Thomas Riker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into List of Star Trek characters: N-S. (Discuss)

This Star Trek-related article or section describes an aspect of Star Trek in a primarily in-universe style.
Please rewrite this article or section to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective.

Thomas Riker
Lt. William Thomas "Tom" Riker
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Home planet	Earth
Affiliation	Starfleet, Maquis
Posting	USS Pegasus helmsman Betazed USS Potemkin second officer USS Gandhi USS Defiant commanding officer (illegally)
Rank	Lieutenant
Portrayed by	Jonathan Frakes
This box: view • talk • edit

William Thomas "Tom" Riker is a fictional character from the Star Trek universe, played by actor Jonathan Frakes. He is a duplicate of William Riker, a regular character on Star Trek: The Next Generation, also played by Frakes, who was created by a transporter accident when Riker served as second officer aboard the USS Potemkin. The duplicate goes by his middle name (and, later, "Tom") to distinguish himself from William Riker.

Thomas Riker first appears in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Second Chances", when the Enterprise-D crew travels to Nervala IV, the site of the transporter accident. The crew discovers that while William Riker (then a Lieutenant) beamed aboard the Potemkin and continued his career, a duplicate Riker was unable to return to the ship and rematerialized in that planet's abandoned Starfleet outpost. Thomas largely attributes his ability to remain sane during his isolation to thoughts of reuniting with his at-the-time beloved Deanna Troi.

Tom serves aboard the USS Gandhi before leaving Starfleet to aid the Maquis. At some point, he shaved his sideburns and wears his beard as a goatee. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Defiant", he leads a Maquis mission to steal the USS Defiant from Deep Space Nine. Commander Benjamin Sisko helps the Cardassians capture the ship and its crew on the condition that the Defiant be returned to Starfleet and that Tom Riker not be executed.

[edit] Non-canon appearances

In John Vornholt's novel Quarantine (part of the Double Helix series), Riker transfers to the sciences division after a conflict with the USS Gandhi's first officer. He wears a blue uniform and serves as a medical courier pilot. It is in this function that he ends up leaving Starfleet and falling in with Chakotay and B'Elanna Torres's Maquis unit. According to Quarantine, it was Chakotay's idea to steal the Defiant from Deep Space Nine.

In Peter David's novel Imzadi II: Triangle, he is sprung from a Cardassian prison camp by Romulans led by Sela and forced to attempt to assassinate Klingon Emperor Kahless and Chancellor Gowron.

In the Malibu Comics Deep Space Nine title, two stories were published extending Riker's story. "Sole Asylum, Part One" and "Part Two", set at the end of 2371, showed that Riker had been taken to Cardassia Prime and that Cardassian scientists were trying to discover the secret of his duplication in order to create an army of duplicates. It was also revealed that Riker's cells were only nine years old, suggesting their complete creation at the time of the accident. Unable to rationalize the accident against the Law of Conservation of Mass and proven transporter theory, one of the scientists, a Dr. Nol, told the Cardassian High Council that he must be from an alternate dimension. Because of this, the Council decided to send him back to a labor camp.

In the game Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars, Tom is rescued in a mission during the Dominion War and appointed to command an advanced battleship, the Achilles-class USS Imperius. A later mission in the Dominion campaign requires the player to destroy the Imperius before Riker can take command and, if possible, destroy Riker's current ship (a Galaxy class starship).

In Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens novel series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Millennium, Riker is freed from the camp by a species called the Grigari and joins them in an attack on the Alpha Quadrant.