It is hard for people today to understand the world that "Troi" surfaced in. At the time TNG came out, mass culture was obsessed with what was called "channeli

It is hard for people today to understand the world that "Troi" surfaced in. At the time TNG came out, mass culture was obsessed with what was called "channeling", which was taking dictation from "spirit guides" that everybody was supposed to have riding around on them. Everybody knew people who claimed to have a spirit guide, somebody who had been a person two or twenty centuries ago, yammering fake-profound spiritual commentary on everything. Whole racks in bookstores were full of "channeled" books that today you can't even find any of at used bookstores or even thrift shops. It has all washed away, and people are embarrassed about it now. Troi started as a sort of parody of the channelers that must have been especially thick on the ground in LA where, I guess, the writers lived. She kind of outlasted the phenomenon. That is why she never had anything to do, because what was there for a Ship's Channeler to do? They mostly talked at great length but made no sense, but she couldn't be doing that when they were getting shot at.