Commander riker series#

Some of the tweets are directly Star Trek or space-related, while others simply query things that an everyday normal Joe Schmoe might wonder, such as one posted recently that asks: “are muffins cupcakes?” (Consensus: No … ?) Taken from Star Trek – The Next Generation, which many fans considered wanting until Commander Riker grew a beard at the start of Season Two, after which the show was solid and well-received for the rest of its run.Ī more recent example of Riker-related internet tomfoolery comes to us from the excellent Riker Googling Twitter account, which tweets absurd examples of things that Riker might search for on Google. The beard, which is said to be the catalyst that turned the show from “meh” to “great,” has even inspired an Urban Dictionary entry as the antithesis of “jump the shark.”Įuphemism for a moment in time (typically in pop culture) where something or someone that was lackluster and/or underachieving suddenly and surprisingly became much better and exciting.

Commander riker series#

The series would have unarguably never been the same without it. When he returned to set, however, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was such a fan (apparently praising it as “nautical”) that it had to stay. The story is that Jonathan Frakes, the actor who plays Riker, grew the beard during the hiatus because he just doesn’t like shaving. Here are just a few examples found on imgur and Tumblr:Īnother endless subject of internet fascination, of course, has always been Riker’s majestic beard, which materialized-nay, beamed in-between the season one and season two of The Next Generation. It’s his notoriety as a space Casanova that drives the most popular Riker memes on the internet, as a quick Google search uncovers. In one episode, the commander even falls for a member of an androgynous species who identified as female. In addition to his on-again, off-again romance with the ship’s counselor Deanna Troi (who he eventually marries in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis), Riker bed quite a few women during his tenure on Next Generation-which was not limited to human or even half-Betazoid women. Which brings us to the next order of business: Riker’s aforementioned status as one of the hottest pieces of male ass in the galaxy. Some of the more observant comments include: “He needs to do that because his balls are so huge,” and “Will Riker doesn’t sit. The aptly-titled “ Riker sits down” video, which serves as a compilation of the numerous times that the character swings his leg over the back of a chair, has been viewed nearly 3.5 million times since being uploaded to YouTube in May of 2013. Or, maybe, it’s the way he sits in a chair. Or reputation as the ladies man aboard the USS Starship Enterprise. It’s hard to put a finger on what exactly makes the character of Riker so ripe for memes. But today, we’re here to talk about someone else: Commander William “Number One” Riker. Annoyed Picard, the Picard song, and “ I can’t see shit captain” are a few other popular ones. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Next Gen memes, of which there are countless variations.

The Captain Picard facepalm alone was the meme to launch a thousand memes, even breaking the wall between the internet and real life by inspiring merchandise such as mugs and 3-D busts. And if you drew a Venn diagram of online culture and sci-fi/geek culture, you’d practically have a circle. The first and easily most popular modern television incarnation of the Star Trek franchise, Next Generation was watched by the generation that went on to become the first heavy internet users. In the case of Star Trek: The Next Generation, however, it almost seems like a no-brainer. It’s always interesting to examine how and why something becomes a meme.