History Characters / StarTrekTheNextGenerationMainCharacters

* TookALevelInKindness:
** He exhibits some pretty unusual behavior in the pilot. He doesn’t even look at Riker when he comes on board or welcome him. In later seasons, when he has softened, he will never behave this rudely.
** Clearly Picard didn’t think too much of his former chief engineer Mr. Singh, because 30 seconds after his death, he is delighted to hear that the ''Enterprise'' can go to warp again. Be glad he isn't ''your'' boss.

* CharacterTics: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVIGhYMwRgs He has a very peculiar way of getting in and out of chairs.]] Likely due to how tall Jonathan Frakes is and the aforementioned back injury. As well as [[CaptainMorganPose his tendency to lean on table and consoles]], also due to how tall Creator/JonathanFrakes is, since it helps him stay in frame.
** According to Frakes more recently, the affectation was a pure character bit, driven by his desire to have a physical mannerism that stood out among the crew. With his extra height and leg length, it was just as easy to swing his leg over a chair as it was to pull it out and sit in it. Likely, the truth is a bit of both.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the pilot, it's stated that he wants to be captain of the ''Enterprise'' more than anything else. He would frequently decline promotion opportunities.

* ActionMom: She's pretty good whenever she has to use combat skills and not medical ones. She also has the best aiming skills of the entire main cast.
** In "Descent Part II," she's left in charge of Enterprise with a fraction of the normal crew, all no-names, while all the main cast is off hunting for Data. She takes on the Borg and ''wins.''
* AlmightyJanitor: She served as head of Starfleet Medical while [[PutOnABus on the Bus]]. That's a pretty impressive job for someone who only holds the rank of commander. Then again, this is [[MildlyMilitary Starfleet]] and being the chief surgeon of the Federation flagship wouldn't hurt her resume.

* (Re-) EstablishingCharacterMoment: About one half of the way through Season 3, after her actress returned and got better plots written for her; in the teaser of one episode, she is sitting with Worf and Data in a cafe on a planet-of-the-week that is experiencing domestic terrorism because of a conflict between the planetary government and a minority separatist group. The Ansata [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters rebels/terrorists]] detonate a bomb near the cafe, and several civilians are injured. Dr. Crusher leaps into the fray to provide medical aid, with Worf and Data urging her to be more cautious. It's a great character moment for Beverly Crusher. While Crusher is tending to the wounded, Data insists that "It would be prudent to return to the ship" and then states [[{{Planetville}} "This planet has its own physicians."]] Dr. Crusher simply replies, [[ZigZaggingTrope "They're not here. I am,"]] and continues doctoring. When Picard and Riker call down from the bridge to confirm if they should beam Dr. Crusher up, and get the report from the other members of the landing party, they both decide it's in their best interests ''not'' to beam Crusher away from a patient because neither of them are willing to confront her afterward in the transporter room. Dr. Crusher tends to do this kind of thing a lot, but this might be the classic example of her threatening moral shame against ''Jean-Luc Picard of all people'' to get her way when it comes to medical ethics or social justice.

%%* TheMedic: A particularly dedicated one!
* MiddleNameBasis: Not Crusher, but her actress, Cheryl Gates [=McFadden=].

* PutOnABus: Dr. Crusher had gone back to Earth to teach medicine, and in her place comes the walking attitude problem that is Dr. Pulaski.

-->'''Crusher''': This isn't a symbiotic relationship. ''This is '''exploitation!'''''.

* ComfortFood: Troi apparently only eats chocolate and sweets, which makes one wonder why she's not fatter. Perhaps some BizarreAlienBiology allows her to not gain weight, or the replicator removes the fattening aspects of a high-fat, high-sugar diet.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" during crew introductions, Troi is seen trying to communicate telepathically with Riker. In later episodes, it's all but stated that Deanna can only sense emotions as a result of only being half-Betazoid.
** For good measure, the only times she's able to use telepathy is when she's "talking" to her mother during PetTheDog moments, as Lwaxana is full Betazoid.

* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Troi is comparatively a little shorter than average, though not diminutive. However, her love interests are Riker and Worf, who are the tallest of the cast, fulfilling this trope.

* TheLoad: She was always being possessed by aliens, abused by aliens in crashed shuttles, abducted by aliens for political gambits, being nearly forced to marry an alien, having her psychic powers robbed by aliens, suffering nightmares at the hands of aliens, [[TerribleTicking forced to listen to a virtual music box in her head for days by an alien]], the list goes on. Her only real use on the show was to counsel the [[RedShirt random crew member of the week]] and to tell Picard when she sensed weird things happening while on the bridge. Maybe this makes her closer to ButtMonkey. Troi did manage to TakeALevelInBadass during a two-episode arc where she was sent to spy on the Romulans... but [[PlotInducedStupidity left that level somewhere]] for the rest of the series, never to be seen again. Those episodes are the reason ADayInTheLimelight used to be named "Good Troi Episode".
** The sad thing is that she had the potential to be useful, however the writers always made her conveniently absent whenever her Betazoid abilities would have come in handy. There were a couple of instances when the crew made contact with an obviously deceptive alien race or leader. Deanna could have sensed their deceptive nature and warned the crew, but she always managed to be suspiciously absent for those meetings.
** Many Troi-centric scenes or episodes were adapted for ''Guinan'', particularly to work around the availability of Creator/WhoopiGoldberg. Examples where Guinan is seen playing an adapted Troi part include:
*** Helping Data try to understand humor in "The Outrageous Okona"
*** Giving romance advice to Wesley in "The Dauphin" or Geordi in "Booby Trap"
*** Again with Wesley in "Evolution"
*** Troi and Guinan seem to tag-team in "The Offspring"
*** Starting with "Yesterday's Enterprise", episodes were written specifically for either Troi or Guinan, though minor scenes would continue to be shifted around between the two
** It doesn't help that in the early seasons when Roddenberry was still in control of the show, he was adamant that humans of the 24th century were extremely well adjusted. They didn't have conflicts, jealousy, greed. They didn't even mourn death. So what do you need a counselor for? Thankfully, they eased up on this in later seasons so that Troi could be of use off the bridge. They also had her act as a guide for Data at times, since his biggest weakness was her greatest strength.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Sirtis' real accent is north London; Troi's started out vaguely Eastern European before settling down into an approximation of American English, then reverting to her natural north London for the films.
** Marina Sirtis has said in interviews that she was told she had to do a "Betazed" accent, meaning she pretty much had to make one up. When Troi's mother, and eventually other Betazeds, showed up, it became increasingly clear that no one else were going to bother with the accent. Sirtis tried asking a producer about this, and was told that Troi got the accent from her father. We eventually meet her father, who doesn't have an accent either (much to Sirtis's exasperation). So her accent dialect continues to remain unexplained on-screen.

* AlmightyJanitor: Despite his intelligence, and being third in-command after Riker, not to mention brief periods of command on his own, Data never rises above the rank of lieutenant commander, meaning by the end of the series he's outranked by the ship's counselor.

* EatingMachine: In early episode states that he ingests chemical compounds to keep his insides well-lubricated and functioning, though this is never mentioned again.

* FantasticRacism: Data is often treated like a walking calculator, even by members of Starfleet. The most prominent examples are Maddox, who tried to classify Data as Federation property, and Dr. Pulaski, who eventually came to accept him as a colleague.

* GeniusBruiser: He could knock a Klingon on his ass without even flinching, but at the same time could single-handedly outwit an entire Romulan fleet.

* HypercompetentSidekick: Despite being third in command, is fully capable of operating most of the ship on his own when the situation requires it. Aside from SuperStrength and lightning-quick reflexes, he is also quite a skilled tactician, capable of analyzing patterns of attack and coming up with countermeasures on a level even the Borg would respect. Many an episode, up to and including ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', have to contrive reasons for Data not being present for the main plot to unfold instead of Data being a walking DeusExMachina.

* InformedAttribute: Even apart from the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, the Data's frequently asserted emotionlessness is not born out by his behavior. We frequently see Data exhibiting desire, hesitation, confusion, awkwardness, fascination, regret, enthusiasm, and other states of mind that are generally considered emotional reactions. A genuinely emotionless character would be a lot less engaging.

* KindheartedCatLover: Data ''adores'' his cat Spot. Not only is he shown holding and cuddling her several times, he went so far as to compose a poem about her. In RealLife, [[{{Irony}} Brent Spiner dislikes cats]].
** In "All Good Things," Future Data is shown in his Oxford quarters, which is full of cats.

* PhraseCatcher: "'''Thank you,''' Mr. Data" after Data's explanations get gratuitous.

->'''Dubbed By''': Creator/ClaudeGiraud (European French, 1987-1994)

** When his second wife was murdered, he destroyed an entire ''shipyard'' in her honor. By causing a star to go nova.

* IdenticalGrandson: Creator/MichaelDorn was already a regular as Lieutenant Worf for four seasons on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' when he made a minor appearance in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', where he played a Klingon defense attorney who makes a futile attempt to argue on Captain Kirk's behalf during his mock trial in Klingon captivity. The defense attorney's name? Colonel Worf. Naturally, the Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse confirms that Worf is Colonel Worf's grandson (that's right, the father of Worf, son of Mogh, is named Mogh, son of Worf) and was named after him.

* CarpetOfVirility : As shown in the first-season episode "Angel One."
* CharacterTic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVIGhYMwRgs He has a very peculiar way of getting in and out of chairs.]] Likely due to how tall Jonathan Frakes is and the aforementioned back injury. As well as [[CaptainMorganPose his tendency to lean on table and consoles]], also due to how tall Creator/JonathanFrakes is, since it helps him stay in frame.

* CharacterTic: Data's head-tilt when confused or perplexed about human behavior, or when encountering something particularly fascinating. It's InTheBlood, so to speak, as well; his daughter [[spoiler:[[Series/StarTrekPicard Soji]]]], inherited it.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: He was beaten into the Academy by his Benzite colleague Mordock.

** [[Creator/GeneRoddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry]] openly admitted that Wesley Crusher was a [[WishFulfillment younger, idealized version of himself]]. Oddly enough, though, the character was originally envisioned as [[DistaffCounterpart a teenaged GIRL named Leslie]]...
** Even in real life. When Wesley aced his second entrance exam for the Academy, Roddenberry commemorated it by presenting Wil with the second lieutenant bars Gene earned in the Air Corps. Present at the ceremony was General Colin Powell(!).
* AuthorityInNameOnly: Picard derives some humor in wrangling a rank for Wesley so he can sit at a command post on the bridge. He even gets a "uniform" consisting of a rainbow tunic.
* ChasteHero: In what is becoming a ''Star Trek'' tradition, the ensign isn't interested in (or is actively discouraged from) getting nookie.
** Ultimately subverted in the episode "The Game," where things get flirtatious with a similarly nerdy MilitaryBrat who transfers around as a specialist. Had she been around longer than a single episode, things would have likely progressed quite far.

* ImpossibleGenius:
** Just as you're thinking making a mini tractor beam is a pretty nifty idea Wesley goes and ruins it by piecing together [[QuoteMining various Picard intercom messages]] to make it sound like Wesley is the one giving orders. ''Acting'' Captain Wesley Crusher?
** Wesley is a sneaky sod and manages to smuggle some antimatter he's been using for his experiments to the ''Hathaway''. Where did he get ''that''? No matter, Riker uses it to refuel the warp drive and give them an edge against the Ferengi.

* NewMeat: Picard agrees to sponsor him to Starfleet and oversee his progress, Worf has agreed to tuck him in at night, and Riker is going to supervise his growth into a man. He's spoiled for choice when it comes to father figures.
* PluckyMiddie: InSpace At least what the writers aimed at in earlier episodes.
* PutOnABus: Ronald D. Moore pointed out that so much hoopla had been made of Wesley's "genius" that it seemed an odd fit for him to be another cadet.
** TheBusCameBack: He'd quit Starfleet Academy in "Journey's End", but returned at some point between this episode and ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'', in which he's a Lieutenant. In a deleted scene, he tells Picard that he'll be part of Riker's engineering crew aboard the USS ''Titan''.

** Ultimately [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in "The First Duty", where Wesley's overconfidence as this character finally gets the best of him, and he has to deal with the sobering fact it led to one of his academy classmates [[WhamEpisode being killed]].

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: He went through a period of uncertainty during the first (and to an extent, second) season. It's not clear at first whether he's supposed to have emotions or not, as he grins awkwardly, gets drunk and subsequently seems to act on sexual desire, and often speaks in an oddly musical tone. He also uses contractions. The show only cemented its characters and premise in the third season, and that's when Data's famously emotionless and inquisitive personality really took hold. Fortunately, a conversation he has with Riker in the first episode does help pave the way for his future characterization.

* DoAnythingRobot: Culminating in Data acting as a ''flotation device'' ("In the event of a water landing...") in the movies.
** In "Descent," it was mentioned that he wasn't neutrally buoyant in an earlier incident, so he'd had to walk along the ocean floor to get out of the water. The floatation may have been added as a response to that. Indeed, prior to inflating, Data is seen walking along the floor of a lake.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Early episodes hinted that Data was more of a cyborg than an android, such as when he was infected with the Psi-2000 variant virus and another time when he mentions eating something unpalatable to humans to maintain certain elements within his body. This was dropped quickly from the series.
* EatingMachine: He ingests chemical compounds to keep his insides well-lubricated and functioning.
* EatingOptional: Data eats even though he does not have to, in order to more closely emulate human behavior.

* FantasticRacism: Often the target of this.

* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: There is some element of racism involved in Data being an artificial life form, even after his rights as an individual are established. Neither Starfleet nor Picard to be in any hurry to promote him, despite the fact that every time he is placed in a command situation, he handles it superbly.
** Partly acknowledged in the prequel novel ''The Buried Age'', where Picard's first meeting with Data included the observation that Data hadn't advanced particularly far in his career to that point because his lack of ambition meant that he never really pushed himself, simply doing the job assigned to him without actually ''asking'' for anything more. This could also establish his reasons for not advancing in rank in the series; he became comfortable in his role on the ''Enterprise'' and never sought to advance further because he didn't see the need to pursue new opportunities.

* CustomUniformOfSexy: Averted in the last two seasons, when she started wearing a standard blue science uniform after Captain Jellico ordered her to. Marina Sirtis had been pushing for that change for some time and fans wholeheartedly agreed that she looked great in one.

** Marina Sirtis has said in interviews that she was told she had to do a "Betazed" accent, meaning she pretty much had to make one up. When Troi's mother, and eventually other Betazeds, showed up, it became increasingly clear that no one else were going to bother with the accent. Sirtis tried asking a producer about this, and was told that Troi got the accent from her father. We eventually meet her father, who doesn't have an accent either. So her accent dialect continues to remain unexplained on-screen.

* DecompositeCharacter: Of Spock. Like Spock, she's a half-alien, half-human hybrid who identifies fully with her alien side, and shows minor discomfort at being reminded of her human heritage. She'll occasionally flaunt her alien heritage to show [[HypocriticalHumour her apparent superiority over humans,]] though unlike Spock, she's not ''as'' vocal about it. Fortunately, after the events of "The Loss", she grows to appreciate her human side.
** And like Spock, her alien half is what grants her her PsychicPowers.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" during crew introductions, Troi is seen trying to communicate telepathically with Riker. In later episodes, it's all but stated that Deanna can only sense emotions. Justified, as her human heritage downplays her Betazoid abilties.
** For good measure, the only times she's able to use telepathy is when she's "talking" to her mother during PetTheDog moments. Again {{Justified}} as Lwaxana is full Betazoid.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Website/SFDebris puts it best: ("The Bonding")
-->'''Jeremy:''' Your parents?\\
'''Worf:''' No, [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest they're dead]].\\
'''Jeremy:''' Your wife?\\
'''Worf:''' First or second? ...Oh, nevermind, [[TheLostLenore they're both dead.]]\\
'''Jeremy:''' Your brother?\\
'''Worf:''' He's ''not'' dead. But only because [[CainAndAbel they stopped me from killing him]].\\
'''Jeremy:''' HUH??\\
'''Worf:''' It was for his own good.\\
'''Jeremy:''' Any children?\\
'''Worf:''' [[IHaveNoSon Only the son who shames me]].

** Website/SFDebris did [[https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/yt_worfandklingonhonor.php an extensive analysis of Worf's code of honor]] and deconstructed why he is so different from the majority of other Klingons in the franchise- namely, he was raised knowing that Klingons were supposed to be "honorable" and strove to be so himself, but since he was raised by humans his interpretation of honour was closer to what we would call "chivalry" than the Klingons' obsession with their standing and public face.

* OddFriendship: He's fairly close friends with Riker [[note]] in ''Ethics'', after Worf is paralyzed, Riker is who he asks for help in performing the Hegh'bat (a Klingon suicide ritual), and in one of the alternate realities shown in ''Parallels'' where Riker is captain of the Enterprise, Worf is his [[NumberTwo First Officer]] [[/note]], despite Will's amiable personality contrasting with Worf's stoic one. As a result, Riker enjoys taking the piss out of Worf at times.

-->'''Worf:''' I don't understand their humor, either.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulu: It gets her frozen for her troubles, but she still tells Q and his KangarooCourt to go to hell in a seriously ballsy PatrickStewartSpeech.

* CharacterOverlap: After Riker, Troi is the second-most frequently seen ''Star Trek'' character: ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager VOY]]'': [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E10Pathfinder Pathfinder]], [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E24LifeLine Life Line]], [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E6InsideMan Inside Man]]; ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise ENT]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E21TheseAreTheVoyages These Are The Voyages...]]"; ''[[Series/StarTrekPicard PIC]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E07Nepenthe Nepenthe]]"; ''[[WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks LWD]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E10NoSmallParts No Small Parts]]".

* DecompositeCharacter: Of Spock believe it or not. Like Spock, she's a half-alien, half-human hybrid who identifies fully with her alien side, and shows minor discomfort at being reminded of her human heritage. She'll occasionally flaunt her alien heritage to show [[HypocriticalHumour her apparent superiority over humans,]] though unlike Spock, she's not ''as'' vocal about it. Fortunately, after the events of "The Loss", she grows to appreciate her human side, a stark contrast to the ageing Vulcan hybrid, who took his disgust for his human heritage [[Film/StarTrekBeyond to the grave]].

** She did mention that she liked Westerns again briefly.

** Fails to notice why the shy, social awkward Barclay is so nervous around her (hint: he's got a massive crush on the good counselor), causing him to suffer a relapse into his holodeck addiction. Specifically, the one with a copy of her in.

* MaleGaze: her ample breasts and cleavage are more than often on screen.

* Irony: Despite having the longest screen time of any of the Enterprise ships (7 seasons and one film) Enterprise-D has the shortest service life of all of them being destroyed after only 7 years of use. In another bit of Irony the one with the longest is supposedly Enterprise-B with at least 50 years of service, but only appeared for about 15 minutes in the begining of Generations, the shortest appearance of any of the ships. The original Enterprise by comparison is about somewhere in the middle. A 40 year service life and an screen time of 3 tv seasons and 3 films, not counting the Reboot.

* EightiesHair: Troi looks like a hard rock singer with her massive frizzy hair and miniskirt in "Farpoint". (Marina Sirtis had kind of a "{{Music/Cher}} meets {{Music/Selena}}" thing going on in the [=1980s=].) They didn't start to get her hair under control until ''First Contact''.

** Amusingly, despite his unease with children, it seems that most children [[OneOfTheKids take a liking to him right away.]] We once even see a class onboard the ''Enterprise'' having a "Captain Picard Day", much to his embarrassment (although he seems somewhat amused when telling an admiral, "Hehehe, I'm a role model.").

** For good measure, the only times she's able to use telepathy is when she's "talking" to her mother during PetTheDog moments. Again {{Justified}} as Lwaxana is full Betazoid..

** He's also frequently on the receiving end as a result of being a Klingon.

* Expy: To Captain Kirk, with his way with [[BoldlyComing (alien)]] women and his reputation as TheAce.

As the page was getting long, it was broken up into multiple pages to keep things more manageable.