Star Trek: 10 Times You Asked 'WHAT Were They Thinking?!'
6. The Child
This entry is almost understandable when one remembers that it was a script that had been written for Star Trek: Phase II, and recycled as a Deanna Troi story for the second season of The Next Generation. Our main issue with it is: why was this the first show given to Troi this season when the first season had done little to establish her as a fully-fledged character?
The second season also saw the arrival of Dr. Pulaski, replacing the recently fired Gates McFadden. Denise Crosby had been killed off in Skin Of Evil. It wasn’t a great time for female characters (or performers) in the show, so opening the season with an episode that sees Troi effectively assaulted by an alien force, then used by said alien to give birth to itself, does nothing to help.
The episode attempts to give Troi agency by having her decide to keep the baby, yet even this is hard to understand as the whole affair is so rushed. There is a sweet message deep inside the script as Ian genuinely seems to care for her when he is alive, yet Troi is used as a plot device as opposed to a character. It wasn’t a singing start to the second season.