Spoilers Episode 7 "Nepenthe"

[Weyoun 251]

So doing a Picard rewatch, having watched Generations last night.

Huge thing that stands out for me is the difference in Troi's empathic abilities.

In Nepenthe she can read him like a book (as would be expected) but then in Gen, when Picard gets the news about his brother, she seems no more empathic than any friend would be - she can tell something is up but nothing deeper.

I think the way Nepenthe depicts Troi is how she really should have been previously and does her a fair bit of justice

 

[Morpheus 02]

So doing a Picard rewatch, having watched Generations last night.

Huge thing that stands out for me is the difference in Troi's empathic abilities.

In Nepenthe she can read him like a book (as would be expected) but then in Gen, when Picard gets the news about his brother, she seems no more empathic than any friend would be - she can tell something is up but nothing deeper.

I think the way Nepenthe depicts Troi is how she really should have been previously and does her a fair bit of justice

Even more than the empathic ability, she actually sounded like a Counselor in this episode, as well as a friend/equal

 

[cooleddie74]

GEN and PIC do more justice to Deanna's character than almost any other episode or movie bothered to. She's actually useful to a fellow officer in GEN and "Nepenthe(PIC)" and not in a Reg Barclay kind of way.

 

[dupersuper]

So doing a Picard rewatch, having watched Generations last night.

Huge thing that stands out for me is the difference in Troi's empathic abilities.

In Nepenthe she can read him like a book (as would be expected) but then in Gen, when Picard gets the news about his brother, she seems no more empathic than any friend would be - she can tell something is up but nothing deeper.

I think the way Nepenthe depicts Troi is how she really should have been previously and does her a fair bit of justice

She could also read Lal after she developed emotions, but couldn't read Soji.

 

[Weyoun 251]

She could also read Lal after she developed emotions, but couldn't read Soji.

I'll admit to not remembering that episode too well - will have to put that down to writer error.

GEN and PIC do more justice to Deanna's character than almost any other episode or movie bothered to. She's actually useful to a fellow officer in GEN and "Nepenthe(PIC)" and not in a Reg Barclay kind of way.

Agree 100% - the films (using her abilities in a practical manner in Nem to connect to the Reman Viceroy, being one of the few to kind of "get" Cochrane in FC and to try and ease him in more than the others seemed to do) and Pic do her so much more justice than her earlier depiction.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

A bit off topic, but I came across this the other day re: Troi and how they originally envisioned the character.

Troi was supposed to be as intelligent as Spock

 

[Romulan_spy]

A bit off topic, but I came across this the other day re: Troi and how that originally envisioned the character.

Troi was supposed to be as intelligent as Spock

Interesting. I don't think Troi really works as a Spock-like character because I think Data was more the Spock-like character in his efficient logic, lack of emotion, intelligence and science focus. But Troi could have exhibited really high emotional intelligence to go along with her empathic abilities. So it could have been a different kind of intelligence than what Spock or Data had. I envision Troi as a character that has gained a great understanding of human psychology thanks to her empathic abilities, and has great wisdom about how others think, emote, handle situations. She would be like a wise sage that could calm people down, inspire people, connect with people etc... Now that I think about it, that's the Guinan character. So, in some ways, Guinan, as the empathic, wise bar tender, took over Troi's role.

It's too bad that we won't see a Titan series with Riker and Troi. Imagine Troi as First Officer. She would be excellent in that role as she would know what the crew is feeling, connect with them, understand them, engender good trust and loyalty, bring morale issues to Riker's attention and be Riker's closest confident and advisor.

But I agree that the writers on TNG never really did a good job with Troi. She had a couple good counseling scenes with characters and yes, she got better like in "Face of the Enemy" (IMO, one of Troi's best episodes). But most of the time, they just had her sense the obvious ("Captain, I am sensing they are hiding something").

 

[DEWLine]

Wondering about the history of Nepenthe as a planetary community...since Mr. Chabon opened the door with his notes about Freecloud a few months ago...

 

[eschaton]

I do wonder if they cast Crosby as Troi and Sirtis as "Yar" as they originally auditioned what would have happened.

Presumably Crosby still would have left, since Troi wasn't given much more than Yar in terms of focus in early Season 1. But Sirtis would have had a lot more to do as Macha Hernandez, and we could have avoided all the mind rape plots.

On the other hand, they'd need to find something different to do with Worf. And no reason for Lwaxana to appear after the first season. Since Gene loved giving Majel roles, maybe he wouldn't kill off Crosby if his wife was playing her mother - just do what they did with McFadden.

 

[Iamnotspock]

She could also read Lal after she developed emotions, but couldn't read Soji.

Not necessarily; it was obvious to anyone that Lal was scared and confused but Troi didn't mention specifically being able to sense her. She could definitely sense Data in "Descent" though, after Lore started transmitting emotions to him.

 

[Charles Phipps]

My opinion of Nepenthe is it's nothing but shameless fanservice but that is probably why it's the most loved episode.