Terry Farrell and DS9 Season 7

[kirkfan]

A bit of her sexiness dies every time she says "Deep Sleep Nine." Hahaha, Sirtis.

I didn't see that one. She really says "Deep sleep nine"?

She does! It's a monologue she puts on at conventions. Unfortunately, it always reminds me that in spite of Terry Farrell, (1) she did better work on DS9 than Sirtis did on TNG, (2) Dax was a more important character than Troi and (3) Dax never crashed the ship.

Dax was a pilot with (seven to ten) lifetimes of memories. Troi... was not.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I didn't see that one. She really says "Deep sleep nine"?

She does! It's a monologue she puts on at conventions. Unfortunately, it always reminds me that in spite of Terry Farrell, (1) she did better work on DS9 than Sirtis did on TNG, (2) Dax was a more important character than Troi and (3) Dax never crashed the ship.

Dax was a pilot with (seven to ten) lifetimes of memories. Troi... was not.

Technically, Troi had access to everyone's thoughts, but that didn't help her one lick. OTOH, whether or not Dax had one of two hundred lifetimes of experiences, it was convincing when she piloted the Defiant. It didn't feel like they were just giving her something to do.

 

[kirkfan]

She does! It's a monologue she puts on at conventions. Unfortunately, it always reminds me that in spite of Terry Farrell, (1) she did better work on DS9 than Sirtis did on TNG, (2) Dax was a more important character than Troi and (3) Dax never crashed the ship.

Dax was a pilot with (seven to ten) lifetimes of memories. Troi... was not.

Technically, Troi had access to everyone's thoughts, but that didn't help her one lick. OTOH, whether or not Dax had one of two hundred lifetimes of experiences, it was convincing when she piloted the Defiant. It didn't feel like they were just giving her something to do.

Remember when she piloted through that asteroid field in Change Of Heart? That was really impressive!

 

[kkt]

I'm rewatching TNG and just finished Season 3. Troi really doesn't seem to do much. One of the few times she had nonobvious insights into the aliens of the week (The aliens firing phasers at us have hostile intent, Captain!), Riker ignored her. Her part could easily be rewritten as a Cassandra-like tragedy.

 

[kirkfan]

I'm rewatching TNG and just finished Season 3. Troi really doesn't seem to do much. One of the few times she had nonobvious insights into the aliens of the week (The aliens firing phasers at us have hostile intent, Captain!), Riker ignored her. Her part could easily be rewritten as a Cassandra-like tragedy.

How fitting that her name is Troi then.

 

[Orphalesion]

Troi gets better with the seasons. Seasons 1 and 2 particularly were very unkind to her character (note the Outrageous Okona in which she never even seems to leave her chair for the entire episode...)
The problem with her character was that the writers producers just went "telepaths are hard/impossible to write" and put her in the corner instead of idk...getting creative. Fact is telepaths are not "impossible" to write, otherwise there could be no story in the X-Men comics.

As to wehther they lessened her beauty....obviously that's in the eye of the beholder, I kinda dig the pale skin/black hair they gave her in seasons 1-5 and only found her less attractive in season 6 when she had that hideous auburn hairpiece that made her look like Dolly Parton. She looked better again in Season 7. I think the original idea was to make her look more exotic/alien, which she definitely did in seasons 1-5.
Who I really think looked worse in character than in real life was Data. Brent Spiner was hot , Data under all the grease paint was not.

Ironically, despite Marina's dislike of DS9 I think her character would have fared better on that show, because it was more character-focused than TNG, with the DS9 characters being people first and their roles/jobs only second instead of the other way round.

 

[kirkfan]

Troi gets better with the seasons. Seasons 1 and 2 particularly were very unkind to her character (note the Outrageous Okona in which she never even seems to leave her chair for the entire episode...)
The problem with her character was that the writers producers just went "telepaths are hard/impossible to write" and put her in the corner instead of idk...getting creative. Fact is telepaths are not "impossible" to write, otherwise there could be no story in the X-Men comics.

As to wehther they lessened her beauty....obviously that's in the eye of the beholder, I kinda dig the pale skin/black hair they gave her in seasons 1-5 and only found her less attractive in season 6 when she had that hideous auburn hairpiece that made her look like Dolly Parton. She looked better again in Season 7. I think the original idea was to make her look more exotic/alien, which she definitely did in seasons 1-5.
Who I really think looked worse in character than in real life was Data. Brent Spiner was hot , Data under all the grease paint was not.

Ironically, despite Marina's dislike of DS9 I think her character would have fared better on that show, because it was more character-focused than TNG, with the DS9 characters being people first and their roles/jobs only second instead of the other way round.

I agree that it's ultimately the writers' fault for making her sound nearly useless in seasons 1 and 2. And once you've made that bad first impression it's hard to erase it from the minds of the audience.

 

[1moreRobot]

All the mud being slung at Terry Farrell strikes a weird chord for me. Her acting never bothered me.

The characters played by people with real acting chops, IMO, were Odo, Quark and O'Brien. Garek too in a super hammy one-note kind of way.

Frankly I found myself being far more distracted by bad acting flaws from Brooks, Visitor and Siddig far more often. Sisko was fine for me when he could play the too-cool-for-school brooding thing (which he did 90% of the time) — but as soon as he had to emote, oy! I never once bought the Kira is a badass bit that was continually shoveled down our throats — no matter what, Visitor just never could convince me. And the hands-down worst acting on the show for me was Alex Siddig.

When I hear stories of other actors giving Farrell a rough time and a cold shoulder, I sure hope it wasn't coming from cast members who had their own noticeable shortcomings in the acting department.

Farrell talking about her flaws and insecurities is astonishingly refreshing. If she thought she needed a coach, it's a sign that she wanted to be better. I applaud the sentiment. Very un-Hollywood and down-to-earth.

 

[kirkfan]

All the mud being slung at Terry Farrell strikes a weird chord for me. Her acting never bothered me.

The characters played by people with real acting chops, IMO, were Odo, Quark and O'Brien. Garek too in a super hammy one-note kind of way.

Frankly I found myself being far more distracted by bad acting flaws from Brooks, Visitor and Siddig far more often. Sisko was fine for me when he could play the too-cool-for-school brooding thing (which he did 90% of the time) — but as soon as he had to emote, oy! I never once bought the Kira is a badass bit that was continually shoveled down our throats — no matter what, Visitor just never could convince me. And the hands-down worst acting on the show for me was Alex Siddig.

When I hear stories of other actors giving Farrell a rough time and a cold shoulder, I sure hope it wasn't coming from cast members who had their own noticeable shortcomings in the acting department.

Farrell talking about her flaws and insecurities is astonishingly refreshing. If she thought she needed a coach, it's a sign that she wanted to be better. I applaud the sentiment. Very un-Hollywood and down-to-earth.

As a matter of fact, I hate that panting thing that Brooks does when he's supposed to be excited or evil, which he plays pretty much the same way.

 

[drmick]

All the mud being slung at Terry Farrell strikes a weird chord for me. Her acting never bothered me.

The characters played by people with real acting chops, IMO, were Odo, Quark and O'Brien. Garek too in a super hammy one-note kind of way.

Frankly I found myself being far more distracted by bad acting flaws from Brooks, Visitor and Siddig far more often. Sisko was fine for me when he could play the too-cool-for-school brooding thing (which he did 90% of the time) — but as soon as he had to emote, oy! I never once bought the Kira is a badass bit that was continually shoveled down our throats — no matter what, Visitor just never could convince me. And the hands-down worst acting on the show for me was Alex Siddig.

When I hear stories of other actors giving Farrell a rough time and a cold shoulder, I sure hope it wasn't coming from cast members who had their own noticeable shortcomings in the acting department.

Farrell talking about her flaws and insecurities is astonishingly refreshing. If she thought she needed a coach, it's a sign that she wanted to be better. I applaud the sentiment. Very un-Hollywood and down-to-earth.

Alexander Siddig was excellent on DS9 in terms of his acting skill. He even played Bashir three different ways as the writers changed his personality twice (not including the Mirror Universe version)! I would like to see how well the rest of the cast could play four versions of the same character.

 

[1moreRobot]

Alexander Siddig was excellent on DS9 in terms of his acting skill. He even played Bashir three different ways as the writers changed his personality twice (not including the Mirror Universe version)! I would like to see how well the rest of the cast could play four versions of the same character.

I just never cared for Siddig's portrayal at all. The episodes that feature him predominantly are the ones I'm most likely to skip over (the story where he ages at an accelerated rate really sets my teeth on edge). Whatever acting skills the guy possess (which I'm sure he has in some measure because he continues to get at least limited work) just didn't gel with me.

I did like Bashir's evolving friendship with O'Brien but otherwise wasn't that interested in his character.

Like I said earlier, I also was sometimes distracted by acting from Visitor and Brooks. But I did actually enjoy their characters for the most part so maybe I remember them in a fonder light.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Alexander Siddig was excellent on DS9 in terms of his acting skill. He even played Bashir three different ways as the writers changed his personality twice (not including the Mirror Universe version)! I would like to see how well the rest of the cast could play four versions of the same character.

I just never cared for Siddig's portrayal at all. The episodes that feature him predominantly are the ones I'm most likely to skip over (the story where he ages at an accelerated rate really sets my teeth on edge). Whatever acting skills the guy possess (which I'm sure he has in some measure because he continues to get at least limited work) just didn't gel with me.

I did like Bashir's evolving friendship with O'Brien but otherwise wasn't that interested in his character.

Like I said earlier, I also was sometimes distracted by acting from Visitor and Brooks. But I did actually enjoy their characters for the most part so maybe I remember them in a fonder light.

Siddig has some acting chops, but by his own admission, he mostly phoned it in. He did not take acting seriously at that time. I don't know about the changing character showing range given that Bashir prime was far from the charming doctor he was supposed to be. Cynical Bashir was far more interesting--moreso after his unique genes were discovered. And if I am not mistaken, he had a way of annoying the producers. It's even rumored that his name change had something to do with a dispute over licensing (it's mentioned on the Gamma Quadrant podcast). It's more serious about his craft now, and I suspect that he wished he took DS9 more seriously at the time.

 

[Delta1]

She does! It's a monologue she puts on at conventions. Unfortunately, it always reminds me that in spite of Terry Farrell, (1) she did better work on DS9 than Sirtis did on TNG, (2) Dax was a more important character than Troi and (3) Dax never crashed the ship.

Troi never crashed the ship, either. Data was piloting it when it crashed.

 

[kirkfan]

She does! It's a monologue she puts on at conventions. Unfortunately, it always reminds me that in spite of Terry Farrell, (1) she did better work on DS9 than Sirtis did on TNG, (2) Dax was a more important character than Troi and (3) Dax never crashed the ship.

Troi never crashed the ship, either. Data was piloting it when it crashed.

At the critical point, it was her that did though.

 

[Iamnotspock]

She does! It's a monologue she puts on at conventions. Unfortunately, it always reminds me that in spite of Terry Farrell, (1) she did better work on DS9 than Sirtis did on TNG, (2) Dax was a more important character than Troi and (3) Dax never crashed the ship.

Troi never crashed the ship, either. Data was piloting it when it crashed.

Nope, Troi had the conn (which is equivalent to Paris's station on VOY), Data was at Ops (which was Kim's station). On the Enterprise, both stations are at the front on the bridge, but if Voyager were to crash, we wouldn't say that Harry was piloting it.

 

[kirkfan]

She does! It's a monologue she puts on at conventions. Unfortunately, it always reminds me that in spite of Terry Farrell, (1) she did better work on DS9 than Sirtis did on TNG, (2) Dax was a more important character than Troi and (3) Dax never crashed the ship.

Troi never crashed the ship, either. Data was piloting it when it crashed.

Nope, Troi had the conn (which is equivalent to Paris's station on VOY), Data was at Ops (which was Kim's station). On the Enterprise, both stations are at the front on the bridge, but if Voyager were to crash, we wouldn't say that Harry was piloting it.

Like many women she has some difficulty parallel parking...

 

[Bad Thoughts]

She does! It's a monologue she puts on at conventions. Unfortunately, it always reminds me that in spite of Terry Farrell, (1) she did better work on DS9 than Sirtis did on TNG, (2) Dax was a more important character than Troi and (3) Dax never crashed the ship.

Troi never crashed the ship, either. Data was piloting it when it crashed.

Nope, Troi had the conn (which is equivalent to Paris's station on VOY), Data was at Ops (which was Kim's station). On the Enterprise, both stations are at the front on the bridge, but if Voyager were to crash, we wouldn't say that Harry was piloting it.

Yes, Troi was piloting at the time that crashing became inevitable.

With respect to the Voyager analogy: people would say Janeway crashed the ship regardless of who was piloting.

 

[dub]

Another quibble I have with her is Marina also dropped the accent she created for Troi at some point. Do you think she did that because her co-stars were making fun of the accent (or has she ever explained why)? I have seen video of Frakes poking fun at it.

 

[Iamnotspock]

Another quibble I have with her is Marina also dropped the accent she created for Troi at some point. Do you think she did that because her co-stars were making fun of the accent (or has she ever explained why)? I have seen video of Frakes poking fun at it.

She explains it here. Basically, they had her come up with a "Betazoid" accent, then cast Majel as her mother, after which Rick Berman fobbed off Marina's inquiry on the subject with, "It was your father's accent", then they introduced her father and he was American too so she dropped it. Although, that account doesn't entirely ring true since we didn't meet Ian Troi until Season 7 (not 6 as Marina remembers), and she'd already phased out the accent by then.

 

[kirkfan]

Another quibble I have with her is Marina also dropped the accent she created for Troi at some point. Do you think she did that because her co-stars were making fun of the accent (or has she ever explained why)? I have seen video of Frakes poking fun at it.

She explains it here. Basically, they had her come up with a "Betazoid" accent, then cast Majel as her mother, after which Rick Berman fobbed off Marina's inquiry on the subject with, "It was your father's accent", then they introduced her father and he was American too so she dropped it. Although, that account doesn't entirely ring true since we didn't meet Ian Troi until Season 7 (not 6 as Marina remembers), and she'd already phased out the accent by then.

It's particularly striking when you watch episodes at random.