Troi and Her Conferences!

[Nardpuncher]

Forgive me, it's been many years since I've watched some TNG, but how many times was Troi at a conference or on a visit to see her mother or some other thing to conveniently keep her out of the episode?
It seemed like 5 or 6 times.

 

[Cepstrum]

Excuse me, for I'm new here and I don't know the answer. But I will ask a follow-up question: why would it be convenient to have Troi absent? I don't think it would be because of her "powers", for they were almost entirely useless (I would think Starfleet's flagship should have a full-fledged telepath on the bridge.). So by "convenient" do you mean for the sake of her supposed poor acting (I know many have little regard for her wrt that, though I thought she was fine--her clearly affected accent was especially endearing ).

So could you please clarify? Again, sorry I cannot give you the answer. I believe, however, Memory-Alpha has an episode list of non-appearances for each actor/actress. You could look through Troi's non-appearances, skim the plot, and probably discern why (if there was a given reason) she was absent.

Update: here is a link that purports to list the episodes that Troi did not appear in:

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Main_character_non-appearances#Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation

And here is the list, pasted from M-A:

"Hide and Q"
"Datalore"
"11001001"
"Heart of Glory"
"A Matter Of Honor"
"Identity Crisis"
"The Perfect Mate"
"The Inner Light"
"Birthright, Part II"

Good luck in your search for the reasons for her absences. Let us know what you find.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Sometimes a story just doesn't need a "main" character as it was written. And they make a point of telling us where that character is.

Or, as a plot device, there is something happening that could be easily solved if Troi were there, with her powers, but now has to be solved by the "normal" crew members.

 

[Cornholio]

welcome to the board Cepstrum!

have some nachos...

Sometimes a story just doesn't need a "main" character as it was written. And they make a point of telling us where that character is.

yeah, imagine the threads if a main character was absent and we weren't told why!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ We all know how true that is, actually.

They did the same thing on M*A*S*H when one of the main characters wasn't in the episode. " Henry is in Seoul at a 'conference' " " Hot Lips is in Tokyo on R&R ", etc.

 

[Cepstrum]

welcome to the board Cepstrum!

have some nachos...

Sometimes a story just doesn't need a "main" character as it was written. And they make a point of telling us where that character is.

yeah, imagine the threads if a main character was absent and we weren't told why!

Thank you for the welcome and nachos!

 

[SAndrews10]

I had heard/read that she was written out of episodes where they thought her powers would've cut short the show. ie "captain the nice friendly alien is lying he's going to board the ship and steal our power cuplings." They were unsure how to write or use her and was even talk of dropping the character. Then the Denise situation happened and they didn't.

 

[HarryM]

As a counselor it actually makes sense for her to get off the ship whether it is a conference or to just be around people that she can get support from, being a "caregiver" she needs to have that also, and it's not always appropriate or possible to get that on the ship.

As far as stories, didn't they just do something like, "he's very closed, I've having trouble reading him", etc.