They introduced Tom Riker as transporter double to show a different path Will Riker's life could have taken. Double versions? We had a lot of them: two Kirks, two Picards, two Janeways...... In hindsight: was it a good or a bad idea to create Tom. Any thoughts?
Perhaps if they had done more with the character in other episodes. Plus, explore the science of how it happened, and show some research and experimentation? And, some hijinks and shenanigans by the two of them, one pretending to be the other, and watch the hilarity ensue!
Tom, contrary to Will, would have had some issues to settle with his father. And I don't know about Kyle Riker's reaction about having two versions of his son all of a sudden.
Should have done more with him. Make him serve on the Enterprise for a while then explore his more reckless nature and his differences to Will then kill him in a massive explosion.
Definitely should have done more with him. If they were braver, they actually would have killed Will and kept Tom. (A little like what they did on Angel.) I know why they didn't do it, but it would have been a hell of a shake up.
But how long would the writers have waited before bringing Will back to life and then killing Tom? I'd bet that they couldn't even hold out for an entire episode. Like Tuvix on Voyager, except I don't think Picard would jump at the chance of killing Tom to bring back Will like Janeway would. So it would need to be out of Picard's hands.
Wasn't this the original intent? I can't actually remember where I read that, though, so it may be completely fabricated. But yeah, moving Data to XO and having Tom Riker at ops (or even security) would have been a great change for the show. Unfortunately they were very much interested in keeping everything status quo. (TBF, an issue with many episodic television shows.)
I almost forgot that Tom showed up later in one of the DS9 episodes....trying to steal the Defiant. So he could have had a DS9 follow-up episode....
I see no reason to preferring Tom to Will on TNG. I wouldn't have messed with a winning formula and I'm glad they didn't, either. Riker was cool. Tom was an interesting exploration into - and expansion upon - the character of William T. Riker and it gave Frakes another opportunity to show his range of talent. I'm not thrilled that the soap-opera ploy of "mysterious, unknown twin 'brother'" had to be used, here, though. I mean, Data's having an Eeeeeeevil Twin Brother was so twee, to start with. I'm kind of disappointed that TNG revisited that, especially with my favourite character. Still in all, I'm enough of a Jonathan Frakes fan that I can actually say that I like him playing two characters in the same show ...
Apparently, yes. It was dropped as a serious consideration when they were still the early stages of writing the episode.
I really disliked Tom Riker... I'm not sure if it was a failure on Frakes part, or the writers part, but he behaved nothing like I would have expected. He showed almost no sign of having spent eight years in isolation, and behaved a lot more like Season Six Riker than the guy we knew in Season One (which makes little sense given that Tom never experienced the "seasoning" -- as Deanna put it in BOBW -- that Wil did during his tour on the Enterprise.) He just didn't work for me as a character at all...
Had they gone with their plan to kill off Will, promote Data and bring Tom in at Ops then I'd be more supportive of his introduction. As it is, I'm very much 'meh'.
^ I don't see how that could have worked. Star Trek fans -- and especially TNG fans -- are rather persnickety about those kinds of contrivances. What about the other Ops officers who have been waiting in line for a senior position, and who aren't eight years out of date, who have years of experience managing a Galaxy class starship on Beta or Gamma shift, and so on? ... Aside from sharing genes with Wil Riker, Tom hasn't done anything to earn a senior post on the Federation's flagship.
Tom Riker was fine. He appeared in some good episodes. Would've liked to seen more of him. Indeed, it would've been cool to link Maquis Tom up with Maquis Ro as a 24th century Bonnie and Clyde crime duo that Sisko had to catch... Sorry folks, you'll have to excuse my daydreamin'....
True from an in-universe perspective, that was just one of the rumouyrs I remember reading after the fact--which could've definitely mixed things up a little with regards to character relationships and drama. It's the same way I feel sorry for Season 2 and 3 conn officers, kicked off of alpha shift duty for some upstart kid.
He should have appeared more. It was an interesting premise. I like the idea of Ro and Tom Riker being a Maquis Bonnie and Clyde. That said, Second Chances was kinda boring but Defiant was great. A followup episode should have happened.
One of the few story threads that didn't get wrapped up in DS9... Frakes and I always regretted that.
As others have said, I think Tom Riker was a good idea with poor execution. It always bothered me that we never found out what happened to him (or any of the other Maquis in Cardassian custody at the end of the war), and that he got such a raw deal overall. Will Riker escapes from the untransportable planet and gets a commendation and a fast-track career path. Tom is stuck there for eight years of solitary confinement. While Tom's stuck down there, Will chooses his career over Deanna, permanently (or so it seemed at the time) ending their relationship. When Tom finally sees Deanna again after eight years of having very little else to do other than dreaming of the woman he loves, she informs him that she no longer loves him because of a choice Will made, that Tom never had the chance to make. Also, he's lost eight years of career advancement, which was the only thing that meant as much to him as Deanna did. He finally convinces Deanna to rekindle their relationship, but he has to ask her to move with him, because Will is being such a jerk that remaining on the Enterprise would be unbearable. She doesn't want to move, because she's happy where she is, and chooses to stay on the Enterprise with Will. A few movies later, and Deanna and Will get married. I know real life isn't fair, but it's always bothered me that Will was consistently in the wrong at every turn, and still ended up with everything he'd ever wanted (Deanna, career, etc.), while Tom did nothing wrong and still got nothing he wanted. TNG arcs usually have more satisfying resolutions than that.
I liked Tom a lot and think he should have stayed on the Enterprise, I would have loved if they had killed Will and done the Data/XO, Tom/Ops switch,mtjat would have changed the show a bit without making changes to the cast. I understand why they didn't want to kill Will but they didn't have to ship Tom off to some distant sector, why not keep him as a recurring character? Make him the ops officer of gamma shift, that would have easily explained why he's not seen as often but they still could have used him whenever they wanted (like when Beverly was in command during Thine own self, Tom could have been on the bridge as well), actor availability wouldn't have been a problem for obvious reasons and because they wouldn't need to pay an additional actor it wouldn't even have been a waste of money to have Tom pop up for minor scene with one line of dialog. I really liked Tom and felt bad for him, Will got everything, the career, Deanna, even the name! Tom got a thrombone ...