Erm... Where did Troi's baby get the "Y" Chromosone?

[Trekker4747]

In the Second Season opener "The Child" Deanna Troi becomes impregnated by an unknown alien life-form that gestates and grows rapidly. (It's intent we find out is wanting to experience humanoid life.)

In an Observation Lounge scene the new Dr. Pulaski explains to the crew (and us) that the fetus is half Betazoid and half Human (like Troi is) and that there's "no indications that there's any genetic patterns other than hers" and that the fetus is like Deanna in "every way."

....

Accept that when born the fetus ends up being male.

Requiring a "Y" chromosome.

Which Deanna doesn't have (being female, unless there's something we don't know about her.)

And for as much flack as the first two seasons get, the Second Season does show some improvements in many areas on the look and tone of the series.

 

[GSchnitzer]

For what it's worth, the original script for "The Child" as written for the original Star Trek Phase II has Lieutenant Ilia giving birth to a baby girl. Jon Povill's original story got changed a bit in places when made into the TNG episode--the baby's sex being one of the changes.

In the Second Season opener "The Child" Deanna Troi becomes impregnated by an unknown alien life-form that gestates and grows rapidly. (It's intent we find out is wanting to experience humanoid life.)

In an Observation Lounge scene the new Dr. Pulaski explains to the crew (and us) that the fetus is half Betazoid and half Human (like Troi is) and that there's "no indications that there's any genetic patterns other than hers" and that the fetus is like Deanna in "every way."

....

Accept that when born the fetus ends up being male.

Requiring a "Y" chromosome.

Which Deanna doesn't have (being female, unless there's something we don't know about her.)

And for as much flack as the first two seasons get, the Second Season does show some improvements in many areas on the look and tone of the series.

 

[trekker670]

The best answer is simply that it's just an oversight and doesn't really matter to the plot. It is an alien lifeform afterall, so the alien could have modified Deanna's X chromosome to it's Y "equivalent." Or there could be something about Betazoid biology and/or the details of inter-species mating and offspring we don't know of.

 

[Sho]

New Voyages/Phase II has filmed the original script, btw.

 

[GalaxyX]

Ughhh.....what a klunky episode. That's one of the ones I skip when I want to watch some TNG.

 

[Therin of Andor]

In the Second Season opener "The Child" Deanna Troi becomes impregnated by an unknown alien life-form that gestates and grows rapidly. (It's intent we find out is wanting to experience humanoid life.)

Where did Jesus get a "Y" chromosome, conceived to a virgin the same way?

Baby crocodiles' gender is determined by how deep in the sand the eggs are laid.

Clownfish switch genders when there are too many of one gender in the school.

 

[Trekker4747]

In the Second Season opener "The Child" Deanna Troi becomes impregnated by an unknown alien life-form that gestates and grows rapidly. (It's intent we find out is wanting to experience humanoid life.)

Where did Jesus get a "Y" chromosome, conceived to a virgin the same way?

Baby crocodiles' gender is determined by how deep in the sand the eggs are laid.

Clownfish switch genders when there are too many of one gender in the school.

1. God did it.

2/3. How genetics and gender works in amphibians/reptiles and fish are not likely to be the same as it is in mammals.

 

[Start Wreck]

Well, Troi became amphibian when she "devolved".

 

[Deckerd]

In the Second Season opener "The Child" Deanna Troi becomes impregnated by an unknown alien life-form that gestates and grows rapidly. (It's intent we find out is wanting to experience humanoid life.)

In an Observation Lounge scene the new Dr. Pulaski explains to the crew (and us) that the fetus is half Betazoid and half Human (like Troi is) and that there's "no indications that there's any genetic patterns other than hers" and that the fetus is like Deanna in "every way."

....

Accept that when born the fetus ends up being male.

Requiring a "Y" chromosome.

Which Deanna doesn't have (being female, unless there's something we don't know about her.)

You're assuming that the child was human.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yeah, the sex determiner in other species, such as birds, is the female. It's just as problematic explaining how Betazoids/Vulcans/Klingons and Humans could ever have offspring - cue Carl Sagan quote:

"I think the chance of a man mating with a petunia is much greater than the chance of him being able to mate, much less produce offspring, with an inhabitant of another planet."

 

[JarodRussell]

In the Second Season opener "The Child" Deanna Troi becomes impregnated by an unknown alien life-form that gestates and grows rapidly. (It's intent we find out is wanting to experience humanoid life.)

Where did Jesus get a "Y" chromosome, conceived to a virgin the same way?

Holy Ghost, obviously, is very manly.


Half betazoid/half human is already pretty bad from a scientific perspective. So why bother with the gender?

 

[Draculasaurus]

Perhaps the alien entity encountered some sperm clinging to her bed sheets.

 

[Trekker4747]

In the Second Season opener "The Child" Deanna Troi becomes impregnated by an unknown alien life-form that gestates and grows rapidly. (It's intent we find out is wanting to experience humanoid life.)

In an Observation Lounge scene the new Dr. Pulaski explains to the crew (and us) that the fetus is half Betazoid and half Human (like Troi is) and that there's "no indications that there's any genetic patterns other than hers" and that the fetus is like Deanna in "every way."

....

Accept that when born the fetus ends up being male.

Requiring a "Y" chromosome.

Which Deanna doesn't have (being female, unless there's something we don't know about her.)

You're assuming that the child was human.

Dialogue says the child was half human half Betazed like Troi.

 

[Holdfast]

Where did Troi's baby get the "Y" Chromosone?

I'm not saying it was aliens, but....

 

[Deckerd]

You're assuming that the child was human.

Dialogue says the child was half human half Betazed like Troi.

It clearly wasn't human, since it didn't develop like one and it was emitting radiation that humans do not. What it appeared to be and what it actually was were not the same, so even as the doctor says it's half human half Betazoid they all knew that wasn't the case. Therefore any limitations of conception that are imposed by normal sexual reproduction obviously did not have any bearing in this case. The child was not human (or Betazoid).

 

[BillJ]

Perhaps the alien entity encountered some sperm clinging to her bed sheets.

Best explanation so far!

 

[Flake]

The entity entered T's body via the V apparently giving T an O in the process therefore I presume the entity provided the missing Y

 

[Holdfast]

The entity entered T's body via the V apparently giving T an O in the process therefore I presume the entity provided the missing Y

Disturbingly, the abbreviation capitals in that post acronym to TV TOY.

If you could just figure out a way of adding a double T after the O, you'd have a good description of Troi as well.

 

[T'Girl]

While typically females have a XX chromosome pair, and males have a XY chromosome pair, this isn't universally the case. Of the 30 genes that have been found to have important roles in the development of gender in humans, 3 are located on the X chromosome, 1 on the Y chromosome, and the other 26 are on other chromosomes. About 1 in 20,000 men have no XY chromosome pair, instead have XX.

So that is one way for Ian Troi to have been male.

Then there is this, in birds the males sperm is all the same (XX), and the female's eggs have the different chromosome pairs (XX and XY) and she determines the offspring's gender.

Betazeds are not Humans.

The child was not human (or Betazoid).

According to Dr. Pulaski, genetically the child was. There were just other factors involve than genetics.

 

[Locutus of Board]

Maybe there was some DNA lying inside Troi at the time?