Riker seems a bit dickish to Ensign Ro. Worf is right there in every episode wearing his Klingon baldric. Is it because Bajor is not a Federation member, that she gets punished?
Why can't Ro wear her Bajoran earring?
- Thread starter I am not Spock
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Not to mention five minutes later, they seat her next to Troi and her catsuit at the meeting. Riker's just a jerk.
Well, Kronos isn't a Federation member either, so it can't be that.
Riker was just being an ass because of Ro's history.
I took it as Riker going out of his way to be unwelcoming. Which, frankly, is religious persecution. It's also grossly hypocritical given his reason for doing so is her defying orders. Which, honestly, is laughable.
I assume there are technically regulations for that stuff, it's just not enforced usually. Riker exploited the regulations to be a jack ass within his rights.
I believe that the regulations probably strictly mean that she can't wear it on duty, but that starship command staff have flexibilty to allow it due to cultural requirements. Picard and Riker both seem to have been completely unaware of the cultural significance of the earring, and assumed at first that it had been simple jewelry.
Riker was being a hard-ass, due to Ro's reputation and the fact she just came of the stockade.
But Riker was NOT a jerk particularly, as this would probably be the normal reaction to anyone taking someone of Ro's reputation on board,
The WAY he enforced it was douchebaggery. The regs do seem to have some leeway rooted in command prerogative, given Troi & Worf & even Picard's own deviations
He shoved it in her face fairly dickishly because he disliked & disapproved of her & her being assigned there, which I guess you could call hypocritical, given what we'd learn about HIS history in being involved in a cover up of a mutiny which cost the lives of all his crew, save 2. Once they wrote that up, all Riker's pomposity seems really out of place in prior seasons, like this bit here
He shoved it in her face fairly dickishly because he disliked & disapproved of her & her being assigned there, which I guess you could call hypocritical, given what we'd learn about HIS history in being involved in a cover up of a mutiny which cost the lives of all his crew, save 2. Once they wrote that up, all Riker's pomposity seems really out of place in prior seasons, like this bit here
If you were in Riker's group, he was nice to you. If you were outside of Riker's group, and you were male, he was a dick to you. If you were outside of Riker's group, and you were female, but he didn't like you, he was a dick to you. If you were outside of Riker's group, but you were female and he liked you, he would try to get his dick in you.
Pretty much the summary of William T Riker's character.
Especially since Ro's actions got eight members of her away team killed.
Is the Klingon Empire part of the Federation? Apart from Riker being a jerk, it's likely because the earring violates the Starfleet dress code.
--Sran
I always thought he just assumed Ro was being rebellious in general, and he didn't actually know the earring was culturally significant.
Worf was a disciplined, respectful, officer. Ro very much was not and one strongly-worded letter away from being court martialed. One buys you some leeway, the other a cracking whip made of rules.
Dress code, past history, and she was displaying a crapload of attitude in that episode from the moment she went aboard.
She was aboard for all of five seconds, and Riker was already in a mood before she materialized, but I can see from her demeanor how she was giving off as much attitude as Riker.
We know from VOY: Learning Curve that Bajoran earrings actually aren't technically allowed, but obviously the ship's command staff has a lot of latitude about such things, which seems sensible.
Riker was being a dick and he had attitude before she was even on the ship, but given that, I can't really fault him for doing what he did -- it's XO prerogative at that point, and it's reasonable that he wants to make clear to Ro that she will be held to the highest standards. She was in the stockade for disobeying orders, people died, and I think it's acceptable for Riker to set some ground rules right off the top, at least until Picard says otherwise.
Sometimes being a dick is the first officer's job, and even Picard says Riker's the finest
If she'd gone through channels, she might have gotten the earring approved before she went aboard. She was, to borrow a phrase from my father, "showing her ass." When Riker made her remove it, she didn't protest that it was a cultural symbol...she huffed like a spoiled teenager being forced to give up the phone.
When Riker makes Worf take off his sash, and makes Troi get in a uniform I might buy him just enforcing the rules. Until then, he's just being a jerk playing favorites.
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