Tom Riker VS Miles O'Brien

[DonIago]

^^
How about this.

You live on a station where people get taken over by evil entities once a week. You served on a ship where you yourself were taken over by an evil entity. It happens. You're aware of this.

A good friend shows up, yells at you about something that never happened, and you just say "You're right" and move on? Or think "Hey, something's not right, me and Will left on great terms, he's lying, I'm warning someone NOW." At least, if you're as experienced as O'Brien, you'd think you would. Step off the Defiant, hit your badge (it's really convenient) and say "Sisko, there's something up with Commander Riker, he's on the Defiant..."

Easiest solution, as pretty much stated before, would be Tom saying "O'brien, great to see you, let's catch up at Quark's tonight!" Then move on. Takes the same amount of time. And it isn't stupid.

(laughs) If I "hit my combadge" every time people acted in a way that I thought was unusual and not necessarily consistent with what I knew of them, I'd likely be in an asylum by now. Usually I respond with an "Oh...okay," and file it away for later analysis (i.e. I'll ask other people who also know the person whether anything's going on).
It's also a bit of a stretch to claim people got taken over by evil entities once a week, but I suspect you already know that.

In any event, matters progressed so quickly that even if O'Brien did with relative haste decide this constituted a problem and pursued things, it was probably already too late. How much time elapses from that conversation to the Defiant's departure? 5 minutes?

 

[DevilEyes]

^^
How about this.

You live on a station where people get taken over by evil entities once a week. You served on a ship where you yourself were taken over by an evil entity. It happens. You're aware of this.

A good friend shows up, yells at you about something that never happened, and you just say "You're right" and move on? Or think "Hey, something's not right, me and Will left on great terms, he's lying, I'm warning someone NOW." At least, if you're as experienced as O'Brien, you'd think you would. Step off the Defiant, hit your badge (it's really convenient) and say "Sisko, there's something up with Commander Riker, he's on the Defiant..."

Easiest solution, as pretty much stated before, would be Tom saying "O'brien, great to see you, let's catch up at Quark's tonight!" Then move on. Takes the same amount of time. And it isn't stupid.

(laughs) If I "hit my combadge" every time people acted in a way that I thought was unusual and not necessarily consistent with what I knew of them, I'd likely be in an asylum by now. Usually I respond with an "Oh...okay," and file it away for later analysis (i.e. I'll ask other people who also know the person whether anything's going on).
It's also a bit of a stretch to claim people got taken over by evil entities once a week, but I suspect you already know that.

In any event, matters progressed so quickly that even if O'Brien did with relative haste decide this constituted a problem and pursued things, it was probably already too late. How much time elapses from that conversation to the Defiant's departure? 5 minutes?

Exactly.

Easiest solution, as pretty much stated before, would be Tom saying "O'brien, great to see you, let's catch up at Quark's tonight!" Then move on. Takes the same amount of time. And it isn't stupid.

...But Miles doesn't want to just cut the conversation and catch up later, it's on old friend he hasn't seen in a quite a while, for frak's sakes! "Hey, Will, tell how you've been doing? How's everyone on Enterprise? Me and Keiko were just talking about you the other day, remember that time when..."

 

[Kai Winn]

I never liked the Riker/O'Brien scene in what I otherwise consider to be a superb episode. It just seems "off" to me. I know Riker is a ranking officer, but I just can't imagine with something like that coming completely out of the blue, that O'Brien wouldn't have at least questioned it, and made Tom Riker get more forceful and order him off the ship or something. I mean, Will Riker and O'Brien weren't just co-workers. They were at least somewhat friends. We see them in Ten Forward sharing a drink together, we see them playing poker together, etc. If they'd just added an extra two lines. Something like O'Brien, very confused, going "Sir?" And Riker forcefully saying "Dismissed." That would have been enough for me.

But personally, I think it would have been better if they'd just omitted that little exchange entirely. No good plot reason that O'Brien needs to be on the Defiant. And it's only 30 seconds later that Tom shoots Kira with a phaser, so it's not like that scene provided 20 minutes of suspense for us to question what was wrong with Will. Just have Tom and Kira board the ship, have their little exchange, and be done with it.

And lets not forget, Miles knew of Tom Riker. I'm not saying he should have instantly known, but it makes look Obrien look a bit daf.

Rob

not necessarily. miles wasn't aboard enterprise in the the tng episode which discovered tom riker, they should not know each other.
since covetom wrote 'riker is a ranking officer' - miles was a lieutenant on enterprise. another ds9 continuity problem.

 

[Teiwaz]

I have to agree it seems by the time you see him steal the defiant he just did it to nip some possible threat before it begins.

The whole two riker thing was a horrible tng episode to begin with as it just opens a big can of worms.

Surely that should be the point of Sci-fi - open a big can of worms and see what slithers out.

Naww! It was an interesting idea exploring what would happen by way of an accident if a person was 'copied' using a transporter (the whole marooned for 10 years plot) was just a way to distance the one from the other.
Unfortunetly without a story arc they had no plans as to where to take Riker2 from there until one of the writers had an idea while desperately pawing through old scripts while facing a deadline, a franchise later.