Jonathan Frakes is happy William Riker got off the Titan

Jonathan Frakes seemed pleased that his character William Riker didn’t have to stay onboard the U.S.S. Titan for 30 years.

If you’re a casual Star Trek fan or just very anti-reading, you may not have known that the U.S.S. Titan was actually a very big deal to the story of William Riker. While mentioned in Star Trek: Nemesis, Riker was never shown on screen taking the helm of the ship. It was however depicted frequently in novel form, as well as other mediums. Yet, after nearly 30 years away from Star Trek as a regular series actor, many fans were curious if they’d see Riker as a captain on the aforementioned ship, should Jonathan Frakes ever reprise his iconic role.

That answer would be a no, and it doesn’t seem to be something likely to happen. Frakes has come out and said that he’s glad that Riker, like Jean-Luc Picard, evolved and moved on from Starfleet, having been some 30-years since the end of the Next Generation series.

Talking to ComicBook.com, Frakes expressed his approval of not having Riker still being the captain of the Titan, saying;

"I’m glad we didn’t come back on the Titan, for instance, that we were found on another part [of the universe]. It’s 33 years or something. As Picard as changed, so has Riker and Troi and so has Seven (of Nine)."

While fans may have wanted to see something from that era of the series, at least they got to see Riker taking command of a ship at the end of the first season of Picard. It may not have been the Titan but it was Riker in a captain’s chair. That should count, right?

If you’re curious about what the series of books had in store for then-Captain Riker and the Titan, there are a bunch of non-canon books out there. Maybe one or two of those stories can be established in Trek lore with a line of dialogue or two in the second season of Picard.