Character Ratings: Counsellor Deanna Troi

I never watched her for her character. Mmmm... nummy!

 

7/10. Would've been higher but she was awful in season one but got better later. An 8 if I count the movie First Contact.

 

Interestingly I thought Deanna would do better.

(I had her at 7 too but was late)

 

Okay, folks here are my thoughts on this.
Loved this character so she gets a solid 9/10 for me. The only thing I would hold against her as a character is a. the bad dialogue in the first season. I personally believe that the writers seemed to forget that she's a character (i.e. a person) as well as being an empath. They did tend to focus too much on the fact that she is an empath when they should have focused more on the fact that she's a person. She was also IMHO, physically the best-looking character on the show certainly around the third and fourth seasons. Loved her in her blue dress period (particularly the episode Family). (although she did look great in her standard Starfleet uniform as well.)

 

Okay, folks here are my thoughts on this.
Loved this character so she gets a solid 9/10 for me. The only thing I would hold against her as a character is a. the bad dialogue in the first season. I personally believe that the writers seemed to forget that she's a character (i.e. a person) as well as being an empath. They did tend to focus too much on the fact that she is an empath when they should have focused more on the fact that she's a person. She was also IMHO, physically the best looking character on the show certainly around the third and fourth

 

As a counselor, I give her a 2. She sometimes gives some terrible advice, e.g "There are no bad emotions, Data." comes to mind as one of the worst.

 

In fairness though, Psychotherapy isn't that easy to understand. Took me many years before I finally began to understand what it's all about.

 

Well, I don't know much about Psychotherapy per se, I was speaking of the consequences of the advice she sometimes dispenses.

 

Neither do i but yes i do get what your mean.

 

When given something good to do: 10

Episodes such as "Loud as a Whisper" and "The Ensigns of Command" really do much to bring her character out and it's far more than the usual broken LP of
Captain, you can already tell and so can the audience but my job as an actor is not to break the fourth wall, as everyone already knows this isn't a cheap parody or otherwise I would."

"Ensigns" has a lovely scene where she tutors the audience, via Picard, about the miracle of communication and it's an extremely well-written scene. Sadly, the clip a la carte can't be found on the same place where that fan-favorite fudge scene exists on about fifty billion channels...that one's also an exceptional scene that turns something rather mundane into an actual and surprisingly hypnotic event, but when the writers did something good for Troi that didn't involve her frothing over diabetes bombs, it really was the greatest.

More often than not, she gets a 3 and that's due solely to, as Q*Bert might say, "@!#?@!" scripts, to the point where the beige and gray background sets offer more creativity and depth.

Her best and arguably most genuine, in-character story is "Loud as a Whisper" as she gets to be everything: Empathic, tutor, liaison, having to go outside her comfort zone, even having a romantic moment - that feels real and genuine to the story. Even when the script is nudging her to be Riva's replacement**, Sirtis knocks it out of the park with nuance applied to the dialogue. (Reminding why she was cast to begin with. ) She gets the best romance-themed episode she's put into, and when it came to roooomance... on Staaaaaaar Trek, The Next Generation - the writers often had to battle Roddenberry's bizarre need to have gratuitous orgy planets and waaaaaay too often... Especially after the - shall we say - "misfired attempt" known as "Justice"... So keeping all that in mind, something with a modicum of nuance and depth in "Whisper" is that much more spectacular for being low-key and in a story that allows its concepts to simmer and breathe. Sadly, then we get to "The Price". The story is almost "there" with the manipulation of her but something doesn't quite work and it's not the fact that Ral is a charlatan. Similarly, "Face of the Enemy" is straining to work with a great take on the "fish out of water" trope but it just doesn't work.

** which creates a plot problem elsewhere, but putting that aside...

 

While I did not dislike her as others have said the first season wasn't her strongest appearances. But when she wanted to stretch herself and also became a bit of a detective. I really came to appreciate her more.

8/10

 

I'll say 6.

Sirtis did a great job with the character but most of the time she was a widget. She could feel emotions when the plot demanded it but then her power was ignored when it was inconvenient. When she had real writing for her, she came off well, but that wasn't very often.

 

Yeah, I take it that diabetes is no longer a problem in the 24th century...

 

Wow. This was a 14 year old thread.

 

I guess I'll give her like a six. A pleasant enough presence but the empath thing was never really utilized in a meaningful way and she seemed like she was just there to provide emotional support most the time.

 

Well, it's been revived so...

 

It's frowned upon, but they don't close them in order to prevent it from happening

 

It’s against board rules.