Is Deanna always actually there?

[Guy Gardener]

The wife is doing a drive by.

"I only want to watch the quality episodes, lets avoid the complete crap please."

So after the best of both worlds, we head into Family where Deanna is hanging out with a sleepy Picard in his pajamas, and then she's in Beverly's face, and zoom, zoom zoom... Worf is dealing with his discommendation and his parents.

Firstly it's inappropriate to be in Picard's room while he is getting ready for bed, if she isn't going to get into bed with him, and then is she running like gazelle? Zipping and weaving and bobbing and dodging through the ship, for kilometers, to find her next half dressed patient, minutes later?

How sweaty and stinky is she, from all that running?

Telepathic avatars?

Charles Xavier (in the 80s, in the comics) could run 27 telepathic avatars simultaneously without Stress, conducting 27 conversations with at least 27 unique people remotely.

Can Dee treat/monitor dozens if not hundreds of patients at the same time across the width and breadth of the ship?

Is she spying on everyone, all the time?

Which means that she is lying about her powers being %hit, most of the time, because she doesn't want to be used as a weapon, maybe.

 

[Mojochi]

Not all things in a sequence of scenes are necessarily occurring successively. Take Data's Day. All that didn't happen one directly after the other.

Besides, these are Deanna's friends, comrades, colleagues. They're the people she spends the most time with... Not typical patient/counselor interactions

Also, there's apparently other counselors. Plus, it's been a while, but I'm not even sure you've got the sequence of scenes in the right order

 

[Vger23]

No, Deanna is imaginary.

 

[Jedman67]

We are all Deanna

 

[STEPhon IT]

Interesting. I was thinking Deanna wouldn't see everyone on the ship but have scheduled appointments for people who are having some serious conditions where the medical staff can't give them their full attention. I suppose the Counselor may have permission from the particular patients she can make random house calls.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It makes me wonder if Deanna is the lead counselor on the ship and heads up the counseling department?
That, or Reg Barclay made multiple holodeck clones....

2 possibilities.

1. Deanna selects 12 junior Councillors, and then they have to agree to live on the Enterprise, and then they have to agree to stay there no matter how many times the Romulans attack, and then it's a full time job replacing the wussies who run away every time a Klingon Boarding party eats some poor bastard's child.

2. Deanna sources her staff from the civilian population already on Enterprise, of bored housewives, horny house husbands and adult children of the crew, who picked up a therapists certificate with their cornflakes.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
When the holodeck's fried
Deanna Troi is sensing you now

She's making appointment lists,
She's scheduling you twice,
She's gonna find out Imzadi's new vice
Deanna Troi is sensing you now

She sees you when you're sleeping
She knows when you're awake
She knows if someone's bad or good
Except when the fate of the ship is at stake

 

[Mojochi]

Interesting. I was thinking Deanna wouldn't see everyone on the ship but have scheduled appointments for people who are having some serious conditions where the medical staff can't give them their full attention.

But she's shown participating in crew evaluations, & I imagine her role in them is to give assessments of their personality, attitude, mental state, etc... That implies a far greater role than just therapist to the sick/distressed... Not to mention her role as cultural/mission advisor to the bridge crew.

The more I think about what that lady's job entails on that ship... the more I don't like it. Frankly, having telepaths on the ship is probably fine & well in their universe, given their prevalence, but having what seemed like only 1 telepath on board, a high ranking senior staffer tasked with presumably continuous crew analysis, seems... problematic to me. I mean Daniel Kwan is probably the only other telepath we ever hear about aboard, excluding Vulcans like Selar, who don't actively read everyone all the time.

Being singular aboard, Troi is like some kind of feelings magistrate. Passing literal career altering judgements about people's character, & throwing looks like the one she dropped on O'Brien in The Wounded, is just uncool imho. It's no wonder no one gave a singular crap when she went empathy deaf in The Loss. They were all probably secretly a little relieved........ & could finally feel that way without the thought that she might catch them feeling it about her.

 

[Oddish]

You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
When the holodeck's fried
Deanna Troi is sensing you now

You win the Internet. So take my Like and never speak of this again.

 

[Jayson1]

You only need only one counselor when everyone on the ship is almost all perfectly evolved 24th century humans. Worf,Barclay and Ensign Janeway are her only regular clients. Maybe once in awhile she has to give a talk to someone else and sometimes more like Picard after his experience with the Borg but most of her day is just hanging out in her comfy catsuit. Eating Chocolate and listening to Classical Music because everyone in the future loves classical music. Maybe go have sex with a holo version of Riker if in the mood. Go sit on the bridge in her special chair to see if anything interesting is going to happen that day.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You only need only one counselor when everyone on the ship is almost all perfectly evolved 24th century humans. Worf,Barclay and Ensign Janeway are her only regular clients. Maybe once in awhile she has to give a talk to someone else and sometimes more like Picard after his experience with the Borg but most of her day is just hanging out in her comfy catsuit. Eating Chocolate and listening to Classical Music because everyone in the future loves classical music. Maybe go have sex with a holo version of Riker if in the mood. Go sit on the bridge in her special chair to see if anything interesting is going to happen that day.

Why on earth would she screw holo Riker?

Been there, done that.

 

[Jayson1]

Because they still loved each other. They should have gotten together for real. No reason they can't be married and serve together. They were denying their love for no reason.

 

[Jadeb]

No, Deanna is imaginary.

Garfield Minus Garfield

 

[STEPhon IT]

But she's shown participating in crew evaluations, & I imagine her role in them is to give assessments of their personality, attitude, mental state, etc... That implies a far greater role than just therapist to the sick/distressed... Not to mention her role as cultural/mission advisor to the bridge crew.

The more I think about what that lady's job entails on that ship... the more I don't like it. Frankly, having telepaths on the ship is probably fine & well in their universe, given their prevalence, but having what seemed like only 1 telepath on board, a high ranking senior staffer tasked with presumably continuous crew analysis, seems... problematic to me. I mean Daniel Kwan is probably the only other telepath we ever hear about aboard, excluding Vulcans like Selar, who don't actively read everyone all the time.

Being singular aboard, Troi is like some kind of feelings magistrate. Passing literal career altering judgements about people's character, & throwing looks like the one she dropped on O'Brien in The Wounded, is just uncool imho. It's no wonder no one gave a singular crap when she went empathy deaf in The Loss. They were all probably secretly a little relieved........ & could finally feel that way without the thought that she might catch them feeling it about her.

And I agree with you about that if Deanna was a telepath, but we all know she's not. She's an empath who has the ability to sense emotions not like Lwaxana who's capable of reading the thoughts of others around her; so I'm fine with a therapist who can sense what her patients are feeling so she can produce a better treatment for them.

On that note: can you imagine a counselor who wore a skin-tight outfit that even if you didn't say a word, your thoughts were not safe? Not even thinking "she should wear a regular uniform" would be taken kindly by her. I know it sounds a bit sexist, but even a male counselor walking around in what is essentially a leotard would make folks a bit uncomfortable I would think.

Probably in the real world, but in the world of Star Trek folks seeing that shouldn't be uncomfortable at all.

 

[XCV330]

We are all Deanna

I sense a cultural reference, captain

 

[Mojochi]

And I agree with you about that if Deanna was a telepath, but we all know she's not. She's an empath who has the ability to sense emotions not like Lwaxana who's capable of reading the thoughts of others around her; so I'm fine with a therapist who can sense what her patients are feeling so she can produce a better treatment for them.

But I'm not talking about her role as a therapist, which I won't dispute being empathic might be beneficial to that.

I mean her role as a crew evaluator/advisor to the ship's leadership. Even sensing how someone feels is not an indictment of them, & it's imho a wrongful way to judge them in an official capacity, especially because it's not as accurate as full telepathy, & more apt to be wrong, or not the whole truth. How we feel is a pretty fleeting & inexplicable phenomenon, frankly

2 examples I have issues with: 1st, she shames O'Brien with a staredown, for his hateful feelings towards the Cardassians in The Wounded, making him look away to break the exchange. He shouldn't be judged for how he feels, without context. Admittedly, it's just a glance, not official business, (beyond the power dynamic of him knowing she could make it that) It's also probably an uncontrolled spontaneous reaction... but it's a red flag imho, & were it me she did that to, I'd never be comfortable around her again.

2nd, & much more concerning, in full view of the bridge crew, having just been in a strategic mission briefing, she publicly calls into question Captain Jellico's fitness, by advising the 1st officer that he isn't sure of himself, which I doubt is something she could actually fully know, given the circumstance.

After all, Jellico has been openly adamant that he suspects there are no diplomatic measures which will prevent full scale war from occurring. So of course he's uncertain that the things he is doing will succeed in preventing war, but that is not the same as being uncertain that he should be doing what he's doing entirely, or that he's completely lacking confidence in himself altogether, & that's a nuanced distinction I doubt she's able to differentiate. To her, he just "isn't sure". Well la-di-da.

It's the most reckless act as an officer I've ever seen her do. How is Will supposed to take that? I know how I'd take it, the worst case scenario, that this Jellico guy doesn't even believe his own BS, which is paramount to saying he oughtn't be in charge, & needs to be challenged or deposed before something horrible happens... which is exactly where Will ends up taking things, perhaps directly influenced by her advisement. She (Likely unintentionally) exacerbated an already strained dynamic between the 2 highest ranking officers aboard, during a critical mission, & led the 1st officer to near ruination. If she'd said that shit to me, I'd have been all "WTF DOES THAT MEAN?!?!?!"

Being the ship's vaguely paranormally endowed crew evaluator is just bad juju if you ask me
I kind of wish we'd gotten a deeper exploration of the ethics of her role, much like the standoff Beverly got in Ethics with Russell. It got touched on slightly in The Price & The Drumhead, but a real challenge about how ethical it is to rate & assess crew based on empathic gleanings was sorely needed.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Her empathy is detrimental to her training, since she can see short cuts that a flatscan therapist would not indulge.

 

[dupersuper]

2 examples I have issues with: 1st, she shames O'Brien with a staredown, for his hateful feelings towards the Cardassians in The Wounded, making him look away to break the exchange.

I didn't read that as an intentional stare-down on her part, she was just caught off guard feeling that from him and he realized what she sensed and got embarrassed before she could collect herself.

2nd, & much more concerning, in full view of the bridge crew, having just been in a strategic mission briefing, she publicly calls into question Captain Jellico's fitness, by advising the 1st officer that he isn't sure of himself, which I doubt is something she could actually fully know, given the circumstance.

She may have been using her training as well as her empathic abilities to make that determination, and that certainly seems like the kind of thing the first officer might need to know before heading into a potential battle situation. Plus it was Will: their discussions aren't ever likely to be 100% professional.

 

[Mojochi]

I didn't read that as an intentional stare-down on her part, she was just caught off guard feeling that from him and he realized what she sensed and got embarrassed before she could collect herself.

I don't disagree, but it's still kind of uncool imho, & it's the kind of thing (As someone with much experience in this) she shouldn't be letting happen if she expects to have a good working relationship with those people. Like I said, it would make things awkward with her thereafter, even if they did clear the air about that one instance eventually, it would still be awkward, because there's still the capacity for him to have a private felling about something that if she happened into, he might be judged again. I'd be on guard around her at all times after that, which would also make things awkward, because "Why does he feel on guard around me all the time?"

She may have been using her training as well as her empathic abilities to make that determination, and that certainly seems like the kind of thing the first officer might need to know before heading into a potential battle situation. Plus it was Will: their discussions aren't ever likely to be 100% professional.

Well, when they are on the bridge, after a captain's briefing, & in the context of the captain's behavior/actions, they ought to be both 100% professional & as close to 100% accurate as they can be. This was as far from either as it could be. It was a vague remark, that got totally glossed over

What she's doing here is not unlike the countless times she's advised Picard or Riker on outsiders like Rassmussen, or Kila Marr, or Admiral Jarok, etc... except in this case she's "advising" her peers about one another, in these vague terms, that serve to do nothing but disrupt the chain of command, & sew seeds of faithlessness in one another

When she says something like that about the commanding officer, she needs to fully unpack what she's getting at, or pack that dangerous comment away altogether. She did neither. It may have have catastrophic effects on Riker's actions, & jeopardized the mission to some degree

 

[Herbert]

Is Deanna always actually there?

Yes
Except for those times when her abilities would bring the whole episode to a screeching halt. At those times she's mysteriously absent.