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Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 150: Second Chances [VHS]

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In "Second Chances," the consequences of a long-ago accident resurface to give Commander Riker a glimpse of the road not taken, in his life. In the process, we get a more thoughtful look at one of Star Trek's most basic premises.

A few key science fiction concepts have always been Star Trek staples: phaser weapons, warp drive, transporters. However, surprisingly few Trek stories have dealt directly with the issue of how such technologies might "warp" basic facts of human life. "Second Chances" really does so, imagining the unsettling results of a transporter malfunction. As anyone who's ever watched the show knows, "transporters" enable matter to be instantaneously "de-materialized" at one location & "re-materialized" at another--literally recording the (molecular?) "pattern" of an object & faithfully reproducing it at second site. As difficult & dangerous as this sounds, the Trek universe presupposes that ordinary people routinely (& safely!) travel this way, 300-400 years from now.

Earlier stories have dealt with some obvious risks of this technology: for example, travellers killed as their "patterns" were lost or scrambled in transit. They have also dealt with improbable outcomes: a man split into "good" & "evil" twins, for example. Here, something more intriguing happens:

Years before the episode, a malfunctioning transporter had re-materialized Will Riker *both* at his intended destination & at his point of departure, in effect creating 2 absolutely identical men out of 1 original. One is left stranded & alone in an abandoned base on a remote planet. The other has a brilliant career, leading to his assignment to the Enterprise. Originally the same man, they have lived lives as different as Robinson Crusoe & Horatio Hornblower. Despite these different experiences, neither can be said to be the "true," "original," or "real" Will Riker. So that when the castaway Will Riker is rescued, both men must come to grips with the their different lives--as well as their feelings for the same woman: Riker's longtime love & best friend, Deanna Troi.

The story of the "castaway" Riker later resumes in the pivotal DS9 episode, "The Defiant," in which TNG & DS9 storylines involving the Maquis, the Cardassians, & the Dominion also come to an important crossroads.

Transporter accidents seem to be one of the biggest threats in the Star Trek universe. Why, oh why does anyone even use those things? It seems there is at least one transporter mishap per season of not just The Next Generation but Classic Trek, DS9 and Voyager as well. But if the story warrants it and the writers know what they're doing, the transporter accident can be used as a wonderful story device.

In the sixth season episode "Second Chances", we find out that a transporter malfunction split First Officer Riker into two seperate beings some half-dozen or so years ago. This second Riker is as much a "true" Riker as the one we've seen walking around the Enterprise for the last six seasons. He's not a duplicate but he's the same Riker who, because of the accident, has lived a very different life over the past several years marooned on a planet, a planet that has an atmosphere that will not allow communications or shuttles or transporters in or out except once every several years or so. This atmosphere is what caused the accident when part of the transporter beam "bounced" off the atmosphere and sent one Riker to a ship and the other to the planet, trapped for over six years.

I've hoped I've explained the situation good enough. Anyway, the Rikers meet face to face when a "window" opens and the Enterprise discovers the other Riker. This is a fascinating episode. When the marooned Riker finds out the Enterprise Riker has lost his ambition and has turned down command after command, it makes for good drama. The marooned Riker still is ambitious and wants to get his own command as soon as possible. And he wants to romance Troi again as well (the Enterprise Riker broke off their romance AFTER the accident) because HE was still romantically involved with her before the malfunction.

Cool episode and a good look at Riker: Who he is now, who he was and who he could have been. The creators of this episode were fairly bold in leaving both Rikers alive (even though the marooned Riker joins another starship at the end). But, according to insiders, this episode could have been a lot better.

The writers of this episode originally wanted to kill off the Enterprise Riker and replace him as first officer with Data. In turn, they wanted the ambitious and young-acting second Riker to become the flight control/helm officer on the Enterprise. These writers wanted to shake things up and alter the status quo. But the producers, acting cowardly, killed the idea. Too bad! It would've been great to see an ambitious and cocky LIEUTENANT Riker flying the ship every episode! Instead, we get the same ol' stuffy COMMANDER Riker. Oh, well. This was a great episode, anyway. And one of three TNG episodes that make-up, what I consider, the "essential guide to William Riker collection" (the other two are "A Matter of Honor" and "The Pegasus").

"Second Chances" is one of my favorite episodes--of any Trek series.

In this interesting episode, Riker is found to have been duplicated... thus this universe now contains William Riker and (as he dubbed himself) Thomas Riker. Thomas Riker, unaware of developments in the lives of William Riker and Deanna Troi during the past eight years, moves to "resume" his romantic relationship with Deanna -- but, in a water-under-the-bridge fashion, she turns him down, advising that life has simply moved on. Thomas Riker leaves the Enterprise, to make his own separate way in the Federation.

Then, later, we have the film "Star Trek - Nemesis." In this movie, likely the wrap-up for the TNG franchise, Riker and Troi finally get married... that is, Troi weds WILLIAM Riker.

BUT: Thomas was the one whose love and desire for Troi never faltered. Can you imagine how he felt, when he learned that Troi had finally decided to marry... uh, "him"? Can you imagine what the Riker family reunions must be like, when both Thomas and William (with wife Troi in tow) show up?

Each Star Trek series has had shows that dealt with transporter malfunctions that boggle our minds and sometimes challenge our ethics. ST: TNG's "Second Chances" is one of the superior efforts by the Trek writers to do something significant with a potentially hoary old storyline. The Enterprise and crew travel to a planet where Will Riker had been serving until eight years earlier. Riker recounts to some of the officers how he barely escaped the planet before its natural distortion field interrupted the transporter beaming him up. There is a brief door opening in the distortion field allowing for some of the crew to beam down and recover important scientific equipment and data that had to be left behind eight years ago. Upon arrival Will Riker comes face to face with the biggest conundrum of his career - an identical twin! The two Rikers initially are convinced that each other is a fraud. Further complicating matters is the obvious difference between the two. Commander Will Riker is career oriented, diplomatic, staunch; Lieutenant Will Riker is brash, risk taking, driven. They naturally collide over issues surrounding the recovery of equipment and data at the base which brings things to a head, but that isn't the real story here.......

When Deanna Troi first meets Lt. Riker he sweeps her up into his arms, kisses her passionately and tells her how he survived his eight years of isolation thinking of her and knowing that one day they'd be together again. But he finds to his regret that he is lovelorn; the Will Riker that made it out decided to concentrate on his career and ended his relationship with Troi several years earlier. Later on Beverly Crusher convinces Troi that she should explore the possibility of having an intimate relationship with Lt. Riker if thats what she had wanted at the time when she and Cdr. Riker broke up. I don't want to say any more about the episode as most of it has been recounted here in other reviews. I do want to emphasize that though the episode features identical Rikers it is really about Troi and to a greater extent how such seemingly insignificant things as the passage of time, environment, inspiration and choices change us significantly, compromising decisions we have yet to make about our lives. This is an excellent, superior and affecting episode of the entire Star Trek television series.

Regrettably the Star Trek Universe did not have room enough for two Will Rikers as the Lt. Riker - now known as Tom Riker - met an unfortunate demise in an episode of Deep Space Nine. A pity too as it would have been interesting to see the two Rikers but heads from time to time, not to mention the two of them getting together with their father.

If the previous episode where the great Kahless returned to life did not prove that anything was possible in the Star Trek universe, then certainly "Second Chances" puts the series over the top. The Enterprise visits Nervala Four, a planet that can only be visited every eight years because of a severe distortion field. The last time Starfleet visited the planet, a young Lieutenant Riker barely got away in time--or did he? Riker leads an Away Team to retrieve the valuable scientific data that was left behind during the previous hurried evacuation. But not only do they find the data, they find--Lieutenant William Riker. Apparently when Riker beamed off the surface eight years earlier the beam was reflected, creating to identical Rikers. The point of all this scientific mumbo-jumbo quickly becomes clear: "Lieutenant" Riker is still in love with Deanna Troi. Not only is she confronted with a man who has always loved her deeply, "Commander" Riker is forced to justify his life and the decision to put his career in Starfleet over his romance with Deanna.

For several seasons the creators of STNG regretted that brief moment in the pilot episode when Troi telepathically called Riker "Imzadi." The idea of the former romantic relationship between the two was pretty much abandoned, but then Peter David wrote the best selling "Imzadi" (my hardcover copy is autographed by Marina Sirtas) and the past history of Riker and Troi started to work its way back into the series. Granted the set up for this episode is one of the great contrivances of all time, but it does provoke some serious reflection on the part of the characters. My biggest complaint is that the "other" Riker is pretty much jettisoned after this episode, although he does pop up a couple of more times. But having brought up these weighty issues, the series essentially abandons them. It would have been more interesting to have this be a recurring sub-plot for a while. Oh well.