On paper he's open minded. Respect for other cultures, embracing progressive ideals, Starfleet principles, etc... sure, but personally? No one bucks harder at Ro Laren than he does, & no one turns their nose down on an up-comer, like Sam Lavelle, or Shelby faster than he does.
He looks down his nose on his own duplicate for god sake, & none of the main crew ever showed as much insubordination as him, when he acted like a big baby with Edward Jellico. That's not just arrogance, He is close minded about what HE already thinks. Maybe narrow-minded is the better term. He makes his mind up about something & that's the end of it.
At times when he's had to replace Picard, no less than 3 different people have had to snap him out of his mindset to get him right. Guinan in BoBw, Troi in Gambit, Worf in Time's Arrow. I got to thinking he'd make a terrible captain after a while, because every time he was put in the position, he looked utterly lost & miserable, like in Darmok, or as an Admiral in All Good Things...
Honestly, can you name one single time that Riker was acting captain where he knew exactly what to do, & played it out to form the way it needed to go, without stumbling through it or somebody prodding him along? One thing I have to say about A Matter of Perspective... While I surely would never think him capable of the kind of murder he was being accused of, I certainly wasn't surprised that his handling the situation might have led to Apgar feeling threatened enough to pull that stunt. Will can be an overbearing, unforgiving jerk, before he even opens his mouth
That said, I do think it's an interesting character, played mostly well by Frakes, & makes for good drama, but certainly arrogant & at key moments, close-minded or at least narrow-minded. Definitely not overly perfect, or blandly uninteresting
Last edited:
