Hey, I never noticed that before...." (TNG edition)

[Santa Kang]

The last version of this thread "died" three years ago but I'm doing a TNG rewatch, so I'm starting a new one.
Troi changes costumes often in episodes. Sometimes as much as three per episodes.

 

[Jellico]

Picard is wearing boots with lifts, which you can see in a scene where he’s being being thrown about in a turbo lift malfunction. I can not remember the name of the episode.

 

[Santa Kang]

Watching Unification II. The disparity between the Romulan ears and Spock's are astounding, The Romulan ears look crude, while Spock's seem more refined. I wonder if they borrowed Spock's from the movie?

 

[Finngle Bells]

Watching Unification II. The disparity between the Romulan ears and Spock's are astounding, The Romulan ears look crude, while Spock's seem more refined. I wonder if they borrowed Spock's from the movie?

I suppose they wouldn't dare give Nimoy average ear prosthetics.

 

[TommyR01D]

I always sensed that there was something different about the Betazoids, but could never work out what. Eventually I realised it's that they have all-black irises.

 

[Frostscape One]

You... sensed it?

 

[1moreRobot]

Watched A Matter of Honor, realized the transporter pad had a squishy surface.

 

[Jellico]

I could be wrong but I thought that Marina Sirtis has black eyes. She’s Greek. Looking at some pictures right now, her eyes look brown.

 

[Lady Mondegreen]

For whatever reason, the effect always seemed much more apparent in Lwaxana than in Troi to me. It looks a little bit freaky, which is a good thing in that it makes her feel at least a little bit alien to me.

 

[Finngle Bells]

I always thought the Betazoid eyes were obvious, especially when Majel was playing Lwaxana Troi..., as Majel had blue eyes...

 

[Mojochi]

For whatever reason, the effect always seemed much more apparent in Lwaxana than in Troi to me. It looks a little bit freaky, which is a good thing in that it makes her feel at least a little bit alien to me.

It was never more obvious to me than in Tin Man. No one ever looked odder with those black irises than Tam Elbrun, IMHO

That's when I figured it out, that it was all of them. I'd initially thought that it was just Marina's natural color, & I did realize they'd given contacts to Majel, but thought it was to make her look genetically closer to Marina, as her mother... Which actually worked really well, to make them look related TBH

 

[Lady Mondegreen]

It was never more obvious to me than in Tin Man. No one ever looked odder with those black irises than Tam Elbrun, IMHO

That's when I figured it out, that it was all of them. I'd initially thought that it was just Marina's natural color, & I did realize they'd given contacts to Majel, but thought it was to make her look genetically closer to Marina, as her mother... Which actually worked really well, to make them look related TBH

I had forgotten this episode, but I just looked it up on Memory Alpha and you're right that it's very obvious and odd from the screenshots. I like that even when they're not using prosthetics there's something that differentiates the species.

 

[Orphalesion]

I didn't realize the black irises were supposed to be the Betazoid alien makeup until I read it online.
It doesn't help that there's a rare condition in real life that makes a person's eyes look like that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniridia

If eye colour was going to be the only Betazoid trait they could at least have used a weirder/more alien eye colour, like purple or something.

 

[darrenjl]

The people walking though the Observation Lounge in the opening credits of every episode.

 

[Jellico]

I saw a blooper video for TNG where Mirina is on the bridge, stops and says, ‘’I just lost my contact’. Yes, Majel had black eyes as Lwaxana, but her natural color was blue. It seems to come together now. I hadn’t given it much thought before.

 

[your_neighbor]

You have all blown my mind with this black eye thing.

 

[Ashley Pomeroy]

I have to agree. Until reading this thread I had no idea that they had black eyes. A bit of googling for "betazoid black eyes" returns a relative handful of hits, so it seems to be a fairly obscure fact - presumably the eye colour didn't stand out on standard-definition television.

One of the results is a BBS FAQ from 1995, so it obviously wasn't completely unknown on the internet. It must have been one of those things that was mentioned in the show's initial publicity materials and then never brought up again because it didn't serve a role in the plot and no-one in the show comments about it.

I wonder if anybody turned down the role of Troi specifically because they'd have to spend twenty-six weeks of the year wearing contact lenses for twelve hours a day.

 

[Orphalesion]

I wonder if anybody turned down the role of Troi specifically because they'd have to spend twenty-six weeks of the year wearing contact lenses for twelve hours a day.

It's possible, but I don't think so, the casting call mentions that Troi's alien look "has yet to be determined"
Gene's original idea was that she'd have four breasts, until D.C.Fontana (thankfully) talked him out of it.

Though it does kind of make me wonder what they would have done in case if Sirtis' eyes reacted negatively to the contact lenses, what would Betazoids look like then?

 

[Santa Kang]

Lotta of "Harry Kims" on the Enterprise. Aging Ensigns, not just for Voyager.

 

[Jellico]

You’ve got tho loveTNG to post here.