Tom Riker?

[ClayinCA]

I don't know why not - especially since Starfleet seems to have lost an awful lot of people in the course of the Destiny storyline. You'd think an officer as experienced as even Tom Riker was would be valuable.

I do agree that you don't particularly need Will Riker for a Tom Riker story. I think it's more interesting if Tom's away from his "brother." It would be especially interesting to see him, perhaps,

Spoiler: not really spoilers, but protected in case people think it's a story idea

in an Enterprise-E storyline, where Picard must interact with someone who looks just like his old friend but is essentially a different person.

 

[Christopher]

I don't know why not - especially since Starfleet seems to have lost an awful lot of people in the course of the Destiny storyline. You'd think an officer as experienced as even Tom Riker was would be valuable.

In-universe, sure, but the question isn't whether the fictional organization called Starfleet would want him; it's whether there's still any story potential in the character from the standpoint of writers and readers.

 

[DevilEyes]

I respectfully disagree with the notion that Will Riker needs to be present in any 'Tom Riker returns' story. I think Ro is more than good enough. After all, the character of Kalita (think that's her name) was featured in the TNG episode where Ro defects to the Maquis, and she was also in the DS9 episode featuring Tom, where she was working alongside him.

I don't think it's too big an assumption to make that Tom Riker and Ro Laren know each other.

And he got along pretty well with Kira too.

Tom and Ro are both outcasts in their different ways. They would make a great team... and a great couple.

 

[William Leisner]

I don't know why not - especially since Starfleet seems to have lost an awful lot of people in the course of the Destiny storyline. You'd think an officer as experienced as even Tom Riker was would be valuable.

In-universe, sure, but the question isn't whether the fictional organization called Starfleet would want him; it's whether there's still any story potential in the character from the standpoint of writers and readers.

Exactly. Like I said earlier, there are undoubtedly ways to bring Tom into a story. The question is, would it be a story worth telling, a story that works as a story as opposed to simply being an excuse to bring a favorite guest star back? (And yes, that's a rhetorical question, since trying to answer it would draw the thread into story-idea territory.)

 

[donners22]

^ Okay, show of hands: Who here, upon reading a story where it's revealed Tom Riker secretly left Cardassian space in a secret slipstream ship, and coincidentally crossed paths with Will and the Titan, would not hurl their book or Kindle through the nearest wall?

Perhaps he could be marooned on a hostile planet by a villain, then Will, kicked off Titan by a mutiny, having crash-landed on the same planet, and fleeing hordes of oddly jerky monsters, could run into him. Then they can wander into a nearby facility and find the ghost of Kyle Riker. It's all about destiny, you know.

 

[Tara]

Any chance of him showing up again? I really think he should've been back on the show at some point, and I know we're supposed to just assume he's dead at the hands of the Cardassians.

I've always assumed that the first thing the Klingons did, when they occupied Cardassia during the war, was free all the surviving Maquis from the work camps.

(I also think Romana was safe in E-Space with the dog, and Number One, Boyce, Colt, Tyler and the Yorktown were in the Laurentian System on fleet manouvres. Welcome to my ability to live on the Nile.)

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I don't know why not - especially since Starfleet seems to have lost an awful lot of people in the course of the Destiny storyline. You'd think an officer as experienced as even Tom Riker was would be valuable.

In-universe, sure, but the question isn't whether the fictional organization called Starfleet would want him; it's whether there's still any story potential in the character from the standpoint of writers and readers.

Sure. I pitched Marco a Tom Riker story a little more than a year ago. He passed on it, saying that it wasn't the right time for that story. Now, he's not with Pocket, my writing interests lay elsewhere, so chances are the time will never be right for the story. *shrug*

 

[TGTheodore]

Let's bring the whole Riker arc to a complete circle.

In a Titan novel, after wild machinations and amazing coincidences somehow not involving Q, the two get beamed back into each other, retaining all their joint and separate memories. Maybe even add the melodrama of Will doing it to save Tom's life. [cue organ music and sting]

Tom's dead. We move on.

Next loose end, please?

--Ted

 

[Paris]

Okay...

Where's the clone of Walker Keel that was grown at the same time as the Picard clone (Shinzon)? I think it was mentioned in Death in Winter.

or...

Beringhoff Rasmussen? At this point, he's been in prison (or some type of custody) since 2368 (13 years at this point). Would they keep him locked up forever, or have they released him yet?

or...

Pavel Chekov. He showed up in the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, then he supposedly retired, and now we have no idea. Vhere is he?

That is all for now.

 

[toughlittleship]

Rasmussen was in The Big Game, an early DS9 novel. He claimed to have been rehabilitated by that point.

 

[TGTheodore]

Actually, my statement "Next loose end, please" was rhetorical ... but whatcha gonna do?



--Ted