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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
00:03are sponsoring this video.
00:05She's everyone's favourite Betazoid and she's actually just a little bit deadly.
00:10She's Deanna Troi and today we're going to go through all these cool little tidbits about
00:13her.
00:14But before we watch this video make sure that you check out the original article by the
00:18wonderful Jack Kiley.
00:20Yous are stunning, yous are wonderful.
00:22I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 10 things you didn't know about Deanna
00:27Troi.
00:30Well that's a big one!
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01:56Number 10 The role first went to Denise Crosby
02:01Before filming began on Star Trek The Next Generation, the producers were set on casting Denise Crosby in the role of Deanna Troy
02:07and, at the same time, Marina Sirtis was reading for the part of Masha Hernandez, who later became Natasha Yar.
02:13Crosby admitted that she had difficulties with her fit for the role, not quite grasping, as she once stated, the gobbledygook and weird concept of a Betazoid.
02:20It was Gene Roddenberry who eventually swapped the roles.
02:22It was decided that Cirtis was a better fit for the part of the empathic Troy.
02:26In Crosby's words, citing Roddenberry however, she, the actress, was just this kind of American golden girl compared to the more exotic otherworldly element that was wanted for Troy.
02:35In any case, the switch happened not a moment too soon.
02:37When Cirtis got the call confirming she'd got the part, her US visa was due to expire that very day.
02:43The actress was packing her bags, a little dejected, for a return to her hometown of London.
02:47Thankfully, the rest is history.
02:48Had Roddenberry not changed things, perhaps Troy, and not Yar, would have met her end at the hands, gloopy pseudo-appentages, 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 and Ilea in particular from the motion picture.
03:08Think Deltons and Betazoids and their mental capabilities.
03:12The 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 Sirtis and Denise Crosby also originally considered Troy to be Spock-like.
03:25The character description for Troy in the TNGC's Bible does make passing reference to Spock, but this is merely to flesh out the counsellor's telepathic abilities.
03:33Troy was ultimately meant to be her own person, her role nonetheless second in importance only to the captain and first officer, according to the series Bible once more.
03:42There seems to be some confusion surrounding the original intent for the character, however.
03:46Between conflicting descriptions of Roddenberry calling Troy 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, breasts, before DC Fontana thankfully convinced him otherwise.
04:02Sirtis would later note that, with the costume changes of Season 1, when Troy got cleavage, she lost her brain matter, then 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.
04:25What you probably didn't know, however, is that it was Troy who was originally on the chopping block.
04:29Several fairly significant changes had already been made to the character between the pilot and the rest of the season.
04:34The extent of Troy's powers was reduced with regards to her telepathic capabilities, and she also changed outfit and hairstyle.
04:40No longer was she dressed in that god-awful cosmic cheerleader uniform, with the ugliest go-go boots ever designed, as Marina Sirtis herself famously described it.
04:48The writers struggled with the character and empathic abilities.
04:51According to Sirtis, she was often simply written out of scenes where Troy's presence could have been problematic for the plot.
04:57As Captain Jimmie once said, what I wouldn't give for a Betazoid right now.
05:00This led the writers to consider nixing the character before the end of the first season.
05:04It was only with the departure of Crosby and McFadden from the show that Troy was given leave to remain.
05:09Sirtis found this out straight from the horse's mouth, at Jonathan Frakes' wedding during the break between seasons, when Gene Roddenberry approached her to announce that the first episode of Season 2 would focus on Troy.
05:197.
05:20Marina Sirtis hated all that chocolate
05:23In TNG at least, Troy seemed to accumulate a lot of serious and dark scenes, some of which
05:28we've already discussed.
05:29She loses her empathic powers, is rapidly aged by a malicious alien ambassador, has her body
05:33taken over by a criminal imposter, is transformed into an amphibian, must do the acting job of
05:37her life aboard a Romulan starship, and that's not to mention having to negotiate the difficult
05:41relationship she has with her mother.
05:42Of course, her role as counsellor requires her to be more earnest than most, but there are
05:47lighter moments for Troy.
05:48One now famous example is her adoration and borderline addiction to chocolate.
05:53Well, it is a galaxy-class starship.
05:55Sorry.
05:56In the episode The Game, Riker finds Troy tucking into a bowl of chocolate upon chocolate upon
06:01chocolate.
06:02She proceeds to explain to him, in the minutest of detail, the fine art of the confectionary's
06:06consumption.
06:07Remember, it's the whole experience.
06:09What you may not know, however, is far from never having met a chocolate she didn't like,
06:14was that Marina Sirtis hated having to eat it.
06:17Contrary to the popular belief, the actress does like chocolate, but eating that much take
06:21after take would be too much for anybody.
06:23Apparently, she would ask the crew to use a type of chocolate she didn't like, and then
06:26she would spit out what she ate into a bucket.
06:286.
06:29Her changing accent has an origin story
06:31The original casting call for Troy, not without a few uncomfortable of-the-time aftertastes
06:36and clichés in all its pan-European vagueness, states that Diana is probably foreign, anywhere
06:41from 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
06:50fluent in Greek, is skilled at accents, and was tasked at creating a Betazoid one for Troy.
06:55She opted for a mixture of Eastern European and what she drew from the accent of an Israeli
07:00friend.
07:01The problem with this is that when we met Troy's Betazoid mother, Lwaxana, she sounded,
07:05for want of a more precise description, American.
07:08Sirtis was then told that Diana got her accent from her father, but when we meet him, he also
07:13sounds generic American, the actor hails from Texas, so that didn't fit either.
07:18Understandably a bit frustrated, Sirtis eventually just switched to something more mid-Atlantic as
07:21the series and films progressed, at times closer to her native north London, and at other times
07:26more American.
07:27The actress stated that if she could change one thing about her time on TNG, I wouldn't
07:31give Diana a foreign accent, even though her mother is a Betazoid.
07:35Number 5.
07:36She 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
07:44out this way before the series finale.
07:45In the actual Season 7, we got to see a relationship between Troy and Worf, but it was all a bit weird
07:50and never really went anywhere as Worf was transferred to Deep Space Nine.
07:53The two were married with kids in a parallel universe that Prime Worf stumbles into, and
07:57Troy even killed Worf in an empathic hallucination that mirrored events which took place when
08:01the Enterprise D was under construction.
08:03In an interview, Marina Sirtis shared her views on the relationship.
08:06I didn't like the fact that he totally became un-Klingon like when he was with Troy.
08:10I liked better the relationship he had with Dax over on Deep Space Nine.
08:13Furthermore, she felt that Troy Riker made a much better couple, and I think we can all agree
08:17with that.
08:18In fact, the idea of the pair tying the knot in TNG's final season was popular among the
08:23writers until producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller phased with the suggestion down in flames.
08:27Perhaps Riker wasn't emotionally ready enough to be parted with his beard at that stage.
08:31To paraphrase the Beatles, all you need is metaphasic radiation.
08:35Number 4.
08:36Marina Sirtis was directed by Jonathan Frakes in an episode of The Orville.
08:39Seth MacFarlane's The Orville is a great piece of science fiction in its own right.
08:43Season 4, anyone please?
08:44MacFarlane makes no secret of his love for Star Trek as a source of inspiration.
08:47He even appeared in Enterprise, and there was that hilarious episode of Family Guy when
08:50The Next Generation cast.
08:52These aren't Star Trek questions, what the hell?
08:54Many veteran Star Trek writers and producers such as Bran and Braga, Joe Minoski and David A. Goodman
08:59have worked on The Orville, and Jonathan Frakes has called his show Star Trek with Comedy.
09:03Marina Sirtis appeared in the Orville's second season episode Sanctuary in the role of a shipboard
09:08schoolteacher directed by Jonathan Frakes.
09:10It was hard not to see a bit of TNG reunion for the pair, or even for the quasi-return of
09:15Troy in a different guise.
09:16Sirtis said of the experience, just being on The Orville, everything looks like The Next Generation.
09:21It was almost like stepping back in time with Jonathan directing.
09:24Frakes has also likened the directing style on The Orville to that of the TNG.
09:27In this standout episode of the programme, the parallels are evident, and Sirtis, as schoolteacher,
09:32plays a counselling role to the young Machlin Topa and parents Bortus and Clyden.
09:37Number 3.
09:38We 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.
09:45Troy was often sidelined in The Next Generation as the Captain-there-hiding-something character.
09:49Worse, in the films, Sirtis was relegated to an almost bit-part role.
09:53The actress has admitted that she was often decorative and was ultimately fine with that,
09:57wishing nonetheless that she had suggested more storylines, particularly between other women,
10:01for Troy to the writers.
10:02In an interview for the Blu-ray release of the films, Sirtis also laments that she tried
10:06and failed to make Troy funny during TNG's run to the point where she even asked her agent
10:11only to find her dramatic roles after the series end.
10:14Fortunately, she was delighted with the now legendary drunk scene in First Contact and changed
10:19her mind about doing comedy.
10:20What can we say?
10:21But the limited amount of information that we have is that Troy will be a big part to
10:25play in the third and final season of Star Trek Picard.
10:27In the words of Sirtis herself during a red-carpet news interview, we are in it, we are in it,
10:31a lot.
10:32The actress has also stated that, having felt discarded by Nemesis, the cast was cherished
10:36on Picard.
10:37And, whilst executive producer Terry Metallus has ominously warned us that the safety of the
10:41characters is not guaranteed in season 3, Sirtis said she would gladly return to the role
10:45in another spin-off.
10:47Death of a character is certainly no hindrance in any case, especially with the multiple
10:50time periods of the shows.
10:51And...
10:52Temporal Investigations has just arrived.
10:552.
10:56Marina 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.
11:06She also unexpectedly found herself in command in an episode quite literally called Disaster.
11:11The woman behind the role, Marina Sirtis, equally had a couple of noteworthy accidents on set
11:16which you might not be aware of.
11:17One on-set mishap befell Sirtis during the filming of Generations.
11:20During the battle scene with the Klingons, consoles were blowing up left and right.
11:23When Troi goes to replace an injured officer at the con, Sirtis actually sat on a piece of degree
11:27from the explosions and burnt her bottom.
11:29Thankfully, she wasn't badly hurt.
11:31Another such incident occurred during the filming of the Next Generation episode Power Play.
11:34In a scene on the surface of the planet, O'Brien, Riker, Data and Troi are thrown violently
11:39backwards by an EM discharge just before they could be beamed back onto the ship.
11:43Whilst the other three actors had stunt doubles performed this for them, Sirtis wanted to
11:46do the stunt herself, with the encouragement of the director.
11:49She committed to it so much that, when she landed on her back, she damaged her coccyx
11:52and was in pain for months.
11:53Fair play to her.
11:54A couple of rounds of Frere Jacques won't make you forget that.
11:57Number 1.
11:58She 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 Troi in
12:05The Next Generation and has appeared in Voyager, Lower Decks, Picard and Enterprise.
12:10Whatever your thoughts on that last one, that still counts.
12:13She is beaten only by Jonathan Frakes as Riker in that regard, who also appeared in the episode
12:18Defiant of DS9.
12:19Sirtis is the only woman to appear as the same character in as many series.
12:23However, she is among great company as one of only 6 actors to appear in 2 series finales.
12:28We'll let you figure that one out for yourselves.
12:30Troi was, of course, in each of the TNG movies.
12:34A recent highlight, aside from Picard, are her appearances in Lower Decks, where she is
12:39often the foil for the bombastic Riker.
12:41What you may also not know, unless you are already a fabulously Fidelius fellatist, is
12:46that Deanna Troi is one of the 18 characters, including the likes of Janeway, Kirk, Picard,
12:52Sisko, Archer, Spock, Reed, Burnham, to have been commemorated on a set of UK first-class
12:57postage stamps in November 2020 as a celebration of Star Trek.
13:02You'd be mad to post them, of course, but it would make for some epic snail mail.
13:05That's everything for our list today, folks.
13:06If there's anything else that we missed, let us know in the comments below.
13:09And again, thanks so much to Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
13:12Don't forget to head to www.squarespace.com forward slash Trek Culture for a free trial
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13:21Thank you so much for watching.
13:22And of course, don't forget to check out Jack's original article over on whatculture.com.
13:27You can catch us on Twitter at TrekCulture.
13:29You can catch us on Instagram at TrekCultureYT.
13:31You can catch myself at SeanFerrick on Twitter, at Sean.Ferrick88 on Instagram, and at SeanFerrick
13:37on Hive.
13:38Look after yourselves.
13:39Don't talk to you again.
13:40Make sure that you live long and prosper.
13:41Have a wonderful big few days.
13:44Make it so.
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