Commander riker plus#
Commander riker series#

It is, to be honest, slightly puzzling why in the main universe Riker was permitted to return to being Picard’s first officer following the Borg crisis, especially given his own effective handling of it.

Commander riker plus#

One where history flowed much as it did in the main Star Trek universe, except that Picard could not be saved, plus another where the Borg have overrun everything and Riker’s Enterprise is one of the last ships holding on against the dark. Both spin out of 'The Best of Both Worlds'. Two of the parallel universes seen in 'Parallels' show Riker commanding Enterprise. So the future Enterprise we see in 'Future Imperfect' is commanded by Captain Riker, Picard having been promoted to Admiral and bequeathed Riker the ship. At this point, early in the fourth season, TNG gives up on pretending that Riker might leave to captain another vessel, and instead plays that note, the idea of Riker as captain, to emphasise difference from the natural order of things. In 'The Best of Both Worlds Part One', Riker is offered the captaincy of the USS Melbourne, only to find himself pushed up the centre seat of the Enterprise following the capture of Jean Luc Picard by the Borg, then pushed back down from it following his own daring rescue of the captain, but only after the Borg had sent the USS Melbourne the way of the USS Drake. In Season Two’s 'The Icarus Factor', Riker turns down the USS Aries, at least partially because his estranged dad is the person who has to brief him about taking the gig.

Commander riker series#

Now, obviously, the real reason for this is that Jonathan Frakes did not want to leave the series, and the series didn’t want rid of Jonathan Frakes. Twice more in TNG, Riker turns down his own ship. But as the USS Drake is lost with all hands in the first season TNG episode 'The Arsenal of Freedom', it worked out better than accepting its centre seat would have done. (And Riker later implies that himself while standing in the wreckage of the Enterprise-D in the final scene of Star Trek: Generations.) That didn’t work out for him, of course. Maybe Riker thought that Picard wouldn’t last six years as captain and he’d get to be in charge of a better, bigger ship on schedule. It’s arguably even more psychologically healthy to be that kind of person. Plenty of people have opted to be a smaller fish in a bigger pond. He would have been 29 at the time, achieving his aim six years early, but instead he opted for the job of first officer on board the federation flagship, the new, Galaxy class USS Enterprise-D. Three years later, Riker was offered his first command, the USS Drake. (The incident during which the duplicate Riker was created it’s still complicated.) Lieutenant Riker of the USS Potemkin is promoted to Lieutenant Commander following his exceptional valour at the evacuation of Nervala IV. By 2361 he’s already a Lieutenant, having served on the USS Pegasus as an Ensign. The threads of Riker’s career before TNG suggest a man who might have achieved that aim. In season six’s 'Second Chances' we’re told (by Thomas Riker, a transporter duplicate of Will it’s complicated) that he (they) set himself the goal making captain by 35. Early TNG establishes that Riker was born in 2335, and that he graduated from Starfleet Academy in 2357, when he would probably have been 22. Because almost nothing he says or does at any point in the series’ 178 episodes and four spin-off films, suggests anything of the sort. Zheng He, James Cooray Smith looks back at Riker's bridge history.Ĭommander William Riker is introduced to Star Trek: The Next Generation as a man ‘desperate’ to command his own starship. As the new Star Trek Starships Collection releases the William Riker-captained U.S.S.