Hello all, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these personnel files, but let’s
look at the career of William T. Riker as depicted in the Star Trek shows. There will
be apocryphal content added to fill in some blanks but his canonical timeline overrides
this, so, although there’s potentially room for him to have advanced to the rank of rear
admiral before he retired, we see him return to duty in Star Trek Picard at the rank of
captain, so a large segment of his time on the USS Titan has yet to be documented. Nevertheless,
there will be spoilers for all Star Trek series ahead, so let’s jump in.
William Thomas Riker, was born on August 19th in Valdez, Alaska on Earth in 2335 to Kyle
and Elizabeth “Betty” Riker. Kyle Riker was a civilian strategist to Starfleet and
as we’ll see, Will inherited his flair for tactical thinking.
While growing up, Will Riker lived in Fairbanks for a time. In 2337, his mother died and Kyle
Riker continued to work away from home frequently. This led Will to become very independent and
take up cooking for himself as well as practice his love of Jazz music.
Occasionally, his father would engage him in Anbo-Jyutsu training. In 2350 however,
Kyle Riker simply stopped visiting his son and Will considered himself abandoned.
In 2353, with nowhere else to go, he applied to join Starfleet Academy and was accepted.
While at the academy, he took the Command Training Program as his primary focus, but
also engaged in numerous optional classes such as Engineering, communications, sciences
and piloting. He also won a spot in the Academy Band.
During one training simulation, he managed to calculate a blind spot in an enemy Tholian
vessel and hid from its sensors for a time, figuring out the first of many tactical situations.
In 2354, he took Advanced Survival Skills but an unexpected hurricane hit the testing
site and he was trapped under a tree for three days before rescue. This year he also pulled
a prank (with friends) on an instructor so that the senior officer transported in minus
his clothing. The incident caused a much greater scandal than Riker believed and he took on
a greater understanding of seriousness and of his duty.
By the end of his time at SFA, Riker had enough of a grounding in sciences to pursue a doctorate,
but instead had his focus on securing a command position before the age of 35. Preferably
on a Starship. He graduated in 2357 at 8th in class and was
promoted to Ensign. His first assignment was to the Tarett IV orbital base, but he refused
in favour of a posting on the USS Pegasus NCC-53847.
He took the position of Junior Conn officer under Captain Erik Pressman, however the Captain
experimented with a transphase cloaking device. The truth of the interpashic-cloaking device
was buried after a mutiny led to Pressman, Riker and several others being chased off
the vessel while the rest of the crew perished. Starfleet Intelligence classified the incident,
preventing further investigation. From 2358 to 2359: Will Riker was reassigned
to the USS Fortuna where he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Eventually he applied
to the first officer posting on the USS Hood and was accepted. However the excelsior class
was mid-overhaul and in the meantime he was appointed to the Federation embassy on Betazed.
It was here he met Deanna Troi at a Betazed dignitary’s wedding and was smitten. He
remained on Betazed for several years and dated Deanna for some time, although there
are some discrepancies based on differing timelines in books.
He frequently took part in diplomatic missions around the area at this time until in 2361,
he accepted a position as Operations officer on the USS Potemkin NCC-18253. Here too, he
uncovered a method of hiding a ship in the magnetic pole of certain planets and powering
down to hide from sensors. This year, he took part in a rescue operation
to Nervala IV. A one in a million chance caused a transporter duplicate when he beamed out
during the operation which would remain undiscovered until 2369. He was promoted to Lieutenant
Commander for his success. The next year, 2362 he took the position on
the USS Zhukov NCC-26136 as Second Officer and a year later, he was assigned to the Excelsior
class USS Yorktown NCC-2033 as the First Officer. He soon transferred to USS Hood NCC-42296
under Captain Robert DeSoto, as the First Officer, the same position he had deferred
years earlier. However, he refused to allow Captain DeSoto to beam into a hazardous situation,
which was noted in his career as risking court-martial. By the end of the year however, he was promoted
to Commander and offered two positions, command of the USS Drake or the XO position on the
USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. In 2364, he accepted his role as Number One to Captain Jean-Luc
Picard. USS Hood took him to Deneb IV where he conducted
manual reattachment of the saucer section and proceeded to take part in the Farpoint
mission. I’ll gloss over the majority of the show’s timeline, as you can easily watch
that all, but I’ll highlight a few key points. He uncovered the Tkon remnants in the Delphi
Ardu system and negotiated the release of the Enterprise and Ferengi vessels.
In 2365, he took command of the USS Hathaway in an anti-borg training wargame which turned
sour when Ferengi arrived. Riker then invented a method of faking the destroying of a ship,
another manoeuvre credited to his tactical thinking.
That year he took part in an exchange officer program with the Klingon Defence Force under
captain Kargan on the IKS Pagh which he took in stride. This year he was also offered command
of the USS Aries, which he refused, his second such decline.
In 2366, he took command of the USS Enterprise D in the efforts against the Borg and Locutus.
Admiral Hansen granted him a field promotion to captain, which overrode the previous offer
to command the USS Melbourne. He failed to catch up to the battle of Wolf 359, but managed
to halt the Borg advance and recover Captain Picard. After he was cleared for duty, he
stepped back down to Commander and returned the captaincy to Jean-Luc Picard.
He was accused of the Murder of Doctor Nel Apgar, but was discovered to be innocent.
In 2367 Riker acted as temporary host to Odan Symbiont to complete negotiations with the
Pelians. In 2368 he was assigned to command the USS
Excalibur as part of the Tachyon detection grid to halt Romulan involvement on the Klingon
Civil War and was given captaincy of the Enterprise again while Captain Picard left for Romulus
to find Ambassador Spock. During 2369 however, he was relieved of his
position as First Officer by Captain Jellico. He also undertook an undercover mission to
Tilonus IV He was sent in 2370 to infiltrate the Maquis,
when Ensign Ro Laren went rogue. This year, the Treaty of Algeron violation that Now Admiral
Pressman, engaged in came to light. The former Pegasus crews, including Riker were brought
to board in inquiry at Starbase 247 but he was cleared for duty.
In 2371, the battle of Veridian III took place and Picard left Riker in command of the Enterprise
as he beamed down to the planet surface. Riker captained the ship’s evacuation and controlled
crashlanding. In 2372 Riker was assigned as XO on the USS
Enterprise NCC-1701-E under Captain Morgan Bateson, who then passed over command to Captain
Jean-Luc Picard. This year also saw the Battle of Sector 001 and the 2063 First Contact incident.
During the Dominion War, the Enterprise was assigned to the Gorn boarder and in 2374,
Riker was assigned to oversee encampments along the border with a Klingon-Starfleet
engineering team at Elkauron II. The Enterprise was present at the second Battle of Sol, in
2375. Later that year, he took Command of the Enterprise
again to alert the Federation Council to Admiral Dougherty and the Son’a plan for the Ba’ku.
During this battle, he invented the “Riker Manoeuvre”.
During this year, he was also assigned to acting captain of the USS Excalibur NCC-26517
until its own captain, Captain Mackenzie Calhoun returned.
In 2378, his father Kyle Riker died and he proposed to Deanna Troi. Admiral Janeway also
offered Riker command of the Luna-Class USS Titan, with a reminder that she suspected
it would be the last time he was offered a command. In 2379 Captain Riker married Deanna
Troi and accepted the promotion to the USS Titan NCC-80102. Before he could depart however,
he took part in the Federation response to the Shinzon coup and then the battle of Bassen
Rift. His first mission on the Titan was to attend
diplomatic talks with Romulus at the head of a diplomatic task force which yielded promising
results. Later that year, he began exploration of the Gum Nebula.
During 2380 the Titan responded to a distress call from the USS Cerritos NCC-75567, driving
off several Pakled radier ships. In 2381, Thaddeus Troi-Riker was born.
In 2385, the Synthetic attack on Mars led to the Federation banning synthetic A.I. development.
Around 2387(ish), Kestra Troi-Riker is born. Around 2391, he and his wife moved to Nepenthe
with the family in an attempt to cure Thaddeus’ illness and William Riker was placed on reserve
duty, in temporary retirement, but with his commission still active.
In 2396, Thaddeus Troi-Riker dies. In 2399, Riker aided the retired Admiral Picard
and then returned to Starfleet at Captain rank on the Bridge of the USS Zheng He NCC-something
to head up Inquiry-Class taskforce that intercepted a Tal Shiar fleet over Coppelius. The confrontation
was resolved without firing a shot on Starfleet’s side. This is the latest canonical event where
we see Riker, with more on the horizon. In terms of hobbies, Riker famously enjoyed
Jazz music and playing the trombone, but he would frequently try most sports and other
new things. He took part in theatre, chess, cooking, fishing, dabo, and of course was
a regular at poker. This willingness to try new things often opened him to innovative
thinking that translated very well to his tactical ability and he was a natural risk
taker and diplomat. Lieutenant Commander Data estimates Riker only abides by traditional
tactics 21% of the time, more often than not meshing ideas and standard responses to create
unexpected outcomes. The “Riker Maneuverer” may be named after him, but ever since his
time at the academy, he had been creating unique solutions to problems.
From analysing his career, we can see that he was ambitious and career focused, dedicating
himself to his work, taking on more than he needed to and was pegged as a potential to
beat Kirk’s record to captaincy. If fact, Riker himself had command of a Starship in
mind from the start and turned down his first posting as an ensign to a space station in
favour of the USS Pegasus. This first outing may have not gone as he expected, but it did
little to dampen his rapid advancement throughout the ranks.
He may have had move vessels than listed here, but he was eventually promoted to lieutenant.
It was then he took what seems to be his first landside posting, on Betazed, but only because
he had already secured a position on the USS Hood and was simply waiting to for the ship
to finish its overhaul. But here is the first time we see his momentum falter somewhat,
and it’s probably not coincidence that it’s when he first met Deanna Troi, who would go
on to become his Imzadi, his beloved and future wife.
Like I mentioned, there’s some open interpretation as to how long he spent on Betazed, but his
relationship with her did not work out, Lwaxana Troi did not approve of him as he seemed too
immature for Deanna, the two parted for a time, but would reunite on the Enterprise,
both more experienced. In 2361, he returns to the career path and
advances through the ranks, achieving Lieutenant Commander, gaining a second officer then first
officer position all within three years before then being offered his own command or the
posting he would be famous for on the Enterprise D. The Enterprise D would then confront Riker
with the only thing that ended his blazing rise through the ranks, not Deanna herself,
but comfort. His functioning as number one under Captain
Picard, surrounded by colleagues he appreciated was in many ways a perfect fit for him, he
frequently got to flex his command muscles and was apt at whipping the frequently rotating
crew into a shape worthy of the Federation flagship. All the while learning from a mentor
and friend in Picard. Starfleet would offer him his own command
several times, but he always turned it down, to the point where Admiral Janeway reputedly
had to point out that the Titan would be the last offer and he voiced several times that
the Enterprise was the only ship he really had his eye on commanding. It was no secret
that Riker pretty much hogged the much-coveted XO position on the Enterprise, which garnered
him some hostility on the parts of officers such as Elizabeth Shelby, who otherwise would
have stepped into the role. It was usually interpreted as arrogance, but in actuality,
it was comradeship and loyalty that kept him from advancing and the pauses in his career
path reflect this. It’s as if he had an ambition and desire
in him to excel, maybe from the lack of paternal figures, which wasn’t placated by his career
excellence. But it was sated by the relationships he found in his peers, which he showed dedication
and loyalty to and his own ambition took a back seat. In later life, we see that he continues
to hold this loyalty to his family and colleagues in high regard and reactivates his commission
to save Picard. This view of William Riker is far from the
only aspect to his personality, but its is one I interpreted from his career record.
Some quintessential Riker episodes in my opinion include the first and second parts of “Best
of Both Worlds”, where we can see his command capability on show and “Second Chances”
is a good reflection on his life choices. Lastly I’d point out either the “The Icarus
Factor”, or episode seven of Picard “Nepenthe” to see his approach to family as a son, and
a father. Thanks for watching this personnel file on
Riker, it’s a shame that the Titan Books no longer fit entirely with the show continuity
any more, but I still like to think that many of these events still happened in some way.
Plus we’re still getting frequent dips into his life as a captain so in many ways, his
character is still developing. Thanks again, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you again for
another video, until then, goodbye!