What If: TNG Season Seven - Captain Riker Arc

[M.A.C.O.]

As we all know, TNG season 7 was a huge step down from Seasons 3-6. Attributed to many of the writers of TNG moving on to DS9 and the powers that be seemingly running out of ideas. What if though, they gave season 7 an arc to inspire intrigue and bolster the creative writing. Fulfilling a promise started way back in season 1. An entire season of Will Riker being captain. He would finally accept promotion and captain his own ship. Data would move up in rank as first officer and the family of the ENT-D would be divided for the first time in 7 years.


The format would be altered to have Riker ship's and the Enterprise collaborate together in several episodes. Episodes purely about Riker's ship and episodes soley about the ENT-D. First contact stories, pursuing the Maqui episodes (picture Pre-emptive Strike as a multi-part story that overlaps with DS9), border disputes with the Cardassians on the DMZ, a hot war with the Romulans over the treaty of Algeron violation (the phasing cloaking device), and the trial of Will Riker for his role during the Pegasus incident. You close season 7 before All Good Things, with Will being demoted as retaliation by Admiral Pressman's allies in Star Fleet for not playing ball with the cover-up. Despite his exemplary record. Man did save Earth in Best of Both Worlds after all. Will takes demotion and ends up back on the Enterprise, just in time for the upcoming movies.


Stories like that and others would have worked well, I think. Certainly a step up from the long-lost family member episodes season 7 is filled with. Worf's foster brother, Geordi's missing mother, Troi's dead sister she never knew about, Picard's "son", and Data's mother/Dr. Soong's wife. Also, Beverly having sex with a candle can be stricken from the record as well.

Leave your thoughts and tell me your own ideas.

 

[Oddish]

TNG, DS9, and VOY each had one issue that really bothered me a lot. With TNG, it was Riker. His character journey, following "Best of Both Worlds", simply didn't make sense. At the start of the episode, Shelby needles him about not being ready to make the big decisions, and Picard tells him that he's ready to take command. In Part 2, he thoroughly demonstrates that Shelby was wrong and Picard's faith in him was justified. He shows the skill and decisiveness that a captain should, and he prevails. And Data, after his own brilliant work in that episode, deserved promotion as well. The natural course of action was for Shelby to help rebuild the fleet, Riker to take his own ship, and Data to take his place as Picard's right hand man.

Riker's remaining on the Enterprise felt like a somewhat clumsy plot contrivance to keep two popular characters (Picard and Riker) in the series. So if there had been a reasonable alternative to that, I'd be fine with it.

 

[Pikirk_Janesisko]

Yeah, Riker's natural progression was to become a Captain. I even think it should've been a permanent decision. Having some type of arc with Riker on season 7 would've been very nice but at that point the writers weren't really interested in shaking up the status quo because of the movies.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Yeah, Riker's natural progression was to become a Captain. I even think it should've been a permanent decision. Having some type of arc with Riker on season 7 would've been very nice but at that point the writers weren't really interested in shaking up the status quo because of the movies.

Now that's an interesting thought. Riker keeping his rank after BOBW. I wonder how that could've worked or if it even was possible. The TOS movies kept Spock on the Enterprise. Despite being the same rank and in the same division as Kirk in TVH, TFF and TUC. Scotty was also captain of engineering as of TSFS.

We saw that both Beverly and Troi applied for and carried Bridge officer status along with their ranks at full commander. As well as neither being on the command path.

 

[Oddish]

And Data should have received full commander's rank after BoBW regardless of Riker's actions. He did, after all, save Earth from assimilation.

Ironic that the only person who gave Data the status and recognition he deserved was the oft-reviled Edward Jellico.

 

[DarKush]

The get out of jail free card they already had where Riker was concerned was Tom Riker. To me they should've promoted Will (the idea that he would stay first officer for that long was really stretching credulity; Starfleet really needed captains after Wolf 359, the Klingon-Federation War on DS9, and definitely during and after the Dominion War).

Looking back, I wish they had kept Tom Riker around and just made Data first officer. Doing so would've even better set up the Kirk-Spock dynamic the TNG movies tried to create with Picard and Data and is a major part of ST: PIC's first season. Having Tom onboard instead of Will would've shaken up the crew dynamics and gave us another interesting outsider character, but one the audience sort of already 'knew' so there wouldn't be a lot of time spent on fleshing them all (a la Ezri Dax) in the final season.

Not killing off Will would also allow them to bring him back for some very special episodes. And the Tom-Troi romance might have come across as more organic than them finally putting Will and Deanna together in Insurrection.

I was okay with some of the long lost family member stories. I thought the Data one was quite good and it was great finally getting to see Geordi's parents (great Roots reunion). I wish they had shown up much earlier during TNG's run, so Captain La Forge's eventually fate would've hit home even harder.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

I spoke to several coworkers who are currently sailors in the US Navy. They told me it's not uncommon for XOs and COs to have the same rank. So, after BOBW, Riker could and should have kept his rank as captain on the ENT-D. Picard would remain CO of the ship however.

For an XO in this position (promoted during a tour), Riker had several options available.

1. Continue serving as XO until the current CO either stepped down or was reassigned. Then hope he would be made CO of the ENT-D.

2. Put in a transfer for a CO position while serving as XO on the ENT-D and Starfleet would provide one when one became available. This would take some time. Due to Starfleet losing 39 ships after BOBW. With the new class ships Sovereign, Intrepid, Prometheus and Defiant allegedly still "on the drawing board) at the start of BOBW part 1. Also the general bureaucracy of dealing with transfers. You can imagine a lot of people who make rank, want out of their current job and into a new position.

3. Complete his tour with the ENT-D as XO and apply for a command on a different ship. Availability is still a thing here, as CO positions are tough to fill. If there were no ships available, Riker could renew with the ENT-D and stay on as XO. This happens often. The other options when you don't renew and or fail to secure your own command of a ship is to jockey a desk or take a job doing something else.

 

[valkyrie013]

after BOBW, could have done the Pegasus storyline as a reason as to why Riker wasn't offered a captaincy, and picard keeping him on as first officer. Give him a black mark to stop him from moving on.

Something like, he was offered the command of Ship X, and he finally accepted, but before he could move on, Pressman comes on board and they do the Pegasus episode, and at the end, Rikers captaincy is rescinded by starfleet, and was going to be transferred to a desk job, but Picard intervenes and keeps him on as first officer, and is told it will be awhile if ever he will be offered another command. With that, he stays onboard, and still gets his eventual Luna Ship captaincy.

But could have also done the 2 ships thing.

 

[Oddish]

after BOBW, could have done the Pegasus storyline as a reason as to why Riker wasn't offered a captaincy, and picard keeping him on as first officer. Give him a black mark to stop him from moving on.

Something like, he was offered the command of Ship X, and he finally accepted, but before he could move on, Pressman comes on board and they do the Pegasus episode, and at the end, Rikers captaincy is rescinded by starfleet, and was going to be transferred to a desk job, but Picard intervenes and keeps him on as first officer, and is told it will be awhile if ever he will be offered another command. With that, he stays onboard, and still gets his eventual Luna Ship captaincy.

That... actually makes a great deal of sense. Picard could have a certain amount of pull with the admiralty, and Riker did just help save the Federation, after all.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

I really do like Riker, and I'd watch the hell out of a "Titan" series; but Riker captaining the Enterprise, for the final season of TNG? They'd really have had to shake up his character, at that point in the saga, to keep him from feeling like a Kirk-rehash. A handsome ladies-man, captain of an Enterprise, and his first officer--presumably Data--the resident Spock-alike? It would never have lived down the TOS comparisons and jokes.

Unless somehow they passed Data up for the promotion, and had another character as Riker's XO. If it were Worf, that could be a vaguely interesting inverse of the Kirk-Spock duo, teaming up not-Kirk with the other extreme. Troi is another possibility (as she was going into command in the latter seasons), and their romantic history could add something to the story; but odds are, Jeri Taylor would have gotten involved, and turned it into another one of her embarrassing wish-fulfillment romances.

Titan-Riker works, because by that point, Riker is married to Troi, and is thus past his Kirk-alike phase; the Titan is a new ship, not another Enterprise; and I don't offhand know who his XO is, but I assume it isn't Data or a Spock-alike.

 

[Oddish]

and I don't offhand know who his XO is, but I assume it isn't Data or a Spock-alike.

He (or she) looked to be the same race as Linus in "Discovery".

 

[Orphalesion]

He (or she) looked to be the same race as Linus in "Discovery".

Well in Season one.

Spoiler

In season 2 it was an alien woman who looked like Mystique from the X-Men

That being said, I have no interest in a Titan series at all, we've seen enough of Riker and Troi (and of Worf for that matter) They can cameo in other series, if it really has to be, but I personally wouldn't want a show centred on them.
Plus there's that thing with Thad, so how many years/seasons would they even have before they have to settle on Nepenthe?

 

[WarpTenLizard]

He (or she) looked to be the same race as Linus in "Discovery".

(Looks up Linus) That thing is named LINUS? Like from "Peanuts?" I am DYING! Obviously his planet worships the Great Pumpkin, and I will never let that die.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Promoting Riker just to have him booted back down to XO seems pretty pointless and really unsatisfying for the show and the audience.

Lets say the cast are split up between the two new ships (don't know why but I picture Riker being offered a Cheyenne- or Excelsior-Class for his first command, but that's beside the point), you have seven characters we've come to know and love now spread across two ships leaving a lot of empty spaces. The question is do you fill them and have a huge core cast or put in place new recurring characters or even bring back a few fan favourites to fill up the roster--either way these characters are going to need something to do other than just sit there and go "Aye sir", so some storylines (such as the Pegasus Incident) could be moved to them to flesh them out a little (such as we got with "Lower Decks").

Data and Crusher I can see definitely staying with Picard, Worf was already keen to jump ship with Riker when he was offer the Aries so I could see him leaving (would be interesting for if he'd go to DS9 or not later). La Forge could make a really good XO for Riker, but he might not want to leave the E-D, and the same with Troi, despite their romance not being a thing she would be torn between the choice.

Creating a whole new ship with Riker as Captain might also have the vague hint of spin-off attached to it to take the starship series role once TNG finished, so getting an interesting and compelling new crew behind him might also see another show in the works along side DS9 and later VOY. If Worf went with Riker and they decided to make it a full show following on from TNG's run then Riker's show could well be the one that focused on building tensions with the Klingons and all out war in the Beta Quadrant.