The Riker Conspiracy

[Prax]

Disclaimer: I know what the common answer to this topic is and I know it's in the FAQ. However, it hasn't been brought up in a long time, and as far as I could find, this perspective has never been brought up here at TrekBBS.

Now that that's out of the way...

...Now that you know

I just recently watched this episode and am not too satisfied with the common explanation for this confrontation. Yes, it could have worked that Riker was just trying to rid himself of a possible awkward encounter, but what if this was a SF intelligence operation?

If Starfleet got wind of information that Cardassia was building an invasion fleet, what would they do? Well, we get an idea of that in "Chain of Command." They'd be extremely concerned! Verifying such a threàt would be top priority.

In Chain of Command, remember how secretive the whole operation was? And it failed. In this case they would have to penetrate deep into Cardassian territory, penetrate an obsidian Order "stronghold" and get the information back. In the episode "Defiant" they get exactly that.

They would need plausible deniability to such a convincing degree, that the Cardassians would be satisfied. So going back to the episode, what was O'Brien doing to the Defiant when T. Riker and Kira entered? Perhaps he was prepping the ship to simulate the warp core breach that happened right after he left.

What was Riker meeting with Sisko for? Apparently, Will Riker has been to DS9, but never met with Sisko before. Sisko, no doubt, would have to be apprised of this plan, as he has a key role in it. Perhaps O'Brien was also. He's the one that lost the ship on sensors. Perhaps Kira was Not, and it caught O'Brien off guard when Riker entered with her.

So what happens next? Sisko immediately meets with Dukat, and offers his help finding the ship. He also brokers a deal, by using the power struggle between the Obsidian Order and the military to his advantage, to get his ship back, Kira back, the Defiants sensor logs, and Riker's crew.

At the end, after Sisko has communicated with the Defiant, and Tom Riker has surrendered his freedom, Kira tells him "We're gonna get you outta there, Tom."

At this point, you might be asking "If this were true, why didn't they tell us about it." Well, Operations like this are highly compartmentalized, on a need to know basis, and we as an audience don't have a high enough security clearance.

It's also possible that the writers didn't have a high enough security clearance, and they didn't know either...


Stay Sharp

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Seems plausible...

But what I really wanted to comment on is how heart-breakingly hurt Miles looks in that scene. Like, I still hurt for him. Terrible things happen to Miles like every five minutes, but this particular scene is just too much pain for me.

 

[Prax]

He does look especially sad there. Poor Miles.

 

[Jedman67]

In the original script, O'brien and Riker were going to be merged in the transporter into a new entity called "Miker". At the last minute they scrapped that but some of the dialog remains.

 

[Tosk]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how does this theory explain the Riker/O'Brien moment at all? If anything, it sounds like it causes it to make no sense.

If Riker and O'Brien were both working on a secret operation, why would Riker need to put Miles off his game with an odd comment? He'd just say "Hey Miles, how're they hanging?" and moved on. Miles would have known not to blow his cover.

 

[Prax]

Miles was caught off guard by Kira's appearance. Kira was not told by Sisko what was going on. Riker didn't want her to find out it was a SF operation.

 

[Tosk]

And how is that helped by the way he talks to Miles and then tries to wave it off? Miles was not visibly shaken by Kira being there, he was friendly and open to Riker who then makes it weird by rebuffing him. If he had simply played along and been friendly too, how would that tip Kira off?

 

[UnknownSample]

I'm going to use that thing about the audience not having a high enough security clearance in future discussions. And shame on all of you for trying to find out things beyond your security level.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Riker's eyes look very, very odd in those screen shots.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how does this theory explain the Riker/O'Brien moment at all? If anything, it sounds like it causes it to make no sense.

If Riker and O'Brien were both working on a secret operation, why would Riker need to put Miles off his game with an odd comment? He'd just say "Hey Miles, how're they hanging?" and moved on. Miles would have known not to blow his cover.

Maybe if just Tom Riker was involved in this "operation"?

Though with the theft of the Defiant, it sounds more like a Section31 deal than SFI, if anything.

 

[Jbarney]

River looks like he has been infected by the black slime from the "X-Files"....

 

[Phoenix219]

No, he's possessed by a demon...

 

[Prax]

The eyes must signify that he's Riker's evil twin. He even transforms his beard into a goatee later, so we know he's evil. Plus, you'd have to be pretty evil to hurt ol' miles' feelings so badly.

 

[USS Triumphant]

In the original script, O'brien and Riker were going to be merged in the transporter into a new entity called "Miker". At the last minute they scrapped that but some of the dialog remains.

This actually seems like a win scenario for Miles, since it might mean Keiko isn't completely repulsed by him anymore.

And how is that helped by the way he talks to Miles and then tries to wave it off? Miles was not visibly shaken by Kira being there, he was friendly and open to Riker who then makes it weird by rebuffing him. If he had simply played along and been friendly too, how would that tip Kira off?

Maybe he was worried that O'Brien would assume that Kira was in the know and say something that gave things away, and that was the quickest way he thought of to shut him down?

 

[Tosk]

So a conspiracy where no one bothered to tell O'Brien who else was in on it? Cool.

 

[Phoenix219]

I hated what they did with Tom Riker. He wasn't a clone, or an evil double; he was no more prone to traiterous or disasterous behavior as regular Riker. He was as real and original a Riker as anyone could be. I never agreed with the plot decisions that led to any of this, so thinking of him as a Section 31 operative on secret important missions of sort completely makes sense to me, and agrees with things like Riker being involved with the Pegasus.

I wonder what kind of secret life and history could be overlayed onto the Riker we saw on screen the whole time? Is there any way of making him more interesting, retroactively? Is there any way he could have been on some kind of mission the whole time? Hrm. What kind of overarching stories could be retconned into TNG if it was rebooted? (or if the whole 24th century was rebooted into one serialized epic, spanning all 3 series?)

 

[Tosk]

He wasn't a clone, or an evil double; he was no more prone to traiterous or disasterous behavior as regular Riker.

The life he has lived, so different from Will for the last eight years, I can totally see why he would have more sympathy for the disenfranchised and the displaced. I don't see Tom as a traitor, I see him as a man who couldn't stand by and do nothing.

 

[Prax]

I hated what they did with Tom Riker. He wasn't a clone, or an evil double; he was no more prone to traiterous or disasterous behavior as regular Riker. He was as real and original a Riker as anyone could be. I never agreed with the plot decisions that led to any of this, so thinking of him as a Section 31 operative on secret important missions of sort completely makes sense to me, and agrees with things like Riker being involved with the Pegasus.

I wonder what kind of secret life and history could be overlayed onto the Riker we saw on screen the whole time? Is there any way of making him more interesting, retroactively? Is there any way he could have been on some kind of mission the whole time? Hrm. What kind of overarching stories could be retconned into TNG if it was rebooted? (or if the whole 24th century was rebooted into one serialized epic, spanning all 3 series?)

I wasn't thinking "Section 31." I was thing more along the lines of "Chain of Command" or even "Gambit." Even if this theory isn't true, there's no doubt that Starfleet was conducting their own infiltration mission over this. In the end, they didn't have to.

Or maybe...

... I've long suspected that Starfleet intelligence was assisting the Maquis. When Gul Evek makes accusations to Picard about this, Picard neither confirms nor denies it. At the very least, members of SF who were sympathetic to the Maquis were helping them. Maybe the Maquis learned of the buildup through SF channels.

So a conspiracy where no one bothered to tell O'Brien who else was in on it? Cool.

Tosk, you're just....you're just not seein the big picture here!

 

[Tosk]

 

[Timo]

The life he has lived, so different from Will for the last eight years, I can totally see why he would have more sympathy for the disenfranchised and the displaced. I don't see Tom as a traitor, I see him as a man who couldn't stand by and do nothing.

OTOH, he is still William T. Riker. And we know William T. Riker hates duplicates of himself with such passion that he guns them down in cold blood.

Since Tom can't easily assassinate Will, it's only natural that he goes for the second best option and attempts character assassination.

Timo Salonimi