Marina Sirtis spent seven seasons and four films as the officer who tells the captain what everyone else is feeling, and played it with more steadiness than the writing usually deserved. The films, in particular, hardly knew what to do with her.
Fi1m perspective
Deanna Troi's job on the Enterprise is to sense things. Someone appears on the viewscreen or walks onto the bridge, and Sirtis tells Patrick Stewart what that person is really feeling, in a low, even voice that never hurries. It is a hard part to make interesting, because the character is defined by other people's emotions rather than her own, and Sirtis's answer was to underplay: listen, wait a beat, make the reading sound like a diagnosis rather than a trick. For years she did it in civilian clothes while everyone around her wore uniform, and when the character was finally put in regulation dress the change in how she was written was as large as the change in what she wore.
That is the shape of the whole run. She moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and was on the point of going home when Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) cast her. Seven seasons followed, then four films, Star Trek: Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), and a return in Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023) that showed the character in later life. The usual complaint about the early seasons is that Troi was decoration, and Sirtis has said as much herself: "I was originally cast to be the brains of the Enterprise. Somehow, I became The Chick." Her later, uniformed work is generally held to be the stronger, and the romance with Worf the low point. We have not reviewed the series and will not judge it here.
The films are where we have watched her, and they are not kind. Star Trek: First Contact (1996), directed by her screen partner Jonathan Frakes, is much the better film and the one that gets her out of the counsellor's chair, and it is also so crowded that she is part of a supporting cast our review barely found room to mention. Nemesis gives Troi a wedding to Riker in the first reel and then one queasy scene the film plainly believes is daring. We winced at it, not because of what happens but because Sirtis is asked to carry a strand of the plot on a look and a shudder, and having done so she is sent back to a console for the rest of the picture. She does what is asked of her. It is not much.
Away from the franchise she has worked steadily in guest roles (NCIS, Grey's Anatomy, Titans) and in voice work, where the measured delivery and the air of someone who already knows what you are about to say get her cast as authority figures. It is a decent living from a single note, and the note was always cleaner than the material around it. If you want to see what she can do, the television series is where to look, and by the films' account you should not expect the cinema to have caught up.
Biography
Marina Sirtis is a British-American actress. She was born on 29 March 1955 in London to Greek parents and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
She is best known for playing Counselor Deanna Troi in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) and the feature films Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). She has appeared in other television series including NCIS, Titans and Stargate SG-1.
Sirtis began her career in British repertory theatre and supporting film roles before moving to the United States in 1986. She married rock guitarist Michael Lamper in 1992.
