Captain Will Riker in 2379
William Thomas Riker was a noted Starfleet officer, perhaps best known for his long assignment as first officer under Captain Jean-Luc Picard aboard the USS Enterprise-D, and later the USS Enterprise-E. In 2379, he finally accepted a promotion as captain of the USS Titan.
During the course of his career, Riker served on a number of other ships, including the USS Pegasus, Potemkin, and Hood as well as the IKS Pagh. He was known to have turned down the commands of the USS Drake, Aries, and Melbourne by the end of 2366, and Q once said that he "was betting Riker" would have taken command of the USS Voyager before its launch in 2371. Riker also temporarily captained a number of vessels before the taking command of the Titan, most notably the USS Hathaway, Excalibur, and the Enterprise-D, when he was field promoted during the Borg crisis in late 2366, though he chose to return to the rank of commander and remain first officer on the Enterprise when the crisis ended in early 2367. He expressed disappointed that he would never have the chance to command the Enterprise-D again when the ship was destroyed in 2371.
Unknown to history until 2373, Riker and Geordi La Forge flew on the Phoenix, Humanity's first warp flight, with Zephram Cochrane in 2063, during a temporal incursion by the Borg collective in an attempt to disrupt First Contact between Humanity and the Vulcans.