Jonathan Frakes’ Capt. William T. Riker has been a busy man lately, for an actor who hung up his Starfleet costume after 2002’s movie Star Trek: Nemesis. First, an aged and retired “Number One” showed up earlier this year in Star Trek: Picard, offering refuge to his own former skipper, Jean-Luc, before showing up at the head of a Federation fleet to rescue him and the late Lt. Cmdr. Data’s progeny from Romulan annihilation in that series’ first season finale.
Now, a younger Riker — still commanding the USS Titan, which he left the Enterprise to command in Nemesis — has come to the rescue of the USS Cerritos in the first season finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks. He was joined in this latest, voice-over appearance by Marina Sirtis as Riker’s wife Deanna Troi.
The Luna-class Titan that drives off the Pakled menace in Lower Decks is based heavily on designer Sean P. Tourangeau’s winning submission for a 2005 Simon & Schuster contest that defined the starship’s look for the Star Trek: Titan series of novels that follow Riker’s first command after the events of Nemesis.
After the Lower Decks episode “No Small Parts” aired Thursday, Tourangeau took to Twitter to note his surprise and appreciation at seeing his creation brought to life in such a prominent way:
Tourangeau wasn’t alone — he was joined and feted by other creators of the Star Trek extended universe:
Expect to see more of the Titan in Lower Decks’ second season: During a “Ready Room” panel with the cast and creator hosted on CBS All Access by Wil Wheaton, showrunner Mike McMahan said Brad Boimler’s promotion to Riker’s ship would be a part of the new season, and Frakes will reprise his role again.
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USS Titan novels
The Titan books appear to be out of print, but can still be found if you look hard enough, and ebook and audiobook versions are available.
The USS Titan novels tell the story of a Starfleet ship with a largely non-human crew, including the Betazoid-human Troi (empathic former Enterprise counselor, now officially a diplomatic specialist), the Vulcan security and tactical officer from television’s Star Trek: Voyager, Tuvok, and the low-gravity native Melora Pazlar, played in a TV appearance on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by Daphne Ashbrook.
In addition, species like the Caitians and Edosians from the 1970s’ animated Star Trek series were a part of the USS Titan crew in these novels.
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