The Loss

TNG Season 4 Episode 10
Air Date: December 31st, 1990

The Enterprise gets caught in some unknown phenomenon that causes them to be dragged towards a cosmic string, which will certainly destroy the Enterprise. They discover they are caught in a herd of flatlanders, a being that lives and perceives only two dimensional space.

Meanwhile when they first encountered these flatlanders, Counselor Troi loses her emphatic abilities. To us this doesn't seem that big a deal. Since humans don't have emphatic powers beyond what we can observe with our existing senses, the crew believes she can still do her job. But for Troi, this is like losing an arm or a leg and that the loss to her is as traumatic.

They soon discover that the flatlanders may be the cause of her loss of her powers, and that she is still able to sense the flatlanders. She realizes that they are drawn to the cosmic string like a bug would head towards a light. Data is able to simulate a cosmic string in another direction which gives the Enterprise the chance they need to escape. Afterwards, Troi gets her powers back and realizes that the cosmic string isn't the destruction of the flatlanders, but rather it is their home.

Quotes

"You have no idea! No idea what this is like. How can you know what it's like to lose something you never had?" - Counselor Troi

"Do you want to talk about it?" - Guinan
"No." - Counselor Troi
"Good. I get so tired of people coming in with their problems. They come in, they want a shoulder to cry on, and generally it turns out to be mine." - Guinan

"Guinan, people come to you to talk about things they want to reveal. As ship's counselor, you have to get them to talk about things they don't want to reveal." - Counselor Troi

"Is this how you handle all your personnel problems?" - Counselor Troi
"Sure. You'd be surprised how far a hug goes with Geordi, or Worf." - Cmdr. Riker

"Right now, I feel as two-dimensional as our friends out there - in the universe, but barely aware of it. Just trying to survive, on instinct." - Counselor Troi

"Mr. Data, what velocity would put us back on schedule?" - Captain Picard
"A resumption of our present course at warp six will place us in the T'lli Beta system in six days, thirteen hours, 47 minutes." - Lt. Cmdr. Data
"What, no seconds?" - Cmdr. Riker
"I have discovered, sir, a certain level of impatience when I calculate a lengthy time interval to the nearest second. However, if you wish." - Lt. Cmdr. Data
"No, no. Minutes is fine." - Cmdr. Riker