The best Riker episodes of Star Trek, without question
He’s always been our Number One.
The show is called Star Trek: Picard, but right now — three episodes into the third and final season — it’s Jonathan Frakes’ performance as Captain William T. Riker that’s charging the dilithium crystals in the warp core. That’s not a dis against Patrick Stewart or Jeri Ryan or Michael Dorn or Gates McFadden or Michelle Hurd or Todd Stashwick as Captain Liam Shaw (where did this awesome guy come from?), but Picard’s vision of Riker feels like a fulfillment of a promise Trek fans have been waiting on for over 20 years.
As First Officer of the Enterprise, watching Riker turn down his own command was something of a recurring gag over Star Trek: The Next Generation’s run. He finally moved to the center seat of the USS Titan (and married his imzadi, Counselor Deanna Troi) in time for Star Trek: Nemesis, but we never actually saw him on his bridge. (Also, that movie stinks like a plate of week-old tube grubs from the least profitable restaurant on Ferenginar!)
As disappointing as Picard’s first season may have been, watching him warp in to save the day as acting captain on the USS Zheng He was a get-off-the-couch-and-cheer moment for fans of the Alaska-born commander, adventurer, occasional lawyer, lover, and, after TNG season 1, beard-haver. (Eternal bar trivia: Despite 10 tie-in novels set aboard Riker’s Titan, the first time we ever saw him at the helm was on Star Trek: Lower Decks — including some toe-tappin’ jazz, to boot!)
Today’s Riker, long out of any commanding officer’s shadow — even Admiral Picard’s —invokes a feeling of “oh, look how far he’s come” pride. When roles get reversed in the episode “Seventeen Seconds,” and Jean-Luc says to call him Number One, it brings a tear to the
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