Entertainment
How Star Trek’s Strongest Female Character Ruined Dr. Crusher
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Arguably, the strongest female character in Star Trek: The Next Generation was Dr. Beverly Crusher. Not only was she the Chief Medical Officer, but she had the same rank as Commander Riker, the Enterprise’s swaggering first officer. Given the character’s rank, it would have been perfectly plausible for her to hop in the captain’s chair and take command on a relatively regular basis. However, Dr. Crusher actor Gates McFadden recently revealed why this didn’t happen: Star Trek’s producers kept her out of the captain’s chair to make the arrival of Voyager’s Captain Janeway feel more special.
This information comes to us courtesy of Fan Expo Portland, where McFadden got very candid about her time on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She explained that the producers “knew they were going to have a female captain fairly early on.” Finishing her thoughts, she noted that “while I was put sometimes in the captain’s chair, since I had the same rank as [Will Riker], they were careful about how much they wanted to do that, because they were saving that for when Voyager happened.”
The Doctor Is In (The Chair)
The most notable example of Dr. Crusher being put in command happened during the two-part episode, “Descent.” To help search for Commander Data, Picard inexplicably sends himself, his bridge crew, and half the ship to canvas an unknown alien planet, leaving Dr. Crusher in command of the Enterprise. Her command skills are really put to the test, though, when she has to figure out how to defeat a new type of Borg vessel, which (not unlike the old vessels) is more powerful than her ship in every way.
Using a combination of scientific know-how and more than a little plot armor, Dr. Crusher takes the Enterprise into the planet’s sun. After that, she uses the ship’s phasers to trigger a solar eruption that completely destroys the Borg vessel. After seeing the good doctor kicking butt and taking names in the captain’s chair, it’s understandable that fans wanted to see more of Crusher in command.
No Future In Command
According to Gates McFadden, this didn’t happen very much because producers were busy developing Voyager. The timing of that show’s development generally matches McFadden’s account; Dr. Crusher led the Enterprise to victory over the Borg at the beginning of The Next Generation’s seventh season, which is exactly when the powers that be began working on Voyager. Because the producers knew the spinoff would have a female captain, they wanted to make Captain Janeway’s appearance special, effectively downplaying Dr. Crusher’s capabilities at commanding a starship.
Why was it so important for Voyager to have a female captain, though? While Deep Space Nine had proven to be a very successful TNG spinoff, Paramount wanted to create yet another Star Trek television show. Deciding that the new show would take place on a starship (hey, you can only do the space station gimmick once!), the producers faced a unique problem: how to make a new Star Trek show with this familiar setting that didn’t just feel like a lazy copy of The Next Generation.
Star Trek Leans In (At Dr. Crusher’s Expense)
Part of what would ultimately make Voyager unique was its setting: namely, in the largely uncharted Delta Quadrant that the Borg call home. The crew would also be a mixture of Starfleet and Maquis personnel, which would provide (on paper, anyway) the potential for more character conflict than we ever saw on The Next Generation. Mostly, though, what set Voyager apart was that it was led by a female captain, a first for a franchise whose first show infamously claimed that women couldn’t become Starfleet officers.
Sadly, the production of Voyager kept Dr. Crusher sidelined from possible command duties. This is doubly painful because her character was often written very poorly, and she went from drunkenly throwing herself at Picard in Season 1 to boning down with a ghost in Season 7. She was also written out of Season 2 altogether by Maurice Hurley, the worst showrunner The Next Generation ever had.
Gates McFadden ultimately got the last laugh, though: Picard brought her character back for its third and final season, and both Dr. Crusher and her son became pivotal parts of the entire plot. This was arguably an even beefier revival of her vintage character than Kate Mulgrew got by voicing Captain Janeway in Prodigy. Furthermore, Picard even made Crusher an admiral and the new Head of Starfleet Medical, finally giving the dancing doctor her due after more than 35 years of writers holding her back!
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for April 5, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re an animal lover.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Pouch perfect
The words are related to animals.
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Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe pouch-bearing animals.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Marsupials.
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NYT Strands word list for April 5
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Wombat
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Koala
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Bilby
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Marsupials
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Opossum
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Kangaroo
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Wallaby
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for April 5, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
A spigot.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
SPOUT
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Hurdle Word 2 hint
A leg exercise.
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
LUNGE
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Hurdle Word 3 hint
Fire.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
FLAME
Hurdle Word 4 hint
To smash into.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
CRASH
Final Hurdle hint
Gleam
Hurdle Word 5 answer
SHINE
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Terrifying Viral Web Series Makes Its Big Screen Debut
By Jennifer Asencio
| Updated
The wait is over. After years of anticipation, Backrooms is finally here. The first trailer was dropped on March 31, 2026, and the surreal dimension audiences were introduced to in the amateur web series is finally coming into its own. The A24 production was directed by none other than Kane Pixels himself, Kane Parsons.
When Parsons filmed his masterpiece web series, he was a 17-year-old high school student with an experimental eye behind the camera. The Backrooms (Found Footage) follows a young filmmaker as he wanders into another dimension consisting of a labyrinth of rooms in a yellow-walled institutional setting. His work was noticed by Atomic Monster, the studio of horror great James Wan, director of The Conjuring movies and the Insidious franchise. Parsons still isn’t old enough to pop champagne at his movie’s premiere, but his maturity as a director is sure to excite fans of the web series.
Lost In Labyrinth
In the trailer for Backrooms, Chiwetel Ejiofor, known for playing Baron Mondo in the Doctor Strange movies, stars as Clark, an employee in a furniture showroom who one night finds a strange opening in the store’s basement. He passes through the opening and finds the very same dimension that is Parsons’s trademark, yellow walls and all. As he wanders around a little, strange events happen.
This makes him determined to study this strange alternate universe. He recruits some friends and gathers some camera gear, and the group begins its exploration. However, there is a young lady he speaks to that seems to be either a friend or a therapist, and when she stumbles upon the rooms without Clark’s knowledge, she may never come back.
At least, this is what I have gathered from watching the trailer. The script, written by Parsons and Will Soodik, has been kept under wraps since the movie was first announced. It appears to take place in the past (prior rumors said the 1990s), and IMDb doesn’t have a lot of information beyond the name of Ejiofor’s character and some production credits.
What we have been shown is exciting because it draws upon almost everything fans loved about the web series. It will feature found footage in the form of the explorations of Clark and his friends. The vast office complex that makes up the setting is adorned with surreal imagery like strangely stacked furniture and objects sunken into walls. Some of the characters show up in radiation gear. Somehow, between the yellow walls and the varying sizes of the rooms, passages, and hallways, the titular setting is both massive and claustrophobic at once, making it very unsettling.
A Deeply Unsettling Exploration
The whole movie seems to echo the trajectory of Parsons’s career so far: an eagerness to explore combined with an optimism for what Clark might find, while presenting a frightening and solitary menace for anyone who dares enter alone. Parsons began with that eagerness and is now getting to explore the world of cinema that he entered when he posted the original anthology on YouTube, with all the optimism of a kid who got his first directing contract before he even graduated high school.
If Backrooms maintains the tone set by Kane Pixels, it could draw new fans. If it manages to use the resources offered to Parsons by support from a professional studio, it could turn a teenager’s vision into the hottest new horror franchise. The trailer hints that it at least accomplishes the tone. Now to see if it can exceed expectations.
Get lost in Backrooms, in theaters on May 29, 2026.
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