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I’m sensing you want to know more about Deanna Troi. Grab a chocolate sundae and let's get going!
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00:00Hey folks, before we start just want to say a really quick thank you to Squarespace who are
00:03sponsoring this video. She's everyone's favorite Betazoid and she's actually just a little bit
00:09deadly. She's Deanna Troi and today we're going to go through all these cool little tidbits about her
00:13but before we watch this video make sure that you check out the original article by the wonderful
00:19Jack Kiley. Y's are stunning, y's are wonderful. I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are
00:2410 things you didn't know about Deanna Troi.
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01:58Number 10. The role first went to Denise Crosby. Before filming began on Star Trek The Next Generation,
02:03the producers were set on casting Denise Crosby in the role of Deanna Troi, and at the same time,
02:08Marina Sirtis was reading for the part of Masha Hernandez, who later became Natasha Yar. Crosby admitted
02:13that she had difficulties with her fit for the role, not quite grasping, as she once stated,
02:17the gobbledygook and weird concept of a Betazoid. It was Gene Roddenberry who eventually swapped the
02:22roles. It was decided that Cirtis was a better fit for the part of the empathic Troy. In Crosby's
02:26words, citing Roddenberry, however, she, the actress, was just this kind of American Golden
02:31Girl compared to the more exotic otherworldly element that was wanted for Troy. In any case,
02:35the switch happened not a moment too soon. When Cirtis got the call confirming she'd got the part,
02:39her US visa was due to expire that very day. The actress was packing her bags,
02:44a little dejected, for a return to her hometown of London. Thankfully, the rest is history. Had
02:48Roddenberry not changed things, perhaps Troy, and not Yar, would have met her end at the hands,
02:53gloopy pseudo appendages, of the grumpy old prank mate Armas.
02:58Number 9. Character Constructs Not a Total Recall
03:01What you may not know is that the character of Troy first took reference from prior Trek,
03:05and Ilea in particular from the motion picture. Think Deltans and Beta Zoids and their mental
03:11capabilities. The latter was already a carryover from the abandoned project Star Trek Phase 2.
03:16Ilea's relationship with Will Decker was then the model to build that between Troy and Riker.
03:21Both Marina Cirtis and Denise Crosby also originally considered Troy to be Spock-like. The
03:25character description for Troy in the TNGC's Bible does make passing reference to Spock,
03:30but this is merely to flesh out the counsellor's telepathic abilities. Troy was ultimately meant
03:35to be her own person, her role nonetheless second in importance only to the captain and first officer,
03:40according to the series bible once more. There seems to be some confusion surrounding
03:44the original intent for the character however. Between conflicting descriptions of Roddenberry calling
03:48Troy both the brain on the show and sexy and not very bright, it is difficult to know what to think.
03:53Apparently Roddenberry initially wanted Troy to have three, or even four depending on the source,
03:58breasts before DC Fontana thankfully convinced him otherwise. Cirtis would later note that,
04:03with the costume changes of season 1, when Troy got cleavage she lost her brain matter,
04:08then only really gained some back when she regained the uniform.
04:12Number 8. She nearly didn't make it past season 1 of TNG
04:16Given the pandemonium behind the scenes, it is a wonder anyone made it past the first season of TNG.
04:21We all know what happened to Natasha Yard, Denise Crosby and Dr. Crusher Gates McFadden. What you
04:25probably didn't know however, is that it was Troy who was originally on the chopping block. Several
04:29fairly significant changes had already been made to the character between the pilot and the rest of
04:33the season. The extent of Troy's powers was reduced with regards to her telepathic capabilities,
04:38and she also changed outfit and hairstyle. No longer was she dressed in that god-awful cosmic
04:43cheerleader uniform, with the ugliest go-go boots ever designed, as Marina Cirtis herself famously
04:48described it. The writers struggled with the character and empathic abilities. According to Cirtis,
04:52she was often simply written out of scenes where Troy's presence could have been problematic for
04:56the plot, as Captain Jimmy once said, what I wouldn't give for a Betazoid right now. This led
05:00the writers to consider nixing the character before the end of the first season. It was only with the
05:05departure of Crosby and McFadden from the show that Troy was given leave to remain. Cirtis found this
05:10out straight from the horse's mouth, at Jonathan Frakes' wedding during the break between seasons,
05:14when Gene Roddenberry approached her to announce that the first episode of season 2 would focus on Troy.
05:197. Marina Cirtis hated all that chocolate
05:23In TNG at least, Troy seemed to accumulate a lot of serious and dark scenes, some of which we've
05:28already discussed. She loses her empathic powers, is rapidly aged by a malicious alien ambassador,
05:33has her body taken over by a criminal imposter, is transformed into an amphibian, must do the acting
05:38job of her life aboard a Romulan starship, and that's not to mention having to negotiate the difficult
05:42relationship she has with her mother. Of course, her role as counsellor requires her to be more earnest
05:46than most, but there are lighter moments for Troy. One now famous example is her adoration and
05:51borderline addiction to chocolate. Well, it is a galaxy-class starship. Sorry.
05:56In the episode The Game, Riker finds Troy tucking into a bowl of chocolate upon chocolate upon
06:02chocolate. She proceeds to explain to him, in the minutest of detail, the fine art of the
06:06confectionary's consumption. Remember, it's the whole experience. What you may not know, however,
06:11is far from never having met a chocolate she didn't like, was that Marina Sirtis hated having to eat it.
06:16Contrary to the popular belief, the actress does like chocolate, but eating that much take after
06:20take would be too much for anybody. Apparently, she would ask the crew to use a type of chocolate
06:24she didn't like, and then she would spit out what she ate into a bucket. Number 6. Her changing accent
06:30has an origin story. The original casting call for Troy, not without a few uncomfortable of the time
06:35aftertastes and clichés in all its pan-European vagueness, states that Diana is probably foreign,
06:40anywhere from Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Icelandic, etc. with looks and accent to match.
06:46Marina Sirtis, who was born in London east and then moved north to Greek parents, is fluent in Greek,
06:51is skilled at accents, and was tasked at creating a Betazoid one for Troy. She opted for a mixture of
06:56Eastern European and what she drew from the accent of an Israeli friend. The problem with this is that
07:02when we met Troy's Betazoid mother, Lwaxana, she sounded, for want of a more precise description,
07:07American. Sirtis was then told that Diana got her accent from her father, but when we meet him,
07:13he also sounds generic American, the actor hails from Texas, so that didn't fit either.
07:17Understandably a bit frustrated, Sirtis eventually just switched to something more
07:20mid-Atlantic as the series and films progressed, at times closer to her native north London,
07:25and at other times more American. The actress stated that if she could change one thing about her time
07:30on TNG, I wouldn't give Diana a foreign accent, even though her mother is a Betazoid.
07:355. She might have married Riker in Season 7 of TNG
07:39All good things must come to an end, naked on Betazet, or it could very well have turned
07:43out this way before the series finale. In the actual Season 7, we got to see a relationship
07:48between Troy and Worf, but it was all a bit weird and never really went anywhere as Worf was transferred
07:52to Deep Space Nine. The two were married with kids in a parallel universe that Prime Worf stumbles into,
07:57and Troy even killed Worf in an empathic hallucination that mirrored events which took
08:01place when the Enterprise-D was under construction. In an interview, Marina Sirtis shared her views
08:05on the relationship. I didn't like the fact that he totally became un-Klingon-like when he was with
08:09Troy. I liked better the relationship he had with Dax over on Deep Space Nine. Furthermore,
08:13she felt that Troy Riker made a much better couple, and I think we can all agree with that.
08:18In fact, the idea of the pair tying the knot in TNG's final season was popular among the writers,
08:23until producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller phased the suggestion down in flames. Perhaps
08:27Riker wasn't emotionally ready enough to be parted with his beard at that stage. To paraphrase the
08:31Beatles, all you need is metaphasic radiation. Number 4. Marina Sirtis was directed by Jonathan
08:37Frakes in an episode of The Orville. Seth MacFarlane's The Orville is a great piece of
08:41science fiction in its own right. Season 4, anyone please? MacFarlane makes no secret of his love for
08:46Star Trek as a source of inspiration. He even appeared in Enterprise, and there was that hilarious episode of
08:50Family Guy when the Next Generation cast. These aren't Star Trek questions, what the hell?
08:54Many veteran Star Trek writers and producers such as Brandon Braga, Joe Minoski, and David A. Goodman
08:59have worked on The Orville, and Jonathan Frakes has called his show Star Trek with Comedy. Marina
09:03Sirtis appeared in the Orville's second season episode Sanctuary in the role of a shipboard
09:08school teacher directed by Jonathan Frakes. It was hard not to see a bit of TNG reunion for the pair,
09:13or even for the quasi-return of Troy in a different guise. Sirtis said of the experience,
09:17just being on The Orville, everything looks like The Next Generation. It was almost like stepping
09:22back in time with Jonathan directing. Frakes has also likened the directing style of The Orville to
09:26that of the TNG. In this standout episode of the programme, the parallels are evident, and Sirtis,
09:31as schoolteacher, plays a counselling role to the young Machlan Topa and parents Bortus and Clyden.
09:36Number 3. We don't know much about Picard Season 3, but Troy will be in it a lot.
09:42Now, warning, these are very possible spoilers ahead. Troy was often sidelined in The Next
09:46Generation as the Captain There Hiding Something character. Worse, in the films, Sirtis was relegated
09:51to an almost bit-part role. The actress has admitted that she was often decorative and was ultimately
09:56fine with that, wishing nonetheless that she had suggested more storylines, particularly between
10:00other women, for Troy to the writers. In an interview for the Blu-ray release of the films,
10:04Sirtis also laments that she tried and failed to make Troy funny during TNG's run to the point where she
10:10even asked her agent only to find her dramatic roles after the series end. Fortunately, she was
10:15delighted with the now legendary drunk scene in First Contact and changed her mind about doing
10:20comedy. What can we say? The limited amount of information that we have is that Troy will be a
10:24big part to play in the third and final season of Star Trek Picard. In the words of Sirtis herself,
10:28during a red carpet news interview, we are in it, we are in it, a lot. The actress has also stated that,
10:33having felt discarded by Nemesis, the cast was cherished on Picard. And, whilst executive producer
10:38Terry Metallus has ominously warned us that the safety of the characters is not guaranteed in
10:43season 3, Sirtis said she would gladly return to the role in another spin-off. Death of a character
10:48is certainly no hindrance in any case, especially with the multiple time periods of the shows.
10:51And, temporal investigations has just arrived.
10:542. Marina Sirtis had a few mishaps on set
10:58The character of Deanna Troi was accustomed to witnessing disaster, destruction and injury.
11:02After all, she did, under orders, fly the Enterprise E at full impulse into the Scimitar. She also
11:07unexpectedly found herself in command in an episode quite literally called Disaster. The woman behind
11:12the role, Marina Sirtis, equally had a couple of noteworthy accidents on set which you might not
11:16be aware of. One on-set mishap befell Sirtis during the filming of Generations. During the battle scene
11:21with the Klingons, consoles were blowing up left and right. When Troy goes to replace an injured officer
11:25at the con, Sirtis actually sat on a piece of degree from the explosions and burnt her bottom.
11:29Thankfully, she wasn't badly hurt. Another such incident occurred during the filming of the Next
11:33Generation episode Power Play. In a scene on the surface of the planet, O'Brien, Riker, Data and
11:38Troy are thrown violently backwards by an EM discharge just before they can be beamed back onto the ship.
11:43Whilst the other three actors had stunt doubles performed this for them, Sirtis wanted to do the
11:47stunt herself, with the encouragement of the director. She committed to it so much that when she landed on
11:50her back, she damaged her coccyx and was in pain for months. Fair play to her couple of rounds of Frere
11:55Jacques, I won't make you forget that. Number 1. She has appeared in 5 series, 4 films and on a stamp.
12:01One of the most prolific characters of the franchise, Marina Sirtis starred as Troy in
12:05The Next Generation and has appeared in Voyager, Lower Decks, Picard and Enterprise. Whatever your
12:10thoughts on that last one, it still counts. She is beaten only by Jonathan Frakes as Riker in that
12:15regard, who also appeared in the episode Defiant of DS9. Sirtis is the only woman to appear as the same
12:21character in as many series. However, she is among great company as one of only six actors to appear
12:26in two series finales. We'll let you figure that one out for yourselves. Troy was, of course, in each
12:32of the TNG movies. A recent highlight, aside from Picard, are her appearances in Lower Decks, where she
12:38is often the foil for the bombastic Riker. What you may also not know, unless you are already a
12:44fabulously Fidelius fellatist, is that Deanna Troy is one of the 18 characters, including the likes of
12:50Janeway, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Archer, Spock, Reed, Burnham, to have been commemorated on a set of UK
12:56first-class postage stamps in November 2020 as a celebration of Star Trek. You'd be mad to post
13:02them, of course, but it would make for some epic snail mail. That's everything for our list today,
13:06folks. If there's anything else that we missed, let us know in the comments below. And again,
13:09thanks so much to Squarespace for sponsoring this video. Don't forget to head to www.squarespace.com
13:15forward slash TrekCulture for a free trial and 10% off your first purchase.
13:20Thank you so much for watching. And of course, don't forget to check out Jack's original article
13:25over on whatculture.com. You can catch us on Twitter at TrekCulture. You can catch us on Instagram
13:30at TrekCultureYT. You can catch myself at SeanFerrick on Twitter, at Sean.Ferrick88 on Instagram,
13:36and at SeanFerrick on Hive. Look after yourselves. Don't be talking to you again. Make sure that you live
13:40long and prosper. Have a wonderful few days. Make it so.
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