Therapists on the bridge

Isn't that kind of touched on in The Loss?

Admiral Satie was okay with the Batazoid on her staff doing so.

 

Yup, Troi was strongly implied to be helpless to act as Ship's Counsellor without her powers. Which is a little odd given that she appears to have a Masters Degree in psychology. Guinan was confident that she could take over.

Again true. Her persecution of Tarses was essentially solely on the basis of Tarses' fear. Which they assumed meant that he was the saboteur, and continued to persecute him after they proved that there wasn't a saboteur in the first place, because Sabin was convinced he was 'gulity of something', which turned out to be being one-quarter Romulan, but otherwise to all accounts a loyal Starfleet crewman.

 

It seems to me they made something of an error putting her in Starfleet from the off (uniform and all). If they'd played it like she is a civilian counsellor, which would also explain the "casual Friday" jumpsuits, it may have had the double effect of her role not seeming quite so silly, and also freed her from story possibilities being locked in by her place within the command structure?

 

No more so than Geordi having to fix every broken part or Crusher having to treat every patient. We know that the Destiny had at least one assistant counselor (Ezri Tigan), and while its size is never specified, it probably didn't have a larger crew complement than the Enterprise. Presumably there are other therapists on board who report to Troi, while she has a more limited caseload and spends most of her time as an administrator and as adviser to the captain.

They're completely different. You can see a therapist to work through underlying issues, but still ask a friend for situational advice. The therapist's goal isn't to dispense wisdom or teach you how to ask someone on a date; the therapist's goal is to identify what's going on at a deeper level, figure out what techniques for dealing with those things will be most effective in your specific case, and teach you those techniques.

 

I remember reading an interview with Marina Sirtis where Majel Barrett had told her about rumours to axe Troi from S2, because no one knew what to do with her. She then hit the convention circuit to boost her profile with fans. Ultimately that combined with the fact they'd already lost both of the other female characters from S1 saved her.

In one of the earlier pitches, Troi was part of the medical staff, with Data being the "captain's adviser" and sitting on his left. After a few rewrites, Data became science officer and Troi was shifted to the bridge to strengthen her role in the show.

 

According to Sirtis, her position on the bridge crew was "potted plant."

 

Hmm... that Guinan rivalry would have been an interesting angle ....how would a heated fight between them go?

Deanna: You love posturing as a wise experienced woman, don't you .... but you can't shield from my empathic powers... I sense that deep down, under your veneer of calm you are insecure and you feel alone. A frightened little girl.
Guinan: Hah! You are not supposed to be here in the first place. You're dead!
<shocked silence>
Guinan In most realities and timelines, I mean, of course.

 

She seemed to act as the Defiant's communications officer keeping connected with other ships in the fleet to relay Sisko's orders which is exactly what Nog appeared to do when they retook DS9. The ship apparently had stations for engineering, science and dual tactical consoles according to all the behind the scenes stuff.

On current day Navy ships, least some of the ones I have seen, there are chairs on the bridge for both the CO and the XO, up until recently I always disliked Voyagers two seat arrangement as there was no central Captain's chair but when you want to have a dedicated XO's chair I think I now prefer it to the TNG arrangement.

I don't know how much The Orville has influenced that change of opinion though.

 

Ezri Tigan, like Troi, is a trained Starfleet officer. She may specialise in counselling, but she will also be trained on leadership, basic operations and engineering, small arms, and so forth, whilst she may not have planned to use these skills in her desired career, she will still have a knowledge of them. That would then combined with the knowledge and experiences of the Dax symbiont, which she will adapt to over time and become more accustomed to being Ezri Dax.

When Troi was going for her promotion, she was having a harder time with the technical aspects of the test because that wasn't her specialty, but she had knowledge of the field she assumed, incorrectly, that what was needed to pass was greater focus on retaining engineering knowhow.

 

Shame that we were never shown that in seven seasons of the show, leaving us to just assume it.

 

in other words, Sabin was right.

Other than hiding his relationship to a hostile foreign power to get into Starfleet. And (probably) lying on every security check ever run on him.

He was open to blackmail by anyone who discovered the truth.

 

As a social worker I'll have to agree, and get a smile from this thread.

 

There was room at the command assembly (or whatever it’s called) for five people. It would have been cool to see a visiting dignitary and their aid (or maybe a mission specialist and a department head or something) to also be there, to see Picard holding “full court.”

 

What were Troi's multiple areas of expertise? In the TNG episode "Disaster," when she had to take command, she had no idea what she was doing, didn't know anything about the systems. By the time (much later) that she took the command test in "Thine Own Self," she only had an armchair understanding of how the ship worked. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being excellent at 1 thing (counseling), and I don't see an in-show reason to think she was a closet-expert at 10 different things.

In-show, there's no indication she had staff that was caring for the whole crew while she was hanging out on the bridge. It's clear that Guinan was the defacto counselor to the rest of the ship. In a complex community of over 1,000 people (including couples and families), it would've made more sense for Troi to be helping them the majority of the time. She's a fine person, but it was still an odd dynamic that was awkward from the beginning.

 

In the beginning, she wasn't a therapist. She was there to counsel the captain, and assist him in assessing aliens they ran into. She even helps him learn an alien language for a diplomatic meeting. When we see that episode where the alien boy creates a future for Riker in his holodeck cave, we see Troi left the ship to stay with "Ambassador" Picard as his advisor. So we can assume this is her primary role, and the reason she is on board, and that she has taken it upon herself to treat crewmembers as a therapist in her spare time. Perhaps she took on this responsibility increasingly as the years wore on.

Guinan on the other hand listens and gives people advice. She is not a therapist either. She doesn't make appointments with clients and work on setting goals or other psychotherapist treatments. It's usually a one time thing. She also advises the captain when he seeks her out, but usually she does what Quark does.

 

Guinan fills the role of a friend, confidant, and in some cases an older, wiser mentor.

That's not the same as a therapist.

 

Guinan runs a holobrothel?

 

That's why she and Q don't get along, he never paid his bill.

 

yeah, I think the thread title is a bit misleading. As far as I know it wasn't the intention to have a therapist on the bridge as such, but a counselor (for the Captain), who just happens to also be a therapist.

 

This must be the reason why you can't get McCoy off the bridge. Please, give that man a chair.