Pedantic Star Trek discussion #134: Riker's Field Commission

It always seemed to me that for Riker, serving on the Federation's flagship vessel was a far bigger career move than taking his own command of a lesser known ship. The missions they were assigned to and the situations they got themselves into would have been far more adventures, while the people they met along their adventures would be the most important in the quadrant, not to mention the opportunities he could create by being associated with the flagship.

Also, maybe he was waiting for the Picard's luck (or heart) to catch up with him so he could swoop in and permanently take over command of the Enterprise.

 

Eh the "career move" would've been to take the promotion. Being second in command of the A team as opposed to captain of the B team is personal preference.

 

Yeah, it seems clear to me that, at least by TBOBW, Riker's priorities in life had changed. The upwardly mobile career man from season one who had left Deanna behind because he saw the opportunities of advancement had given way to somebody who was more comfortable in his own boots. Multiple times over the TNG run we get the situation of Riker being in effective command of the Enterprise, and he never seems completely happy about it. Putting aside the actual circumstances of his 'promotion' in BOBW, I'm not convinced Riker really had a thirst for Captaincy by that stage.

It wasn't so much the idea of being first officer on the Enterprise being better than captain of any other ship. IMO it was more that he'd settled into a groove where he was happy, and he changed his priorities accordingly. As long as Picard still wanted him there he was happy to remain Jean-Luc's XO. Occasional moments (Shelby, Admiral Pressman, Thomas Riker) saw him get a bit introspective about exactly why he changed his priorities, but it seems obvious to me that the guy we met in season one who had a fire in his belly for command was not the same man we saw through most of the series' run.

 

Besides, given how much action the D gets, simply hanging around and waiting for Picard to be blasted ain't a bad strategy for making captain either.

 

As others have said, peoples perspectives and goals change. They might want to be in command early on but as they grow older they become happy where they are.

I don't think you need even look as far as the military to see that, business have managers (CO)and deputy managers (XO) it might be fair to say that when some of those deputy mangers started out they had aims of one day being manager, but eventually for whatever reason decided to stay in the deputy role.

Which is worth more happiness or being in charge?