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Troi Was Supposed To Be TNG's Spock (& Why It Didn't Work)
Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) was originally intended to be Star Trek: The Next Generation's version of Star Trek: The Original Series icon Spock (Leonard Nimoy), but the show's writers could never quite get the character to live up to those lofty ambitions. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry admirably wanted to stress the need for mental healthcare in the 24th century and chose to make the ship's counselor a crucial member of the USS Enterprise-D's senior staff.
Roddenberry envisioned Troi as one of the most trusted advisors to Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), a figure of deep intellectual and emotional intelligence. Sirtis played the role of Deanna Troi, a half-Betazoid empath, for the entire seven-season run of TNG, as well as the four movies featuring the cast of the series. Like most of the show's regular characters, Deanna would have a rough go of it in season 1, often utilized more as a romantic foil for Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) than as a counselor. While most of TNG's characters managed to find their identity by season 3, Troi was still routinely let down by the show's creative forces.
Why The Plan To Make Troi TNG's Spock Didn't Work
In retrospect, the notion of Troi being a modern update of Spock seems ludicrous. While Troi was a more than capable therapist, she was not particularly technically-minded, nor was she particularly emotionally intelligent. For the show's first few seasons, Deanna was generally used in half-baked romance plots more than anything, and was defined by her love of chocolate and exasperation with her overbearing mother, Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry).
This didn't reflect Sirtis' acting abilities; when she was occasionally given meatier stories in TNG's later seasons, she was always up to the task. TNG's writing staff was overwhelmingly male, and many of those writers have admitted they didn't really know how to write for female characters or a therapist. Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) fared a little better narratively, but not by much.
TNG Kept Failing Troi (But Star Trek: Picard Can Redeem Her)
Despite some late-era TNG gems for the character like "Face Of The Enemy" and "Dark Page," Troi was essentially a bit player by the time of the TNG movies. She had a funny scene in Star Trek: First Contact when she got drunk with Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell), with Sirtis showcasing a never before seen penchant for comedy. But Troi had very little to do in Star Trek: Insurrection, and was the victim of some truly ill-considered psychic attacks from Shinzon (Tom Hardy) in Star Trek: Nemesis.
Perhaps Troi's best outing, and the one that feels closest to the character's original concept, was in the Star Trek: Picard season 1 episode "Nepenthe." Her gentle, deeply empathetic scenes with the Data's android daughter Soji (Isa Briones) felt like the character finally fulfilling her purpose, with Sirtis giving a tremendous performance. Deanna Troi will return in Star Trek: Picard season 3, which will hopefully provide more strong material for a character Star Trek: The Next Generation could never quite figure out.
