Lazy writers?

[flandry84]

TV has changed thankfully though.
A storyline as hokey as Riker’s long-lost twin would I think be handled a whole lot better,more time being devoted to both characters reactions and the real world impact of just what such a development would really mean for both men.

Not to derail the thread on this one episode but the more I thought about it the more callous the treatment of both Riker’s by the writers appears to me.Will seems unbothered by the experience,unquestioning his lost ambitions or his lost opportunities with Troi.
And poor Tom,never heard of again until a spin off show decided it needed a familiar face to represent the maquis.Then,the character who had had a pretty rough deal is reimagined as a dirtbag traitor,potential war criminal before being royally fucked over...never to be seen again.
Pretty damn cold treatment.

 

[Prax]

The two episodes were only about a year apart. Besides it would be a great loss if we didn't have it, if only because of this:

He looks so young there. Doesn't he look young there?

 

[The Old Mixer]

The real lost opportunity in "Second Chances" is that reportedly they considered killing off our Riker and replacing him with the duplicate...but they chickened out.

 

[Prax]

Wait, what?? The Enterprise crew, or the writers?

 

[The Wormhole]

Wait, what?? The Enterprise crew, or the writers?

The writers. The plan was to kill Will Riker, but replace him with Tom Riker, thus mixing up the crew dynamic. Data would move up and become XO with Tom Riker becoming the ops officer.

IIRC, Berman was the one to say no because it would ruin the show's chances at a syndicated re-run deal or something. To be honest, I'm not really sure it would have been all that good an idea, but it was abandoned for the wrong reasons.

 

[Maurice]

"Ya know, I've been saying this for years... If you're not a creative person, you just can't understand what it's like to create something creative."

I can't find that exact quote. Where's it from?

 

[Prax]

I can't find that exact quote. Where's it from?

George Lucas quote?

I was paraphrasing and making a joke, but he says something like that in an interview with Conan O'Brien...I think.

 

[Maurice]

Well, when you put quotes around something it implies that it's an actual quote. That's why I wondered.

 

[Trek Survivor]

The real lost opportunity in "Second Chances" is that reportedly they considered killing off our Riker and replacing him with the duplicate...but they chickened out.

Would've been a terrible idea - canning terrible ideas is not what I consider "chickening out".

 

[Prax]

They sorta ended up doing that with Ensign Kim, killing the original, keeping the duplicate.

 

[Hey Missy]

Quite frankly: When I see how viciously the producers and the writers (see the book "The next 25 Years"), the fans (see this forum, Reddit) shit on TNG with a passion, I am extremely surprised, that this show got made after all. And how it was this phenomenon with around 10 million viewers every week. Because the published opinion about this show is pretty much: "TNG is a boring shit show, and no one wanted to produce it and write for it, because its premise was bad drama, and view it on TV, because its characters were boring, arrogant and not relatable".

I find this pretty hilarious.

Cultural revisionism?