Nah, she can't stand him.
Did other ships have counselors, too?
- Thread starter { Emilia }
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Nah, she can't stand him.
I watched Conundrum last night and Troi was basically the one who saved the day. All the men totally fell for the fake war story and were relatively eager to complete their "mission" despite having lost their memory. Troi was the only voice of reason.
Picardy was pretty skeptical too, repeatedly raising questions about the need to obsess over tactical issues before more mundane concerns or the need to verify the situation, not to mention the apparent mismatch between the enterprise and the lysians.
It was Worf mostly who let himself get a bit carried away with the whole thing.
Oh and riker who seemingly barely noticed what was going on, absorbed as he was in the subplot....
It was Worf mostly who let himself get a bit carried away with the whole thing.
Oh and riker who seemingly barely noticed what was going on, absorbed as he was in the subplot....
So in addition to their space adventures, the heroes would be worrying about running afoul of something like a mind-reading secret police agent in their midst? It's an interesting idea, but it doesn't really sound to me like a formula for Star Trek success.
It wasn't just Worf arguing for completing the mission when they discussed it. Trust me, I watched it last night.
And Picard was convinced enough that he destroyed ships that didn't really pose a threat to the Enterprise's shields. That's a pretty dark episode if you think about the lives lost on those ships.TNG had already taken an interesting tack in what constituted "adventure". Instead of trying to survive or work themselves out of a jam, the heroes spent a lot of time discussing whether taking available action A, B or C or just going away would be the best possible approach. That is, they were dedicating entire episodes to making moral choices, rather than using up three and a half acts in having the heroes evade jeopardy and then delivering a final punchline that just possibly might have involved a moral judgement.
If the supposed primary opponents of the heroes were their fellow heroes, it should have been pretty obvious to turn some of them into actually potent threats. Picard ruled the ship sovereign, even if Crusher/Pulaski could occasionally play the medical card against him; giving Picard a worthwhile opponent other than the occasionally visiting Badmirals would have provided at least some tension in the decisionmaking.
Timo Saloniemi
If the supposed primary opponents of the heroes were their fellow heroes, it should have been pretty obvious to turn some of them into actually potent threats. Picard ruled the ship sovereign, even if Crusher/Pulaski could occasionally play the medical card against him; giving Picard a worthwhile opponent other than the occasionally visiting Badmirals would have provided at least some tension in the decisionmaking.
Timo Saloniemi
We're always in conflict between wanting our favorite characters to be happy, and the fact that conflict drives drama and makes stories interesting. I think it would have been very successful. Whether it would have been Real Star Trek™ or not would have been argued to no end, without a doubt. But then again, that happens with every part of the franchise* even now.
* I've even seen arguments against TOS and TMP being "real Trek"!
I really don't think so. For one thing, a 1987 audience familiar with TOS and the movies would just be wondering WTF was going on, and it would make for a lot more of a downer vibe than people were expecting. Second, the tension of Troi vs. various crew members would work a few times but then it would get old.
I think the former was already true, but they stuck around to learn what was going on, or at least a lot did. And maybe it was just me, but the first two seasons of TNG already seemed pretty grim. Q's judgment, Conspiracy, the introduction of the Borg...
Well, obviously, Troi would have to be likeable despite the tension. I think Sirtis could have pulled that off - especially if she was actually just an earnest young woman trying to perform the job she had been given, with no actual animosity toward the crew or desire to get in their way unnecessarily. In my mind, the rest of the crew would be making a lot of assumptions about her that wouldn't actually be true of her - but would be about her superiors, and between discovering that and building comradery with the crew, that would lead her ultimately to being one of the crew first, and actually providing them with cover to her superiors in later seasons, when it became clearly needed.
What if Deanna had been the in-house legal counsel? An understanding of culture and emotions would have served her well, but her book knowledge and heart knowledge would have butted up against each other. ("I know it's technically illegal, but they're so afraid...") She'd try to take the hard stance outwardly, while her fellow crew voice her inward concerns.
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I don't think anything like that was going to happen. Even years later, the ballyhooed potential from drama and tension between the Fed and Maquis crews on Voyager went off like a damp squib.
What is worse than psychobabble is legal babble, or legalese. It would have been terrible if the writers had turned the bridge of the Enterprise into a courtroom drama.
Troi, "Captain, you're out of order. The whole bridge is out of order!"
I didn't mean that. She could have interpreted it in layman's terms, but understood the nuances.
It was really odd that the chief shrink of the ship would automatically also become the chief advisor to the captain. The two jobs are not necessarily compatible.
The main problem with Troi was the writers not knowing what to do with her, especially once it was established that she could sense deception, because that's a plot killer if ever there was one. Even the episodes where she was the obvious character to involve benched her (I, Borg for example is the perfect story for a mental health specialist/empath, but she's a walk on part in that episode)
I think it would have been better to expand her role somewhat, have her be a fully fledged ambassador maybe, or similar diplomatic function. Or have her be a skilled advisor on anthropology or xenopsychology or something that involved more than just using her superpowers to say things that could be worked out by a two year old reading facial expressions.
I think it would have been better to expand her role somewhat, have her be a fully fledged ambassador maybe, or similar diplomatic function. Or have her be a skilled advisor on anthropology or xenopsychology or something that involved more than just using her superpowers to say things that could be worked out by a two year old reading facial expressions.
It might be seen as kind of a secular chaplain role, where the chaplain is supposed to be neutral and equally available to everyone, from the commander on down. The captain could rely on them for advice, but of course with the understanding that the other crew members' confidences to them are privileged.
Yeah that's a great point.
But... but... four-lobed Ferengi brains! 
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Speaking of Ferengi and deception and funny sized brains... Ever notice Ferengi makeup was usually orangish in color?
Just thinking out loud.
Just thinking out loud.
Yeah, something that really stuck out at me in a relatively recent rewatch of TNG was how often they came to handwave Troi's empathy out of any situations in which it would have been at all useful. When it come down to "I can't read him because he's very focused / intense," she might as well have been saying, "My so-called powers wouldn't get me in the Legion of Substitute Heroes."
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