The Loss. This episode has some mixed reviews. I always liked it because I have a layman interest in psychology. But it was hard to make a "Troi" episode because although telepathy is cool, it has limited story possibilities.
It starts with Deanna doing what we unfortunately almost never see her doing - her job. She's counseling an ensign over the death of her husband. I think they do a good job of creating psychological profiles. The woman is strong and independent and straining to overachieve in order to get past the death of her husband. But Troi knows that she's still in the denial phase and that she needs to grieve. As a practicing therapist, she'd know that anyway, but her empathic abilities presumably are helping her with how she handles the timing of easing her into a necessary meltdown to get the process moving. Meanwhile on the bridge we get an almost comical contrast of Worf and Data picking up blips in the sensors that keep appearing and disappearing like ghosts.
The Enterpise suddenly loses control and begins to move along on its own at a steady pace. To me this moment lets us see that Sirtis is actually a pretty good actress. Not just because she has to act like she's in pain, but when she looks spooked by the fact that she can't sense the ensign anymore as they're parting. It was nice chance for her to stretch her acting legs. People all over the ship report headaches and Troi calls for Crusher too, but she's being pulled in many different directions and can't get to her immediately.
She is awake and feeling a little better, but foggy when Beverly does get there. But the bridge crew can't break away from the invisible force that's pulling the Enterprise along so a staff meeting is called and that's when Troi comes to the terrifying conclusion that she can't sense the presence outside or any presence anywhere. She's lost her empathic abilities.
Now she's the one in denial at first. She rejects the notion that her abilities may have been permanently affected and that she should start seeing a therapist for this pending disability. And there was actually talk of making her loss of empathic powers permanent, but I'm glad they didn't. This episode made a better one time showcasing of becoming disabled and the process of accepting it that goes hand in hand with the grieving process. Troi becomes defensive and self conscious, pushing everyone away when they try to comfort her. And also tries to resign. Picard reluctantly accommodates her. It's true that they don't need her to tell them about the strange phenomenon they are caught up in. They've already figured out that it's a two dimensional being and that it's movements indicate that it's alive. And it doesn't help that she has another encounter with the Ensign from the opening scene who is convinced that she's over her grief after one night of crying and tells Troi she's wrong when she says that this seems unlikely.
But it's Guinan who brings up the point that I think more people should have - that her job isn't mind probing strange aliens. She's the ship's psychologist. And we see the "showdown" that I'd been wanting to see since the introduction of Guinan... I remember wondering what the point was of a bar tender that listened and advised as a counselor would when there's already a main character that's a counselor. So Guinan teases Troi and tells her that she's going to apply for her job. At first she's taken in, but then quickly realizes the approach Guinan is taking which only proves Guinan's point that she's still capable of doing her real job. But she's stubborn and continues to indulge in her self pity over the loss. She lashes out at more people. It was fun to see such a different attitude from the calm and dignified Troi. But I never quite understood the scene with Riker where he appears to be very insensitive to her plight, calling her aristocratic. Was he trying to spur her on out of her depression with a little forcefulness or did he really mean it? Or both? It was interesting.
However, trouble is brewing now because the two dimensional being is taking the Enterprise towards a cosmic string which would rip them apart with the force of several black holes. So Picard orders Troi to work with Data of all people to theorize on a behavior pattern. Her confidence is given a boost when the widowed ensign comes to Troi again as she's packing her belongings and tells her that she's really is still a mess and that one night didn't make it all better, but she still isn't sure of how to contribute to the project. I've always been surprised they never tried a Data/Troi romantic pairing... pairing the android with no emotions with the counselor who represents emotions. Anyway, I love this scene because it's Data's cold logic that helps Troi to understand what might be motivating the being. I myself am a thinker who feels drained quickly with my emotional drive, so this kind of validates to me the need for reason over feelings even when the feelings are overwhelming.
They go on the hypothesis that the being is motivates solely by instinct and is unaware that its endangering the Enterprise. So, Geordi thinks that it can be tricked if they mimic a cosmic string that appears closer and in a different direction so the ship can try to break away from it's pull when it shifts it's trajectory. It's fun science fiction. And as the being breaks away and then resumes its course to the real cosmic string with the Enterprise safely behind, Troi feels another wave of dizziness and her empathic powers return. Not only that but the theory that she and Data came up with proved to be correct in a way. The being wasn't only drawn to the string like a moth to a flame, but it was happy to be going there as well. I think it's a great ending.
I'll go with three and a half stars because Troi's instances of freaking out throughout the episode did border on annoying although it's completely valid from a psychological viewpoint. I still like this episode very much but I just wouldn't put it at four star caliber as far as content goes since a lot of time had to be devoted to Troi's meltdowns in order to get the points across and therefore ended up being mostly the same from scene to scene.
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