Did Riker intentionally wreck the Enterprise?

[Turd Ferguson]

Hear me out. From day one at Farpoint, it's been crammed down our throats about how hotshit of a pilot one Commander William Riker is. The crews of the stardrive and saucer sections were practically creaming their pants/skirts/manskirts when said Riker manually docked the two sections. Later on, Captain Edward Jellico has to suck it up and kiss Riker's ass to get him to pilot a shuttlecraft for him.

Now, fast forward seven years. The Enterprise is engaged in battle with a twenty year old Klingon Bird of Prey, Riker is intentionally not rotating the shield frequency, and when the pilot console explodes, he orders clearly the most capable pilot on the ship to helm: one Counselor Deanna Troi. The psychiatrist. Let me repeat that. The psychiatrist.

Hotshit ace pilot Commander Riker would've pulled off some daring stunt and shoved a photon torpedo up Lursa and B'Etor's asses. So, this leads me to believe Riker intentionally wrecked the Enterprise. Now, the question is, why?

Change of scenery?

Did he give up on Picard ever retiring and decided if Riker couldn't have the Enterprise, then no one could?

The insurance money?

 

[C.E. Evans]

No. Everybody knows that Data's cat Spot wrecked the Enterprise. For months, she kept nibbling at a critical ODN bundle that regulated helm control. It finally gave way at the worst possible time...

 

[Ithekro]

Riker had to be captain/in command. He doesn't have time to fly the ship while figuring out what is going on.

Two movies later, when they all might be killed due to the pilots ability, then he mans the stick. But in Generations? Flying skill isn't what was needed, it was answers followed by delivery of ordinance. Once he hand answers, he ordered "fire" and the problem blew up.

That the Enterprise suffered damage that resulted in a supposedly extremely rare coolant leak to warp core breech is something he could not predict based on fighting Klingons. Supposedly there are safeties on top of safeties to stop such things from happening. But the two instances we see that happen in combat are against Klingon ships (Yesterday's Enterprise being the other time, and no one on Enterprise would know about it). So maybe the new Federation warp core designs are vulnerable to Klingon disruptor and torpedo fire. No one would have thought of that since the two were allies for pretty much the entire development process of the Galaxy-class starship.

 

[Cyke101]

From now on, I'm going to refer to him as "Hotshit Ace Pilot Riker."

But I'm convinced that, if it WAS intentional, it was to hide evidence of the illegal poker gambling ring that he was running out of his own quarters.

It wasn't even the first time that he tried to get the ship blown up, either; in Rascals, the mighty Enterprise was defeated by Ferengi in command of old stock footage. He would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids/former adults.

 

[Nebusj]

It wasn't even the first time that he tried to get the ship blown up, either; in Rascals, the mighty Enterprise was defeated by Ferengi in command of old stock footage.

Hey, stock footage is almost invincible! The most you can hope to do is edit it to your advantage.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

No I don't think he intentionally wrecked it, but I can understand why you'd think he did because basically every single decision he made from the time the Enterprise was first hit until they fell out of orbit was basically the worst decision possible.

Seriously that scene made him look incompetent as hell. It took 7 years of a character who was considered great in every aspect of command and trashed that reputation in 5 minutes. I can't believe Frakes honestly agreed to that scene.

All I can say is if that scene had been in a TOS film where Kirk was off the ship and Spock was in command he loses the Enterprise in the exact same way, Nimoy would have thrown an absolute shit fit and flat out refused to film a scene that made Spock look so stupid and incompetent.

 

[Leto_II]

Also, Troi had just recently (as of TNG Season 7) passed her helm/flight certification, from what I remember, so she was supposedly qualified by Starfleet flagship-standards to take over the conn in an emergency like we saw in the movie.

It was probably mostly a callback to that piece of character-development from the TV series, if I had to tender a guess.

 

[Lord Garth]

Also, Troi had just recently (as of TNG Season 7) passed her helm/flight certification, from what I remember, so she was supposedly qualified by Starfleet flagship-standards to take over the conn in an emergency like we saw in the movie.

It was probably mostly a callback to that piece of character-development from the TV series, if I had to tender a guess.

Generations was written in 1993 during the hiatus between the sixth and seventh seasons of TNG. I just had a thought right now, as I was reading your post. Might Troi's training and certification during "Eye of the Beholder" been meant to set up what was already written in the film?

 

[Leto_II]

^ Could very well be, yeah -- now that you mention it, this could've been a piece of reverse table-setting for the movie. Good catch; hadn't considered that myself.

 

[Lance]

Yeah, Riker's place was in the center of the bridge, taking in reports about what's going on from all around him, not to be distracted by trying to pilot the ship or some other function.

And at that point in time, Enterprise was going down anyway. There's nothing Riker could've done to change that by taking the helm himself.

Thirdly, OP is operating from the notion that Deanna is *only* a psychiatrist, when she is (in fact) a Leiutenant Commander and a part of the command circle. To expect she hasn't driven a ship before, when we're otherwise led to believe that all crewmembers have got training in something as basic as that, is to give her a discredit. I'd argue that the fact she managed to land the saucer on the surface without sustaining massive casualties among the crew speaks well of her abilities. Just because someone's main job is being a shrink doesn't mean they don't know how to do anything else!

 

[Dukhat]

Now, fast forward seven years. The Enterprise is engaged in battle with a twenty year old Klingon Bird of Prey, Riker is intentionally not rotating the shield frequency, and when the pilot console explodes, he orders clearly the most capable pilot on the ship to helm: one Counselor Deanna Troi. The psychiatrist. Let me repeat that. The psychiatrist.

Actually, I think she's a psychologist, since she never prescribed any medicine.

 

[cardinal biggles]

^In the 24th century, chocolate is a Schedule III controlled substance in the Federation.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Thirdly, OP is operating from the notion that Deanna is *only* a psychiatrist, when she is (in fact) a Leiutenant Commander and a part of the command circle. To expect she hasn't driven a ship before, when we're otherwise led to believe that all crewmembers have got training in something as basic as that, is to give her a discredit. I'd argue that the fact she managed to land the saucer on the surface without sustaining massive casualties among the crew speaks well of her abilities. Just because someone's main job is being a shrink doesn't mean they don't know how to do anything else!

"I have rerouted auxiliary power to lateral thrusters. Attempting to level our descent." -Lt. Commander Data, Star Trek Generations

 

[HIjol]

William "HAP" Riker would have looked and sounded silly saying "All Hands, brace for impact!" from the helm instead of the captain's chair.

To the OP question, "Star Trek, Mammary Zeta" lists a little-revealed fact that right before the mission that led to the Battle of Veridian III, "HAP" Riker purchased maH'uy' ($10 MM) darseks worth of stock in the Klingon Imperial Shipyards, (listed as KIS) and and equal amount in Utopia Planitia (UP). Updating his portfolio, he ended up with KISUP.

 

[Timewalker]

But I'm convinced that, if it WAS intentional, it was to hide evidence of the illegal poker gambling ring that he was running out of his own quarters.

Hide the evidence from whom? Picard knew his command crew had a regular poker game going.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

Yeah, Riker's place was in the center of the bridge, taking in reports about what's going on from all around him, not to be distracted by trying to pilot the ship or some other function.

And at that point in time, Enterprise was going down anyway. There's nothing Riker could've done to change that by taking the helm himself.

Thirdly, OP is operating from the notion that Deanna is *only* a psychiatrist, when she is (in fact) a Leiutenant Commander and a part of the command circle. To expect she hasn't driven a ship before, when we're otherwise led to believe that all crewmembers have got training in something as basic as that, is to give her a discredit. I'd argue that the fact she managed to land the saucer on the surface without sustaining massive casualties among the crew speaks well of her abilities. Just because someone's main job is being a shrink doesn't mean they don't know how to do anything else!

Seriously though...if he's one of the best pilots in all of starfleet and the ship is in danger of losing control....he really should be at the helm even if he is the CO. I'm sure someone as qualified can multi-task and give orders while steering the ship.

And even if Troi is qualified, that doesn't automatically make her experienced. If Riker wasn't going to do it, wouldn't it have made more sense for Data to take over because of his knowledge and fast reflexes? I know he was all goofy nuts from the emotion chip, but still I'd take him over Troi.

Maybe it wouldn't have mattered, but Troi certainly wasn't the best or even second best option.

Maybe Will knew if he did't let her handle the helm then she wouldn't be "handling" anything else he asked her to any time soon....

 

[enterprisecvn65]

But I'm convinced that, if it WAS intentional, it was to hide evidence of the illegal poker gambling ring that he was running out of his own quarters.

Hide the evidence from whom? Picard knew his command crew had a regular poker game going.

Who cares anyway.....there's no money in the 24th century so they were literally playing for worthless plastic chips.

If they wanted to make it worth something then it should have at least been strip poker.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Maybe Will knew if he did't let her handle the helm then she wouldn't be "handling" anything else he asked her to any time soon....

Wasn't she still with Worf at that point?

 

[InklingStar]

Rotate shield frequencies. Fire a barrage of photon torpedoes, phasers, and death to the uncloaked and weak BoP. Separate the ship to present two targets. Engage warp drive long enough to get their bearings and then return. - What Riker should have done.

Sit there doing nothing until the ship is irreparably damaged. Blow up the BoP using technobabble. - What Riker actually did.

 

[Ithekro]

Which, given what we saw in the series, is standard tactic of for a ship like a Galaxy-class starship. Stand your ground. Let the shields do the work. Fire when needed.