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star trek - Captain Riker, of the Enterprise?



During the events of the Star Trek: The Next Generation 2-parter, The Best of Both Worlds, Riker received a field promotion to Captain while Picard was assimilated. Does this mean that Riker should be considered a Captain of the Enterprise? Or, as it was a field promotion, and not a proper promotion, does this mean he should not be considered a legitimate equal to such greats as Kirk and Picard in the annals of history?



Answer



Is Riker an official captain of an Enterprise? I guess that depends on your definition of who is a captain of an Enterprise. Technically, yes, Riker held a temporary field commission of Captain. But if you're going to apply that, then I believe you must also include a number of the TOS characters as well, who all held the rank of captain within Starfleet, even though they didn't hold the center chair. At the very least, as I recall, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Uhura and Sulu were all captains while serving aboard the Enterprise A. And you have to include Christopher Pike, Decker and whatever the names were of the two captains of the Enterprise B and Enterprise C that appear in the tv show and movies. C'mon, if you know their names without looking them up, you really need to get out more.... :)


But when it comes down to it, there is a huge difference between technically being a captain of the Enterprise and who you think about when you think of the Captains of the Enterprise. That's really what it comes down too. Was Riker a captain? Sure, for a couple days. Do we think about Riker when we're thinking about Captains of the Enterprise? For 99.9999% of us: Not a chance.


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