Thought I'd stick on that TNG "retrospective" Netflix slotted in after the finale and it's mostly filler but has one line I really like
I think Riker has, uh, has grown a lot – he grew a beard, and, uh...
– Rick Berman, possibly realising in realtime how he's done Riker dirty
To be fair to Rick, he uses those vocables to construct some line about how Riker's become more relaxed in the time we've known him – a hilarious thing to say given that Riker's 25-years-later development in the finale is that he's... extra-grumpy at people in general and at Worf in specific.
I don't like Riker. I would hate working under Riker. Thanks to the episode 'Second Chances' I can confirm that even Riker doesn't like Riker (and vice versa).
Reply from John Colagioia
Riker is almost certainly the most toxic character in a franchise two cultures based almost entirely on being toxic men and several more that are horrible racist caricatures. As I go through my rewatch, I keep noticing that he'll talk about how humans don't get jealous anymore, then immediately flies into a jealous rage because someone made eyes at "his" woman who he hasn't dated in years. Everybody treats Data badly, but Riker does that and also heaps abuse on Geordi for some reason. And he has that weird fetish for working women, except the one time that he had chemistry with his scene partner, Guinan.
And yet, somehow he's gone from "wait, wasn't he the abusive boyfriend on every daytime soap?" to franchise royalty...
Mup from the future
It's not news that Jonathan Frakes is certainly franchise royalty, and probably deserves to be. His beautiful beard allowed facial hair to return to the Starfleet. He's turned up for filming in nearly every show made after TNG, and when he's not on camera he's behind the camera doing what is never less than capable and confident direction. He also has his name on the episode of Picard where Icheb's eye is pulled out in the cold open, which, um
I want to believe that the love of Riker is just some unintended consequence of our love for Frakes. I also want to believe that that makes it okay that a celebrated Trek character is definitely a bastard. I don't think it does. Maybe it would be okay if this were some weird edge case, but about a year after I posted this I found myself writing the same thing about Miles O'Brien...