Why was Troi's "Pre-emptive Strike" appearance so tiny?

[TroiFan4ever]

I understand when a character makes a one-scene appearance in an episode, it's either because the writer couldn't really find a place for that character in the episode or because the character didn't serve any purpose to the episode's storyline at all. I think Troi could've been useful in helping Ro through the Maquis stuff! Maybe the person who wrote this episode didn't think so.

I mean- I understand her one-scene appearance in "The Pegasus" but "Preemptive Strike?" I'm sorry, author who wrote 7x24, but Marina Sirtis needed more lines and more scenes than just the Welcome-Back party in Ten Forward.

I'm sure Deanna's not everyone's cup of tea and I know she and Ro didn't really get along in 5x05, but Troi is ship's counselor and could've been a great help in deciding whether to betray Picard yet again or infiltrate the Maquis as he wanted her to.

 

[TheGrandTrekMaster]

I love the quote, just finished watching that episode.

I think this episode was more about setting up The Maquis for DS9, and as the penultimate episode of the series, it was probably worth the sacrifice. If you look at the flipside, if we'd had more Troi, we'd have less overall story about The Maquis and their fight against the Cardassians.

 

[Anji]

Are you kidding? It would have been great. Troi's smarts and sweets verses Ro's logic and icy cold demeanor would've made a great arc for the series.

 

[TroiFan4ever]

I love the quote, just finished watching that episode.

I think this episode was more about setting up The Maquis for DS9, and as the penultimate episode of the series, it was probably worth the sacrifice. If you look at the flipside, if we'd had more Troi, we'd have less overall story about The Maquis and their fight against the Cardassians.

What quote?

Because Troi just screws everything up, doesn't she?

Are you kidding? It would have been great. Troi's smarts and sweets verses Ro's logic and icy cold demeanor would've made a great arc for the series.

I know, right!? It would've been a "Disaster" sequel!... but without the actual disaster, of course.

 

[Kinggodzillak]

Did anyone get much of an appearance in that episode? Crusher, Worf, Geordi, they were hardly in it either. It was Ro's story - why did it desperately need Troi?

To be honest I always assumed they made it Ro-heavy to free up the main cast members to get ready for the finale. Getting Patrick Stewart to direct it doesn't quite fit that theory, but still...

Troi's smarts and sweets verses Ro's logic and icy cold demeanor would've made a great arc for the series.

I would have loved for Ro and Barclay to made some appearances together.

 

[TheGrandTrekMaster]

I love the quote, just finished watching that episode.

I think this episode was more about setting up The Maquis for DS9, and as the penultimate episode of the series, it was probably worth the sacrifice. If you look at the flipside, if we'd had more Troi, we'd have less overall story about The Maquis and their fight against the Cardassians.

What quote?

Signature.

Because Troi just screws everything up, doesn't she?

To be fair, she *has* crashed 2 ships while at the helm.

 

[TroiFan4ever]

Alright, now I'm pissed because I had just posted a whole novel of my replies and when I hit the "Submit Reply" button, I was signed out and I lost it all! GGGGRRRRR!

Signature.

Oh, my signature? Well, thank you. "Emergence" was another one of my favorites under "Masks."

To be fair, she *has* crashed 2 ships while at the helm.

Maybe Troi should just stick to watching the ship instead of driving it because I don't recall the D-Enterprise crashing when she was commanding it in "Disaster" and "Genesis".

Did anyone get much of an appearance in that episode? Crusher, Worf, Geordi, they were hardly in it either. It was Ro's story - why did it desperately need Troi?

Well, as I said before, she could've helped Ro though the Maquis infiltration stuff.

I understand her tiny appearance in "Bloodlines" because I would be surprised if a revenge-thirsy Ferengi would even bother listening to a Starfleet counselor but Ro was sincerly loyal to Picard and even as she didn't want to undergo the mission anyway, she did it anyway and regret letting him down at the last minute.

To be honest I always assumed they made it Ro-heavy to free up the main cast members to get ready for the finale. Getting Patrick Stewart to direct it doesn't quite fit that theory, but still...

I like that this was brought up because I like the tradition trend they have,

Patrick Steward directing the episode before "All Good Things..."

and Avery Brooks directed the episode before whatever DS9's finale was.

Did Kate Mulgrew direct the episode before "Endgame?"

Did Scott Bakula (the ENT captain) direct "Terra Nova?"

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Troi was overexposed in season 7 imo

 

[tafkats]

I'm sure Deanna's not everyone's cup of tea and I know she and Ro didn't really get along in 5x05, but Troi is ship's counselor and could've been a great help in deciding whether to betray Picard yet again or infiltrate the Maquis as he wanted her to.

"Gee, superior officer, should I betray our captain who you've known a lot longer than you've known me? Hey, wait a sec ... what do you mean counselor-patient confidentiality doesn't cover treason?"

 

[WillsBabe]

I think one of the reasons Troi wasn't in the episode was because she'd be able (or should have been able to) detect Ro's duplicity.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Thank goodness, I still cringe when I think about "A Matter of Time" when Troi is clearly faced with a liar but she can't detect it. Its a disservice to her character.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Thank goodness, I still cringe when I think about "A Matter of Time" when Troi is clearly faced with a liar but she can't detect it. Its a disservice to her character.

They did touch on this a little.

Even odder is her inability to feel Geordi and Ro in "The Next Phase". It wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't draw attention to this early in the episode.

Still, I love both episodes

 

[Knight Templar]

Troi didn't appear at all in a number of episodes over the course of the series. I"ve heard (Starlog) that she was considered far and away the hardest of the regular characters to write for.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

At the beginning, not near the end.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Thank goodness, I still cringe when I think about "A Matter of Time" when Troi is clearly faced with a liar but she can't detect it. Its a disservice to her character.

That's the trouble with any of these psychic characters. If you don't want the big secret revealed you have to either make them appear dim, write a reason into the story for why they didn't detect something or leave them out of the scene. It gets over complicated to keep adding that stuff to a story line.

 

[Pauln6]

It only becomes a problem if you write the psychic abilities as omnipresent and if the character has no qualms or moral compunctions about other people's privacy or civil rights.

Blakes 7's Cally was easier to write for because her telepathy was a barely used plot device (akin to a covert radio signal) unless there was a psychic attack story.

Babylon 5's telepaths were tragic figures, more akin to Miranda Jones from TOS - poor unfortunates who accidentally catch private thoughts and just use their abilities to verify the truth of surface thoughts with the other person's permission - much more fertile ground for writing in my view!

I think Betazoids are awful conceptually. Deltans were far more intriguing and could be even more so if they tweaked their empathy to make it pheromonal instead of psychic.

Having said all that, Troi had masses of untapped potential as an officer and they should have given more thought to using her skills outside her telepathy (and outside counselling) more often.

 

[Knight Templar]

What made Troi hard to write for was

1) Her position-Counselor- Gene Roddenberry insisted on a "no conflict" situation for the Enterprise crew. So what was there for Troi to do.

Except use her powers to invade peoples private thoughts which she was occasionally (Where No One Has Gone Before) to do, or sit and "sense" stuff. Michael Piller I believe it was said that Troi's sensing was a "grasp of the obvious".

2) Her prior relationship with Riker. When you have two of your main characters who've had sex in the past (heavily implied), it doesn't matter what kind of tv show you have, you have serious restrictions on how the characters are handled.

3) Her "half alien" nature

 

[Finn]

Still more lines and screen time than Picard got in Thine Own Self

 

[KNH]

Are you kidding? It would have been great. Troi's smarts and sweets verses Ro's logic and icy cold demeanor would've made a great arc for the series.

I know, right!? It would've been a "Disaster" sequel!... but without the actual disaster, of course.

My two least favorite TNG characters sharing screentime together would be quite the disaster to me

 

[Mojochi]

I understand when a character makes a one-scene appearance in an episode, it's either because the writer couldn't really find a place for that character in the episode or because the character didn't serve any purpose to the episode's storyline at all. I think Troi could've been useful in helping Ro through the Maquis stuff! Maybe the person who wrote this episode didn't think so.

I mean- I understand her one-scene appearance in "The Pegasus" but "Preemptive Strike?" I'm sorry, author who wrote 7x24, but Marina Sirtis needed more lines and more scenes than just the Welcome-Back party in Ten Forward.

I'm sure Deanna's not everyone's cup of tea and I know she and Ro didn't really get along in 5x05, but Troi is ship's counselor and could've been a great help in deciding whether to betray Picard yet again or infiltrate the Maquis as he wanted her to.

You think that's bad? What about Relics? Here's an episode that shows a man lost in time, Hopeless & geriatric, apparently suffering from depression, & self esteem issues, who is so obviously troubled that the damn captain even realizes it. He literally ends up wandering the ship, alone & drunk, until he finds a holodeck to hide in. Throw in a little survivor's guilt for having left a "good lad" to die in the transporter buffer, & you have quite possibly one of the most significant instances of needing therapeutic counseling that the crew has ever encountered

& where is she? No where. Giving him a goodbye peck on the cheek at the end, like she'd been around the whole time, to witness the poor bastard bottoming out