What if Riker accepted his first Captain offer?

[Mage]

In the novel The Buried Age, we follow Picard for several years between his command of the Stargazer and Enterprise-D. During his life as a civilian, he works with Janeway for a while. She's a lieutenant at the time. After accepting command of the E-D he considers possible first officers, and he considers her for a while, untill realizing she's unavailable.

Nothing about that novel is canon, but it was a very good read AND the idea of Janeway and Picard as XO/CO combo is interesting.

 

[Oddish]

it is almost certain they would have hired a woman to be the new first officer with a lack of women in the cast.

That was what they were arguably trying to do with Shelby as S3 neared its end.

Whoopi Goldberg, who was the only "special guest star" doesn't seem to have started to appear in publicity until at least season 3 and was only credited in the episodes she appeared in.

Both she and Muldaur seem to have made it into the publicity cast shots. Making them... nominally regulars, I guess?

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Both she and Muldaur seem to have made it into the publicity cast shots.

I can't find Whoopi in any of the S2 publicity shots, but she does appear in several from S3 onwards.

Making them... nominally regulars, I guess?

That could be argued, yeah. There would be a stronger case if they'd been credited for episodes they didn't appear in, but that doesn't appear to be the case for Diana and checking for Whoopi would be time-consuming, so I'm going to assume it wasn't the case given the short list of appearances on Memory Alpha.

That was what they were arguably trying to do with Shelby as S3 neared its end.

That might have an option they were considering at the time, yeah.

 

[Oddish]

That might have an option they were considering at the time, yeah.

Even though Riker staying on as first officer made absolutely no sense in the greater narrative, at least it spared us having Shelby as a regular. That woman annoyed me.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Even though Riker staying on as first officer made absolutely no sense in the greater narrative, at least it spared us having Shelby as a regular. That woman annoyed me.

IDK that she was any more annoying inherently (rather than just in scenes with Riker) than Ro was a season or so later, or for that matter Kira with several of the cast in the first season or two and they both grew on me eventually.

 

[Oddish]

Part of it was a scene that I thought was one of the most appalling in Trek... when Riker intends to lead the away team, Deanna undercuts him right in front of the crew, including Shelby, who already has a problem with his authority. I could practically see the latter thumbing her nose at Riker when she took over the away team.

Never mind Shelby, Riker should have snapped Deanna back so hard, she'd think she was a first year cadet again. Her actions were WAY worse than anything Shelby did.

Compare to Data, in "Time's Arrow"... when he disagreed with Picard, he did it in private. Showing that he had more command chops in one cheek of his android backside than Deanna had in her whole body.

 

[Riley]

Part of it was a scene that I thought was one of the most appalling in Trek... when Riker intends to lead the away team, Deanna undercuts him right in front of the crew, including Shelby, who already has a problem with his authority. I could practically see the latter thumbing her nose at Riker when she took over the away team.

Never mind Shelby, Riker should have snapped Deanna back so hard, she'd think she was a first year cadet again. Her actions were WAY worse than anything Shelby did.

Compare to Data, in "Time's Arrow"... when he disagreed with Picard, he did it in private. Showing that he had more command chops in one cheek of his android backside than Deanna had in her whole body.

Well, we can't blame her too much...she didn't have a real uniform yet and she hadn't taken the command test, so she just had no idea how to act like an officer.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Here's a twist, The studio is disappointed with Season One, The want to retool the show to make more "traditional" Star Trek

Picard, the Crushers and Troi are out. When the show returns, Riker is the new captain. At his side as first officer is Mr. Data. New additions are Colm Meany as Chief Engineer Miles O'Brien and Diana Muldaur as Dr Pulaski. La Forge stays at helm. Worf moves to the forward console as weapons officer. Ops disappears as the Chief Exposition Officer becomes part of the XO's duties. Sonya Gomez returns as the new comm officer.

 

[BillJ]

Riker would’ve died at Minos, just like Paul Rice. Rice would’ve been the up and comer on the Enterprise.

 

[Oddish]

we can't blame her too much...she didn't have a real uniform yet and she hadn't taken the command test, so she just had no idea how to act like an officer

She was a lieutenant commander in Starfleet, uniform or no. Same rank as Data.

 

[BillJ]

She was a lieutenant commander in Starfleet, uniform or no. Same rank as Data.

Not in the chain of command. Technically, Ro Laren should’ve been in charge of the bridge during “Disaster”.

McCoy is also a Lieutenant Commander.

Rank and position are two different things.

 

[Oddish]

All the more reason why Data deserved that third gold pip and she didn't. Call me nuts, but I think that saving the Federation from both a Borg invasion and a Romulan/Duras alliance just rated a little more credit than taking a dozen tries to kill a hologram of Geordi LaForge.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

If Riker takes his first command offer (or even his second), he remains an intriguing character with an arc instead of the hollow caricature that replaced him after "The Best of Both Worlds."

I look back on NextGen now and I wish the series had been structured a bit more like Tour of Duty, Wiseguy, or L.A. Law, with main characters coming and going. Some stay a season or three or five, some are only around for a short-term arc or a 13-episode contract. Riker gets promoted off, a new Chief Engineer comes aboard, Crusher goes to Starfleet Medical, etc. Compared to what other television drama was doing at the time, NextGen was a throwback to the style of a decade or two earlier.

 

[somebuddyX]

I don't think they needed to anything about big arcs across TNG. If anything, in "Family" I would put a line in saying he wants to be there on the Enterprise and just leave the matter closed. BOBW never had him answer what he wanted. Picard's abduction came along and forced him into the captaincy. I could imagine him having had the taste for it and in light of Picard's rehabilitation just wanting to stay on the Enterprise with his friends and family. Sure it closes off that arc but really that arc was never going to go anywhere while Frakes wanted a fulltime job. And outside of Data and Worf do any of the others have arcs rather than just episodic storylines? The writers were just barely pushing out 26 episodes a year, I'm sure that was the furthest thing from their mind. Riker's stories might be a bit bland because they're not as character driven but I think that's the writer's fault for not finding a better way in to the character

 

[Riley]

Here's a twist, The studio is disappointed with Season One, The want to retool the show to make more "traditional" Star Trek

Picard, the Crushers and Troi are out. When the show returns, Riker is the new captain. At his side as first officer is Mr. Data. New additions are Colm Meany as Chief Engineer Miles O'Brien and Diana Muldaur as Dr Pulaski. La Forge stays at helm. Worf moves to the forward console as weapons officer. Ops disappears as the Chief Exposition Officer becomes part of the XO's duties. Sonya Gomez returns as the new comm officer.

I'd have loved this! Your picks for new bridge crew are far more interesting characters than Troi and the Crushers, and I love Pulaski!

She was a lieutenant commander in Starfleet, uniform or no. Same rank as Data.

I know, I was just making an obviously poor joke!

 

[BillJ]

I look back on NextGen now and I wish the series had been structured a bit more like Tour of Duty, Wiseguy, or L.A. Law, with main characters coming and going. Some stay a season or three or five, some are only around for a short-term arc or a 13-episode contract. Riker gets promoted off, a new Chief Engineer comes aboard, Crusher goes to Starfleet Medical, etc. Compared to what other television drama was doing at the time, NextGen was a throwback to the style of a decade or two earlier.

This is true of all of Trek, post TOS.

 

[Oddish]

This is true of all of Trek, post TOS.

Some Trek more than others.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

This is true of all of Trek, post TOS.

I really would have liked a Wiseguy-esque storytelling approach, where the Enterprise spends 3-5 episodes having adventures at a single planet. "Relics" is the object example of this--sure, Scotty's story is nice, but why not spend 2 or 3 more episodes exploring the Big Dumb Object, the Dyson Sphere. The format of find a planet, have a problem, solve the problem, leave, all in 45 minutes is fine and all, but why can't a planet have multiple problems, or have the Enterprise do an extended survey where we see the different things the crew does?

 

[BillJ]

I really would have liked a Wiseguy-esque storytelling approach, where the Enterprise spends 3-5 episodes having adventures at a single planet. "Relics" is the object example of this--sure, Scotty's story is nice, but why not spend 2 or 3 more episodes exploring the Big Dumb Object, the Dyson Sphere. The format of find a planet, have a problem, solve the problem, leave, all in 45 minutes is fine and all, but why can't a planet have multiple problems, or have the Enterprise do an extended survey where we see the different things the crew does?

To me, it is more unforgivable that the CBS shows haven’t taken this approach.

 

[Oddish]

That Dyson sphere especially. It probably had more surface area than every home world in the Federation combined.