Why Deanna Troi Lost Her Accent In Star Trek: The Next Generation

When casting call sheets went out for "Star Trek: The Next Generation," way back in December of 1986, the character of Counselor Deanna Troi was listed as "an alien women who is tall (5'8" – 6") and slender, about 30 years old, and quite beautiful. [...] Deanna is probably foreign (anywhere from Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Icelandic, etc.) with looks and accent to match. [...] Her alien 'look' is still to be determined." The name of Troi's species hadn't yet been determined in 1986, but Trekkies can now tell you that she is half-human and half-Betazoid. 

Marina Sirtis was cast in the role, and she was a 30-year-old British actress of Cypriot descent, so the casting directors nailed it. Her alien "look" would eventually entail black eyes, and Sirtis wore contact lenses throughout her tenure on the series.

As for the accent, the showrunners let Sirtis merely keep her own British accent, rather than inventing something alien. Her accent, however, became something of a sticking point for Sirtis. At the 2018 Paradise City Supercon, Sirtis appeared on stage to discuss her years on "Next Generation," and she affably described the unusual alien accent situation with fans. For one, she wondered why Patrick Stewart, one of the most British men alive, was selected to play a French character named Jean-Luc Picard. She even mocked Stewart's inability to affect dialects, saying that his French accent was in the same ballpark as Inspector Clouseau from the "Pink Panther" movies. 

Sirtis also pointed out that her accent at the very start of "Next Generation" was markedly different from her accent at the end of the show, seven seasons later. Sirtis explained that she moved from sounding British to sounding more American largely because of some forgetful creative decisions on the part of showrunner Rick Berman. 

To briefly return to Stewart's accent for a moment: Sirtis posited that the reason a French character sounded British in the 24th century was because, at some point in the future, England will invade France and take over the country. She noted that no one on "Star Trek" has ever had a French accent, and it's because France was wiped out by the English. This is a marvelous piece of headcanon on Sirtis' part. 

When it came to her own accent, though, Sirtis became confused when she filmed the first-season episode "Haven" (November 30, 1987). That episode saw the arrival of Troi's mother Lwaxana, a larger-than-life Auntie Mame-type character who flirts with every man in her vicinity, and who has a romantic regard for Captain Picard. Lwaxana was played by Majel Barrett, an American actress with an American accent. Sirtis, it seems, was the only one who noticed that her Brit-sounding character had an American-sounding mother, and brought her concerns to Rick Berman. She told the story: 

"So then we meet my mom, my mom comes on the show, and she's obviously from the American sector of Betazed. Because she hasn't got an accent. So, being as I am me, I have to go to the producers. I had to. 'Excuse me. Hi. It's me. I thought I was doing the Betazoid accent, and ... just met mom. American.' They said [crestfallen] 'Oh.'"

Sirtis paused to explain that producers hate talking to actors, and that all the meetings actors tend to have with higher-ups tend to end quickly. But she felt she had a legitimate issue with her accent, and wanted an explanation. The answer was ... okay.

She finally asked outright:

"So where does my accent come from if I'm not doing the Betazoid accent? 'It's your father's accent, now get out of my office.'"

This was an acceptable answer, as Troi's father was a human Starfleet officer who died years before. Perhaps he picked up a Betazoid accent while stationed on the planet. One could tell that no one put any thought into it, but the answer, Sirtis determined, was close enough for jazz.

But then, thanks to flashbacks and visions, audiences finally did meet Troi's father Ian (Amick Byram) in the episode "Dark Page" (October 30, 1993) ... and he also had an American accent. Sirtis continued: 

"Alright. Father's accent. Yeah, 'cause we met him. In Season six. And he was from Idaho or somewhere, right? So, I had to go back. 'Hello, Rick. Hi. Me again. So, um, I thought I was doing my dad's accent, and he doesn't have an accent.' '[Sigh] They sent you away to school, alright? Get out of my office.'" 

Okay, so it seems that Troi picked up her accent when she was studying abroad, and she just kept it into adulthood. That's as good an explanation as any, for something that, to repeat, attracted no thought from the production team. 

Sirtis then encouraged her audience to go back to listen to her accent in the pilot episode, and then immediately skip to the show's final episode, made seven years later, and compare her accent in both. She feels she sounds far more American at the end. She joked that her character's voice, over the years, drifted ever westward across the Atlantic, and that the final episode was her accent arriving at Ellis Island. 

Had the show continued for several more seasons, perhaps Troi would sound wholly American by the end. Just like her parents.