Why Deanna Troi Misplaced Her Accent In Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology

When casting name sheets went out for “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology,” method again in December of 1986, the character of Counselor Deanna Troi was listed as “an alien girls who’s tall (5’8″ – 6″) and slender, about 30 years outdated, and fairly lovely. […] Deanna might be overseas (wherever from Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Icelandic, and so on.) with seems and accent to match. […] Her alien ‘look’ continues to be to be decided.” The identify of Troi’s species hadn’t but been decided in 1986, however Trekkies can now let you know that she is half-human and half-Betazoid. 

Marina Sirtis was forged within the position, and he or she was a 30-year-old British actress of Cypriot descent, so the casting administrators nailed it. Her alien “look” would finally entail black eyes, and Sirtis wore contact lenses all through her tenure on the sequence.

As for the accent, the showrunners let Sirtis merely preserve her personal British accent, somewhat than inventing one thing alien. Her accent, nevertheless, turned one thing of a sticking level for Sirtis. On the 2018 Paradise Metropolis Supercon, Sirtis appeared on stage to debate her years on “Subsequent Technology,” and he or she affably described the weird alien accent scenario with followers. For one, she puzzled why Patrick Stewart, one of the British males alive, was chosen to play a French character named Jean-Luc Picard. She even mocked Stewart’s lack of ability to have an effect on dialects, saying that his French accent was in the identical ballpark as Inspector Clouseau from the “Pink Panther” motion pictures. 

Sirtis additionally identified that her accent on the very begin of “Subsequent Technology” was markedly totally different from her accent on the finish of the present, seven seasons later. Sirtis defined that she moved from sounding British to sounding extra American largely due to some forgetful inventive choices on the a part of showrunner Rick Berman. 

To briefly return to Stewart’s accent for a second: Sirtis posited that the explanation a French character sounded British within the twenty fourth century was as a result of, sooner or later sooner or later, England will invade France and take over the nation. She famous that nobody on “Star Trek” has ever had a French accent, and it is as a result of France was worn out by the English. It is a marvelous piece of headcanon on Sirtis’ half. 

When it got here to her personal accent, although, Sirtis turned confused when she filmed the first-season episode “Haven” (November 30, 1987). That episode noticed the arrival of Troi’s mom Lwaxana, a larger-than-life Auntie Mame-type character who flirts with each man in her neighborhood, and who has a romantic regard for Captain Picard. Lwaxana was performed by Majel Barrett, an American actress with an American accent. Sirtis, it appears, was the one one who observed that her Brit-sounding character had an American-sounding mom, and introduced her considerations to Rick Berman. She instructed the story: 

“So then we meet my mother, my mother comes on the present, and he or she’s clearly from the American sector of Betazed. As a result of she hasn’t acquired an accent. So, being as I’m me, I’ve to go to the producers. I needed to. ‘Excuse me. Hello. It is me. I assumed I used to be doing the Betazoid accent, and … simply met mother. American.’ They mentioned [crestfallen] ‘Oh.'”

Sirtis paused to elucidate that producers hate speaking to actors, and that every one the conferences actors are inclined to have with higher-ups have a tendency to finish shortly. However she felt she had a authentic difficulty together with her accent, and needed an evidence. The reply was … okay.

She lastly requested outright:

“So the place does my accent come from if I am not doing the Betazoid accent? ‘It is your father’s accent, now get out of my workplace.'”

This was a suitable reply, as Troi’s father was a human Starfleet officer who died years earlier than. Maybe he picked up a Betazoid accent whereas stationed on the planet. One might inform that nobody put any thought into it, however the reply, Sirtis decided, was shut sufficient for jazz.

However then, because of flashbacks and visions, audiences lastly did meet Troi’s father Ian (Amick Byram) within the episode “Darkish Web page” (October 30, 1993) … and he additionally had an American accent. Sirtis continued: 

“Alright. Father’s accent. Yeah, ‘trigger we met him. In Season six. And he was from Idaho or someplace, proper? So, I had to return. ‘Good day, Rick. Hello. Me once more. So, um, I assumed I used to be doing my dad’s accent, and he does not have an accent.’ ‘[Sigh] They despatched you away to highschool, alright? Get out of my workplace.'” 

Okay, so plainly Troi picked up her accent when she was learning overseas, and he or she simply stored it into maturity. That is nearly as good an evidence as any, for one thing that, to repeat, attracted no thought from the manufacturing crew. 

Sirtis then inspired her viewers to return to take heed to her accent within the pilot episode, after which instantly skip to the present’s closing episode, made seven years later, and evaluate her accent in each. She feels she sounds much more American on the finish. She joked that her character’s voice, over time, drifted ever westward throughout the Atlantic, and that the ultimate episode was her accent arriving at Ellis Island. 

Had the present continued for a number of extra seasons, maybe Troi would sound wholly American by the tip. Similar to her dad and mom.