# The 'Commander Riker' Syndrome... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326 "2010-05-13T17:54:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/101 "2010-05-17T03:33:44Z")
Well, of _course_ there’s a [trope](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LimitedAdvancementOpportunities) for this: Limited Advancement Opportunities. You’d think after the Borg massacre in “Best of Both Worlds,” Starfleet would tell him they needed him elsewhere. I liked the way they handled it, though: Riker was a top-of-his-class, ambitious hotshot, and as time went by and he gained more experience, his ambition seemed to drain away and he was left wondering if he’d lost something. So they did address it within the show. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/102 "2010-05-17T04:57:01Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > I thought the Riker Syndrome was going to be about actors growing beards so they’d look less pudgey. Hmmm… ;;::decides not to shave this week::;; ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/103 "2010-05-17T23:41:10Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > Troi wasn’t driving. Helm control gets knocked out when the warp core blows and Data does all the maneuvering from Ops from then on. Whew – I couldn’t remember the scene, and I was having trouble picturing Troi as pilot: _“I’m sensing… that I should pull this lever… Oh, now I’m sensing… incompetence.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/104 "2010-05-18T00:20:49Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > Werner Klemperer, Howard Caine, Leon Askin, and John Banner, who play the chief Germans Klink, Hochstetter, Burkhalter and Schultz, were in fact all Jewish. Klemperer especially enjoyed making the Nazis look like fools. > > Additionally, Robert Clary, who played LeBeau, was actually a survivor of the Holocaust. That’s a neat bit of trivia there. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/105 "2010-05-18T03:43:43Z")
Wasn’t Troi part of the reason that Riker also kept turning stuff down? I watched the one tonight where Barclay asks her out. I enjoyed the look on Riker’s face when he found out. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/106 "2010-05-18T03:53:49Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > I thought the Riker Syndrome was going to be about actors growing beards so they’d look less pudgey. And I thought it would be about “[Growing the Beard](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GrowingTheBeard).” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/107 "2010-05-18T04:00:17Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > Wasn’t Troi part of the reason that Riker also kept turning stuff down? I watched the one tonight where Barclay asks her out. I enjoyed the look on Riker’s face when he found out. That does make sense, since the only time he actually takes a command is after they are married in Nemesis. But I never really picked that up in the series itself. In fact, I wonder if his finally having the guts to ask Troi to marry him coincided with him actually having the guts to command a vessel of his own. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/108 "2010-05-18T04:11:07Z")
Troi couldn’t have been the reason - she was involved with Worf for several years, and he didn’t leave in that period. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/109 "2010-05-18T04:14:57Z")
He may not have Taken the Titan if he knew that Wesley Crusher was going to be an engineer on the ship. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/110 "2010-05-18T04:16:00Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Troi couldn’t have been the reason - she was involved with Worf for several years, and he didn’t leave in that period. He still had strong feelings for her when she was with Worf. That was part of the future story-line of All Good Things. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/111 "2010-05-18T15:05:27Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > She’s too cute to execute. I think that was Atty. Johnny Cochrane XXVI’s closing-argument clincher at Troi’s Starfleet court-martial. I’m not too bothered that Picard & Co. stayed together so long. As was said many times, they’d become a family. They all were happy and fulfilled (most of the time) by remaining on the _Enterprise_, and if Roddenberry was certain about anything, it was that people in the Federation cared more about personal happiness and fulfillment than they did about earning more money, or having a more impressive title, or parking a shinier hovercar in the garage to keep up with Joneses. People also lived longer (Dr. McCoy was 137 in the pilot episode!), so you’d expect promotion might be slower overall. My one beef: Data was stuck at lieutenant commander for his entire career, wasn’t he? And **garius** , good catch on Kirk’s advice to Picard. Worf became Picard’s first officer in the ST:TNG books which followed _Nemesis_, BTW. The guy who replaced Data only appeared in a cut scene on the extended-edition DVD, so he’s not canon. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/112 "2010-05-18T15:12:07Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > The guy who replaced Data only appeared in a cut scene on the extended-edition DVD, so he’s not canon. So did that awful chair with seatbelts. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/113 "2010-05-18T17:48:04Z")
Related, but slightly OT, I always wondered why S.F. ships would send their most senior officers, often in a group, on Away Parties to do jobs that basically an N.C.O.and a squad of marines could do probably better. Just imagine if alien bad guys took out the Captain, Science officer, engineering officer and doctor all in one easy hit. The ship wouldn’t be functioning very efficiently after that. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/114 "2010-05-18T18:09:21Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Related, but slightly OT, I always wondered why Well, you didn’t really wonder why, though, right? It’s pretty obvious that the producers of dramatized fiction written for limited time slots would prefer to have the main characters involved in all the action. It’s not realistic, but it’s also not a mystery. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/115 "2010-05-18T18:10:49Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Related, but slightly OT, I always wondered why S.F. ships would send their most senior officers, often in a group, on Away Parties to do jobs that basically an N.C.O.and a squad of marines could do probably better. It’s a plot device to create more tension. It saves from having to hire more actors. In “Star Trek: Enterprise”, they had “MACO” teams. It seems like an idea that didn’t last long. (One season?) They could have had tension between the regular starfleet officers and the MACOs (“I am an explorer and scientist, with a broader skillset, and thus a more worthy example of humanity, and not some stupid throwback to our military age like you.”). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/116 "2010-05-18T19:06:45Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > **Battlestar Galactica** had the same problems with promotions that ST: VOY did. Kara Thrace was only promoted when Cain made her Pegasus’s CAG, Adama was promoted (to Fleet Admiral) because Roslin wanted to make sure that _nobody_ (other than herself) could outrank him), and Lee got a promotion when we was made Pegasus’s XO, another one when he was made CO, but after he crashed the ship and went back to being CAG he was demoted. I always liked how BSG treated this. It was shown after a while the absurdity of trying to maintain military (and political, and economic, and…) conventions given the situation. Military order transitioned from a requirement to a routine to a ritual over the course of the show. Had the producers of Voyager been competent individuals, they would have anticipated many of the problems that BSG would later address: you’re on the _other side of the freakin’ galaxy_, you’re never getting home in your lifetime, you’re cut off from everything and everyone you have ever known… but nope, no problem, just another Sunday cruise for a Starfleet starship. Way to come up with a great premise for a Star Trek series and immediately sap whatever dramatic possibilities it held. Gah, I still hate Voyager… ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/117 "2010-05-19T01:54:12Z")
> [@davekhps](#): > > I always liked how BSG treated this. It was shown after a while the absurdity of trying to maintain military (and political, and economic, and…) conventions given the situation. Military order transitioned from a requirement to a routine to a ritual over the course of the show. > > Had the producers of Voyager been competent individuals, they would have anticipated many of the problems that BSG would later address: you’re on the _other side of the freakin’ galaxy_, you’re never getting home in your lifetime, you’re cut off from everything and everyone you have ever known… but nope, no problem, just another Sunday cruise for a Starfleet starship. Way to come up with a great premise for a Star Trek series and immediately sap whatever dramatic possibilities it held. > > Gah, I still hate Voyager… To be fair, I gather that Star Fleet does deep space exploration by sending ships waaay beyond the edges of known space for anywhere from two to five year missions. So Star Fleet vessels and crews do have some experience with being completely on their own, out past the ass end of nowhere. Besides, the seventy-year thing was always a worst case scenerio; the Federation has encountered plenty of examples of ultra-fast travel, and Voyager had every hope of getting back quicker, which turned out to be the case. The fact that they were **there** meant getting back again was possible. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/118 "2010-05-19T02:06:02Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Troi couldn’t have been the reason - she was involved with Worf for several years, and he didn’t leave in that period. I’ve always had this vision of Troi & Worf breaking up after their one and only copulation. I can’t see Deanna taking a tithe of the physical punishment Jadzia Dax dished out, much less accepted. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/119 "2010-05-19T02:47:00Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > So we’re bitching about Riker and other people from that series, but no mention of Spock playing second banana to Kirk forever? > > . Spock’s situation is not the same as Riker’s. After the first 5 year mission, he was probably offered the chance for advancement, but he left Star Fleet to return to Vulcan to perform the Kolinahr (I believe, I refuse to look up such a nerdy thing), which was obviously quite the time commitment since it involved purging all of his emotions forever. Probably if he hadn’t left, he would have been promoted to Captain of the Enterprise in light of the fact that Kirk was rear admiral. In the 2nd film, he _was_ captain of the Enterprise, but he very clearly did not want to be. Every single time he was given the chance to sit in the Captain’s chair, he deferred to either Savvik or to Kirk–and of course, when it was time to go get kick some ass he essentially told Kirk “Take it, it’s yours.” Since he demonstrated in both word and deed that he had no interest in commanding his own ship, I think it’s consistent that he was still Kirk’s first officer in ST V and VI. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326/120 "2010-05-19T13:18:45Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Well, you didn’t really wonder why, though, right? It’s pretty obvious that the producers of dramatized fiction written for limited time slots would prefer to have the main characters involved in all the action. It’s not realistic, but it’s also not a mystery. Ah, if I thought that I was watching a fictional t.v. programme made purely for entertainment I would have realised that straight away. But knowing as I do that it was all real as an ex serviceman it is still a mystery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-commander-riker-syndrome/539326.md?page=7)