90s Riker is exactly were he wants to be, waiting for Jean-Luc to die or retire.
The problem with that plan is that Jellico fired his ass after 15 minutes.
I think Shelby and Data made love in The Best of Both Worlds Part 1.
- Thread starter Guy Gardener
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90s Riker is exactly were he wants to be, waiting for Jean-Luc to die or retire.
The problem with that plan is that Jellico fired his ass after 15 minutes.
Even without Jellico firing him, I doubt that's a smart career plan. I don't think it's very likely Starfleet would make him captain of the very flagship of Starfleet without him having been captain of one or more smaller vessels first - except temporarily, in emergency situations, such as BOBW. They'd be much more likely to fly in someone else with a few years of 'captaining' under his belt, ask Riker to stay on as the experienced CO he is till the new Captain has been properly settled in, then whisk him off to a smaller vessel for his first command.
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Fruit withering on the vine. The real problem with that plan is diminishing value. Tell me post-Pegasus Riker looks as valuable to high command as BoBW Riker did. He looked like a shooting star up to that point, & then proceeded to spend the next 3-4 years looking worse & worse... & worse. The Pegasus, Jellico, The Game, Rascals. He really looks terrible in a lot of situations on the back half of that show... & Tom Riker didn't do much to bolster confidence in the name either
I'm amazed they even gave him the Titan, though I guess the movies redeemed his rep some, but that's not a guarantee. The more you sit back, the less desirable you look. It's very possible that a lot of alt-universes have Riker waiting out Picard & getting a passed over shafting for the D's top seat.
I think the Genesis planet was also going through Pon Farr, and when Spock wouldn't have sex with it, even after it begged, it gave up and exploded.
I agree, that didn't make sense in universe, and it was made even more stupid when they retconned five years off Riker's age. Worse, TBoBW had had him follow a perfect "a great captain emerges" arc. It begins with even Picard trying to shove him out the airlock, and ends with him beating Picard not by doing what he would do, but what he wouldn't. The natural conclusion was for him to take his own ship. The downside was that the ever-annoying Shelby would have likely cut in front of Data, denying him the promotion he had seriously earned.
Problem it, out of universe, both Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes were popular, and this was the only way to keep them both.
Probably not. As the admiral said, Riker was "hurting his career staying put". And, he denied Shelby, Data, and others the chance to XO on the flagship.
That is very true. Stay at a given rank too long, it risks sinking your career. Ditto with being demoted. But I think Trek tends to ignore that fact...
When it suits the plot
The military today is about collecting the largest possible pension after you leave, but there are neither pensions nor money on the Federation, so advancing through the ranks in Star Fleet doesn't have anything to do with keeping roof above your kids head, or buying sweet little bedazzled sandals for your wife on a holiday in Fiji.
Perhaps so, but I get the impression that they join Starfleet mainly to be of service &/or fulfill their desire to be out there. In wanting to be of service, you should value that service enough to know when & where you'd best be of service. They value advancing in rank & post because it's presumably a better way for them to be utilized, and to some folks, optimizing their utility potential IS personally fulfilling too. Captain Shelby is gonna be WAY more of a positive impact on the fleet than Lt. Cmdr. Shelby ever could be.
Riker was denying his team (All of the Starfleet service he joined) a better, more useful Riker, at a time which is arguably their most desperate hour, after BoBW. It's undeniably selfish. They've invested in him. He should want to pay that back by being all he can be for them
Kirk wanted a demotion.
Sisko thought he wanted to be an admiral making the big decisions, then he discovered Bajor.
Janeway didn't even bother promoting herself to Fleet Captain when she found herself in charge of a fleet.
Picard was offered the Academy at the end of season one, but he said "Nah, &uck it, I'd rather hoon round in space like a bad ass."
Mariner continually forced demotions on herself because everyone else sucks.
Julian cocked up on purpose, avoiding the lime light and promotions so that no one noticed that he was genetically advanced.
Should we blame Data's grinding shlep up the ziggurat on racism? Lt Commander after 50 damn whole years.
O'Brien got to the highest achievable enlisted rank, and then hung around for another twenty years while pissy little ensigns fresh out of the academy ordered him to do push ups in the rain, to prove that Red Squad is the Best Squad!
37, if I remember correctly. But considering that he saved Earth from the Borg and the Federation from a Klingon/Romulan alliance, he deserved at least commander rank. And if Beverly and Deanna could hold it, so could he.
Data got Dr. Crusher wet. The Female changeling got all the Jem'Hadar horny. The only thing getting laid in Trek was bricks in that Bajoran's barbeque.
@Guy Gardener ok... promotions to admiral being the exception lol 
I've hardly ever seen like maybe 3 admirals in nearly 60 years of Star Trek that are worth as much as a captain 
Edit: oh... And I do kind of blame Data's stall at Lt. Cmdr. On some android racism. Julian's seems pretty self explanatory that he's underselling himself, and O'Brien?
Ooo... I think Miles has locked himself in at chief cuz he got some PTSD about being an officer, after having been a tac officer for Ben Maxwell, during the Cardassian war. Probably had to order some dudes to their death & never wanted to be in that ugly spot again
I've hardly ever seen like maybe 3 admirals in nearly 60 years of Star Trek that are worth as much as a captain Edit: oh... And I do kind of blame Data's stall at Lt. Cmdr. On some android racism. Julian's seems pretty self explanatory that he's underselling himself, and O'Brien?
Ooo... I think Miles has locked himself in at chief cuz he got some PTSD about being an officer, after having been a tac officer for Ben Maxwell, during the Cardassian war. Probably had to order some dudes to their death & never wanted to be in that ugly spot again
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Julian didn't reach LCDR in the first place. He was a LTJG at the start of the series, and a full LT at the end. And that was par for the course; DS9 got rank right. No one went rising through the ranks at ludicrous speed (like Riker was made to, after they chopped five years off his age for no good reason), and no one got denied promotion except O'Brien (who was a a very high enlisted rank already) and Worf (who had just made LCDR and wasn't due).
Where shafted individuals are concerned, TNG had Data, VOY had Harry, ENT had Travis and Hoshi. DS9 had nobody.
Jonathan Frakes was about 34 when TNG began. If we figure Riker was the same age, that's 12 years out of academy, just right for a new commander who's considered one of Starfleet's best. It takes 15-17 years to make that rank normally, so figure he got fast tracked. But cutting 5 years from that, so he went from ensign to commander in 5-1/2 years, is a bit too much, I think. Officers need a certain amount of seasoning.
Considering dialogue from "The Pegasus" put Riker just out of the Academy when that mutiny occured, Riker went from ensign to XO of the Federation flagship in just 6 years. That's remarkably fast, especially when you consider he was also offered command of the Drake before he took the XO spot on the Enterprise. (Dialogue from "The Arsenal of Freedom".)
I do think a possibility of his meteoric rise through the ranks is not just his skill and natural leadership abilities, but Pressman could very well have been pushing things a bit faster for him behind the scenes, as a sort of 'thank you' for being one of the only officers who backed him during the mutiny. While never stated on screen and is just a theory of mine, it would explain Pressman's line to Riker of 'I made you and I can break you'.
I do think a possibility of his meteoric rise through the ranks is not just his skill and natural leadership abilities, but Pressman could very well have been pushing things a bit faster for him behind the scenes, as a sort of 'thank you' for being one of the only officers who backed him during the mutiny. While never stated on screen and is just a theory of mine, it would explain Pressman's line to Riker of 'I made you and I can break you'.
Enlisted personal are specialists. They train for a specific job, or more likely, they show up to boot camp with the skills already in hand from their civilian life, do the 12 week(? That's how long Boot Camp lasted in Stripes.) boot camp to make sure they can follow orders without being a dick about it, and then they are posted, and then they do it.
Field promotions aside, O'Brien was not going to be an officer, unless he did 4 years at the academy, and he's too old for that shit.
Pictures or it didn't happen....
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