Why Commander Riker Is The Best

Great ep! Very curious to hear your thoughts on Thomas Riker's lone post-"Second Chances" appearance in DS9's "Gambit." I'm only gradually making my way through that series, and I wish Tom Riker's story had had a third and final (?) chapter. I also wholeheartedly agree with your relative disinterest in Picard the series. Personally, I thought even S3 was garbage, and that the episode with Picard's potential unknown son in S7 was deeper than that whole season-long arc about his actual unknown son. The goodbye scene between Picard and the non-son is a fascinating one, where both men quietly agree that they had started to forge a meaningful relationship, but that, now that they know the biological truth of the matter, neither is quite compelled to keep pursuing it.

Do you work for (or with) Linus media group? I’m watching the meeting pod video on ltt and I swear you’re in the meeting in the background at the beginning…

Great essay . . . Thanks for this explanation or extrapolation of Will Riker. In honesty Riker was my least favourite TNG character. But, that said I did like conflict going on within him of not automatically going for a captains position and I thought he echoed Picard’s moral depth in brilliantly depicting how the student assimilates the teachers words through actions. He not only forgoes his own ego in denying a captainship but accepts profoundly that he has yet “more to learn” from Picard. Which is a subtle ideal in the life of an apprentice. And something our ego driven culture has clearly forgotten. Greatness is not made from will alone but built on the shoulders of those that have gone before us as well as teachers we have had in life guiding us through difficult decisions and understanding that teaching is not telling, but showing at crucial moments in life. I can personally point out two great teachers in my life at profoundly pivotal points in my life. And Riker does depict as the perfect apprentice to Picard’s leadership. Uniquely so in that cast of characters on board the Enterprise. Perfectly balancing duty, morality and responsibility. So thank you for pushing me to think further on Riker 🙏🏼✨ a rewarding exercise 😊

I love the way you delve so deeply into the characters of TNG.

Another great essay, Art! (Your name is “Art” in my head canon about your channel, which is part of the double meaning behind the name of the channel). Also I like that Riker shows that it’s okay to enjoy your role and resist the social expectation to continually climb up your career and in life. I’ve been the captain of the proverbial ship twice, and realized I preferred being the first officer, or better yet, the Guinan of the ship, which is what I do now. I'm also content in life as is.

For me, what made Riker always one of the most compelling (and easy to relate to, "audience-stand-in") character was what I took as this wonderful combination of swagger and self-doubt. You get to see behind the exterior (projecting confidence), and into the heart of a man who, regardless of knowing how important it is for the people around him to *feel* that there is someone with confidence to follow, he himself *carries* the weight of the doubt (without making it other people's business). And I have found that, in real life, the people who can pull that off (being resolute and decisive, while also still carrying, inside, the ability to change course when new evidence comes to light) are genuinely the best people to be around, because they never become over-bearing, resentful, or aggressive where the force is only used to double down on a stupid previous choice they made earlier...

Really enjoy your work. Do you have a series on Lost? My husband and I have recently enjoyed this short story from E.M. Forster "The Machine Stops." Written in 1909, it is eriely prescient of so many technological advances and the social implications we are facing today. We think you'd enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts! You can read it for free in many places online, here is one https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6rMgbh_zHUGSnVJNUtMVGlTLU0/view?resourcekey=0-Acd6AixsjynwJhiEy6I4rQ

If you haven't had the pleasure yet, watch the episode of Dropping Names with Brent and Johnny where the guest is Leave Burton. You really see what a great guy Frakes is, and how much he understood about the series and its heart.

My favorite "healthy masculinity" Riker quote is when he says "That's the first bad play I've seen you make..." to Ral, a Betazoid consultant who tells Riker that he's going to win Troi along with the bid they're in competition for. "If you could make her happy, nothing would please me more." What a badass.

One of the reasons I like your channel is that it makes me reconsider old favorites with new mental filters. (This is one reason I am enjoying listening to old favorite books via audiobooks, because those go so much more slowly than my very fast traditional-reading, that I have time to think thoughts around the text that I sped past too quickly, even if I've read the book dozens of times over the past 50 years.) But back to TNG: I like that Riker & Troi's relationship was not reflexively possessive; it was a very different style than many romantic storylines, and I think speaks to Riker's own flexibility and willingness to meet his partners where they are, and for who they are, rather than according to some old script of what a relationship should be. He also doesn't follow a traditional script when he is on exchange with the Klingons, as you mention - the old script (ToS, pun not initially intended) would be to bull through using a sense of cultural superiority, which is what Kirk would have done, but that would have gotten him killed by the Klingon captain immediately. Instead, he tries to go with the flow/match orbits and experience it on its own terms. Not unlike his refusing to follow the script of how he should relate to his captain; in these cases he bases those relationships on first principles of loyalty and respect, and then creates his own approach to them that is different than the easiest old tropes. (We can't escape tropes, being human, but we can choose amongst them with clear intentions, I think.) Finally, and least importantly, I wonder if Pressman was intended to be an anti-Picard. I haven't read a lot about the show, so maybe this is an old idea, but watching your clips, it's clear that Pressman is physically very similar to Picard, and TV being a very visual medium, surely choosing another mostly-bald white guy for the role was intentional. I hadn't thought about that before....

Alllllright, after 30 years of friends telling me to watch TNG; this and your previous analyses have finally convinced me. Thank you for all the incredibly thoughtful takes you've given on what makes a story truly resonate.