177: 80s TV Detective

Earl Grey: A Star Trek The Next Generation Podcast

Mental Health and Counselling.

One of the stand out additions to the Enterprise-D bridge crew when Star Trek returned to television was a ships counsellor . The addition of a counsellor to the crew was a very bold step and reflected the attitudes of the 1980s towards therapy and sharing your feelings. Did The Next Generation's use of a counsellor and episodes tackling mental health help tackle the taboo of discussing mental health? Or did the use of Guinan as a confidenant with a cocktail reflect the type of therapy that many would prefer.

In this episode of Earl Grey, hosts Richard Marquez and Lee Hutchison are joined by Duncan Barrett from Trek.fm's Primitive Culture to discuss how The Next Generation views mental health and the role of the ships counsellor. The team discuss their views and experiences of counselling and if the approach used in the series actually would help the Enterprise crewmembers. Richard looks at how counselling is used in the Armed Forces and if it echoes how it is used on a starship.

Note: There is a minor audio issue in the first nine minutes of this episode.

Feature Introduction - (00:01:07) Duncan Barrett - (00:01:37) Mental Health and Troi - (00:09:50) Sign of the Times - (00:14:17) Jarhead - (00:18:39) Picard and Troi - (00:31:40) Too Familiar - (00:33:56) Troi on Voyager - (00:37:54) Coming Back (00:39:35) I Tend Bar and Listen - (00:42:50) Life Experience - (00:47:00) Empathy and Skills - (00:53:37) Mental Health in Trek - (00:57:35) Plugs and Closing - (01:06:22) POTFM - (01:10:51) Patron (01:12:22) Contact (01:45:00)

Hosts Lee Hutchison and Richard Marquez

Guest Duncan Barrett

Production Lee Hutchison (Editor and Producer) Richard Marquez (Producer) Amy Nelson (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Michael E. Hueter (Associate Producer) Justin Oser (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)