Would Starfleet really condone the wearing of a beard on the main deck? The short time that we see Riker without his beard leads me to surmise that he may have been forced to shave it off.
Poll Should Riker have been allowed to have a beard?
- Thread starter Spock's Eyebrow
- Start date
We saw Starfleet officers/crew members with mullets on occasion all throughout TNG, Deanna had her hair hanging down to the small of her back in some seasons and Worf had a ponytail (and a beard)
It's fair to say that Starfleet doesn't have many restrictions when it comes to how you should wear your hair (facial or otherwise)
It's fair to say that Starfleet doesn't have many restrictions when it comes to how you should wear your hair (facial or otherwise)
Could you explain why Starfleet would have such a rule? They wouldn't have that rule just because some militaries in some of the cultures on one of its planets historically had such a rule a few centuries ago.
He looked better with it, that's for sure.
And as above others had all sorts of hair and accouterments, so why not a beard?
And as above others had all sorts of hair and accouterments, so why not a beard?
Geordi had a beard too, for a couple episodes and then it was gone.
Why would they NOT allow it? Is there a hazard to the crew by him wearing a beard?
While I don't know about commanders, there must be some hidden directive that 24th century Captains who feature as the main star in a series must be bald. Picard was. Sisko became bald the very episode after he was promoted to Captain. Janeway should have been bald, no doubt, but probably the directive reached her a tad too late, or she was in the Delta Quadrant by then- and who would check on her once there anyway? But I'm sure it must have been a charge in a court-martial, besides more trivial stuff like possibly bending the rules of the Prime Directive on some occasions, etc.
So perhaps, if Riker aspired to the captaincy, he should have attuned his follicular policies to that directive.
So perhaps, if Riker aspired to the captaincy, he should have attuned his follicular policies to that directive.
He wasn't ordered to shave by Starfleet in Insurrection. Also, in that film, Admiral Dougherty has a beard.
Agreed.
Yet apparently they had regulations that would have restricted Ro Laren from wearing her Bajoran earring.
I think that was just Riker purposefully being a dick to Ro to make clear that he doesn't want her anywhere near his ship or his captain. He pretty much spent the whole episode being hostile towards her.
And considering that they apparently didn't know much about Bajoran culture (Picard mixed up Ro's first and last name) it's also possible that they didn't know that Ro's earring was a cultural/religious tradition rather than just jewellery.
Cultural paraphernalia seem to be included in Starfleet dress code, such as Worf's baldric and Nog's Ferengi....headdress...thing...
To be fair, Ro started the whole thing by being hostile to pretty much everyone.
Riker's reaction, in this case, is understandable. Ro needed to know her place. If it had been any other Bajoran, there wouldn't have been a problem with the earring. But since Ro was being insubordinate and obnoxious (and of course due to her past actions, you know, getting people killed), some extra discipline was called for.
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While I don't disagree, it surely was about as weak a stick imaginable to stickler with. When that paltry excuse is all you have to hang your reprimand on, then you end up being the one who looks small. You don't look like someone putting a subordinate in their place. You look like a house of cards trying unsuccessfully to push your weight around, & then to have the captain overturn it in the end anyhow? Now you really look impotent
It's better to just rise above that kind of stuff. It's not befitting of the office to engage in that kind of pettiness imho, deserved or not.
As for the beard being regulation or not... we do have historical precedent that it's been allowed nearly a century
It's sad that Geordi kept his longer than Data had.
Too much damn sexiness.
The power to turn androgenous people femaleToo much damn sexiness.
Captain Terrell had a beard too
Yup. Beards were in during the TWOK era, apparently.
