Thomas Riker’s return to the franchise would make sense for Star Trek: Lower Decks

Star Trek: Lower Decks could bring closure to the Thomas Riker story arc.

In the world of convoluted bullocks, that somehow turned out perfectly, few storylines could nail it as much as Star Trek: The Next Generation’s creation of Thomas Riker. Thomas Riker, an exact replica of Will Riker, was created (or left behind) when William Riker was on an away mission and was met with a nasty accident after a transporter mishap occurred. The incident split Riker in two, with one version of himself going on to be Jean-Luc Picard’s number one on The U.S.S. Enterprise-D, while the other was left behind on an abandoned outpost.

It’d be years before the Federation would return to the area, only to find the other (original?) Riker not only still alive but still mostly sane. The two would start to resent one another, and eventually, the found-Riker opting to go by his middle name, Thomas, and would request a transfer so he could grow his own story.

Thomas, however, would become disenfranchised with the Federation, returning in a Deep Space Nine episode and revealing his Maquis sympathies, resulting in him getting arrested. That seemed to be the end of the character.

That was until Star Trek: Lower Decks brought him back.

Star Trek: Lower Decks brought Thomas Riker back, sort of, and should conclude his story

As this story is going up, the season four finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks is already out and we now know more about the season-long arc that brought back one former character from the Next Generation era of shows, Nick Locarno.

Locarno, played by Trek icon Robert Duncan McNeill, brought with him a host of callbacks, including the mention (but not appearance of) Thomas Riker. The two men were briefly mentioned on the same list, and it got people wondering; If Lower Decks brought back Locarno, why not Thomas Riker?

Sure, we’d want Thoma’s story arc to conclude with a bit more gravitas and earnestness than Lower Decks allows, but considering how few options we actually have to conclude the story, any show will do.

We know it’s not likely but if they were to do a season five focus on Thomas Riker, man, that would be something.