Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Will Riker
8. They Named Him After Kirk... Sort Of
In the earliest days of his conception, the character of Riker was designed to be analogous to Captain Kirk, as a way of easing fans’ transition into the new series. Parallels were obvious in his demeanour (particularly in a romantic sense) and attitude, but to go one step further writers decided to give him the same middle initial.
The ’T’ was established early on as a means of creating this link to James Tiberius, although it would be nearly six years later that writers settled upon ‘Thomas’, and introduced the duplicate Lieutenant Riker in the episode ‘Second Chances’. Prior to this the production staff had been discussing potential names for years, including ‘Thelonius’, after jazz musician Thelonius Monk, and the more baffling ‘Tecumseh’.
As great as a name reflecting Riker’s trombonist love of jazz would have been, settling on Thomas ended up being the simplest choice and, after six years of waiting, fans finally found out what that mysterious T was all about.