Thomas Riker during/after the Dominion War

What do you think happened to Thomas during, or after, the war? Did the Dominion just execute him when they took over? Did Starfleet find a way to get him released, or transferred, after the war was over?

 

I think for the sake of storytelling, they would find a way to keep him alive. There was some decent conflict there in the TNG episode and a nice twist that he went Maquis on DS9.

I'm not sure SF would care one way or the other, but Will might be interested in making sure he was freed.

Has Tom "appeared" in any novels?

 

I would guess that Thomas Riker is still alive and still in prison at the end of the war. The Dominion may be totalitarian, but the Vorta seem intent on maintaining the appearance of diplomatic normality in order to manipulate their adversaries.
It might have been interesting if Weyoun had offered to return an unnamed former Federation officer in Statistical Propabilities, just to suggest that Riker was still alive and underline how Sisko was playing for keeps.

 

Thomas Riker is one of the most tragic figures in Star Trek History. Created by a freak transporter accident, stranded on a world, only to find that another Riker had lived his life. Bails on Starfleet, joins the Maquis, commits the dumbest hijacking in Galactic history, and is sent to rot in Cardassian prison for life (assuming he wasn't offed eventually). Meanwhile, Will Riker has been doing pretty well, although his youngest son did pass away from a rare disease.

 

He apeared in Star Trek The Fall novel, I can't remember which one

 

He's also mentioned in Star Trek Online, where you meet his son (Joshua Riker), who tells you that the prison camp that Thomas was sent to was abandoned by the Cardassian government after the Dominion War and Thomas helped turn it into a settlement. He apparently died of a heart attack after carrying the body of his wife home after some sort of catastrophe (I don't remember if it was a man-made or natural disaster.) In the Dominion Wars game, there's a mission to rescue him from being executed. He can then be given command of the USS Achilles, a sleek prototype starship kinda like the Prometheus but without the MVAM.

 

Kira made a promise to get him out and she would definitely stand by that. This is the basis of the short story "Promises Made" in the SNW anthology.

 

He could have been freed at the conclusion of the war with the Dominion after all there wasn't much left of Cardassia at that point and they had no reason to keep people who were trying to defend a people that they've slaughtered. If anything the Cardassians of the new Cardassia as the late Damar put it should feel guilty about that massacre.

 

He's dead, part of the casualties of war with the Cardassians, the Klingons are pretty ruthless against their enemies. During the conflict when they were bad guys again in the 4th season, there were tales told of what the Klingons were doing throughout episodes. From that fiasco and then later with the Dominion I just thought 'good ol' Thom' didn't had much of a chance, living his life in a Cardassian penal area which was more than likely destroyed.

 

Given how involved Jonathan Frakes is with the Trek franchise, I'm surprised they didn't find a way to revive his character. Another reason why it's too bad DS9 didn't get an eighth season.

 

Nothing to find. Thomas Riker is dead, the idea was a gimmick in the first place a regular trope for television. There must not have been much of a demand for the character since DS9 never brought that matter up ever again.

 

Well, as long as there hasn't been any official announcement we can't be sure of anything. Tomas Riker could be dead like he could be alive... Sort of like Schrodinger's cat... he is both or neither...

 

I'd guess there were scheduling conflicts. He directed and acted in the two movies that were in production during the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh seasons. He probably would have done a follow up sometime in the 6th or 7th season, if he wasn't fully committed to his direction.

 

He might still re-emerge if and when they need him.

 

Once Michael Dorn was on board, the producers probably did not want a third TNG actor to keep reappearing and affecting the character of the series. Bear is friends with Frakes, but he admits that the only TNG regular who could fit in was Worf. Moreover, Maquis stories petered out. There is no need from the perspective of the series to return to Thomas Riker

 

Even so, it's only natural that we wonder what happened to him. We also wonder about, say, Simon Tarses: did his career ever recover from the Drumhead incident? Did Nick Lacarno spend the rest of his life in some crappy dead end job on Earth? Did they rescue Moriarty's holo module from the wreck of the Enterprise D? And so on...

 

Nah, not all questions require answers.

And Nick Locarno was adopted by a Starfleet admiral, changed his name, but was imprisoned after joining the Maquis.

 

Future writers could write it any way they want. There's certainly no shortage of ways he could have been killed:

The Cardassians could have set up an accident in spite of Dukat's promise to Sisko.

While Riker was a prisoner, he could have been killed in the Klingon-Cardassian war, or in the Dominion War.

He could have been in a prison on Cardassia Prime when the Female Changling ordered all the Cardassian cities and population destroyed, and got killed in the general eagerness to kill as many of the Cardassians as possible before the surrender.

 

He could have been on Romulus when the star went Nova.

 

Until something is made official, your desire to see him dead and my hope that he survived are equally canonical.