Why they wanted to kill off Will Riker ?

[medwatt]

Hello,
I've just watched the season 6 episode, 'second chances' where the genetically identical Thomas Riker is introduced. I think this is the first time I've watched something of this sort and quite enjoyed the concept.
I was reading production notes of the episode and was surprised that the writers were contemplating on killing Wil Riker and replacing him with Thomas Riker as 2nd officer and in the process promote Data to first officer. From what I read, this didn't happen because they were thinking of producing movies at the time, otherwise they might have just done it.
It is true that Wil Riker's role seems to diminish as the seasons went on as he appeared to be less of a risk taker and more of a captain's man. I was wondering if that was the reason as they wanted to give his character a fresh start or for some reason they were planning to even further diminish his role by allocating that time to other characters such as Data ?
Thanks.

 

[jimbotron]

Riker's character had pretty much gone stale by that point. I would say that the character's development peaked in Best of Both Worlds, and then just tread water for the rest of the show and the movies.

It doesn't make sense for his #1 priority to make captain, finally become a captain, SAVE the entire Federation, and then just go back to the status quo. It's necessary for the show to keep going because you can't just jettison Frakes because it makes sense from a story standpoint. It eliminates further chances for character growth though.

The "Thomas" Riker introduced a chance to reboot the character while keeping the actor. I'm glad they didn't go with it though, that would have been too weird.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Tom was stuck on that planet for 8 years, realistically they wouldn't "make" him second officer based on his lack of experience.

Will was promoted for "exceptional valor" on that mission, Tom didn't have that experience.

I think the character would have had to go away for a while to get re-trained.

 

[MikeS]

Tom was stuck on that planet for 8 years, realistically they wouldn't "make" him second officer based on his lack of experience.

Will was promoted for "exceptional valor" on that mission, Tom didn't have that experience.

I think the character would have had to go away for a while to get re-trained.

Tom did have that experience. The transporter accident happened after the "exceptional valour" had taken place. Therefore he should be eligible for the same promotion afforded to Will.

That he had been stranded for eight years would probably exclude him from returning to active service immediately though. On that point I agree with you. I mean, he wouldn't even know how to operate a Galaxy Class ship, never mind complete a "manual docking of the Saucer section"!

 

[Last Redshirt]

If they wanted to get rid of Riker but still keep Frakes, I would've sent Riker off to the USS Putonabus as a captain but have kept Tom around as a second officer, taking over Data's role as COO. That way, if you want to, you can bring Will around if they want him, but Frakes is still with TNG.

 

[Dukhat]

Riker's character had pretty much gone stale by that point. I would say that the character's development peaked in Best of Both Worlds, and then just tread water for the rest of the show and the movies.

It doesn't make sense for his #1 priority to make captain, finally become a captain, SAVE the entire Federation, and then just go back to the status quo. It's necessary for the show to keep going because you can't just jettison Frakes because it makes sense from a story standpoint. It eliminates further chances for character growth though.

That's just the nature of the episodic format that TNG (and TOS and VOY and ENT) had. They focused more on planets and aliens of the week instead of on the main characters. What they should have done was focus on Riker finally realizing that he's not going to get command of the Enterprise, but if he doesn't get command of something, he's going to ruin his career. So by the end of the season he's finally accepted a new command.

 

[Makarov]

I have to wonder: Does Starfleet want to have the best crew with experience working together on its flagship or do they want to use it as a training ground for first officers? If it's the former then they need Riker on there.

While I love Second Chances I don't really think Tom Riker is different enough from Will Riker for it to be a worthwhile change. If they were dramatically different personalities then it might be cool.

I still like Riker a lot in season six while I'm rewatching it. I only wish he had a bigger role in the movies... for instance if he had been on the Enterprise in First Contact.

 

[USS Triumphant]

What would have been cool is if the situation had been misunderstood, and Riker had been split in the accident like Kirk in TOS. Riker on the Enterprise was a little stodgy, over-responsible, bitter, and a little unimaginative, and planetbound Riker was irresponsible and freewheeling and prone to flights of fancy. But until they actually met one another and began to really differentiate, neither one had drifted too far from being the Riker they once both were. Culminating finally in a movie where one of them loses his shit and the other has to get help from the TNG crew, especially Deanna, to hunt him down and ultimately re-merge. I can see shades of ST:TMP with the whole "only way to understand" thing, and maybe shades of Wrath of Khan with an epic space fight with one out of his mind wanting revenge for having been left behind, and some all new elements, too.

 

[jimbotron]

Or how about we find out that the two can be recombined in the transporter (Tuvix-style), and the man who emerges has the memories of both Rikers, and the new Riker is less stodgy as before.

If both Picard and O'Brien can live entire lives in a moment and be completely normal the next episode, then they could have made that work too.

 

[varek]

Although not canon, Thomas Riker appears in several books and is a very important character: he is brave and innovative. However, because of his non-Starfleet experiences, he is able to better perform undercover and "rogue" type missions than his twin, William, might have been able to do, convincingly.

I like both William Thomas Rikers, so I hope the franchise will continue to utilize them both.

I think the purpose of all duty assignments is to train future officers, by giving them a variety of experiences and observing how their senior officers and mentors decide to accomplish the missions. Hopefully, the junior officers will review their experiences and consider how they would have decided to act, either the same or differently, and learn from all this.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Going back to the topic question, I think the best response is:

Well, wouldn't you if given the chance?

 

[jimbotron]

It wouldn't have worked out because of scheduling and having to shoot future episodes, but it would have been pretty cool if Thomas Riker was clean-shaven to contrast with the usual Will Riker. They did give him a slightly different beard.

 

[xezt]

I wouldn't have minded if they killed off Wil Riker and brought on Tom Riker as the new Riker. It would have given the series a new flare, and plus Riker was simply mundane and stale. Picard, Data, and Worf were the cool and interesting characters. Geordi was OK. But Riker was very stale after Best of Both Worlds. Troi and Dr. Crusher were written as boring as hell.

 

[borgboy]

I was hoping at the time that Tom would come back and romance Troi some more. As a Troi fan I had been rooting for more relationship development with her and Will for years, and was fairly disgusted with Will for not being with her when they were supposed to be in love. I think replacing Tom with Will full time would've been a nice way to shake things up. Will was getting pretty stale in character development by that time, kept in a status quo where he wasn't growing past the time when he should've.

 

[medwatt]

I was also wondering why they didn't attempt to replicate other characters through transporter malfunction which resulted in another Riker ? One of the things that baffles me in TNG is the tendency of the writers to completely disregard the implications of the solutions they propose to the problems ! Just like in another episode with the Ferengi scientist who invented a way of protection against extremely high temperatures only for his invention to be used as a vice for a mystery plot !

 

[USS Triumphant]

I was also wondering why they didn't attempt to replicate other characters through transporter malfunction which resulted in another Riker ?

Probably because doing so would constitute reckless experimentation on a living thinking creature, and that is widely regarded to be something that is wrong?

 

[Start Wreck]

Who's to say somebody didn't try it again? Perhaps the accident isn't so easily replicable.

 

[MikeS]

Just like in another episode with the Ferengi scientist who invented a way of protection against extremely high temperatures only for his invention to be used as a vice for a mystery plot !

The shields were used again. In Descent for one.