D
In 2364, Beverly applied for the position of Chief Medical Officer aboard the Enterprise and her application was accepted. She would be working under her husband's old Captain, Jean-Luc Picard, which she didn't view as a problem, though there was some initial discomfort from Captain Picard.

During her time aboard the Enterprise-D, she proved popular and spearheaded many activities aboard ship, such as an acting workshop and giving dancing lessons to Data. Over the years, Beverly and Picard formed a very close friendship that always stopped just short of becoming romantic.

A few weeks after her assignment aboard the Enterprise, the starship was called to Archaria III to deal with a large scale disease that was killing the Peladian colonists on the planet. Crusher battled to find a cure for the disease along with the medical staff aboard the USS Constitution. Crusher and her team discovered that the disease was engineered from a sample of Rhulian flu. Thankfully, Lieutenant Natasha Yar was able to obtain a sample of the cure for the disease, and Beverly was able to engineer a vaccine.

In early 2365, Beverly was offered the position as Head of Starfleet Medical and she accepted, though Wesley remained aboard the Enterprise. During her time at Starfleet Medical, she worked closely with Carter Greyhorse, another former crewmate of her husband's, and Lewis Zimmerman. She supported Zimmerman's plan to develop the Emergency Medical Hologram and provided the initial funding. She also taught at least one course at Starfleet Medical Academy, where one of her best students was Elizabeth Lense.

After a year as head, she decided to return to her post aboard the Enterprise, replacing Katherine Pulaski. In late 2367, the Enterprise crew discovered that the insectoid Jarada were suffering with a biochemical imbalance that was causing insanity. Beverly and Dr. Selar were able to develop a cure and presented it to the Jarada, but they didn't want to take the cure or have any dealings with the Federation.

Mid-2368 saw Dr. Crusher inadvertently stopping a war between the Krann and the Lethanta after she discovered that the virus that had decimated the ancient Krann was a natural occurrence, and not an act of aggression by the Lethanta.

Shortly thereafter, Beverly worked with Leonard McCoy to develop a serum to a disease that was similar to the one that had struck Archaria III, only this time it affected the Romulan royal family. The two doctors were able to synthesize a vaccine after obtaining a clean blood sample from Zevon, who had been on Pojjan PiraKot when the virus struck.

In her command role, Beverly occasionally lead the Enterprise. In 2370, she commanded the vessel when it came under attack from a Borg vessel while most of the crew were searching for Data on a nearby planet. Later in the year she took command while the rest of the senior staff were attempting to reveal the activities of a Starfleet conspiracy. To cover her comrade's activities, she told Admiral Adams that the Enterprise was suffering an outbreak of Andorian measles and, as such, Captain Picard was unable to explain why the Enterprise had returned to Earth.

Crusher remained aboard the Enterprise in 2371, when the starship was destroyed by a Klingon Bird-of-Prey in orbit of Veridian III. The crew survived aboard the saucer section, which was forced to crash on the surface of Veridian III. After the situation was over, Beverly directed the medical teams at the crash site until the USS Farragut arrived.

Aboard the Enterprise-E
Beverly joined the rest of Picard's command crew when the Enterprise-E launched in 2372. Her command abilities were put to good use during the ship's near assimilation by the Borg during its trip to the year 2063, where she served as temporary executive officer during the crisis. Even though she was not fond of the Emergency Medical Hologram, she successfully used it as a decoy to keep the Borg distracted while the sickbay staff and patients made it to relative safety.

In 2375, Beverly was part of the diplomatic contingent welcoming the Evora as a protectorate into the Federation. She also aided Captain Picard in his struggle to keep the Ba'ku from being relocated by the Son'a, and was the first to realize that both species were of the same ancestry. During the Ba'ku exodus, Deanna noted that her breasts were starting to "firm up" due to the effects of the planet's metaphasic radiation.

In 2375, Beverly worked with Dr. Julian Bashir on starbase Deep Space 9 when the Dominion engineered a virus that targeted Vulcans. The cure was found after consulting the notes of a 22nd century Starfleet doctor named Phlox. Beverly then attended the wedding of Commander Riker and Counselor Troi on Earth. She then went with the rest of crew to take part in the Betazed wedding ceremony. After picking B-4, Beverly and Lt. Commander Data examined B-4. Beverely then, after the Enterprise was diverted to Romulus, examined praetor Shinzon's DNA, telling Jean-Luc that he's a clone of himself.

Destiny timeline
Beverly briefly left the Enterprise in 2378 to again serve as head of Starfleet Medical when she was captured on the planet Kevratas by the Romulan Sela. Beverly was listed as "Missing: Presumed Dead", but Picard did not believe this to be the case.

Picard and two other former Stargazer crew members, "Pug" Joseph and Carter Greyhorse, traveled to Kevratas and mounted a rescue. Upon her rescue, Picard finally revealed the depths of his feelings for Beverly. Soon after, Beverly left Starfleet Medical and returned to the Enterprise and began a romantic relationship with Picard.

In late 2380, the Borg Collective launched a new offensive against the Federation and the Alpha and Beta quadrants. Beverly assisted in transforming Picard back into Locutus so that he could infiltrate the Borg and stop the creation of a new Borg Queen. Beverly also developed an antigen that worked specifically on a single Queen.

Not long after, Doctor Crusher married Jean-Luc Picard. They decided that Beverly would keep her married name of Crusher so as not to cause confusion. Although Picard was initially hesitant to conceive a child, the two dealt with Jean-Luc's emotional baggage, and conceived a son in December of 2380.

When stopping the new Queen failed to cease the Borg invasion, the Enterprise became heavily involved in a number of stellar battles, as the only ship equipped with transphasic torpedoes. With the Starfleet Command admiralty unwilling to risk overuse of the torpedoes, second officer Miranda Kadohata summoned Crusher, Commander Geordi La Forge, and deputy security chief Rennan Konya to a midnight planning and brainstorming session. Although La Forge's and Crusher's previous technological and biological weapons against the Borg were adapted to, the quartet worked on applying the technology from the transphasic torpedoes to their shields and other weapons, but the phasers weren't designed to handle the load.

Crusher was the only one to witness the effects the Borg invasion was having on her husband, who claimed that their war with the Borg would not end without one side being completely obliterated. Crusher became worried at Picard's obsession with eradicating the Borg, including advocating otherwise banned strategies, and sought the council of La Forge. Unable to realize where the line between the Captain's personalities started and ended, they feared they would not realize which Picard was in charge until it was too late.

After the Enterprise engaged three Borg cubes at the Azure Nebula, Doctors Crusher and Tropp worked to repair and save the wounded; at one point, Crusher had to insist that Tropp cease working on a deceased patient so that he could move on to others. One of Crusher's patients was Rennan Konya, brought to her attention by Rymond. Crusher was later on duty when Worf came in with injuries, and Jasminder Choudhury slightly after, and determined that the two had been physically intimate; she agreed to keep the incident discreet.

In the midst of the crisis, Crusher tried, with little success, to prevent Picard from sinking irretrievably into depression and hopelessness. After the crisis ended and the Borg Collective had been dissolved, Crusher felt his spirit of optimism return as the two embraced on the Bridge.

The Fall
In 2385, Crusher was contacted by her old friend and fellow Doctor Ilona Daret in an effort to get her to the planet Jevalan, where Daret had found evidence President Pro-Tempore Ishan Anjar wasn't who he said he was. In an effort to get there under the radar, Crusher was given the use of the Runabout USS Dordogne and the assistance of Enterprise security officers Kirsten Cruzen and Rennan Konya. When she arrived and met Ilona Daret, he revealed the President Pro Temp was actually a Bajoran named Baras Rodirya, a Cardassian collaborator back in the days of the Occupation of Bajor and murderer of fellow Bajorans. Even with their security measures however, Ishan Anjar or rather Baras Rodirya was eventually made aware of Crusher's presence on Jevalan and the role of Daret in having found information about his past. He dispatched a special ops team, Active Six, to apprehend the Enterprise officers and Daret. If not for the arrival of Thomas Riker, they would have been easily captured. Riker enabled them to avoid being captured until the Enterprise had arrived after receiving information Crusher was compromised.

Following the arrest of Julian Bashir, Beverly requested temporary reassignment as the new chief medical officer of starbase Deep Space 9 (II) until Bashir was reinstated or a replacement was selected.

Later in November of 2385, Crusher encountered Katherine Pulaski on DS9, who's recent posting to the Athene Donald brought her to DS9. While there, Pulaski met Crusher in the medbay, showing an interest in the new facilities. After Crusher provided Pulaski with a tour, Crusher admitted to Pulaski of her dislike of the women, stating she hadn't liked the way Pulaski had treated Data while on the Enterprise-D. Pulaski agreed with her, acknowledging she may have been simply interested in his workings, as she hadn't encountered anything like him. After Crusher came to terms with Pulaski, the two had a discussion about whether it was a wise decision for Crusher to temporarily leave the Enterprise, after Crusher had mentioned her reasoning for requesting to fill the vacant spot on had been to get some space and determine what she wanted to do with herself. Before Pulaski left, Crusher had requested to be kept in the loop about the discoveries of the Athene Donald. This correspondence would be extremely useful later on, when Crusher and Pulaski had to work toward a method of identifying member of the Chain species. The two were successful, allowing the crew of the Athene Donald to identify the perpetrator of an assault on a Chain crew member who had come aboard the ship, while also aiding the crew of DS9 in finding the person responsible for the murder of a member of the People of the Open Sky. After the crisis, Crusher decided it would best to leave her post at DS9 and return to the Enterprise, the talk with Pulaski having prompted Crusher to make a decision about what she had really wanted to do, which was to return to where she felt she belonged.

After the Enterprise-E
In 2385, Beverly Crusher was promoted to the rank of captain and given command of the USS Pasteur. She maintained her command and rank through at least 2390. The first job under her command was to help in rebuilding medical facilities on Cardassia Prime. A task force assigned to the vessel and working with the Cardassian Ministry of Science finds a potential cure to Yarmin Fel Syndrome in 2390.

In 2401, Crusher held the rank of admiral and was one of a group of Starfleet officers who petitioned the Federation Council to get involved in the Klingon-Gorn War. A year later she settled on Earth while becoming head of Starfleet Medical again. In 2407 she commented on the Phylosian virus with confidence, despite the complications in treating it due to Phylosian anatomy.

Alternate realities
In an alternate reality, Crusher served aboard the United Earth Space Probe Agency vessel Enterprise before it was captured by the Klingon Empire and became the IKS Qu'. Along with Deanna Troi, she was violated by the Klingons before being strangled. By 2380, Captain Picard was the only surviving member of the original crew.

Hobbies and interests
Beverly has long enjoyed dancing: favored styles include tap and jazz, though she also went a bit more freestyle attending a disco in the holodeck program Crusher 54 where she danced with her holographic partner Mikey. Beverly also has a vivid interest in theatrical arts; she was responsible for putting together several performances on the Enterprise. Beverly is also an accomplished holoprogram writer. In 2371 she wrote a holoprogram to explore her feelings for Jean-Luc Picard after he detailed his glimpses of the future given to him by Q.