Why do people hate Lwaxana Troi?

[Frindis]

I like her. The way she plays with Captain Picard is just hilarious at times. She does not have that many episodes in the series, but I feel she does give us a wide range of emotions and good acting in the ones she stars in. She can be both very shallow and also lagoon deep in the emotion specter, which makes her at times both unpredictable and funny.

 

[oldtrekkie]

I like her. The way she plays with Captain Picard is just hilarious at times. She does not have that many episodes in the series, but I feel she does give us a wide range of emotions and good acting in the ones she stars in. She can be both very shallow and also lagoon deep in the emotion specter, which makes her at times both unpredictable and funny.

The problem is that aside from being a major pain in the ass, she's nothing much.

 

[Orphalesion]

I quite like Lwaxana but I agree that sometimes she's a bit too much.
To be honest, I like her best when she drops her "Auntie Mame" act and shows that quieter, more sincere side of herself. There are bits of that in almost every Lwaxana appearance, here and on DS9 (except in Manhunt, the worst Lwaxana episode)

Haven, could have been a so much better episode if it turned out that her behaviour for most of the episode was just an act to drive off the Millers.
It seems like in the later episodes they tried to portray Lwaxana as a broken character, who act the way she does to run from her inner pain after losing her husband, parents, sister and a daughter (probably even worse since Betazoids are supposed to have a longer lifespan than humans) but it was a bit to late to salvage her earlier appearances or to undo dialogue that implies she always acted that way.

 

[Phoenix219]

Lwaxana didn't bother me in "Half a Life"... but man, the rest of that episode bugged the hell out of me. I wanted to throw things at that guy's daughter when she started pleading for him to come and cut his own throat like a good boy.

There's a list of Trek episodes that I rate as "one viewing was too many". That's one of them.

Not to mention the iffy science, where a couple puny little photon torpedoes somehow are able to affect an entire SUN, and makes it EXPLODE *that quickly* - first of all, that would be QUITE A WEAPON..... but really, the thought that puny little torpedoes and whatever faux science magic they are capable of, can destablize an ENTIRE STAR that quickly (or, fix one that quickly) ..... its like the writers have no sense of scale, and have no idea how BIG a star really is......

I also had a hard time buying things like, the planet values its rituals above its species SURVIVAL, or that they would try to start a war with the Federation over one defector, or ignore his work, even if he succeeded. No one else in his entire society has ever gone against the norms? Everyone is just willing? "Taste of Armageddon" disbelief on this one.

The stunt she pulled in engineering was obnoxious.

I could go on. Not one of my favorites on any note, and any parallels to real-life assisted suicide are lost, since Timicin was in perfect health.

 

[Oddish]

My head canon is that no one was able to follow up on Timcin's work, the sun went ka-blooey, and the entire toxic culture was wiped out by its own shortsightedness.

 

[Phoenix219]

I thought she was good as number one, the only reason they didn't keep her there is because of the misogynistic attitude of the time.

Thats not exactly true. They were fine with a female XO; they just didn't want the creator's mistress in the role. He could have recast it. He choose not to, and to maintain his lie. Then changed her hair color and snuck her into the show anyways.

 

[Phoenix219]

Her ostentatiousness (thank you @Mojochi!) also made the Sixth Doctor positively subdued and comatose by comparison, as if she was a semi-conscious 4th parody, and I opine that only because early TNG in particular had more direct Doctor Who references, right down to the most bizarre family tree chart - a shame it wasn't included in the season 1 blu-ray as an extra prior to their changing it because HD made all the difference in its legibility... (so did removing Nomad and other self-aware jokes from panels and things, but there I go digressing again...)

I am extremely interested, yet un-educated, at what you are referring to. Could you explain some of the Who references I may have missed (family tree chart) ? Where was Nomad, and what other self-aware jokes were there? They were removed for blu-ray? I really haven't watched TNG since it was first run, but I try to still retain all the trivia and small details i can. Its one of my least-favorite Trek shows.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Now try that in season 1... or maybe not, they'd lose the balance of the scene (and episode!)...
(it also looks spectacular in blu-ray...)

Ugh. Its so cringy. Not even a little bit funny. This is the sort of thing that makes me very un-interested in revisiting TNG. What a waste of an episode.

 

[Orphalesion]

Manhunt and Menage a Trois were really the two bad Lwaxana episodes because not only were they almost entirely vapid, but they both (especially Manhunt) were rather antiquated and sexist.
Also the whole "Lwaxana is Picard's abhorrent admirer" was always awful.