Captain William T Riker
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Name: William T Riker
Rank: Captain
Position: Commanding Officer USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) (II)
Age: 44 (appears 32)

Starfleet History
2353: Enters Starfleet Academy
2357: Graduates Starfleet Academy
2358: Assigned to USS Pegasus as Helm Officer
????: Assigned to Betazed
pre 2361: Promoted to Lieutenant and reassigned to USS Potemkin
2361: Promoted to Lieutenant Commander
2363: Reassigned to USS Hood as First Officer
2364: Promoted to Commander and reassigned to USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
2367: Promoted to Captain and named Commanding Officer

Personal History
William Thomas Riker was born in 2335 to Kyle and Betty Riker in Alaska on Earth. His distant ancestors were from mainland North America, including Colonel Thaddius Riker, who fought in the American Civil War. Betty died when Will was only two years old, leaving his father to raise him alone. The Rikers remained in Alaska at Betty's wish. The only thing which kept Kyle going was Will, but he did not feel as if he could discuss the situation with him, even when Will was older. The memories of Betty's presence at their Alaska home were also painful for both. This initial trauma created a rift between the two Rikers which lasted thirty years. When Will first started school, he told all of his new friends that his mother was still alive. Eventually, he told the story so often that he began to believe the lie. Soon, his teacher learned of this problem, and both she and Kyle had to talk to Will and make him realize that his mother was dead and was not coming back. Will cried the entire night following, but later realized it was an important step in accepting his mother's death. However, Will's relationship with Kyle continued to deteriorate into his early teens. He was often left to care for himself, learning such skills as cooking. Will was never able to concentrate much on subjects such as math, as he constantly daydreamed about starships. In 2344, Will and his father went on a fishing trip. Will was able to hook a large fish, but Kyle insisted on reeling the fish in. This incident bothered Will for many years. He also practiced anbo-jyutsu with his father. Kyle admitted that by the time Will was twelve, his skills were superior. Will did not know that the only reason he always lost was because his father used illegal hachidan kiritsu moves. Kyle completely abandoned Will by 2350, when Will was fifteen. Will held a grudge against his father for the following fifteen years.

Will entered Starfleet Academy in 2353. During his time at the Academy, his superintendent was a Vulcan, who had taken the time to memorize the personnel files of each and every cadet. Paul Rice was a close friend of Riker's while at the Academy. He felt that people were out to get him during his first year at the Academy. During a battle simulation against a Tholian opponent, Riker calculated a sensory blind spot of the Tholian vessel and hid within the blind spot. This ingenious tactical strategy was noted in his record. Upon graduation in 2357, Riker was ranked eighth in his class. He set lofty goals for himself, and hoped to reach captain before thirty-five years of age.

Seven months after graduation, Ensign William Riker's first posting was to the USS Pegasus under the command of Erik Pressman. He was the ship's conn officer, and his youthful appearance earned him the nickname "Ensign Babyface," coined by fellow crewmember Lieutenant Boylen. Phil Wallace was another of Riker's friends aboard the Pegasus. Fresh from the Academy, Riker was still somewhat serious about his work. Loyalty and obedience to his commanding officer were top priorities. Riker's ears were still ringing with words like Duty and Honor. This attitude caused him to behave against the principles of the Treaty of Algeron during a crisis on board the ship. Captain Pressman had been illegally testing a prototype phasing cloaking device aboard the Pegasus. This top-secret project was in violation of the Treaty of Algeron, not to mention extremely dangerous to the crew, leading most of the Pegasus officers, such as the first officer and chief engineer, to mutiny against Pressman. Riker was the only bridge officer to defend the captain, picking up a phaser and instigating a running firefight all the way to the escape pods. Only a few other crew joined Riker and Pressman. Once safely away, Riker and the others watched as the Pegasus apparently exploded, killing the remaining seventy-one personnel. Although Pressman commended Riker for his unquestioning loyalty, over the years Riker began to have doubts about whether he had made the right decision. The Starfleet Judge Advocate General investigated the Pegasus incident, but the survivors participated in a coverup. The Judge Advocate General discovered evidence of a mutiny aboard the Pegasus before its destruction. While further investigation was recommended, Starfleet Intelligence declared the entire incident classified and no followup was ever conducted. Following the Pegasus incident, Riker was stationed on Betazed. While there, he met Deanna Troi. The two began a relationship which lasted several years. Sometime during his early career, Riker needed to wear a feathered costume while on a diplomatic mission to Armus IX. Similarly, he wore furs to meet with the leadership council on Kabatris.

By 2361, Riker was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the USS Potemkin. Aboard the Potemkin, he developed a tactic which involved using a planet's magnetic pole and shutting down all ship's systems to confuse an enemy vessel's sensors. Later in 2361, Riker led an away team to Nervala IV to rescue researchers stranded at the outpost on that world. Riker was the last to beam out. Atmospheric distortions threatened to dissipate his pattern, so the Potemkin transporter chief compensated by creating a second confinement beam. Only one beam was needed for Riker to rematerialize, so the second beam was shut down. The Potemkin crew did not realize that the second beam had, in fact, been reflected back to the planet's surface. In an odd twist of fate, the second transporter beam, which had exactly the same phase differential as the distortion field, maintained its integrity and created a duplicate William T. Riker. The duplicate Riker remained stranded on the surface for the next eight years. Up until that moment, both Rikers were the same person. As a result, both had an equal claim to being the "real " William T. Riker. Later, Riker received a promotion to lieutenant commander for "exceptional valor" during the mission. He was quickly posted to the USS Hood as first officer. Riker's commanding officer on the Hood was Captain Robert DeSoto. His service aboard the ship was exemplary, despite an incident where Riker refused to allow Captain DeSoto to transport into a hostile situation on planet Altair III. Riker was offered his first command, that of the ill-fated USS Drake, in 2364. However, he turned down that position for a far more enticing offer.

William Riker was promoted to commander and first officer of the newly launched USS Enterprise-D in 2364. He was ferried to planet Deneb IV by the Hood, and met the Enterprise at the planet. The ship had undergone a saucer separation after being threatened by the entity known as Q. Riker reported aboard the stardrive section and was briefed about the current situation and was ordered to perform a difficult and unusual manual docking with the saucer module, which he conducted very well. During the Farpoint mission, Riker led several away teams which discovered that Farpoint Station was a living entity, trapped by the Bandi for their own selfish purposes. Riker participated in first contact with the Ferengi in the Delphi Ardu system in 2364. The Enterprise and a Ferengi marauder were trapped in orbit, paralyzed by a Tkon energy-dampening weapon. An away team commanded by Riker made contact with the Tkon portal. The portal sensed Riker's great courage and dignity, while it only found deception with the Ferengi, leading it to grant Riker's request and release both ships.

Q was intrigued with Riker, so much so that he believed Riker deserved to be empowered with the abilities of the Q Continuum. Q made a bet with the Continuum that Riker would accept the gift, and trapped the Enterprise while it was en route to a disaster on a mining colony on Quadra Sigma III. Most of its senior officers were then taken to a deadly illusion world. Riker used his new-found powers to save the crew from hostile aliens inhabiting the fantasy, bringing Lieutenant Worf and Wesley Crusher back to life in the process. Picard was concerned about these events, and requested that Riker not use his supernatural abilities. However, Riker changed his mind after he refused to save a young girl killed in the disaster. He became angry with Picard, feeling he had suppressed his abilities and caused the death of the girl. Further temptation by Q led Riker to grant several wishes to the Enterprise crew: to Geordi La Forge, normal eyesight; to Worf, a Klingon female mate; to Wesley, full growth to adulthood. He nearly transformed Data into a Human, but Data refused the offer, feeling that it would be merely an illusion. As Picard predicted, the other crew also turned down Riker's gifts because of their inherent emptiness. Riker learned his lesson, and the powers were taken away once Q was recalled to the Continuum. Riker conducted another diplomatic mission that year on the planet Angel I. Survivors from a Federation freighter, the Odin, were discovered on the matriarchal world and sentenced to death for advancing policies to grant equal rights for male members of the society. Riker successfully argued their case to Mistress Beata, Angel I's Elected One, convincing her that change was inevitable. She later allowed the Odin crew and their families from Angel I to be moved to an isolated continent so they could continue their lives without affecting mainstream culture. The Enterprise was stolen from Starbase 74 by a race called the Bynars. Their computer-based society was on the verge of collapse after the star Beta Magellan went supernova and damaged their central computer. They required the Enterprise in order to repair it. The crew evacuated, but Riker and Picard remained on board, infatuated by a holodeck program created by the Bynars as a diversion. The two were successful in retaking the Enterprise and saving the Bynar homeworld from destruction. Riker became involved with the alien conspiracy which infiltrated Starfleet Command in 2364. The possessed Admiral Gregory Quinn attempted to infest him with a parasitic being in order to have an alien operative aboard the Enterprise, but Riker resisted. He struggled with Quinn and was knocked out, but was able to alert other personnel to the situation. Dr. Beverly Crusher incapacitated Quinn with a phaser, then determined the nature of the neural parasites. She implanted a fake parasite on Riker, who then beamed down to Earth just in time to prevent the infested Starfleet officers from co-opting Captain Picard. He and Picard were able to find the mother creature, hosted in Lieutenant Commander Dexter Remmick, and destroy it before the alien conspiracy grew any further.

Riker was an early participant in the Officer Exchange Program, temporarily transferring to a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, the IKS Pagh, in 2365. To prepare for the assignment, he indulged in many different Klingon foods. Worf also gave him an emergency transponder shortly before his departure, just in case of an emergency situation. On board the Pagh, Riker had to quickly learn the Klingon way of doing things, physically fighting the second officer to prove his loyalty to Captain Kargan and enduring the abusive comments of the Klingon crew. At the same time, the Enterprise became infected with a hull-degrading bacterium, which it inadvertently transmitted from the Pagh. The Klingons believed that it was a new Federation weapon and returned to attack the Enterprise. Riker was able to relieve Kargan by giving him the transponder and sending him to the Enterprise, then staging a mock battle with the Starfleet vessel to maintain the honor of the Klingon crew. Riker returned to his post aboard the Enterprise following the incident. In 2365, Riker was given temporary command of the outdated USS Hathaway during a combat exercise to ready for the Borg invasion. The Hathaway was to fight the Enterprise in a simulation designed to test the response of a crew when faced with a substantially superior enemy. Although Riker's crew managed to turn the poorly-maintained Hathaway into something flyable and score several hits against the Enterprise during the initial phases of battle, the test turned deadly when a Ferengi marauder intervened. The Enterprise believed that the Ferengi were a holographic trick designed to divert attention from the Hathaway, and therefore did not raise shields. The Ferengi opened fire, disabling the Enterprise's weapons and shields. The Ferengi demanded that the Enterprise hand over custody of the Hathaway, as they incorrectly assumed the Hathaway had valuable Federation secrets on board. In order to fool the Ferengi, Riker devised a plan to have the Enterprise fire photon torpedoes at the Hathaway, which would jump to warp just before they exploded, making it appear to the Ferengi as if the Hathaway had been destroyed. Worf then fooled the Ferengi sensors into believing that a Starfleet ship had entered the system, scaring them away. While exploring Surata IV in 2365, Riker was stuck by the thorn of a native plant. The thorn contained an organism which began to attack Riker's central nervous system and caused him to fall into a coma. Dr. Katherine Pulaski was able to stimulate certain memory centers in Riker's brain. The emotional response provided resistance to the organism, which was suppressed.

When a cultural observation post on Mintaka III was severely damaged in 2366, it was discovered by a Mintakan named Liko. Liko was severely injured after being startled by the structure's appearance, requiring his transport to the Enterprise for treatment. While there he briefly woke and saw Captain Picard, whom he believed to be a deity. Several members of the observation team were also injured and wandered from the post. Riker and Troi attempted to correct the damage done to their culture by masquerading as Mintakans. They tried to convince the Mintakans that Liko was merely delusional. Riker was able to retrieve one of the observers, Dr. Palmer, from the Mintakans, but Troi was left behind. The Mintakans, terrified that Picard was a god and would come to punish them, wanted to execute her as a sacrifice to Picard. Picard later transported their leader aboard the Enterprise and convinced her that he was not a god, and Troi was released. Later that year, the Enterprise hosted negotiations for rights to the Barzan wormhole. The Federation representative, Mendoza, was poisoned by the Ferengi delegation, requiring Riker to take his place. The wormhole later turned out to be useless, as its terminus fluctuated between the Gamma and Delta Quadrants. The Enterprise left Riker and other personnel at the research station of Dr. Nel Apgar in 2366. They were to inspect his Krieger wave converter technology, as his research had been funded by Starfleet. While there, Apgar's wife, Manua, tried to seduce him. Dr. Apgar caught them kissing, and he and Riker fought nearly the entire visit. Tensions were at a breaking point when the Enterprise returned to pick up the crew. Shortly after Riker beamed out, the station exploded, killing Apgar. Riker was initially suspected of murder due to accusations by Apgar's widow and assistant, and he was placed under arrest by Tanugan authorities. The Enterprise crew began their own investigation using the holodeck. They determined that the station was not destroyed as a result of a phaser blast from Riker into the station's power core, but as a result of an energy beam directed at Riker by Apgar. Apgar had actually been developing the new technology into a weapon which he wished to sell to the Romulans, and he was worried that Riker had discovered his plan, which would terminate the research before the weapon could be created. The beam was intended to disperse Riker's pattern as he beamed off the station, but it unexpectedly deflected off the transporter beam and into the power core. Upon this revelation, chief investigator Krag dropped all charges.

In 2366, the Borg launched their first invasion of the Federation. A Borg specialist, Commander Shelby, was assigned to the Enterprise. The two butted heads over protocol, and Riker felt that Shelby was trying to ingratiate herself to Captain Picard in order to prove her qualifications as a first officer, particularly since Riker had recently been offered command of the USS Melbourne and was having trouble deciding whether his reluctance to accept the post meant that he had become scared of his old ambitions to become a captain himself. Picard was eventually abducted by the Borg and assimilated, becoming Locutus of Borg. Riker was then left in command of the Enterprise and faced with the difficult decision of choosing to use a new deflector dish weapon against the Borg cube, which would destroy that ship along with Picard. When a rescue attempt failed, Riker gave the order to use the weapon. However, the assimilated knowledge of Captain Picard gave the Borg an advantage, and they altered their shields to resist the weapon. As the Borg continued on a direct course for Earth, Admiral Hanson field-promoted Riker to captain. Riker chose Shelby as his new first officer. Even though their relationship had a rocky start, Riker realized that they worked well together and Shelby had the knowledge necessary to mount a successful fight against the Borg. Riker was transported to a different quantum reality and into the year 2380 along with the Enterprise-D and all it's personnel where it was confirmed that this version of the Enterprise-D was Riker's.

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