Troi is an empath and can sense the emotions and intentions of aliens. Picard frequently asks for her opinion and uses it to inform his decisions or to do better diplomacy. It would be much more inconvenient if he had to call her on the commbadge every time
And then all three of them get all campy and crack jokes with each other at the end of the episode
And Bones just hangs out on the bridge despite not having a chair or real purpose to being there.
Bones on the bridge makes a hell of a lot more sense than Troi on the bridge. Especially not in the chair at the captain’s left side.
“We’re going into deep space where we are meeting unknown entities. Let’s make sure we give the therapist a privileged place when we do that.”
Troi is an empath and can sense the emotions and intentions of aliens. Picard frequently asks for her opinion and uses it to inform his decisions or to do better diplomacy. It would be much more inconvenient if he had to call her on the commbadge every time