You know it’s going to be a long assignment when your first regular day on duty, your son takes over Engineering, you end up becoming infected with a virus that makes you feel drunk, and you try to jump the captain in his ready room…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksR1ZCfpg3A&w=480&h=390]

I know these scenes are from an episode of TNG that most fans deride, both for being a ripoff of a TOS episode and for being a horrible choice for a first episode right after the pilot. Even the actors hated this show because, they argued, how were they supposed to know abnormal behavior for these characters when they hadn’t even had time to establish normal for them?

Still, I laugh at the blatant, ballsy lust with which Crusher goes after Picard. This is the only time we ever see this kind of behavior from her (although it does make one wonder what might have happened had Jean-Luc ever tried to split a bottle of Chateau Picard with her over dinner one evening). The rest of the time, it’s usually Picard doing some sort of subtle pursuing while she gently but consistently rebuffs him.

The story that Gates McFadden always tells about her audition for TNG is that her agent arranged for her to go to Paramount a few days before she was scheduled to leave to return to the NYC theater scene. So she went in, met with TPTB, and proceeded to ask which of the female roles was the funniest. Well, the scene they had for the Dr. Crusher role was this ready room scene from “The Naked Now.” Obviously way funnier than anything for Tasha Yar or Deanna Troi (you know, other than Deanna’s hair from that first season).

So McFadden chose Dr. Crusher, did her audition based on this scene, and the rest is history. I wish that Dr. Crusher had lived up to the funny, flirty bawdiness of this scene, not only for McFadden but also for viewers. Could you imagine seven seasons (because, in my world, Dr. Crusher would have stayed on the Enterprise…where she belonged) of watching her develop as a character, knowing that this kind of humor and teasing disregard for Picard’s stuffiness roiled right beneath the surface?

[Loba Tangent: One more thing before I jet…hear the noise that Picard makes at one point while Dr. Crusher is standing very close? I believe that is the noise that is supposed to signify when he becomes infected as well. Here’s the thing: This virus was only transmitted through touch. The camera is well close to their faces, so we can’t really see what’s going on beyond their heads. This moment has always made me wonder: Where, exactly, is Dr. Crusher touching him right then?]