Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Will Riker
6. Riker’s Smile
As with any television series, the characters of TNG changed over time as the writers learned more about them and began to mould stories to fit more complex, nuanced, personalities. This led to a certain amount of clunkiness in season one, and some character choices can be looked back on as plainly bizarre.
Contrary to the boyish glint in the eye that Riker has in later seasons, the Enterprise’s First Officer in Season One took a much sterner approach to life. In an interview with SyFy Wire, Frakes explained that this was at the behest of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who wanted the character to be played with ‘what he referred to as a Gary Cooper, Midwestern glint—not a scowl, but not smiling’.
Thankfully, Frakes eventually managed to find some middle ground, and as writers incorporated his love of jazz and roguish demeanour into his character, we were all treated to those pearly whites that dazzled ladies across the galaxy.