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They really should have made Troi a diplomat like her mother. While it makes sense to have a counselor on the ship, the counselor doesn't need bridge duty. In contrast, an empath who is a diplomat would have been really valuable on the Enterprise bridge.
I definitely dig the idea of the Enterprise carrying a therapist, as a recurring character, possibly a civilian contractor so they can wear something other than a standard uniform so we can have some visual variety, and occasionally show up at planning meetings or whatever when psychology is at play.
But Gene Roddenberry wanted a pair of legs in the center of the frame so she wore a minidress and sat next to the Captain with nothing to do. She wasn't occasionally called up to the bridge the way Dr. Crusher or Geordi were, she was just always sitting there.
Meanwhile Guinan the bartender was hell and gone a better counselor than Troi ever was.
And a diplomat with legs would be a valuable person to have on the bridge. There are a ton of episodes where they had to do an exposition dump regarding treaties and diplomatic relations. Having Troi do that would have been a lot more valuable.
A lot of the time Troi did do that. I seem to remember it being her and Data that got the task of reading through the treaty with the Sheliak to find a loophole, for example.
No now I want to see Deanna Troi, ship's diplomatic officer as portrayed by Marina Sirtis deliver the "Furthermore, pursuant to statute 135(a)(2)" diatribe.
I love the fact Troi was sat directly on Picard's left. I felt like it recognized the importance of emotion in being a human and how greatly that affects everything we do. She was like an emotional navigator and as important as the First Officer.
But then it felt like the writers had no idea what to do with her, so she just ate chocolate & crashed the ship. What a colossal waste lol.