Why didn't they make Troi the communications offcier?

[sonak]

^Because that's just one facet of her job, in addition to being a check on the captain's judgment and an advisor in diplomatic and contact situations. Understanding the psychology of an alien race or a hostile captain can be essential to resolving a situation peacefully and safely, so I can certainly see the value of having a psychologist as a regular advisor. The show just didn't do a very good job of depicting how that would work beyond having her say "I sense anger from the guy who's shouting and pointing big guns at us." But we did see her utilized more usefully in some contacts, like advising Picard on how to address the Jarada and avoid a diplomatic screwup in "The Big Goodbye," or explaining what was known about Romulan culture and psychology in "The Neutral Zone."

I don't know if the idea of a sort of "captain's advisor" makes a lot of sense. First, if your Starfleet captains are supposed to be the best of the best, it doesn't show a lot of confidence in that captain to need a counselor right there for hand-holding. Secondly, the XO does much of that sort of job already, advising the captain on the situation, providing advice, etc.

Finally, captains are supposed to already act as "ambassadors" of a sort, since they do so many first-contact missions. Picard was an accomplished diplomat. I think it just makes more sense if Troi was on the bridge because of her empathic abilities for viewscreen encounters, and NOT because she was ship's counselor.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I think it might've made more sense if Troi had actually been a civilian. The original idea was that there was a large contingent of civilian scientists and specialists aboard, not just family members of officers; the Enterprise-D was meant to be sort of a university village in space, a mobile research institution. It would've made sense to have someone whose job was to be the civilians' official representative and liaison with the command crew. It might've given the civilians a larger role in the series, and could've given Troi a more clearly defined role as the mediator between Starfleet and civilian priorities.

It may seem irregular to have a civilian in the command crew, but other Trek series have similar instances. Voyager had Neelix and Seven (and Kes, to a lesser extent) as key advisors, and the Doctor wasn't technically an officer. And on Enterprise, Dr. Phlox was a civilian, and T'Pol, the second-in-command, was a member of a foreign nation's military for the first two seasons and a civilian for the third before finally getting a Starfleet commission in season 4.

One of the things I've usually considered as being part of Troi's job, even though we didn't get shown it on screen, was that she was sort of a liaison with the civilian crew, dealing with many of their issues, serving as their voice/representative within the Enterprise's command structure. I just figure that since the civilian population wasn't utilized to its fullest by the writers, it never came up on screen.

 

[Timo]

It is odd that TNG had the security chief handle communications, though. In VGR that was Harry's job as ops manager, I believe, so by analogy it would've been Data's responsibility on the Enterprise.

Well, Data opened and closed the hailing frequencies in "The Last Outpost" - once. Yar did it the rest of the time in the episode, without rhyme or reason to the division of labor.

In "The Battle", the chore hopped from Yar to LaForge, and in "Heart of Glory", Yar, Worf and Data all had a shot at it. Should we draw conclusions on the fact that all these S1 eps involved Herbert Wright (even if not always as the writer)?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I don't know if the idea of a sort of "captain's advisor" makes a lot of sense. First, if your Starfleet captains are supposed to be the best of the best, it doesn't show a lot of confidence in that captain to need a counselor right there for hand-holding. Secondly, the XO does much of that sort of job already, advising the captain on the situation, providing advice, etc.

I read something ages ago about the development of TNG, in which Data was originally conceived as the 'Captain's Advisor' and would have filled the third seat in the command arena. This was then given to Chief Psychiatrist Troi in order to strengthen her character and role onboard--even though the writers still had problems with her in S1.

I do think it would have been better if Gene Roddenberry hadn't switched Marina Sirtis and Denise Crosby, as if Crosby still wanted to leave then they would have done away with the Counsellor's role as well, whilst retaining a female Security Chief.

 

[Christopher]

The whole job of the crew is to advise and support the captain. And the captain's job is to coordinate and direct the expertise of the crew. So how can it not make sense to have multiple characters whose role is to advise the captain, to contribute their expertise and knowledge to the captain's decision-making process?

 

[sonak]

The whole job of the crew is to advise and support the captain. And the captain's job is to coordinate and direct the expertise of the crew. So how can it not make sense to have multiple characters whose role is to advise the captain, to contribute their expertise and knowledge to the captain's decision-making process?

It seems awfully redundant and inefficient is all. Here's your XO, on the bridge, filtering all the info, giving you options and advice. And on the other side here's a counselor who...

 

[horatio83]

Troi being a counselor was probably a bit of an eighties thing and of course caused by Roddenberry's notion of the spaceship being a comfortable (there is wonderful shot with two people in civilian clothes walking around barefooted in The Cage so I guess that Roddenberry had this idea which we usually associate with TNG and the D since the very beginning) home for everybody which includes psychological care.

 

[sonak]

I don't think many here are disputing the need for a counselor on a large ship with families. I think the issue is her being on the bridge.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

What size of staff do you think Deanna had under her (no innuendo is intended with that)?

To me it doesn't seem likely that one therapist would have 1000-odd people to see, especially when you take into account the need for 24 hour operations and the complicated issues some of them may face, requiring more time and treatment than others.

She'd need a few subordinates, maybe an assistant counsellor to supervise and train, an admin staff to arrange appointments, write up notes, amend personnel files, etc.

 

[Timo]

Dunno about that. How many out of the thousand would really be in need of therapy? Wouldn't the standard response be to discharge those who can't cope with the Starfleet way of life, with Troi doing mere triage?

I find it a bit difficult to imagine a small town of a thousand on, say, the Australian outback would need more than one doctor (plus just possibly a dentist), when specialists could be accessed via methods of transportation only taking a few days at most (a situation fairly comparable to starship life).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CorporalCaptain]

"My husband was abducted by aliens on the last landing party and experimented on until he died. I'm having trouble sleeping at night."

"Take two of these and come back in two weeks."

 

[Nerys Myk]

"My husband was abducted by aliens on the last landing party and experimented on until he died. I'm having trouble sleeping at night."

"And how does that make you feel?"

 

[T'Girl]

I think it just makes more sense if Troi was on the bridge because of her empathic abilities for viewscreen encounters, and NOT because she was ship's counselor.

Picard did say at one point that most Captains didn't have the benefit of a Betazed counselor. And it interesting that we don't see other ship and station command staffs with a counselor in attendance.

There no evidence that Janeway possessed a counselor on the bridge prior to being pulled into the delta quad, and when she rebuilt the Voyager's command team, Janeway did not lament that a counselor was not included in that group.

Sisko had no counselor on his command staff for six seasons. Yes, there was a counselor on the station, but not at his side assisting in the making of decisions.

So having a counselor present on the bridge might have been exclusively a "Picard thing," and not a general Starfleet policy.

 

[Timo]

...Or then counselors come in at a certain minimum crew size, which Janeway didn't meet. We mostly observed the bridges of large fellow starships when those ships were engaged in combat or other such trouble (Yamato, Melbourne, Phoenix, Odyssey etc.); the random blueshirt in the deep background or just outside the frame might have been each respective skipper's "bridge counselor", with little to say in the situation.

It would have been interesting to feature Maxwell's bridge counselor in "The Wounded" somehow, tho...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

So having a counselor present on the bridge might have been exclusively a "Picard thing," and not a general Starfleet policy.

What I've established in the books, as I mentioned above, is that Troi was also a contact specialist as well as a counselor, so it was part of her basic duties to advise the captain in contact situations, and that made her part of the bridge crew. Whereas her replacement after she leaves for Titan, Counselor Hegol, is strictly a counselor (the contact specialist is a separate character) and thus isn't part of the command crew. So it's not a "Picard thing," it's a "Troi thing," a consequence of her particular dual qualifications.

 

[Timo]

So, would this make dual qualifications the "Picard thing"?

Here we have essentially Data doubling as Ops/Sciences chief, Worf doing Security/Tactical, and now Troi at Contacts/Counseling. And it seems he took LaForge aboard for his engineering skills despite placing him at helm, and (depending on how we interpret "All Good Things...") may have chosen O'Brien for Transporter/Engineering tasks despite using him for Security first. Folks like Kirk and Janeway appear to have kept their officers free of secondary occupations and obligations of that sort...

(Edit: Except when they happened to be named Leslie, of course.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think it just makes more sense if Troi was on the bridge because of her empathic abilities for viewscreen encounters, and NOT because she was ship's counselor.

Picard did say at one point that most Captains didn't have the benefit of a Betazed counselor. And it interesting that we don't see other ship and station command staffs with a counselor in attendance.

There no evidence that Janeway possessed a counselor on the bridge prior to being pulled into the delta quad, and when she rebuilt the Voyager's command team, Janeway did not lament that a counselor was not included in that group.

Sisko had no counselor on his command staff for six seasons. Yes, there was a counselor on the station, but not at his side assisting in the making of decisions.

So having a counselor present on the bridge might have been exclusively a "Picard thing," and not a general Starfleet policy.

That's the way I've always looked at it, but there's nothing that prevents other captains from doing it too if they wanted, IMO. The command well on the Voyager's bridge probably could have been set up the same way as Picard's if Janeway had been so inclined.

 

[BillJ]

There no evidence that Janeway possessed a counselor on the bridge prior to being pulled into the delta quad...

But she did have a Betazoid on the bridge.

 

[T'Girl]

But she did have a Betazoid on the bridge.

But stationed where?

 

[BillJ]

But she did have a Betazoid on the bridge.

But stationed where?

Right at the helm (Lt. Stadi). Not hard for her to turn and tell Janeway what she could "feel". And it wouldn't be tough to see her as an adviser if she had survived the trip to the Delta Quadrant.