We know he was aboard the Hood as Executive Officer and ranked lieutenant commander.

He recieved that promotion to lt. commander while aboard the Potemkin.

His first assignment, as ensign, was to the USS Pegasus, and I believe he also served aboard the Yorktown..

He was selected as First Officer of the Enterprise by Jean-Luc Picard, one of many applicants. Picard was impressed by an incident where Riker refused to allow Cpt. Desoto to transport to a hostile surface while aboard the Hood.

He was offered command of the Drake while XO of the Hood, a job he turned down to take the Enterprise.. Apparently, he would've served on the Drake at the position of captain but rank of Commander (unless Starfleet planned to have him skip "commander"). He later turned down command offers of the Aries and the Melbourne.

No one knows what Riker did after the destruction of the Enterprise-D and the commissioning of the Enterprise-E. It's possible Riker had to face a hearing regarding his actions during the incident with the Klingons that destroyed the Enterprise.

I believe (according to the Chronology) that Riker graduated Starfleet Academy in 2355 or thereabouts (the same year as Geordi). Two of Riker's friends died aboard the Adelphi during the Gorushda incident.

So ...

Ensign Riker assigned to Pegasus.
Lt (jg) Riker assigned to Yorktown.
Lt Riker assigned to Potemkin.
-Promoted
Lt Cmdr Riker assigned to Hood as XO.
Cmdr Riker assigned to Enterprise as XO.

------------------
Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.27 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with four eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
****
"The candidate who slimed John McCain in the primaries and smeared Al Gore in the general election is now the president who pledges to elevate the nation's tone and bring civility to our discorse. Kind of like Michael Corleone brought peace to the mob by killing the heads of the other four families."
--Paul Begala, Is Our Children Learning?

IMO, I think the Commander rank is for people who've been XO for a long time, or for Station Commanders (we've seen three of those: Quinteros in "11001001", the guy running the degaussing thing in "Starship Mine", and Sisko). A sort of senior rank before actually becoming a Captain.

Mark

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"Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"

- Carl Sagan, "Contact"

It's not like we really SEE a lot of other starships, so it's hard to gauge, right?

------------------
Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.27 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with four eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
****
"The candidate who slimed John McCain in the primaries and smeared Al Gore in the general election is now the president who pledges to elevate the nation's tone and bring civility to our discorse. Kind of like Michael Corleone brought peace to the mob by killing the heads of the other four families."
--Paul Begala, Is Our Children Learning?

Mark

------------------
"Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"

- Carl Sagan, "Contact"

------------------
"Gee, the public whipping didn't quite convey their fascist culture, I need something more straightforward. Ah, leather hats!" --Nimrod, on National Socialism fashion design.

And even if he wasn't, was he ever mentioned as XO on the Reliant, in his log or something? 'Cuz Commander Kyle (never saw his pin) and the Commander "We'll give them a few more minutes" (who had a minimum Lt. Commander pin) were aboard too...

Mark

------------------
"Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"

- Carl Sagan, "Contact"

Chekov said "Commander Pavel Chekov" in his log, but he could still be using that as the short from of Lieutenant Commander.

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Nic: She's not a practicing lesbian. We need PRACTICING lesbians!
Me: I have a camcorder.
Nic: But no lesbians.
Me: Ahhh... no.
Nic: DAMN IT MAN! WE NEED LESBIANS! LOTS AND LOTS OF LESBIANS!

Okay, so Riker's three ship assignments before the Enterprise were the Pegasus, Potemkin, and Hood. Still leaves a lot of time open for Riker to be doing stuff. Any theories on what he was doing between Generations and First Contact?

**

IIRC, Spock was always a full commander on TOS. Scotty and McCoy were Lt. Commanders, Uhura and Sulu lieutenants, and Chekov an ensign (they didn't have the Lt. jg. rank in TOS, it would seem). By the end of the movies, Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Scotty were Captains, and McCoy, Uhura, and Chekov were commanders. While we know what happened to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty (lost then killed, Federation Ambassador, retired Admiral, lost -- now flying around in a shuttlecraft), we don't know what happened to Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura. I like to think that Uhura and Chekov eventually got commands of their own.

I don't think a Miranda-Class in the TNG/DS9/VOY would rate a full rank captain, much less a commander or lt. commander as XO. Honestly, they'd seem fit with a Commander as CO and a Lt. as XO.

Perhaps certain classes of starship warrant a certain ranked CO, XO, etc., and smaller class starships warrant less. For example, a Galaxy-Class might warrant a Captain as CO, a full Commander as CO, and a Lt. Commander (at the least) as Second Officer, while a Miranda might only warrant a Commander as CO, and two lieutenants as XO and Second Officer ... ?

------------------
Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.27 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with four eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
****
"The candidate who slimed John McCain in the primaries and smeared Al Gore in the general election is now the president who pledges to elevate the nation's tone and bring civility to our discorse. Kind of like Michael Corleone brought peace to the mob by killing the heads of the other four families."
--Paul Begala, Is Our Children Learning?

However, we've seen Captain-pins on the uniforms of several smaller ships - Grissom, Reliant, Drake, Brattain, and Equinox to name a few. By contrast, only the (Nebula) Prometheus and the (Oberth) Yosemite were seen with Lieutenants in charge (and the Prometheus case made little sense at all except in the dramatic sense).

So it seems apparent that Starfleet does allow ships to go without Captain-rank people around, but it may employ a standard by which some people may be promoted to Captains' rank, but be stuck in a certain role as a result. This could be why Riker turned down the Drake -he'd have his own ship, but would likely not ever get to command a bigger, better class of vessel. Hence, he was hoping to get in line for a big ship. Note that each time he was offered command, it was to progressively larger vessels: Wambundu, Constellation, and Nebula or Excelsior (depending on your POV).

Mark

------------------
"Why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?"

- Carl Sagan, "Contact"

------------------
"Second star to the right, and then straight on till morning."

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"I rather strongly disagree, even if I share the love of Dick. Speaking of which, that would be the most embarrasing .sig quote ever, so never use it."

quote:

---

His sleeve had one solid ring and one broken.

---

Really? I thought he wore 2 solid stripes and held the rank of Lt. Cmdr., like Giotto and Finney.

Chekov was a full commander aboard the Reliant.

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"Second star to the right, and then straight on till morning."

Chekov HAD to be a full commander aboard the Reliant, since Bob Fletcher originally forgot to design a pin to go with the rank of Lt.Cmdr! This pin was only added for the later movies, and confused the living daylights out of people when it appeared on the shoulder of "Lieutenant" Valeris in ST6.

Riker might have served aboard various ships including the noncanon Yorktown, but somehow he doesn't seem the type. I got the distinct impression that he was searching for father figures, and sticking to a single captain until dragged away from him screaming and kicking. Once Pressman and Riker got out fo the Pegasus mess, Riker probably found himself in a cushy position aboard the Potemkin with a couple of new pips on his collar and a humble request from Pressman not to talk too much about the past assignment. Given such good cards, Riker could refuse a transfer if he wished, and ask Pressman to smooth out things for him...

From there on, Riker aimed high, but not so high as to accept independent command (which he would have, if he was really just trying to skyrocket his career). If he held the right cards to allow him to refuse command, he'd probably have refused transfers to other ships as well, and stuck to DeSoto for as long as possible.

------------------
Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 6.27 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with four eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
****
"The candidate who slimed John McCain in the primaries and smeared Al Gore in the general election is now the president who pledges to elevate the nation's tone and bring civility to our discorse. Kind of like Michael Corleone brought peace to the mob by killing the heads of the other four families."
--Paul Begala, Is Our Children Learning?