One of the best characters on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is Tarima Sadal (Zoe Steiner), daughter of the Betazoid President. She first joined the War College before joining the Academy and further developed her relationship with Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta). With her powerful telepathic abilities, she’s the biggest Betazoid character since Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis).
Speaking to ScreenRant, Jonathan Frakes revealed that the Caleb-Tarima relationship mirrored a story he always wanted to tell on how a younger William Riker and Troi met and fell in love. Frakes then explained how he arranged a meeting between the two actresses by saying:
"I told both of them that. And as a matter of fact, I was just on the Star Trek Cruise with Zoe, who I introduced to Marina, and it was a magical moment, because I had explained to them that I was in this same relationship as a character."
Frakes continued by saying:
"Zoe had always wanted to meet Marina, and we were doing this musical skit show together, and I introduced them, and I got a picture of them. It was quite wonderful, I think for both of them, the next generation of Betazoids."
Sadly, we haven’t gotten to see said picture yet, but we can hope it pops up soon. It’s great to know Sirtis and Steiner got along well, and it makes sense that Sirtis would give some advice to the younger actress on handling the role.
If Paramount ever gets around to a TNG prequel series, exploring the start of Troi and Riker's relationship would be a fun plotline. As it is, we see the Academy cadets Caleb and Tarima making this romance work well.
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