With Riker, they depended waaaaaayyyy too much on a stereotype, I think. I haven't read enough of the "Making of TNG" type stuff to know if they consciously took the TOS formula of an action-hero captain and an intellectual first officer and flipflopped it, but that was the result, and that result was, IMO, less than ideal and definitely less than original. It let them take the easy way out in characterizing Riker.
I think you make a lot of good points,
Kate. Obviously I am a lot more sympathetic to Riker's character than you. But I pretty much agree with all the points you make. I think the reason they went the way they did with TNG and its first officer and captain were because a new Trek series in itself was a new thing. I think they felt they didn't need to challenge too much with the casting and "traditonal" roles. Although they did do that with Yar.
You are always so gracious when I go off on one of my anti-Riker rants. Aww!
Anyway, yes, I expect they figured that coming out with a new Trek series was a big enough risk - they didn't want to get too risky with the casting. But even taking that into consideration, I think they played it too safe. And they continued to play it safe with Riker the whole dang series. It's a shame - for fans and for Frakes, too, I think.
Klaitu said:
Troi is bad enough as a counselor, but some of that you can get away with because she's a woman. You get a guy in there talking about feelings and junk and people will just turn off the TV.
By "people" do you mean you, yourself? I wouldn't be turning off. I like the idea. As
Kate pointed out earlier, anything that gets us away from formula can be good. I think it would be interesting to challenge audience perceptions.
I think it might have been interesting, too. I also like
The Badger's idea of simply making the counselor, whoever played it and whatever that person's gender, a more realistic pschologist or psychiatrist. The writers were waaaaaaay too fond of that "I'm sensing that you're feeling _____" stuff.
Hmm. Maybe I should start a new TNG thread about mixing up slashes among the crew. Riker/Beverly might have worked -- and I also could see a Picard/Troi pairing. Or even Geordi/Troi. -- RR
^ I really dislike the Picard/Troi pairing for reasons I'm not really sure about. There is a lengthy and popular fanfic by Lori centred on that pairing, where Troi is first officer of the Enterprise. I haven't read it, as I say, because the pairing doesn't appeal to me. I think it might be called The Captain and The Counselor Series.
I simply loathe the Picard/Troi pairing - for a lot of reasons. First, I really hate captain/crewmember pairings, period. All of them. (And that includes Janeway and Chakotay, BTW.) Starfleet apparently has no rules against it, but I don't care - it's a dumb idea for captains to get involved with anybody they might have to command in battle, and just how dumb it is would be obvious if they showed such a romance in anything like a realistic way.
I think the way they eventually handled such a pairing with Picard (in "Lessons") was really great because it showed the romance, but also the consequences of that romance. To have a captain/crewmember romance work in the long-term, it would either have to be sappiliy romanticized and unrealistic, or it would have to be an on-and-off romance a la Picard/Crusher or Riker/Troi. And I find those unbelievably tedious because they were obviously used as plot devices, to be discarded or remembered as needed to fit the plot, and because in seven damn years, they were never resolved. Give me a break...
Second, it's just so damn predictable, you know? I mean, attractive male captain, attractive female officer - it's a cliche, or so it seems to me. I really like the semi-fatherly friendship that Picard and Troi developed, and I wouldn't ever want to trade that for yet another stupid TV romance. It's true that realistic romances are in short supply on TV, so a good one might be nice, but it's also true that realistic friendships between men and women are in short supply on TV, too, and this happens to be one that I really like.
