Something that I spotted a while back but have started to notice a bit more often is how Riker occasionally makes some awkward poses & stances. There's the stiff slanted walk he is well known for, but one in particular I find very peculiar. It's this one: So he takes up position next to the navigator, but rather than stand to the left where there is plenty of room, he decides to do this lunge or "lean-in" with his left foot placed on the navigator console and his right hand on the navigator's chair. It looks... weird. He has done this in a number of episodes. This screenshot is taken from "Cause and Effect" in Season 5, but I've also noticed him do it in "The Defector" from Season 3, plus a few others I can't recall off the top of my head. It's a funny way to deal with the console design. And actually, I think the console looks absolutely ridiculous, like some kind of "ramp to nowhere." If the far aft display panels are meant for the officers to the rear of navigation and helm, wouldn't they be tilted to face them? If they are meant for the navigator and helmsman, they're in terribly awkward locations, requiring the personnel to completely pivot away from the main view screen (and they still won't be oriented properly to the display layout). Anyway, I'll bet the set designers weren't very pleased with the Riker stance, as it probably left sole marks behind that had to be cleaned up. Thankfully later vessel designs were a bit more intelligent and did away with this... nonsense!
It didn't look like he did it all the time. I had read that he had some kind of back injury, but not qualified by a time frame. Perhaps there were only certain episodes where the back injury was aggravating him most? Or the injury was only for a certain stretch of time, but once he developed the mannerism he'd repeat it for consistency. But I do recall seeing him standing a lot in plenty of episodes without needing to lean forward, mostly later on. Frakes is quite tall, at 6' 4".
It's not so much about leg position as shoulders. Something I noticed right at the start is that Frakes always stands with one shoulder higher than the other.
There's a bit of mixed info floating around, so it's a little hard to get an absolutely clear picture. First, he did have a back injury that affected his movements a bit, but from all I'm seeing it wasn't a persistent chronic condition. Maybe it would flare up sometimes. But it wasn't a constant thing. Second, Frakes did take some liberties in coming up with characteristics and mannerisms for his role as Riker. In fact, at a convention in 2012, it was noted that "Frakes said he stole Riker’s famous slanted walk from actor John Cullum. He talked about Riker’s growth as a character, when he grew a beard and was allowed to smile in the second season." I don't think that the John Cullum reference was a joke. Because when asked about differences between Frakes and Riker, he has said something to the effect of "I don't really walk that way." Very interesting thought about the camera shot, given his tall 6' 4" stance. The leaning might've been necessary so that he'd be better framed. My screenshot above was cropped for saving some space, so there was a gap above him... but had he been standing erect, it would've likely had his head nearly touching the top of the camera frame.
I was going to comment on how he always propped his leg up on Data's station. Came off as a douchey power play move.
Actor's back problems, uncomfortable costumes, camera shot convenience, jived with the character traits. Could've been any or all of these elements meshing into a signature thing. One thing is for sure though. When he shows up in Genesis as an ape-man, it's doubly hilarious
I personally have never had any problem with Riker leaning on the console. It was just one of those things that I felt was a character trait.
That's the way I saw it. Frakes is substantially taller than many of his co-stars, and that lean-in (particularly when done on either of the forward consoles) was a convenient way to frame the shots for filming. One other side-effect of his height I always found peculiar was that Frakes often took a stance/body language that was deliberately subordinate to Patrick Stewart (rightly so, as he is only the 2IC), but because he was substantively taller, it often meant there were occasionally some very strange 'two-shots' of the pair, where it was clear that the cameraman was trying to figure out how to give them both their due while not allowing Riker to dominate the shot by mere fact that he sometimes seems to tower over the Captain. They usually solved it by putting Stewart in the foreground and Frakes a little further background, but it wasn't always an elegant solution. It does tend to work for the character. The same is true of the stepping-over-chairs-to-sit-on-them thing, and the leaning-around-corners thing. They kind of work with the sense of confidence/bravado that Riker is meant to have.
It isn't really a "pose" but there is a Riker move in the episode "Legacy" that always makes me LOL. Its when they are down in the tunnels and he pivots rapidly, swings his whole arm around and shoots that guard with the phaser and the guy goes flying like 10 feet backward. Its such an over acted move but its hilarious.
Standing to the left of Data would upstage the extra in a very unprofessional camera angle. The extra's face/ body would be obliterated by either, Riker's crotch or his ass. Bad photography either way. I think is shots are due to his height, for angles that look good on screen, and not to upstage others.
Let's be honest, though, wouldn't we all rather look at Riker's crotch/ass than some extra? Plus, I think some people would enjoy that kind of "obliteration"
For real, last night, I think due to this thread, I had a dream I was hanging out with Riker at a place sort of like Risa. ☺️ But he was shorter than me!!! He was like 5'3"!!!! I kept telling him to stand up straight. Boringly though, that was pretty much the extent of the dream