I always thought her character was the weakest aspect of the show. Being able to sense their emotions from another starship was harder to accept than the introduction of Q.
If her scope was limited to the room I wouldn’t have minded.
When she actually uses her powers beyond the trivial, it’s usually an episode where she gets mind raped. The writers are to blame here.
This might be my biggest TNG complaint. The character and the actor are good (or at least decent if we’re being picky), but almost every time the focus is on her, the writing is absolutely awful.
Even the episode where she is forced to take command when the Enterprise was disabled managed to be more about how showing Laren is a callous asshole than that Deanna was capable of command decisions.
You needed Miles and Laren to play off each other and give Deanna options to consider.
The episode also led to an interesting B plot in a future episode about Deanna becoming a commander.
I feel like she would have been better if she was a diplomat instead of a councilor. There are tons of episodes where having a diplomat on the bridge would have been very useful, even if she was just an attaché advising Picard.
It would also give the show an excuse to keep her out of a uniform since she would likely be a civilian.
Which is primarily what the third seat is for. Often enough, Starfleet is entangled in a situation which calls for a foreign dignitary, mediator, or third party of some sort. The Enterprise simply “lucked out” on an empathic half-Betazoid. They really should be more thankful.
The Enterprise simply “lucked out” on an empathic half-Betazoid
who is also the daughter of a fairly high ranking ambassador.
I can sense someone else’s feelings over a zoom call, makes sense to me!
Haha now do it without the internet!
I can do that too.
As a therapist its not unusual to start picking up a client’s feelings a few hours before the session when you’re closely attuned to them.
They nailed the criticism with that bit.
*Enterprise shakes violently
*Booming disembodied voice yells “who dares enter my domain!”
“Captain, I sense… a presence.”
She always came across as a bit of a con man that got in over her head and can’t get out.
I sense…
Is she related to Mr Fantastic?
“I sense… aggravation. Oh wait, that’s just you, Captain.”
Captain, uh where did you get that “cigar”? Also, it’s not mine.
–Bev
TO INFINITY AND BEY…
Oh ok, back out again.
TO INFINITY AND…
Oh, out again.
TO INF…
I see how this is.
I would love to know the range of her powers. Imo she was the worst of the main character in tng.
