Star Trek nearly wrote out Deanna Troi after the first season of the Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation launched what was once a show into a franchise. The series, which had a rough first season, found its legs and because of that, there have been seven films outside of the original franchise since its premiere, as well as seven-soon to be eight-series. That doesn’t mean things weren’t always great. In fact, by the end of the first season, two of the main cast members were about to be let go.

Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar, wasn’t happy with her time on the show and was given her release. Producers wanted to keep her, but it wasn’t up to them. Then a clash with producer Maurice Hurley caused Gates McFadden to quit the series, resulting in her character Dr. Beverly Crusher being put on the shelf for season two. If those two women hadn’t quit, the producers were ready to fire Marina Sirtis, who played Deanna Troi.

See, it wasn’t anything Sirtis had done, the creative staff wasn’t too happy with how Troi had been written throughout the first season.

Because of this change, she went from a minor bridge character, to arguably the other half of Jean-Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) conscience. She got more involved in certain stories and became one of the biggest names the show has ever had.

Things improved for the female representation too. Both McFadden and Crosby would return, with McFadden reprising Crusher from the third season-on as a series mainstay and Crosby returning as a cameo as an alternate reality version of Yar, and then later as Yar’s half-Romulan child, Sela.

Not only that but Whoopie Goldberg joined the series as well, as franchise favorite Guinan. Not only that, but future series would also feature more women in prominent roles.

It’s a bit odd to think about it, but had Crosby and McFadden been happy with their jobs, Sirtis may have never become the franchise favorite that she ultimately became.