Riker: Misunderstood?

[2takesfrakes]

There are some STAR TREK fans who take great exception to Commander William T. Riker, for reasons that they have. He's been accused of everything from being smug, to being terrible towards women ... all with very little backing. There have been times, I must admit, where Riker has been -- to some degree, or another -- arrogant. But he's certainly not alone in that.

The women in Riker's life have all done so, with open eyes. Soran, for better or for worse, was the only female -- other than Deanna -- with whom he seriously wanted to involve himself. Otherwise, women were but passing ships in the night, having departed much happier for their time, together.

Riker showed respect to his fellow Comrades in Arms, as well as a bit of levity. But when discipline was called for, the gloves came off and the situation was rectified. Riker was also no stranger to Ten Forward and interacting socially with the crew came naturally to him. Despite this, Riker has still been misunderstood in some Fan Circles and I was curious as to ... why?

 

[mos6507]

The problem is Riker was intended to be the swashbuckler and Picard was supposed to be more of the fatherly diplomat who stayed out of the fray. If they had stuck with that, maybe Riker would have won more fans. As it played out, Riker kept playing the swaggering alpha-male (personality-wise) but Picard shifted back into more of a take-charge role as Captain, leaving Riker looking like a poseur, all talk and no action, always waiting for Picard's approval. It's just not an aspirational role.

Riker is more of a sad-sack, always the second-fiddle, always the bridesmaid and never the bride. If he had played it that way, always pining for command, maybe people would have felt for him. But he just kind of comes across as complacent in his second-fiddle status, despite the swaggering. You can't have someone whose personality screams "take charge" and yet is always gladly deferring to authority. It just doesn't work.

 

[Paradise City]

That's Soren, btw not Soran. Soran is the salubrious psycho scientist in Generations.

Riker: But I love you Soran!
Soran: Sorry commander but I've got a date with destiny and I don't want to be late.
Riker: Bah! Who is this Destiny?!

Riker I presume is the compromise for want of a Kirk type to Captain the D. It took ages to push the diplomat Picard into the captain's chair and so it was Riker who was to take on that "Kirk" persona. But the reality is if Riker is playing 2nd fiddle to anyone that Kirk-like swashbuckling gets dampened into someone more moderate.

I think Riker is a good steady officer that brings home the bacon. Professionally I can see him having a "high efficiency rating". There's that Pegasus business -- but his failure there is a kind of a lack of imagination in not blowing the whistle early on. He's no prodigy in otherwords and is quite settled in his thinking. I think that comes across in Chain of Command when Drill Sargent Jellico comes aboard and Riker gets completely disorientated.

 

[Mojochi]

Riker has insulated himself on the Enterprise. By his own admission, he clearly should've accepted a captaincy early on in the TNG run. My opinion is that he's got some esteem issues stemming from HOW he got to where he is. Until he reached the Enterprise, he was a rising star, on the fast track, but slams on the breaks to that trajectory, & takes a 16 year detour, but in some ways still behaves like he's that same blasting comet

The net result to that action is that over those years, he is humbled in a huge way, whether it be rightfully being relieved by Jellico, having an ugly reminder of who he once was, in the discovery of Tom Riker, or downright getting exposed over the Pegasus incident

As his personal story unfolded, it played like he was overcompensating for what was an inferiority complex. Look how his career played out. Months after graduating in 2357, he ignorantly opposes a valid mutiny, & was complicit in the cover-up, whereby he likely gained the support of his captain on every letter of recommendation then on. Directly thereafter, he's stationed on Betazed, engaging in a lengthy relationship with Troi, but by 2361, he's promoted to lieutenant, posted to the Potemkin, & in short order, distinguishes himself on Nevala IV, earning another promotion to Lt. Cmdr, & rapidly selected as 1st officer on the Hood, by the end of that year

So basically, after laying low on Betazed, as an ensign (Maybe waiting for the Pegasus dust to settle) he gets 2 promotions & an XO position within a YEAR or so, and after only a couple years as the Hood's #1, is given another promotion, & offered his own ship. (Which he refused) He went from ensign to commander in 3 or 4 years, & only 2 postings. When Picard read his letters of recommendation, Pressman, Desoto, the Potemkin captain, & whoever his superior was on Betazed were the only actual commanders he had served under, less than a year on Pegasus, like 3 on Betazed spinning wheels, 1 on Potemkin, & 2 or so on the Hood.

He was rushed to the front of the line in a big way, & I have to think none of it would've been so, had he not been supported by Pressman, throughout at least part of that period. There is likely some truth to Pressman's claim that he "Made" Will Riker. That's something of an embarrassment really, & a man might want to distinguish himself to overcome being overshadowed by that, but at the same time, he's deliberately holding back on taking command, because maybe he hasn't the confidence in himself, given all the propping up he's gotten

That's not how an officer might want to present himself though. So he's boisterous, seemingly overconfident, rather exclusive to his inner circle, & bears down pretty badly on anyone he objects to or disapproves of, i.e. Barkley, Ro, Jellico, Tom Riker, Sam Lavelle etc... He is pretty douchey to all of them for one reason or another, when really, he ought to be one of the more compassionate & understanding officers, given his own questionable history

But no. He strings along Troi for years, until he gets his command, & then it comes off as if he's settling for her. He behaves often like he has a right to replace Picard as the D's captain, even to the admirals. Hell, he barely comes to terms with his own father, (Who is probably who he gets all these awful traits from) On a personal level, he is a very self-centered, self-entitled, preening & falsely self-righteous house of cards, just waiting to be toppled.

I don't care if he tries to be the life of the party, I'd rather be friends with Worf lol

 

[flandry84]

A single well written scene where Will confides to Deanna that he has found peace and room to breathe would have gone a long way to explain Rikers seeming ennui.
But the producers didn't seem to care enough about him when there were plenty of more scenes of Data being "comical" or Worf being annoyed at something to write.

 

[Armus]

Riker was best served during the early seasons when his role as away team commander was more heavily featured. He wanted his own command but he was satisfied with the responsibilities and prestige of serving on the flagship.

 

[Tosk]

I agree that Riker could be arrogant. But I don't see the issue with that.

 

[Voth commando1]

Riker has an almost familial attachment to the Enterprise, Picard and the crew its very difficult for him to move on and he isn't interested in doing so.

Though by the time he has the Titan under his command he couldn't have asked for a better teacher in the art of captaincy.

 

[Mojochi]

I always wondered if they called Tom to answer for the Pegasus, at the inquiry as well. It would seem only thorough to do so. He was there after all, & with the limited number of remaining people to testify about it, any additional voice could be beneficial, because even though they are essentially the same guy, they do vary enough in character that you may get a different perspective by questioning both

 

[Nakita Akita]

I think he would have seemed a lot less smug if he'd been wearing s Skant uniform.
Nothing takes the bounce out of your step like people laughing and pointing.

 

[Mojochi]

I will give him credit for one thing. So often on the later Star Trek series, whenever someone is depicted as being a musician, they are always shown being exceptional at it, even though they're just hobbyists. Not so with Riker. Sure he was competent enough to join in with people & seemed to have fun playing it, but it never seemed like he was a concert quality trombonist, like Data, O'Brien, Keiko, Nella Daren etc... I'll always remember when the holograph in the Minuet program tells him to not quit his day job. lol

 

[Vger23]

Riker has insulated himself on the Enterprise. By his own admission, he clearly should've accepted a captaincy early on in the TNG run. My opinion is that he's got some esteem issues stemming from HOW he got to where he is. Until he reached the Enterprise, he was a rising star, on the fast track, but slams on the breaks to that trajectory, & takes a 16 year detour, but in some ways still behaves like he's that same blasting comet

The net result to that action is that over those years, he is humbled in a huge way, whether it be rightfully being relieved by Jellico, having an ugly reminder of who he once was, in the discovery of Tom Riker, or downright getting exposed over the Pegasus incident

As his personal story unfolded, it played like he was overcompensating for what was an inferiority complex. Look how his career played out. Months after graduating in 2357, he ignorantly opposes a valid mutiny, & was complicit in the cover-up, whereby he likely gained the support of his captain on every letter of recommendation then on. Directly thereafter, he's stationed on Betazed, engaging in a lengthy relationship with Troi, but by 2361, he's promoted to lieutenant, posted to the Potemkin, & in short order, distinguishes himself on Nevala IV, earning another promotion to Lt. Cmdr, & rapidly selected as 1st officer on the Hood, by the end of that year

So basically, after laying low on Betazed, as an ensign (Maybe waiting for the Pegasus dust to settle) he gets 2 promotions & an XO position within a YEAR or so, and after only a couple years as the Hood's #1, is given another promotion, & offered his own ship. (Which he refused) He went from ensign to commander in 3 or 4 years, & only 2 postings. When Picard read his letters of recommendation, Pressman, Desoto, the Potemkin captain, & whoever his superior was on Betazed were the only actual commanders he had served under, less than a year on Pegasus, like 3 on Betazed spinning wheels, 1 on Potemkin, & 2 or so on the Hood.

He was rushed to the front of the line in a big way, & I have to think none of it would've been so, had he not been supported by Pressman, throughout at least part of that period. There is likely some truth to Pressman's claim that he "Made" Will Riker. That's something of an embarrassment really, & a man might want to distinguish himself to overcome being overshadowed by that, but at the same time, he's deliberately holding back on taking command, because maybe he hasn't the confidence in himself, given all the propping up he's gotten

That's not how an officer might want to present himself though. So he's boisterous, seemingly overconfident, rather exclusive to his inner circle, & bears down pretty badly on anyone he objects to or disapproves of, i.e. Barkley, Ro, Jellico, Tom Riker, Sam Lavelle etc... He is pretty douchey to all of them for one reason or another, when really, he ought to be one of the more compassionate & understanding officers, given his own questionable history

But no. He strings along Troi for years, until he gets his command, & then it comes off as if he's settling for her. He behaves often like he has a right to replace Picard as the D's captain, even to the admirals. Hell, he barely comes to terms with his own father, (Who is probably who he gets all these awful traits from) On a personal level, he is a very self-centered, self-entitled, preening & falsely self-righteous house of cards, just waiting to be toppled.

I don't care if he tries to be the life of the party, I'd rather be friends with Worf lol

Sound to me like you just discovered the only human, flawed, complex character on TNG.

Which is why he's my favorite.

 

[RAMA]

Never understood the hate for Riker.

He had the basic trappings of a Kirk character but was he a block of wood? Intractable? Far from it..to me his character shows up early in season 1...he's open, often jovial though deadly serious when need be and a proven tactician.

As conceived, Riker is the most open-minded and accepting of officers..he accepts the need to adopt other cultural icons for missions, he forges ahead with eating Gagh on a Klingon ship, wears alien ornamentation, etc. He is the perfect first officer for Picard..who is the ideal of the Roddenberry 24th century moralist. He will still be a check and balance against him, but in almost every open minded decision, Riker is right on board.

RAMA

 

[Devilpogostick]

I remember how Best of Both Worlds was basically the best we get from Riker (since Picard was out around the first half till Episode's end, it's all Riker at this point to lead) and how it was kinda tough to top that since. But it's a neat example at how Riker proves to be a lot more than how he's usually perceived as.

I recall how Shelby was quite obvious in how she's gunning for his position. At first, I thought she was quite rude...Then I think much about it. She heard that Riker was basically the model officer who takes his duties seriously, coming in thinking he's leaving to take a Captain's chair of his own. After all, he's earned it.

But once she finds out Riker never had intentions to leave his post...I think she lost a good amount of respect for him. Like she couldn't believe this is the same guy she heard about, and a lot of doubt about his abilities came sinking in. It gets cemented once she finally tells him off as in her mind, he's too complacent to be useful. If he doesn't want to be captain, then clearly he can't be as good as she heard.

...Then Riker proves her wrong as he was ready to blow up that cube regardless of the fact a Assimilated Picard was in there. Throughout the second half, Shelby could see Riker definitely is a man whose abilities are quite up to par. At the end of things, they left in better terms.

The Jellico thing I still think Riker is an unreasonable dick but I say it's more like writers aren't too sure how they could make things tense with the two since Jellico, stern hardass yet reasonable, kinda made decisions I thought didn’t sound too asinine. After all, if Jellico is a terrible captain, how in the world did he kept that position without a phaser to the back? But I'll probably chalk it down to the urgency of the mission and how Starfleet's rush job of transfer didn't built to a decent understanding between the two parties before they went to negotiate with Cardassians which had to earned the hard way. That just made Riker pretty sour until in his mind he felt Jellico treated him as an equal. Still dickish but again Starfleet really should have let Jellico feel more accustomed to the Enterprise and let the crew see he's a man doing his job and should be respected, not annoyed at regarding his orders.

 

[Kevman7987]

He strings along Troi for years, until he gets his command, & then it comes off as if he's settling for her.

Everything else is probably true, but I feel I must disagree with you on the this. It always seemed to me that Riker and Troi broke things off poorly during his time on Betazed and that when he "encountered her at Farpoint", the two of them decided to try to be friends and have a good working relationship. Just like Riker, the show did hint that Troi also dated (or at least slept with) a few men during TNG, meaning they were trying to move on. Years later, as they grew closer, the Ba'Ku situation in INS occurred and they re-kindled their relationship starting with the "yuck" kiss. Riker realized he'd had what he'd always wanted with Troi. INS takes place four years before NEM and we can infer that they both were at a point and decided they wanted to level up their relationship by realizing they truly loved each other and wanted to marry. It seemed to me that Riker accepted the promotion only after he was going to marry. It's all a metaphor for growing up (gets married) and moving out of your parents' house (accepting a command).


And yes, I know the metaphor breaks down when you realize it makes Riker and Troi siblings.

Also, I like the theory that the female Betazoid, middle-aged sex peak (like Lwaxana went through) was starting up in Troi and she chose Riker. As we know, Betazoid females pick their mate and stop at nothing to get them.

 

[Mojochi]

Sound to me like you just discovered the only human, flawed, complex character on TNG.

Which is why he's my favorite.

I've actually dug into several of them similarly, & find them all to be much more complex than people have credited them, at least for Picard, Riker, Worf & especially Data, who easily has as many inconsistencies as Riker did. It actually takes 7 seasons of TNG, all the films, and even the horrible intrusion into the Enterprise finale to draw all those conclusions about Riker, but I think, in a very round-about way, they were trying to find a way to sculpt all the Riker inconsistencies into something of a character. It's sort of like trying to sculpt or whittle something from a piece of wood, that is so unusually shaped, that your sculpture is almost as much a result of it's pre-existing shape as it is the artist's influence

Everything else is probably true, but I feel I must disagree with you on the this. It always seemed to me that Riker and Troi broke things off poorly during his time on Betazed and that when he "encountered her at Farpoint", the two of them decided to try to be friends and have a good working relationship. Just like Riker, the show did hint that Troi also dated (or at least slept with) a few men during TNG, meaning they were trying to move on. Years later, as they grew closer, the Ba'Ku situation in INS occurred and they re-kindled their relationship starting with the "yuck" kiss. Riker realized he'd had what he'd always wanted with Troi. INS takes place four years before NEM and we can infer that they both were at a point and decided they wanted to level up their relationship by realizing they truly loved each other and wanted to marry. It seemed to me that Riker accepted the promotion only after he was going to marry. It's all a metaphor for growing up (gets married) and moving out of your parents' house (accepting a command).


And yes, I know the metaphor breaks down when you realize it makes Riker and Troi siblings.

Also, I like the theory that the female Betazoid, middle-aged sex peak (like Lwaxana went through) was starting up in Troi and she chose Riker. As we know, Betazoid females pick their mate and stop at nothing to get them.

That's definitely another, more pleasant, way to look at it. I just use it as another brick in the structure of him being a much more flawed guy than people might consider, from his behavior... and what was originally the intent behind his initial character

 

[Vger23]

I've actually dug into several of them similarly, & find them all to be much more complex than people have credited them, at least for Picard, Riker, Worf & especially Data, who easily has as many inconsistencies as Riker did. It actually takes 7 seasons of TNG, all the films, and even the horrible intrusion into the Enterprise finale to draw all those conclusions about Riker, but I think, in a very round-about way, they were trying to find a way to sculpt all the Riker inconsistencies into something of a character. It's sort of like trying to sculpt or whittle something from a piece of wood, that is so unusually shaped, that your sculpture is almost as much a result of it's pre-existing shape as it is the artist's influence

That's definitely another, more pleasant, way to look at it. I just use it as another brick in the structure of him being a much more flawed guy than people might consider, from his behavior... and what was originally the intent behind his initial character

I find Data to be the most uninteresting character on the show, besides Beverly Crusher.

 

[Mojochi]

I find Data to be the most uninteresting character on the show, besides Beverly Crusher.

Well... He IS admittedly emotionless. Life of the part doesn't spring to mind

However, when you consider all the inconsistencies & contradictions, like not being able to use contractions, (But does) Not being able to feel emotion (But does) supposedly unique (But isn't) and so on, a whole different story arc is unearthed, wherein Data has been given (Possibly deliberately) the wrong impression about himself, and is on a journey to discover that he was always far more human than he'd ever given himself credit for