Two questions about Deanna Troi

[Bagofmostlywatr]

I always got the impression Deanna was the Counselor for the senior staff and as most experienced Counselor took on special cases such as Barclay. She was the head of a team so commented on overall crew feelings based on feedback from other Counselors.

The bridge duties were an extension of her focus on senior staff and her abilities.

From 'The Loss'
Crusher:.. I want you to talk
talk to someone... there are several
several people on board with degrees in
in psychology...

Makes it sound like troi doesn't have a staff, or is crusher anticipating that she won't want to be treated by someone under her command?

Likewise when Guinan talks about applying to be ships Counselor.

 

[at Quark's]

I always thought she should be like what she became in the Titan novels and act as a contact specialist. Her duty could be to learn and advise the captain on first contacts and new species. Riker as first officer could focus on the running of the ship and the logisitics and Troi could focus on learning about cultures and the civilian aspects of the ship. Together they could both advise Picard.

Just rewatched part of encounter at farpoint this night, when I couldn't sleep. The ship being pursued by Q, Picard says to Troi:

"Commander, signal the following in all languages and on all frequencies: we surrender. "

So perhaps one could say Troi has been intended as a contact specialist (perhaps among other functions) from the very first episode.

 

[Timo]

On the other hand, we could well argue that the short-staffing of the ship in the pilot episode was the real reason for this division of labor.

It even seems that the entire first season was spent rotating people from job to job to allow them to find their most useful niches - both in-universe and in terms of the writing of the show. Communications especially was ill-defined, basically every main character having a shot at it.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[velour]

This is probably a dumb question, but what exactly was Troi's most important function on the Enterprise ?

I believe she is referred to as 'ship's counselor', but what is that function, exactly? Does that mean she is first and foremost a psychotherapist counseling crew members having problems, or is her main function to be on the bridge and provide extra information to Picard using her empathic skills ? We see her do both things (though I gather we see her on the bridge a lot more ...but would that imply that is her main role or do we just see less of her regular workload to make more room for the exciting stuff?)

Also, the Enterprise crew is often supposed to be among the best and the brightest of Starfleet. We see many instances of Troi having useful input for captain Picard (and, granted, also a lot of cases where she just states the blatantly obvious), but is there evidence in the series she is good in her work as a psychotherapist as well ?

I got the impression that the position of counselor encompassed both psychiatric duties as well as being adviser to the captain. It wasn't two separate distinct jobs held by one person. Troi's situation was unlike that of Spock who held two positions, first officer and science officer.

What was the thinking to have the chief shrink of the ship automatically also be the chief adviser to the captain? Where's the logic in that? The two duties are not necessarily compatible duties.

It seems clear that the TNG Starfleet emphasized the importance of the counselor position. Why else would it devote a chair on the bridge right next to the captain for the counselor. The counselor was suppose to have the captain's ear.

If an alien were to observe how the TNG Enterprise operated, he/she might wonder whether Starfleet is a military or some touchy-feely galactic outreach organization. Why is that pretty woman whispering psychobabble and sweet nothings to the captain?

Troi didn't literally whisper sweet nothings. It was more like a mumble of nothings. A lot of times, I remember Troi telling Picard that "they're hiding something captain". Common sense could have told Picard to be cautious when dealing with any unknown alien or suspicious situation.

Starfleet seemed to have done just fine before the imposition of the counselor position.

That counselor chair on the bridge was a waste of space for a ridiculous position.

 

[Timo]

I seriously doubt the E-D bridge "dedicated a seat" to any of the heroes. It was simply a big bridge for a big ship, so it had many seats. Among the users were Troi, Pulaski, Crusher and visiting officers like Jameson or Pressman.

Troi was actually one of the two useful officers on the bridge, apart from (possibly) Picard himself. Troi gave advice every now and then; Data gave some more. But Riker gave none and did nothing much; Worf gave plenty but all of it bad; and LaForge just cracked jokes nobody got. These clowns had no business being on the bridge of a ship that could fly herself and fire her weapons on verbal command if need be, but at the very least on Picard's own keypress.

Why have a helmsman to hinder Picard's ability to make the ship go where he wanted? Why have a weapons officer to slow down the response time? Why have an XO repeat every command when there was no longer any of that historical need to translate the skipper's "general" wishes to "specific" technobabble, Picard micromanaging it all just fine, thank you? But having a telepath or, failing that, a people specialist there made good sense operationally.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Lance]

I seriously doubt the E-D bridge "dedicated a seat" to any of the heroes. It was simply a big bridge for a big ship, so it had many seats. Among the users were Troi, Pulaski, Crusher and visiting officers like Jameson or Pressman.

Y'know, this is a good point, and it stems from us not seeing the bridge very often outside of peak operational times (ie, all senior staff present). If we take a look at something like DS9's "Emissary", the scene where O'Brien visits the bridge and there are no senior staff present, IIRC (I might be wrong) we do actually see the chairs simply being used by the staff that are there on shift, like it's perfectly normal and that there's no exclusivity to their function. The little control pads next to Riker's and Troi's chairs are probably usable for any mission function they're required for.

Perhaps the only one which has a function is the Captain's chair. We do see both Riker's and Troi's chairs being used by all and sundry at various times, there's nothing to really say that one of them is specifically the first officer's chair and one is specifically for the counsellor... knowing Picard, it was probably his idea to assign Deanna a position on the bridge, and that it isn't standard practice on other ship's at all.

 

[woodstock]

So Troi essentially has a double function as psychologist and diplomatic/first contact specialist/advisor.

Probably... but I keep wondering ....as her "bridge" function seems much more important (at least as depicted in the TNG series), why didn't they simply give her such a job title ? (something along the lines of your suggestion)

In the Titan book series, her job is essentially all of these. There are at least two other counselors besides her, and that is a smaller ship and crew than the Enterprise, so it's plausible that there was a team of counselors on Enterprise too. They just were never needed for any particular story line.

 

[Sistrin]

This is probably a dumb question, but what exactly was Troi's most important function on the Enterprise?

1. Show cleavage.

2. See number one.

 

[Arpy]

I thought she was kind of a futuristic psychiatric human resources manager. She oversaw that everyone was functioning optimally on-ship, and used her psychology skills to aid the captain in dealings with those off-ship.

And she was an Asimovian psychohistorian. Cause that would be futuristic and cool.