Hot take - the Consoler is just the Federation’s Political Officer.
Space communists need their space commissars… no rank, they exist parallel to the military structure as a bullwork against wrong think.
Honestly, I never understood why a counselor would be on that spot. A linguist? Why not. Historian? Absolutely biologist/chemist? Understandable. Counselor? Nah-uh
Uh what? Historian? The history of…where no man has gone before? Why would a biologist/chemist be on the bridge? They would be in a lab where they could actually employ their skills. Not saying Counselor is the best, but it’s pretty obvious it’s because of her abilities, not her title.
One would think that it is important for a ship’s counselor to remain pretty detached from the day-to-day decision-making of the crew. That it would be a very bad idea for the counselor to be regularly fraternizing with what are basically her patients.
I wonder how this works in, for example, the Navy.
i’ve never served in the Navy or even been on board ship, but fraternization between officers and enlisted in all services is pretty strictly forbidden… and counselors and therapists would probably be officers in most cases… but casual socialization is normally totally off limits… simple reason being, officers have to order enlisted people into danger, so there can’t be appearance of favorites…
fraternization among the officers is normal, though and has been part of life aboard ships forever
Same goes for doctors and such, seems a bit awkward for the enterprise crew to be friends with their doctor. Imagine having a drink with your gynecologist, or in case of riker, someone who most likely has treated him for at least one alien VD.
Or just the more general awkwardness of having your therapist and doctor around all the time, always aware of your lifestyle. Like, getting scolded by Beverly for your shitty eating habits during checkup and then she runs into you in 10 forward while you are trying to inhale a piece of cake.
Everyone is living authentically so there isn’t the friction you imagine. Riker isn’t shamed for liking sex. Troi isn’t shamed for liking sweets. People are done shaming each other for being themselves. At least that was the idea.
Well, they’re all basically locked in a submarine, but way worse. You’re in a sealed box hurtling through space. You need a doctor on board, and you need a counselor on board. If you don’t want both of them to go completely insane, both of them also need friends and social interaction.
While I agree that Starfleet levels of general fraternization are a lot looser than in modern military, I also think it’s just kind of something you learn to live with when you serve on a ship.
Regular counselor? Sure, doesn’t need to be on the bridge.
Mind-reading empath, though? Massive strategic advantage in any encounter, friend or foe! Put her on the bridge!
Indeed. It doesn’t happen too often, but the writers occasionally remembered to do something useful with her empath powers, like in the Samaritan ep where she’s the first one to clock that the Pakled’s are up to something. Ofc this comes a few minutes after Worf says something like “bro we really want to send Geordi over there?” and Riker’s like “look at these dipshits he’s gonna be fine” and then Troi is the one that figures it out. So must have been opposite day in the writer’s room or something.
To be fair, stating the obvious, which she does quite a lot, is also quite advantageous. Like, sure, that Klingon Captain seems angry and insulted, but what if he’s just a really good actor trying to deceive a Federation ship? When Troi goes “Yup, he’s angry and insulted” that would basically be the go ahead to assume he’s telling the truth and act accordingly.
But TNG writers usually only seemed to remember there was an empath on the bridge at the last second, so they just wrote in she can’t sense anything
I think there’s a lot of value in quickly profiling enemies and anyone else you deal with.
Ah yes valuable skills like sensing that the romulans may be hiding something.
Show was written in a time before streaming, before people could record TV. She was there to explain to the audience, who were assumed to not be aware of the previous episodes, who the bad guys are.
The stories which her empathy abilities are more useful don’t make it to the show unfortunately, they’re over too quickly. That’s my theory.
The Mad Man strategy
Guinan shoulda replaced Troi. She’s 1000% better at helping you solve your problems.
They should’ve had an episode where they go to the Mirror Universe and for the rest of the series Troi would be replaced by her mirrorverse counterpart which would basically be Marina Sirtis playing herself.
I’d assume the the Mirror Universe version of a counselor is a psychological torture expert; someone who can brainwash any subject.
Yeah but no one knows what she’s all about. One moment she’s on familiar terms with Q, the next she’s popping up in 19th century San Francisco . Like who the heck is this bartender?
“I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and these are the other two members of my non-sexual throuple.”
