Why Commander Riker was never a good character in TNG series ?

[dammitjim6400]

First of all when The Next Generation came out a review in a Newspaper said Commander William Riker will be the breakout star of the show ..I've always liked Jonathan Frakes and Commander Riker, he was good looking , strong, had a commanding presence and had a relationship with his Imzadi Deanna troi..The truth is Commander Riker was never as good as he could had been or should had been, in the first 2 seasons he starts off okay leading away teams, giving up powers to be like Q, even serving on a Klingon ship proving his courage.But in the later seasons, he was relegated to minor roles, while Data and Worf did the awesome stuff..One thing thats bugs me about this is Riker COULD HAD BEEN A GREAT CHARACTER, I'm talking in the Kirk, Spock, Picard league. To me, Riker's Downfall started in Best of Both Worlds part one, great episode but like Shelby said Riker was "hiding behind Picard' and he was"in her way". Riker was confused, and scared of commanding a ship when offered, and he turned it down more than once , maybe three times..Whether it was bad writing or a character flaw, I don't know, but it seems silly for a seasoned commander to not want his own ship,I know the ship was destroyed by the Borg, still he should had accepted it..In Chain Of Command pts 1 and 2 Riker acted like an green cadet with Captain Jellico, I know Jellico was a hard ass but when he asks Riker to do something important, the first thing the first Officer of the flagship SHOULDN'T say is "I can't " then yells at him, Riker should had prove himself capable and up to the challenge of getting the crew ready or almost ready at any given moment , Kirk and Spock was always up to a Challenge even when the odds were against them, again this does nothing good for the Riker character, when a other Captain refers to your first officer as incompetent, that's an insult to Captain Picard and the ship, again I feel it's bad writing, in the rest of the episodes Riker didn't do anything outstanding, he did get some action in the movies but TNG writers were so busy with Worf and Data they forgot about Riker..Now in the Titan novels Riker moved from Captain to Admiral and he's proving he can hold his own and be a hero..Opinions ? Do you agree ?

 

[Terok Nor]

The writers lost interest when they realized Data and Picard were more popular. Worf even.

In continuity Riker turned down his own command several times. It never really made any sense. He was introduced as being on the fast track to commanding his own vessel but 15 years later he was still Picard's first officer.

 

[mos6507]

I wonder whether there was ever any thought of spinning Riker off into his own series around the same time DS9 and Voyager were being spun off? I guess by spinning TNG into movies it discouraged the idea of the cast having their own show on TV at the time (hence Worf being yanked back while he was on DS9).

 

[2takesfrakes]

 

[Herbert]

MAKE RIKER GREAT AGAIN!

 

[velour]

Riker was never great to begin with.

I remember the last scene of GEN. Riker and Picard were salvaging whatever they could of the destroyed Ent-D. Riker walked up to the captain's chair and said "I always thought I'd get a shot at this chair some day." I couldn't help but shake my head. I had gotten sick of Riker's "captain's chair some day" talk. It had been 7 seasons and a movie, and Riker is still where he was at the beginning of it all.

Riker was a hot shot officer with ambitions of having his own ship to command. Yet he passed every opportunity that came his way. The Riker character lost a lot of credibility imo. And his refusal to take command of his own ship made him look weak. Shelby exposed Riker's flaws even further. I agree that the character went downhill after that.

In "Chain of Command", the admiral bluntly told Riker that Riker was not the man to command the Enterprise in Picard's absence. I would say the writers' undermined the character, but less so the actor Frakes.

Riker wasn't a terrible character. He had many good moments. But the whole was worse than the sum of the good moments. "Best of Both Worlds" would have been a good time for a change at the first officer position.

Besides, Riker paled in comparison to Picard. Granted Picard overshadowed everyone. And I agree with Terok Nor. Data and Worf upstaged Riker as well. There was nothing special or great about Riker.

 

[Computer Voice]

I think Riker is a flawed character. Perhaps he is the least perfect of TNG's perfect humans.

He may be perceived as a young hot shot, but by season 3 he's in the middle of his career, and his progression has plateaued. This happens in lots of people's careers, and it's something I'm feeling in mine at the moment. More people plateau than not.

Riker is guilty of being too comfortable on the D. It's easier to stay where you are in a job you mostly enjoy, working with your friends, and working for someone you respect, than to take a chance taking a risky promotion which pushes you out of your comfort zone.

Riker seems to have a problem with authoritarian superiors (his father and Jellico). However, when he is thrust into the centre seat, he seems to be paralysed by indecision (BoBW, Time's Arrow) and struggles finding the right course of action.

He may come across as juveline at times, especially in Chain of Command, but his comfortable career amd life are being threatened. He's gone from being a risk taker to playing it safe, and I can understand that. To me these flaws make Riker seem real.

 

[Mojochi]

And his refusal to take command of his own ship made him look weak.

When you delve into him being weak, he's actually a much more interesting character, almost by accident. A hot shot rookie, who gets caught up on the wrong side of a mutiny cover-up over the deaths of nearly an entire crew. A young officer who at one point must've had minimal recommendations upon which to advance beyond that 1st commanding officer (to his shame) So when he did get a starship posting again, took on all sorts of dangerous away missions, like Nervala IV, as a way to overcompensate for that self-loathing esteem issue. That new heroic façade leading to a fast track of promotions, wherein he was offered command of his own ship, only three years after having been an ensign posted on Betazed

& that's when the brakes got slammed down. He instead took an XO post on the D, because internally he might've had not only doubts about his ability to command, but about his deservingness of the post itself. When I look at Riker now, I don't see a strong leader, or a confident officer. I see a house of cards. Quick to judge others, cheap trysts with women, overplayed masculine bravado

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I thought Riker was a compelling character in stories where he had an action or problem solving roles. The problem with Riker was that most of the writers didn't know what to do with his lack of gimmick. In the first season he was the rebellious risk taker, and you can do stuff with that, but they backed off from that after first season and then his thing was being lecherous.

They wrote themselves into a corner too early. Established him as a career minded fast riser, but thing is, he's a main character! He's not going anywhere, then they made the mistake of giving him the opportunity to leave, and forced their own hand in making him afraid to take the reins.

After that happened, he had no real gimmick except the ladies man thing, and the writers couldn't figure out interesting things to do with him outside his gimmick.

 

[JesterFace]

I think Riker was a good character and in some way I understand his reaction when he was offered his own ship in late season 3.

I'm one of those people (like Joey in 'Friends') who don't like when things change. Maybe Riker felt he already had enough things changing in his life during his career in Starfleet and wanted things to stay the same for a while so he decided not to leave the Enperprise.

And then there's Deanna, maybe he thought that perhaps something might happen between them if they stayed in the same place long enough. If he loved her...

 

[USS Triumphant]

I don't really have a problem with Riker as a character. As others have pointed out, he had a screwed up past with the Pegasus and might have been unsure of himself because of it, he sometimes seemed to believe he could rekindle things with Troi (which he did, ultimately), and whenever he bypassed a command, it must have been in his mind that he could move up on the *fleet flagship* if he stayed put. He obviously loved that ship: in the AGT future, it was his chosen ship as Admiral. I think it was the move to the 'E' that finally freed him of that idea.

Occasionally, he was a little childish, like in Chain of Command, but, I put that down to the general writing moreso than a specific problem with Riker. It was a problem that seemed to affect all of the characters except Worf and Crusher, really. Even Picard.

Frakes, OTOH.... don't get me started.

 

[Farscape One]

I think "The Pegasus" was a needed episode for Riker. It helped to explain a lot of his behavior over the years, particularly his turning down 3 commands. And staying under Picard, he found a leader he can not only respect, but trust and learn from.

And a lot of us are against a lot of change. He was working alongside people he trusted, his friends, had a great routine going on. I really wouldn't want to leave, either.

 

[Nightcreature]

I read that the writers initially wanted Riker to be the James Kirk of TNG which would contrast Picard's play it by the book, safe and diplomatic style. However by season 3, they toned down Riker quite a bit and allowed Picard to become a more exciting Captain and yes they focused more on Data and Worf. Obviously this hurt his character development throughout the series.

I also think you aren't giving Riker enough credit though. In BOBW, his initial instinct to not take his own command allowed him to barely beat the Borg when they were about to assimilate Earth. If he was on the USS Melbourne as the captain, he would have been likely killed and the Borg assimilates Earth. This leads me to my next point. I think Riker would have been a great captain in the TOS era where commanders with his style would be needed to survive against numerous threats. It seems like during the whole run of TNG, the Federation for the most part was at peace except the Borg invasion where we saw how effective Riker was. So a commander who takes risks and relies on unorthodox tactics is not really needed. Although I guess one could argue that all changed during the Dominion War. Oh well, I blame the writers for holding back Riker.

 

[flandry84]

I agree that any fault with Riker’s character comes from the writers.But Riker is not an isolated incident,look at Chakotay.Both typical ‘leading men’ types in shows where typical leading men were not the thing.
It is very odd to watch TNG’s first season and see just how much focus there is on Will Riker and then how much he subsequently melts into virtual irrevelance in later seasons.Fair play to Frakes though,he never seems to have lost his enthusiasm for all things Trek.

 

[Farscape One]

I think Frakes' continued enthusiasm for STAR TREK is not only believing in Roddenberry's vision, which he has said in numerous interviews how he had those conversations, but also it gave him a directing career. Plus, income from conventions for decades.

I think gratitude is a big part of his enthusiasm.

 

[JaxsBrokenHeart]

I think the character was hurt by the fact that Riker just sort of stops developing after Best of Both Worlds to a large extent. The man finally proves himself as worthy of sitting in the chair and lives up the potential he always had. Then he's just the content XO for the next four years.

There's a hell of an interesting what if scenario if they had done the Second Chances episode in season 4, but had it end with Will being promoted to Captain and leaving to command his own ship. Data for his role in repelling the Borg, gets promoted to FIrst Officer and Thomas Riker takes over for him at Ops. You get the character development for Will, a logical promotion for Data, a shake up to the status quo, and even get to keep Frakes on as a cast member.

I don't know how well it would have worked long term, but its fascinating to think about.

 

[Triskelion]

Here's the problem with Riker:
Patrick Stewart was too damned good.

 

[flandry84]

/\Well, maybe Picard was too good.
Riker was supposed to be a rising young officer learning his trade but
the writers never gave him a chance to mess up.Having a hyper-competent exec serving under a hyper-competent captain was a tad redundant.This was before anyone knew of the Pegasus business.

As for Frakes continued enthusiasm for Trek,yeah it could simply be gratitude but the franchise has made the various cast members famous and rich yet many of them seem to carry a chip on their shoulders about it.I like Frakes’ continued good nature about Trek and all it’s foibles.

 

[DavidFalkayn]

I don't think Riker was necessarily a poor character. It's just that they wrote themselves into a corner with him in "Best of Both Worlds." The best way that could have ended for the character would have been for Riker to have moved on to his own command and Shelby take over as First Officer. By keeping Riker on for season after season, in many ways, it makes him come across as a dead-ender when he's supposed to be a smart, ambitious, competent individual ready to move up.

The problem also is that they wanted to keep Frakes on as a regular in the cast--so how do you reconcile the demands of character and plot with the desires of writers/producers/directors/fellow actors/fans to keep a popular actor?

 

[at Quark's]

I think the root problem is not in the character as such, but in the position.

A captain is in the place where he wants to be, commanding a starship, 'making a difference'. Promotion to admirality is something that apparently at least several captains don't want (or are Picard and Kirk freaks? ). A chief engineer usually is in the place where he wants to be, fixing things, caring for your 'lady' (as the dialog between Geordi and Scotty). A chief medical officer probably also is in the place where he/she wants to be.

Not so the first officer in many cases. The average first officer would typically be a career command officer, and therefore almost by definition not yet at the place where he/she wants to be, namely the captaincy - or at least the Captaincy is usually depicted as the sweet spot for most ambitious figures in Star Trek. Which places him/her at odds with the fact that they're supposed to remain in the same position for the duration of the TV-series (usually a long 7 years).

Some series have solved this, others haven't. For example, TOS made Spock also a science officer, and an alien that suppressed his emotions and therefore had somewhat inscrutable motivations. All this made Spock 'work' as a first officer. TNG did not, and we see a 'problematic' first officer. DS9 solved it differently, by portraying Kira as someone who wasn't really in Starfleet, didn't seem to care for her career a great deal and even almost as someone who was sidetracked on DS9 by her government, at least during early DS9 - during later DS9 there were much larger stakes at issue for her than worrying about her personal situation. Voyager? Again a first officer with a personality and background story that didn't sufficiently set him 'free' from the box he as placed in as a first officer: again problematic. Enterprise, finally, again had a first officer that wasn't in Starfleet (for the most part).

 

[DocCrusher]

but riker was perfect for the part, he and all the cast supported each other so well & had such a good vibe together in that show in ways I haven't seen in any show on TV since