William Riker - Character Story

Character Story

For the first two seasons, Riker is portrayed as bold and confident, an ambitious young officer; however, over time Riker's character becomes more reserved, as experience teaches him the wisdom of a patient, careful approach. He becomes comfortable on the Enterprise, repeatedly turning down offers of his own command, and he learns to cherish the company of his fellow officers. Nonetheless, Riker retains a willingness to occasionally disregard the chain of command. Riker is usually referred to as "Will", although in early first-season episodes of TNG he is sometimes called "Bill" by Deanna Troi. He is also usually (and informally) called "Number One" by Captain Picard, because of his position as first officer on the Enterprise.

Riker's background is first explored in the second-season episode The Icarus Factor. In the episode, Riker's estranged father, Kyle, visits the Enterprise to offer his son the command of the USS Aries, which Riker refuses. We learn that Riker grew up in Valdez, Alaska; that his mother, Elizabeth, died when he was two years old; and that he was raised by his father until the age of 15, when he left home. In the episode, Riker had not spoken with his father for 15 years, but they manage to partially mend their relationship over a game of martial-arts sparring called Anbo-jitsu. In the episode "Lower Decks" a waiter at Ten Forward mistakenly states that Riker is Canadian.

In two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds" Riker takes command of the Enterprise, assuming the rank of captain through a field promotion and orchestrates Picard's rescue. The sixth-season episode "Second Chances" reveals that Will Riker was duplicated long ago by a transporter malfunction. The "second" Riker takes the name "Thomas", which is revealed to be William Riker's middle name. In the seventh-season episode "The Pegasus", Riker must confront his former commanding officer, Admiral Eric Pressman, over a cover-up related to the destruction of the USS Pegasus.

Before the beginning of the series, Riker was involved in a romantic relationship with Counselor Troi on her home planet of Betazed. They often refer to each other as imzadi, a Betazoid term of endearment meaning "beloved". The novel Imzadi takes place before the beginning of the series and explores the history of the relationship between the two characters. The two characters are close friends throughout the series, but their relationship does not resume until Star Trek: Insurrection, the third Star Trek film set in the Next Generation era, although Thomas Riker, the duplicate created by a transporter malfunction, attempts to respark their relationship in "Second Chances". The following movie, Star Trek Nemesis, begins with their wedding on board the Enterprise-E. By the end of the film, Riker finally accepts a promotion to Captain and an offer to command the USS Titan; during the movie's final scenes he bids Picard, and the Enterprise, farewell.

Riker was originally scripted as a much more serious, by-the-book officer—by the middle episodes of the first season, however, it was felt that he was too "official", and his character was toned down and became more of a ladies' man. Although Riker was clean-shaven for the first season, he grew a mustache and beard at the start of the second season that later would become something of a trademark. Frakes had grown a mustache and beard between seasons, and Gene Roddenberry asked him to keep it, because he thought it made Riker look more dignified. Since the appearance of this facial feature coincided with the series' second season which is generally thought to be artistically superior to the preceding one, TV Tropes would name a trope after the character's change in appearance called "growing the beard", which is meant to be the opposite of jumping the shark