Star Trek TNG’s Greatest Episode Has A Big Riker Plot Hole

“The Best Of Both Worlds” may be one of the best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes of all time, but it has a glaring plot hole regarding Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes). The third season finale of TNG sees the nefarious Borg make their way to Earth in an effort to assimilate humanity after their first encounter in season 2’s “Q Who.”

Running concurrently with the overall Borg plot is a subplot about Commander Riker, who has been offered yet another command of his own at the outset of the episode, yet Riker finds himself waffling at the prospect of leaving the Enterprise behind. Eventually, the choice is made for Riker, as Captain Picard is kidnapped and assimilated by the Borg into Locutus, a Borg spokesman. Riker is promoted to Captain of the Enterprise and tasked with stopping the Borg before they can reach Earth. Riker, of course, manages to save Picard and stop the Borg’s march toward Earth with some innovative, risky tactics that featured some of TNG’s best action and battle scenes.

Once the dust has settled on the Borg conflict, Picard is given command of the Enterprise again, and Riker is somewhat abruptly demoted back to Commander. This never made much narrative sense — Captain Riker literally saved the entire Earth from assimilation and even managed to pull Picard out of the collective, more than proving he was ready to take the reins of command and no longer needed to work under anyone, even a man as great as Picard. Thus the episode undermines his actions and puts him back in the same spot when he deserved to be permanently elevated.

Riker would have to wait over a decade for another chance at command, when he eventually departed the Enterprise — with new wife Deanna Troi — to command the USS Titan in the final TNG film, Star Trek: Nemesis. Jonathan Frakes himself has questioned the logic of Riker’s demotion and decision to stay on the Enterprise as second in command for so long when a defining trait of the character was his career ambition. The reality, of course, is that the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation had no intention of writing off a character as popular as Riker by transferring him to another ship.

In many ways, Star Trek: The Next Generation left Will Riker in a sort of character stasis after “The Best Of Both Worlds.” The character’s passion and drive were largely sanded off in favor of becoming, to paraphrase Picard, his captain’s trusted right arm. There was certainly value in that approach, and Frakes was never less than charming in the role, but it always felt like a baffling missed opportunity that Riker never got to grow into a command role after he saved all of humanity from the Borg.

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Dusty Stowe
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Dusty Stowe has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016. A native of Yorktown, Virginia, he moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. He currently writes lists, features, and news articles covering movies, comics, and television. He is a devoted fan of Doctor Who, DC Comics, and whatever David Lynch deems us worthy of viewing. Star Trek: The Next Generation lit up his five year-old brain like a firework, ensuring he’d be a progressive nerd for the rest of his life. His current focuses are on covering the Arrowverse, Star Trek: Discovery, and the DC Cinematic Universe. He is also a trained audio engineer with a degree from the Los Angeles Film School, and manages multiple corporate social media accounts. He really, really wants a new Green Lantern movie. You can talk to him about football, politics, and his weird nerd takes on Twitter @dustystowe.

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