I just watched the TNG episode 'Thine Own Self'. Thats the episode where Data loses his memory and stumbles into a medievel society with a bunch of radioactive stones, and Troi decides to become a full Commander. Basically she went to a class reunion and was annoyed cos lots of people were doing better than her, and she reflects on the time she had to take command in 'Disaster' and how she would like to become a full commander.
The comments on Youtube were very divided on whether Troi deserved this promotion or not, so I thought Id start a discussion up here to see what people think. This is what I thought, to get the ball rolling.
There are two things wrong with what happens in this story, one is the fact that she gets the commission, the other is how she gets it. So I guess you could say Im not in favour of the promotion.
The show starts with Troi and Bev Crusher discussing Crushers reasons for becoming a full commander, and Troi thinking she might do the same. We're obviously led to a comparison of Troi and Beverly. If Beverly can do it, why not Troi? They're both medical personnel, right?
But Beverly obviously has the personality and the character for a command role. We've repeatedly seen Beverly stay cool under pressure, stand up against other officers or figure out situations and deal with them independantly. More importantly, as the chief medical officer of a ship which sees regular combat, shes already being put in a command role of sorts. I mean she isnt steering the ship, but shes got to be trusted to run a medical bay during battle, operating under triage conditions, under fire, making sure all the other medical staff are doing their duty at the same time, making life and death decisions and acting on her toes. Crusher acts a lot more like, say, that Commander Shelby from 'The Best of Both Worlds' than any other chief medical officer we see in Star Trek.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I dont think there are many cases of triage conselling. There is nothing in Troi's job description that indicates command potential and certainly nothing that would have prepared her to become a full commander, so shes now been given the rank of FULL COMMANDER, and her only actual command experience has been in 'Disaster', when she was totally overwhelmed.
Fundamentally there is simply nothing in Troi's personality that would suggest she is any good at this. She only just started to bother wearing the uniform, for the love of God. It would be like making frickin' Guignan a Commander.
Now in a way its hard to criticise a Troi episode, because you knew it wasnt going to be good anyway. Troi is one of those characters like Dax or Harry Kim, who everyone knows is shit, and doesnt like writing for, but is still in the main cast, so they cant just forget about them, right? If someone comes up with ANY idea for their character, they might as well just do it so they can make the obligatory Dax/Kim/Troi episode of that season. However, its really a problem when they take an idea that could actually have been good for these characters, and run off with it in the absolute wrong direction, like some kind of retarded toddler.
A good example of this is the relationship between Dax and Worf. One of the few things that works about Dax is her openness, like how she is the first to enjoy Feringi company because they live by their own values etc. We also know that she knows much more about Klingon culture than most ppl. You would think any half decent writer would be able to combine those points and create a story arc in which Dax and Worf can develop each others characters. Instead, despite knowing everything she knows about Klingon culture, Dax decides that her way must be the best and disregards all these things SHE KNOWS Worf takes extremely seriously.
This leads me to my second problem, the way Troi got her promotion.
Instead of showing Troi work out a decent problem, the thing she keeps failing on is apparently her ability to send Holo-Geordie off to be killed in order to save the ship. Its all very 'the needs of the many outweight the needs of the few'. The problem is that this really doesnt fit with Troi's character. In fact, she even admits to Riker that she hesitated to give the order. At that point I actually had a passing hope that this plot line wouldnt turn out stupid, maybe Troi would realise she didnt have command potential at that level and give up. Not everyone can handle that sort of pressure, its nothing to be ashamed of.
Like in DS9, Bashir and O'Brien are repeatedly shown to value human life over duty, they always want to risk the mission to save people when Sisko or someone dont. Its not like either of these opinions is right, Bashir and O'Brien are great people and so is Sisko, but by adding characters with different priorities and ways of thinking you are adding depth to your show. It means the situations youre dealing with are going to be explored from more than one point of view, one opinion casts light on the rational yet emotionally removed point of view, the other casts light on the irrational yet more morally stable point of view. This makes your characters more three dimensional and varied, it introduces a new element of conflict, and it really makes the audience wonder about what they would do in this situation. It also exemplifies the talents of your characters. Bashir would make a terrible command officer, but the reasons he would be terrible at that are often the same reasons he is a great doctor.
If it turns out that Troi could do the same job as Riker, that just degrades the abilities of Riker, and the difficulty of the role in general. It also waters down the importance of any job on the ship if anyone can apparently do anything. This is where the thrust of the show should have aimed, that Troi would make a damn bad command officer, but makes a damn good counseller. Instead they opt for the pat ending, like some cheap sitcom with a cheesy 'you can do whatever you put your mind to' (the opposite of how civilisation actualy works) tedium about it.
So that was pretty long. But if you complain I'll assimilate you.
What do people think about Troi's promo?
The comments on Youtube were very divided on whether Troi deserved this promotion or not, so I thought Id start a discussion up here to see what people think. This is what I thought, to get the ball rolling.
There are two things wrong with what happens in this story, one is the fact that she gets the commission, the other is how she gets it. So I guess you could say Im not in favour of the promotion.
The show starts with Troi and Bev Crusher discussing Crushers reasons for becoming a full commander, and Troi thinking she might do the same. We're obviously led to a comparison of Troi and Beverly. If Beverly can do it, why not Troi? They're both medical personnel, right?
But Beverly obviously has the personality and the character for a command role. We've repeatedly seen Beverly stay cool under pressure, stand up against other officers or figure out situations and deal with them independantly. More importantly, as the chief medical officer of a ship which sees regular combat, shes already being put in a command role of sorts. I mean she isnt steering the ship, but shes got to be trusted to run a medical bay during battle, operating under triage conditions, under fire, making sure all the other medical staff are doing their duty at the same time, making life and death decisions and acting on her toes. Crusher acts a lot more like, say, that Commander Shelby from 'The Best of Both Worlds' than any other chief medical officer we see in Star Trek.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I dont think there are many cases of triage conselling. There is nothing in Troi's job description that indicates command potential and certainly nothing that would have prepared her to become a full commander, so shes now been given the rank of FULL COMMANDER, and her only actual command experience has been in 'Disaster', when she was totally overwhelmed.
Fundamentally there is simply nothing in Troi's personality that would suggest she is any good at this. She only just started to bother wearing the uniform, for the love of God. It would be like making frickin' Guignan a Commander.
Now in a way its hard to criticise a Troi episode, because you knew it wasnt going to be good anyway. Troi is one of those characters like Dax or Harry Kim, who everyone knows is shit, and doesnt like writing for, but is still in the main cast, so they cant just forget about them, right? If someone comes up with ANY idea for their character, they might as well just do it so they can make the obligatory Dax/Kim/Troi episode of that season. However, its really a problem when they take an idea that could actually have been good for these characters, and run off with it in the absolute wrong direction, like some kind of retarded toddler.
A good example of this is the relationship between Dax and Worf. One of the few things that works about Dax is her openness, like how she is the first to enjoy Feringi company because they live by their own values etc. We also know that she knows much more about Klingon culture than most ppl. You would think any half decent writer would be able to combine those points and create a story arc in which Dax and Worf can develop each others characters. Instead, despite knowing everything she knows about Klingon culture, Dax decides that her way must be the best and disregards all these things SHE KNOWS Worf takes extremely seriously.
This leads me to my second problem, the way Troi got her promotion.
Instead of showing Troi work out a decent problem, the thing she keeps failing on is apparently her ability to send Holo-Geordie off to be killed in order to save the ship. Its all very 'the needs of the many outweight the needs of the few'. The problem is that this really doesnt fit with Troi's character. In fact, she even admits to Riker that she hesitated to give the order. At that point I actually had a passing hope that this plot line wouldnt turn out stupid, maybe Troi would realise she didnt have command potential at that level and give up. Not everyone can handle that sort of pressure, its nothing to be ashamed of.
Like in DS9, Bashir and O'Brien are repeatedly shown to value human life over duty, they always want to risk the mission to save people when Sisko or someone dont. Its not like either of these opinions is right, Bashir and O'Brien are great people and so is Sisko, but by adding characters with different priorities and ways of thinking you are adding depth to your show. It means the situations youre dealing with are going to be explored from more than one point of view, one opinion casts light on the rational yet emotionally removed point of view, the other casts light on the irrational yet more morally stable point of view. This makes your characters more three dimensional and varied, it introduces a new element of conflict, and it really makes the audience wonder about what they would do in this situation. It also exemplifies the talents of your characters. Bashir would make a terrible command officer, but the reasons he would be terrible at that are often the same reasons he is a great doctor.
If it turns out that Troi could do the same job as Riker, that just degrades the abilities of Riker, and the difficulty of the role in general. It also waters down the importance of any job on the ship if anyone can apparently do anything. This is where the thrust of the show should have aimed, that Troi would make a damn bad command officer, but makes a damn good counseller. Instead they opt for the pat ending, like some cheap sitcom with a cheesy 'you can do whatever you put your mind to' (the opposite of how civilisation actualy works) tedium about it.
So that was pretty long. But if you complain I'll assimilate you.
What do people think about Troi's promo?
